New Brockton.

I exited the portal, onto the freshly cleared docks, looking over the bay, it's green and murky waters replaced by clear and transparent blues, the ocean floor even being visible in the shallows.

Walking past the droids giving the city a makeover, I turned onto the newly renovated Boardwalk, the market street of the city.

It had taken a whole month and negotiations with the local powers, namely the Postmaster General, now that everyone ahead of him in line for the White House and the presidential seat itself had been crushed into paste nearly a month prior, to get me access to a government contract for the reconstruction of the Bay, allowing me access to the materials and funds necessary, with no limit.

Of course, my ship alone held enough resources to recreate human civilization three times over. But why should I spend my resources to help these people?

The only reason I was even helping these people was because Tattletale and Paige insist on staying in the Bay, like idiots. And they are both people I consider friends; Paige maybe a bit more.

For them, and at Star's request I had spent these past few weeks helping remake the city.

Today was the grand reopening.

And I was the the guest of honor. As well as the only guest. The mayor after all had died to the Endbringers last month.

And no other dignitaries were left that desired to come, in fear of offending me.

Tagg and Pretender's deaths had sent the message I was hoping for.

That's good.

I walked past the people setting up shop, as they nodded in appreciation or offered their thanks.

I was now officially a worldwide sensation.

The hero that saved the world. The genius that cured the Case 53s.

The EndSlayer.

Hmm....that feels good.

Surprisingly.

I suppressed an uncontrollable smile, and walked into the plaza, where the satge was being set, and ran into Paige. She was dressed in a stunning blue and gold skirt with a soft, red top.

Watching me, she twirled in place.

"How do I look?" She asked, lifting her skirt.

"You look stunning." I said, playing with her feathers.

I grabbed her, pulling her into a kiss, and swung her around, sending her into a deep blush.

"Stop it~" She pulled my hand away, "People are watching."

"Let them watch." I chuckled, "I can't help myself when you're being this cute."

The paparazzi were already beginning to set up their cameras, unwilling to miss the event.

I could feel their cameras turn to us, as they began to clock pictures. Or tried rather. Before they could even react, I shut their cameras off.

Well except for one hipster who was using an old analog camera with the film roll and all.

Guess I'll let him have that picture.

Probably make his career.

I was just feeling generous today.

My plans are going well. I have my perfect shard. The adoration of a whole world. A cute girlfriend, albeit one I'll have to give up if everything goes well today. And once I deal with Panacea, I might just get my wife and daughter back.

I'm at the top of the world!

I climbed the stage, pulling Paige along with me.

I tapped the mic, causing it to screech for a second before I stopped it.

"Guess I'll have to develop new mics too." I joked, silently connecting the paparazzi's cameras to screens across the world.

Some people laughed out of courtesy as I continued.

"Everyone! People of the world! Welcome back. It's been a while hasn't it? Almost a month since I last did this. Unfortunately, this is also the last time I might be doing this.

Why? Because I am leaving this world next week.

But that's for later. First things first!

I'm not one for long winded speeches, so I'll keep this short.

Congratulations are in order. For the residents of Brockton Bay, or as it will now be called, New Brockton. Today is the grand reopening of your city. Our city. And while not everything is ready as of yet, it will be by the end of the day. So let me be the first to congratulate and welcome all of you back to the city. You've gone through some hard times this past year. Heck, this past decade!

But it all ends now. In the new, reborn city, everyone will be able to live in peace. Women will be able to walk the streets at night without fear of assault. Kids will be able to play, unbothered by villain fights.

People, shop owners, businessmen, and entrepreneurs will be able to do business without fears of gang interference or inter-gang warfare.

And finally, with the Bay cleared of debris, the shipping industry will be revived, bringing jobs and new blood into the long suffering city.

This is a modern paradise, a second chance for a world that has survived an alien invasion and literal worldwide conspiracy. Something I hope, we all hope no doubt will be replicated across the world, as the wounds of the past heal and a brighter future emerges above the horizon.

Thank you." I finished.

"I'll be taking questions now, so go ham! I might not be around next week!"

Usually, I wouldn't piss on the fourth estate, much less throw them a bone.

But this was something I had prepped for. To make my info dump seem natural.

I had planted clues and questions in forums and interviews all throughout the month, manipulating them into doing what I wanted via subliminal suggestions, just for today.

I was almost sure what they were going to ask.

And if they don't, I can just info dump as a post script, so no worries there!

Hands raised up in the crowd almost immediately.

"GameBreaker! GameBreaker!" They crowd out like seagulls fighting over food.

Given that I was the kind of news item that raked in the views, in this case they were probably literally fighting over the story that would put food on their table this month.

I picked a random reporter from the crowd, a tall wiry, black man.

"What's next for GameBreaker?"

"Nothing much actually. I was originally going to heal all diseases and disabilities in the world.

It was actually an offer that I made to Panacea in return for her giving up her powers to me. I even offered to heal her adoptive father's depression.

I could use her powers better by integrating them into my technology, after all.

But apparently, Panacea believes that she can save more people on her own and doesn't need me to heal the people of the world." I shrugged.

"If you ask me though, it feels like she's just doing this to stroke her ego. If she doesn't have her power, she won't be the beloved Panacea, second coming of Florence Nightingale, Angel of Mercy and all that, now will she?

She'd rather remain a special healer while people around the world suffer unnecessarily. Not a choice I would make and kinda selfish, not that I'm complaining. It's her choice and I'll respect that.

But what can you expect from the daughter of Marquis, am I right? Guess she inherited her daddy's supervillain selfishness!" I said, with implication.

