3 Chapter 3: Thinking

<Damian POV>

--Boardwalk, Brockton Bay--

So...

I had maybe a month to become strong enough to survive an Endbringer.

Just fucking great!

'Deep breaths...'

... But believe it or not... If I played my cards right, I could do it (at least in theory).

How?

Three words...

[All For One]

The only Power that I had taken for myself.

I hadn't been lying when I had said that it was the most broken power in MHA. And that any person who had it would be destined to become powerful.

Now that I was thinking with a clear head, I had a decent fucking chance to survive!

A power to steal powers, and use them with expertise, in world with an abundant super population? It would be very easy to very quickly become very powerful.

But... I also didn't want to become overconfident and forget that it also had limitations.

Like how I had to physically touch them with my hands if I wanted to steal their power (even a second was enough).

Though this small limitation was nothing in front of the potential of the power, it was crucial not to think of myself as invincible as that was how many great and powerful people had ended up dead.

I was still very much mortal. Especially right now, when I hadn't stolen any power.

But stealing a power was gonna be... complicated.

Especially because I wanted to discreet while doing so.

Atleast at the start. Because [All For One] was useless until I gained some powers.

But in city like Brockton Bay, which had the largest population of Capes in the world, it should be easy right?

Nobody should notice a power or two going missing right?

Wrong.

Almost all of Capes were either part of a group or very well known, so attacking even one of them would be akin to a declaration of war.

Now, I wasn't afraid of getting into fights. But my Pa always said 'to not get into any fights that I knew I could not win'.

So till I gained enough power, preferably stealthily, I would have to stick to stealing powers from unknown Capes.

Cause having a power-stealing Cape running around would ring many bells around many different people around here and I did NOT want that attention right now.

Many would say that I should join the PRT, become a Hero.

I would laugh at your face if you did.

I wasn't gonna become the dog of some discount Illuminati wannabes that would want to control every aspect of my life (if not outright kill me).

And I also didn't like the path of a Villain for moral reasons.

So for now I decided that being an independent rogue was for the best for me (it didn't matter what the PRT labelled me in the future).

...

So ultimately, what did this mean?

It meant that for atleast the first three or two powers, I had to be very careful to hide myself and to choose my targets carefully.

My meta-knowledge would come in much use for the latter.

As for the former...

It was a good thing my mother was a hair dresser and had taught me many ways to disguise myself using simple items.

[Blank] would also provide a safety net for me, so I was going to be safe from all Thinker type powers atleast.

All of this would hopefully provide me with a good enough security until I became strong enough.

...

I stayed like that for a long time. Probably a few hours honestly.

Just sitting there watching the calming sea and making countless plans for the future (then discarding them for one reason or the other).

Finally, at 12 o'clock I breathed out and stood up.

I had come to terms with the fact that I was probably not gonna see my family again.

No matter how sad I felt about it, I couldn't deny that the chances of me ever defeating Scion (or any Entity for that matter) were even less than infinitesimal.

But still... I just couldn't give up on them.

Logically my mind was telling me to abandon any plans of fighting Scion. But emotionally? I was ready to go to hell and back so I could go back home to them.

'Truly, I sympathized with the Travelers right now.'

The sheer feeling of losing your family (your whole world!) could not be described in words...

The only thing holding me together was that I was distracting myself by focusing on major problems...

Anyways...

My plan for the time being was to gather power before Leviathan hits BB in less than a month. I had some ideas of how I could do so but those would have to come later...

*Rumble!*

'Cause now was the time to eat!' I thought with a small smile as I found a $100 dollar bill in my pocket.

...

After eating an hearty breakfast in the form of some tasty noodles, I moved forward towards my destination.

The Winslow High school!

Perhaps the worst highschool in the whole of Brockton Bay.

You must be thinking, 'Why are you going there Damian?'. Well, because it currently provided me with the best opportunity of stealing a power.

How you may ask?

Well, if I stole any known Cape's power then I would instantly be on the radar of every Cape gang and organisation in town.

But... If I stole the power from an unknown Cape... Then nobody would know, except for me and that person.

That person also wouldn't be able to go to the police or PRT. As they obviously wouldn't believe them.

So all ends of any kind of possible backlash were closed.

And my target, believe it or not, was... Taylor Hebert.

The protagonist of this whole world.

Now many would ask me if I was right in the head for this. Because she was the best possible weapon against Scion (defeating him in the original story).

And I would answer... Fuck that.

There was no guarantee that she would be able to do so in this timeline. Why? Because of me!

My fucking existence itself was a big butterfly effect. Any future knowledge I had was useless here.

The only thing I could trust right now was what I already knew had happened (or that S9 and Leviathan were after me).

'Deep breaths Damian... No need to get so worked up.' I self-talked as I took deep breaths.

Sigh... It wasn't like I knew any other unknown Cape. So Taylor was the only option for me.

Today was Friday, 8th April, in a few days the "canon" would start. And if everything went as the original story, then Taylor would start going out as a Cape just after midnight on Sunday (so 11th April), and would defeat Lung, meet both Undersiders and a grumpy Armsmaster.

And thus, I didn't have a lot of time to plan things out as I wouldn't be able to safely do so after today (as school was closed on weekends).

My plan currently was to go to her highschool. Wait for her to come out and then just shake her hand (somehow) so I could steal her power.

... I admit, it wasn't the best of plans. But it's better for it to be simple so I could change it on the fly if something unexpected happens.

Anyways,

On the topic of her power... At first glance, it wouldn't seem special. Just control over bugs.

But I would sincerely disagree.

Her control over those bugs and was so damn powerful (and creative) that she had defeated freaking Lung on her first night out (with a little help)!

Lung who could transform into a freaking Dragon!

Lung who had fought with Leviathan and gotten off alive!

Now those in the unknown would tell me that she had just trained her power to be so strong.

-and I would love to correct your misconception. In Worm, your power isn't able to grow stronger unless you go through another traumatic experience and double trigger successfully, but the chances of that happening were very low.

Sure you can learn to use it in creative ways, but it wasn't going to grow stronger like in MHA or any other superhero media.

So she had defeated Lung only with her Creativeness, Bravery and sheer fucking Luck!

... She was a badass, not gonna lie.

Her power was strong and also stealthy (which I was in a desperate need of right now). But what appealed to me most about it was her Shard (the source of her powers).

Her Shard; the Queen Administrator was, as in it's name, supposed to be the adminstrator Shard of the Warrior Entity, Scion.

It specialised in Managing and Multitasking. It's expertise was of so high level that it easily managed the trillions, and trillions of Shards that Scion possessed.

Any power such a Shard granted was never going to be weak.

It practically made Taylor the strongest Master ever after her limiters were broken.

Unfortunately... For some reason Scion himself had attacked and heavily damaged the Shard.

That's why Taylor wasn't as strong as Eidolon.

I hoped that with time I could repair it (after stealing it) but I knew it was a long shot.

Though even if I failed, I would still gain a very important and powerful superpower.

God knows how useful it could've been if it wasn't damaged.

...

==============

And Done!

We return to Damian making some plans for the future...

Not that all of them would go as he thinks they would...

Anyways, next up! Damian gets his first power!

Till then, see ya!