… Emily Piggot
The PRT analysis room was cold, but Emily Piggot didn't care.
On the wall across from her, a projection floated across three screens, cycling through security footage pulled from public cameras, private feeds, and low-resolution satellite imaging.
The entire time, the footage was being manipulated with precise control by Armsmaster.
He stood beside the console, his voice as steady as the halberd on his back. "These images were compiled from traffic cameras near the Docks, along with recon drones and two industrial security feeds I managed to recover."
The footage shook with distorted angles, but the scene was still impossible to ignore.
Lung was escalating past the point of control while dealing with the unknown Cape's swarm… and then a now-familiar figure from recent reports appeared.
"Here," Armsmaster said, freezing the frame.
The figure in question was tall, lean, wearing a dark hoodie with a disposable face mask covering his mouth and nose.
A moment later… clap.
The next frame showed the figure swapping places with Lung. The movement was almost imperceptible, but the shift in positions was undeniable.
Emily leaned forward, elbows on the table, fingers laced in front of her face. "That's the boy?"
"Yes," Armsmaster replied. "This is the second recorded instance of the same gestural trigger."
"Clapping…" Miss Militia said from the back of the room. "Same pattern as the vigilante who's been hitting the Empire these past few days."
Armsmaster nodded. "I am analyzing both incidents as part of a single profile. Based on the spatial exchanges and movement pattern, the initial assessment was that we might be dealing with a localized Shaker-type ability… or possibly a Mover with a tactile trigger."
Emily tapped her fingers lightly on the table, eyes fixed on the still image of the hooded figure.
"And now with force fields?"
Armsmaster switched the feed to another recording. The angle was still high, the quality still terrible.
In it, Lung lunged forward, claws raised... but a translucent barrier appeared in his path, absorbing the impact and stopping the dragon mid-attack.
"This occurred seconds before the positional exchange," Armsmaster explained, likely having reviewed this footage hundreds of times. "The presence of the force field is confirmed in at least three separate instances during the confrontation with Lung. The issue is that there is no indication of external technology or alternate focus."
"You're saying it's the same power as the clapping?" Miss Militia asked.
Armsmaster didn't stop, since he already had his answer. "It is the most consistent hypothesis. I am provisionally classifying it as a single power expressed through versatile spatial manipulation. Capable of reorganizing positions through tactile marking and also generating solid-density defensive fields within the same territorial logic."
Armsmaster's analysis followed a clean, functional logic... but Emily didn't respond right away. She was processing everything, like she always did. Not just the data, but all the risks.
"And the girl who initiated the attack?"
Armsmaster switched the feed again. Now the image focused on the costumed girl… but what really dominated the screen was the swarm. Thousands of insects forming swirling waves, clustering into complex patterns.
"Insect control. Aggressive and adaptive tactical application. No other Cape has demonstrated this level of precision with living organisms on this scale," Armsmaster said. "Initial classification: Master 5, with potential for revision."
"Do we have any records indicating prior activity?" Emily asked.
"None. All indications suggest she initiated here as an independent vigilante."
Miss Militia exhaled sharply. "Two uncoordinated teenagers took down Lung… this is not going to look good for us."
Emily didn't smile, since she'd already anticipated that. "Nothing in this city works the way it should."
She stood, staring at the two pixelated faces projected on the screen. Two wildcards who, for one night, did the job of an entire task force.
"Keep tracking them," she said. "If we can identify them before someone else does, we'll have room to control the situation. If not… we prepare for whatever comes next."
… Elias Mercer
I finally got home looking like I'd just survived a goddamn zombie apocalypse. My shoulders were throbbing, my ribs complained like an arthritic old lady, and my head felt like it was about to split open from the inside at any moment.
'…Happy weekend, everyone.'
I climbed in through the apartment window, and only after closing it behind me did I pull off the hood and the disposable face mask… that's when I noticed I still had blood on my fingers.
I stared at it for a second longer… and just ignored it.
The dim kitchen light flickered as I passed. The ceiling fan still made that familiar suicidal propeller noise.
Honestly… it's kind of comforting.
And even after replaying everything that happened… there was still a part of me that felt excited.
[2 Rolls Available]
…Yeah, it was mostly because of that.
"Hello, baby…" I dropped onto the couch with all the grace of a cement bag and mentally triggered the command.
The roulette popped up, spinning in a spiral of questionable promises.
First roll.
Distorted colors, symbols flashing too fast to read, names I couldn't fully catch before they vanished and then—
⟶ [Accelerated Healing Factor] – Legendary Perk
You possess an extremely efficient regenerative factor. Wounds heal in seconds, injuries in minutes, and lost limbs in a matter of hours.