The reporters seemed to get what I was going for as they began to scribble furiously in their margins.

Good.

Let her suffer.

If she won't help me bring together my broken home, I'll return that favor.

I want to see her family break apart.

Another reporter, a middle aged woman, raised her hand in the back.

"You said you are leaving this world next week, but there are still villains running free out there, while quite a few heroes have given up their powers to you.

Won't this lead to a public safety issue?" She asked.

"Good question. I will in fact deal with that particular problem before I leave. I would have done it even without anyone asking.

You see, over the past month of researching the shards I have uncovered a horrific secret hidden in their code. The brain parasites are programmed to slowly take over their hosts.

In about another twenty years, the shards will start to run out of their power reserves, and start pulling in mass and energy from other dimensions into this one to compensate for it, turning their hosts into a new set of giant monsters. Not Endbringers, of course. But a different kind of entity. I call them Titans.

They won't go around destroying cities, but they will continue to pull in mass from other dimensions until they break a hole in reality, destroying the planet.

So, since I have made a few friends here and I want them to have a shelf life of more than just another twenty years, I will disable all the other shards in the world before I leave.

That way, no one can use their powers, and so the shards don't run out of power, and the whole disaster doesn't even happen in the first place.

And incidentally, this will also mean that there will be no more parahumans, in the strict sense of the word.

They will still have their powers, but they will be permanently shut off so you won't need to worry about supervillainy anymore!

As a matter of fact, I will be doing that later today, once my new power cancellation device is charged up."

I lied.

That was just a cover-up for what I was actually going to do.

I was going to steal all of their shards from them today.

No one will be spared.

Except Paige maybe. She gets girlfriend privileges!

Also because her voice is very cute and sexy at the same time. It's like half her charm.

Finally, I turned to a fat teenage boy at the edge of the crowd who raised his hand, jumping in place.

He was dressed in a GameBreakerTM shirt under an ill fitting jacket and carrying a toy laser gun with him, waving it in the air.

He looked fucking wierd.

All that was missing was fedora and a katana and he would fit right in at a comic con.

I sighed.

Greg Veder. The butt off all jokes and protagonist of a billion worm fanfictions.

Of course.

"Yes. You. Go on."

"You said you have no powers and you became this strong with just your smarts. Does that mean I can become like you too?" He asked expectantly.

Ah! We've got a discount Deku on our hands.

Of course.

"Can you do calculus in your head?" I asked.

"I can do addition! Ask me anything! I can add-"

"No. No. I mean calculus. Higher level mathematics. Can you design engines in your mind? Can you visualize a tesseract? Can you invent a new form of math? A new field of science?

I doubt it. So unfortunately, no. You probably can't. Not the way you are right now. But who knows what'll happen in the future? People have gotten hit in the head with a baseball and woken up as math geniuses so I guess theoretically, it's possible. But I wouldn't count on it. Sorry, kid. Not everyone can be a genius."

Or be lucky like me, landing on a jackpot with Rick's memories in the palm of their hand.

"But! I do have a power!" I said, pulling out a vial from my coat pocket.

"Or I will have it soon enough. You remember the reason Scion came to Earth? Did his whole thing?

Scion's species was looking for a shard that could reverse entropy.

And he hoped that we would be able to evolve one into existence on our planet by fighting it out.

Well, where he failed, I succeeded.

Behold, the perfect shard!" I raised the vial into the air.

"I made it myself. It's a shard that will grant someone the power to reverse entropy, and it is immune to the usual weaknesses of parahumans.

This shard has no manton limit, or Thinker headaches. It will never run out of energy, ever. It will not force it's user to be violent either. And, it is completely loyal to me."

Silently, I checked on the preparations for the final heist and activated the program before I continued.

On the ship I could feel a blob of meat jelly, made from a mix of Clairvoyant, Doormaker, Gray Boy samples that I salvaged from Riley's old lab added on top of whatever was left of Trickster's shards, twitch alive, it's thousands upon thousands of tendrils extending into pin sized portals, ready to engage.

The moment I triggered, the nature of the perfect shard would mean that the trigger event would force all parahumans in the world to become simultaneously incapacitated and fall into a temporary coma.

The meat jelly would use this opportunity, and it would automatically, sting all parahumans still left, freeze people in mini time bubbles, replace them with a hologram, teleporting them to a quarantine zone on the ship.

Then after a quick shard extraction, they'd all be back in place before anyone knew what happened, none the wiser.

Then, when they were unable to use their powers, they'd just end up thinking that I had shut off their powers like I had warned.

Easy peasy lemon squeazy!

"Didn't you say people shouldn't rely on superpowers?" Paige teased.

"Yeah, but I already proved you don't need powers to be a hero. And superpowers are awesome! Especially when they come with no drawbacks!" I grinned happily.

I turned to Greg again.

"Kid, you want a superpower, you gotta make your own. Like I did."

"Paige, if I collapse..." I whispered.

"I'll catch you. Don't worry." She said, grabbing my hand.

"Alright then!" I said, took a deep breath and downed the contents of the vial in one go.

It tasted gross, like yeast on slag and oil. I imagine this is what devil fruits taste like.

But, with some effort, I did down it.

It descended down my throat, into my stomach, but just as it was about to touch the acid, it disappeared.

Then, I fell.

_____________________

MC takes the shard deep and he swallows.

Brockton Bay is rebuilt.

MC fucks Panacea over.

And Paige gets the furst signs that she's getting dumped as soon as he's done here.

Next time, interlude - Panacea.

Thanks for reading!

Bye~

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