I stared at it for a while.
…It seemed terribly appropriate for the moment.
It was also the first Legendary I'd gotten… and I couldn't think of anything better to start with.
As soon as I acquired the perk, I looked at my blood-covered hand and watched the cuts close like time itself decided to rewind.
"…" I lifted my shirt, and the bruise covering half my ribs started fading, quickly replaced by normal skin.
This wasn't just good… it was fucking perfect.
I gave one of those crooked smiles you get when you know you're definitely gonna use this to get yourself into even more trouble... but whatever.
"Alright… second roll."
The roulette spun again, feeling slower this time.
In the end, it stopped on the reward. But this time it wasn't a power or some videogame perk.
…It was a person.
⟶ Maki Zen'in (Jujutsu Kaisen) – Unique Summon
You gain a bound summon of Maki Zen'in from another reality. She retains her personality, but develops growing loyalty toward the summoner.
"…Seriously?" I stared at the screen. "…What the hell is the limit on this?"
Because a healing factor and a spatial swap trick apparently weren't enough… now I could also get… people…
There had to be a dozen things wrong with that, but I didn't even get time to question it.
Right there in the middle of the worn carpet and instant noodle wrappers, a shadow tore open the air and someone stepped out.
Beautiful and, apparently, completely lethal.
She had short, dark green hair, messy like she'd just walked out of a fight, and amber eyes. She wore black from head to toe, with a short cloak over her shoulders, covering part of her toned torso, and pants secured with a belt.
And of course... burn scars covering her torso, arms, and face.
…She also carried something that looked like a katana and it definitely didn't look decorative…
Even after she fully stepped through and the distortion vanished, she just stood there, staring at me.
'This…' It felt like being in the same room as a silent lioness.
The kind where you don't feel immediate danger… but you know one wrong move puts you in serious trouble.
Maybe she wasn't impressed by my lack of initiative, because she spoke first.
"So this is the new world?"
It took me half a second to register that this was the first thing someone I summoned had ever said to me.
"I… guess so," I answered, running a hand over my face. "This is Earth Bet. I don't know what you were expecting, but… surprise, the place smells like despair and fascism."
She didn't react much, just kept looking around my apartment. "So… how did you pull me from another plane and bring me to a different Earth?"
"…My power," I replied, watching her raise an eyebrow at me. "…It's a long story."
"I figured."
Her lack of reaction caught me off guard, but I couldn't tell if that was just her personality or something the Roulette influenced.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Elias Mercer."
She nodded. "Maki."
I nodded back, even though I already knew that. Maki walked around a bit more, looking over my shitty apartment before turning her attention back to me.
"Do I need any specific information?"
Considering she was basically my summon, I actually thought before answering.
"Well… we're not at war, but I should probably bring you up to speed on this world," I said, trying to figure out where to start. "We've got city-destroying monsters, neo-nazis, and psychopaths with superpowers… it's a lovely place."
She didn't react to the joke.
"Understood," she said.
'Of course you did,' I exhaled through my nose, reorganizing my priorities.
"So… Maki," I called, waiting for her to focus on me. "Honest question… you're not gonna try to use that katana on me, right?"
That was a very necessary question. Even with the summon info, I still didn't feel all that safe.
Maki ignored it and asked something else. "You're my summoner, right?"
"I… guess so."
She nodded, like that settled everything.
"Then my job is to make sure you don't die," her flat tone shifted slightly, more direct now. "If you die, who knows what kind of shit happens to me… and that would suck."
Hm… thinking about it like that, I probably didn't need to worry. Most likely the summon just ends if I die.
"Don't worry," I replied. "Lately I've been specializing in staying alive."
A defensive power, a healing perk, and a mobility power… how is that not a survival build?
Maki nodded and just dropped onto the couch next to me.
…
When the new day arrived, sunlight leaked through the cracks in the window. The weak light barely competed with the smell of stale coffee and dust that defined my apartment.
Thanks to my new Legendary Perk… I actually woke up feeling alive today, despite everything from the last days.
Maki was sitting on the floor, legs crossed. She already had a mug in her hand and the expression of someone deeply unimpressed.
"Tastes like dirt," she said after another sip.
"That's because it is dirt," I answered helpfully. "That coffee maker should be in a museum by now."
She didn't laugh, obviously. In just a few hours, I'd already learned Maki wasn't the laughing type. She was more the type to look at a knife and immediately think about how to stick it into someone's weak point.
But with the way she looked… there was probably a long line of people who'd happily suffer at her hands.
For example, the black t-shirt I lent her was way too tight around her shoulders and chest. The shorts she found barely fit, clearly not made with someone with that kind of physique in mind… but Maki didn't seem to care.
Her short hair was still messy and—
'…' I didn't even know why I was mentally analyzing her like that! Even if I was a little curious about how she got those scars…
The important part was that she still didn't really understand this world!
Apparently, the Celestial Roulette only gave her basic information, plus cheated a bit so we could actually understand each other… since Maki apparently spoke Japanese and I obviously didn't know shit about that language.
Other than that, she was basically a blank slate. And since I was the one who dragged her here, I ended up as her personal tour guide through this hell.
"Earth Bet…" I started, leaning against the kitchen counter, "…is basically a global-scale dumpster fire. Half the planet is sinking, and the other half pretends it doesn't know that. We've got every kind of problem like hunger, social collapse, corruption… and capes."
"Capes?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Parahumans are people with powers. Capes are parahumans who decided to throw on a costume and run around," I explained. "Heroes, villains… it's basically a horror show where everyone thinks they're the main character."
She took another sip of the coffee, even though she almost spat it out right after. "And what determines these… powers?"
"We don't know," I shrugged. "The general idea is they show up after traumatic events, what they call a trigger event."
"Gaining power through crisis?" she stared into the bottom of the mug. "That's strange."
…Yeah, I thought it was pretty weird the first time I read about it too… but what can you do. It was pretty obvious this world didn't work right.
"On the hero side, you've got the Protectorate and the Wards. On the other side, you've got villains doing whatever the hell they want," I paused for a second. "And then… you've got the monsters."
"The so-called Endbringers," she said, apparently already aware of them.
I nodded, grabbed my phone, and walked over, showing her the screen while I searched them up.
"They're like the final bosses of a game. Basically unbeatable and insanely destructive," I said, pulling up images. "They show up every few months. Seems like they just pick a city somewhere on the planet at random and crush it because they feel like it."
I switched the image to show a distant shot of the fake angel. "This one caused the last attack and left Canberra under quarantine after it was done."
"And nobody can kill them?" Maki asked, still staring at the massive figure known as the Simurgh.
"There's a guy called Scion… supposedly he might be the only one who could," I said, basically repeating what I'd read on PHO. "But that guy's got his head in the clouds. Nobody knows what he actually wants."
The golden man was a complete mystery. There were more than enough theories saying that if he actually tried, the Endbringers would be gone in a week… but as everyone knows, that didn't happen.
"And the rest of us…" I continued. "There's no one with that kind of power."
Not even the glorified Triumvirate, the so-called "greatest heroes in the world". At best, they managed to push Endbringers back after exhausting themselves and racking up massive casualties every single time…
You can't call that a win at all.
"Sounds like shit," Maki said, and I nodded, because yeah... it really was.
"I'll show you PHO," I said, changing the subject and switching tabs on my phone. "That's where I get most of my info… even though it's probably the worst forum ever created. You've got everything there, including the highest number of death threats based on posting time... conspiracy theories... links for porn fics… a lot of porn fics..."
If she was bothered, Maki didn't show it. I opened the PHO page and showed her the site, scrolling through recent threads.
And among dozens of them, one stood out with the highest number of replies…
--
[Thread] Two Independent Capes Defeat Lung – Brockton Bay (URGENT)
— Updated at 07:02 by Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
The weekend barely ended and we're already kicking things off with a major headline. Sources confirm that the villain and ABB leader, Lung, was defeated last night by two unidentified Capes. No additional details have been released. The PRT has also made no official statement.
Reports suggest one of them used large-scale insect manipulation, while the other employed a position-swapping ability triggered by snapping or clapping, along with defensive barriers.
Discussion on potential new threats or allies to the city continues below…
--
"…Well," I muttered, scrolling with my thumb. "…this one's about me."
They were faster than I expected. I figured the PRT would try to suppress what happened for a while longer… and it looks like they did try, but couldn't keep it hidden from a few curious people.
Maki let out a small grunt. "And here I was underestimating you."
"Huh?" I looked at her. "When did you do that?"
Maki turned her head, like she didn't feel like answering. She kept reading the thread, grabbing my phone out of my hand while going through all the replies.
I seriously considered hanging myself when she started laughing at the comments that were already going off the rails.
Which, yeah… was exactly what you'd expect from PHO… but that didn't help me at all!
… Taylor Hebert
Winslow High… computer class.
Taylor blinked slowly at the dusty monitor in front of her. The room was soaked in that dull, yellowish glow from fluorescent lights, mixed with the constant hum of ancient computer fans and the uneven clacking of keyboards.
Up front, Mrs. Knott was giving some kind of lecture about spreadsheets… or maybe some outdated software from the '90s nobody used anymore.
Taylor wasn't sure, since her mind was still stuck on what had happened over the weekend.
She had fought Lung. Taylor Hebert, the invisible girl, the locker freak, the walking joke of Winslow… the girl who held so many derogatory titles had acted like a hero.
Even now, sitting there with her body still sore and her shirt sticking to her back from the stuffy heat… she still wondered if it had really happened.
But the memory of the swarm moving was too vivid to be a dream. Taylor knew the difference, because she'd had enough dreams.
So she acknowledged what she'd done. That she started the fight; that she chose to act when faced with injustice.
That was something she wanted to keep... something she wanted to claim as hers. Even if the world ignored her again after this… Taylor wanted to hold onto that memory.
Letting out a quiet breath, she clicked on the browser tab. Now, she had one single objective.
The Parahumans Online website.
She typed quickly and went straight to the forums. First, she searched for "Undersiders", but all she found were rumors, gossip, and theories… basically PHO in its natural state.
Then she changed the filter to "Lung"… and saw a highlighted thread pinned at the top of the page.
--
[Thread] Two Independent Capes Defeat Lung – Brockton Bay (URGENT)
— Updated at 07:02 by Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
--
Posted by Bagrat, one of PHO's most active users. Of course, being active didn't mean reliable… the insane theories and constant bans of XxVoid_CowboyxX made that pretty clear…
But Bagrat was one of the few who had been consistently accurate with the information he shared.
Taylor clicked the thread and watched the page take forever to load on the school's outdated system. She couldn't hear it, but she could practically imagine the modem screaming under the strain.
While she waited, she clenched her teeth without noticing, one finger tapping against the mouse. Finally, the post loaded… and Taylor felt a shiver run down her spine.
She couldn't tell if it was excitement or fear.
Taylor read and reread the thread until she could remember every word. In the details, she found mention of the insects.
Something she had done was being recognized and celebrated by hundreds of people... even if none of them knew that Taylor Hebert was the one behind the swarm.
For a few seconds, Taylor felt proud of herself in a way she never had before. It was almost physical urge to grab someone's sleeve, point at the screen, and say it was her. That she was the one who made Lung's defeat possible.
She knew she couldn't, but that didn't stop the excitement. With her heart beating faster, Taylor switched tabs to the message board and started scrolling to see what people were saying about her.
The comments were piling up fast, a constant stream of opinions, theories, and assumptions… exactly how the PHO ecosystem worked.
--
[Are these guys gonna be new Protectorate recruits? I mean, they look more like Wards age.]
[And what? Stay independent? That's basically suicide!]
[Did you SEE Bug's costume??? Obviously villains!]
[No way. It's easier to believe she just has terrible taste.]
[Villains who kicked Lung's ass? I can live with that. Way better than the ones we already have.]
[That Bug girl looks like the kind of character who ends badly…]
[How the hell would you know, idiot? You can't even see her face!]
[Why is nobody talking about the other Cape? Dude was wearing a hoodie and a disposable mask… and still took Lung down. Respect.]
--
'Bug…' Taylor froze for a second with her eyes locked on the word.
That's what they were calling her? It wasn't even close to how impressive she'd imagined her Cape name would be.
'I really need to come up with a name…' she thought, remembering the advice from the other Cape who had fought alongside her against Lung.
But as she kept searching using the "Bug" filter, something caught her attention. In a different section, a message stood out.
--
Subject: Bug
Owe you one. Would like to repay the favor. Meet?
Send a message,
Tt.
--
Taylor felt her heart skip and she noticed the post had already drawn two full pages of replies.
Three users said it might be something important, while half a dozen others called them tinfoil hats... the PHO term for conspiracy nuts.
But Taylor already knew who it was.
'Tattletale.'
The blonde girl with the easy smile… one of the Undersiders, the same group that had invited her and Hoarder.
Taylor tightened her grip on the mouse, feeling the tension creep into her fingers.
Based on Hoarder's best explanation of Tattletale's intentions… that invitation pretty much confirmed she was targeting Taylor again.
Just like Armsmaster, who tried to lure them in with measured phrases and a pre-packaged proposal.
She didn't know if she would respond yet, but even if it sounded a bit extreme… Hoarder's blunt honesty had made her realize something she couldn't ignore.
Don't trust any cape.
Armsmaster… Tattletale… none of them were approaching her out of admiration or recognition.
They chose her because she was the weaker link between the two. Unlike Hoarder, someone they couldn't push even an inch without meeting resistance.
"…" For the first time… Taylor truly understood what it meant to have a power in this world.
Everyone was trying to pull her to one side… everyone wanted something from her…
Now it wasn't just about winning anymore… it was about figuring out how to resist.