Moon

"They decided that death was better than slavery," I said soberly. "And they chose to fight."

Dr. Snow…. Caitlyn and Cisco had wanted to know more about the origins of the nanites, and they'd been horrified.

"They won't win," I said. "They just don't have the numbers, and a group mind can react quicker than a lot of individuals, especially since their ships don't have intraship communications networks."

They could replicate them easily enough, but it would take time to refit their ships and that was time they didn't have.

"And you left them?" Cisco asked.

"There was nothing I could do," I said. "I've got responsibilities in my own world, and even if I could reach the other side of the galaxy, I'm not a general or a military genius."

Maybe I should buy some skill books on military tactics. I hadn't needed it so far, but there might come a time when I had to actually lead, particularly in Harvester Earth.

We were all silent for a moment.

"So, you've been to the future," Cisco asked.

"A future… I'm pretty sure there isn't just one. Time seems to vary in the worlds I end up in, sometimes by a year or two, sometimes by five hundred. I think it might be something as little as a second a year or less."

"A second a year over fourteen billion years would be 443 years," Cisco said instantly. "You'd never know the difference if it was ten years or less, even over a lifetime."

These people were smart; every time I looked inside their heads, I couldn't help but be impressed.

"That repair you did on the Pipeline," Cisco said. "That's not going to hold over the long term. It's basically being held together with tin foil and chewing gum."

"I didn't have a lot of time," I said. "I was afraid the bad guys would get away."

"I still don't see how you captured them so quickly," Cisco said.

"Telepathy and a lot of powers. I've found that it doesn't help to stand around and chat with the villains before you catch them; that just gives them a chance to blindside you."

Barry flushed for some reason.

I'd have figured that with his power he'd have been collecting villains right and left.

"I still haven't caught the others," I said. "Maybe they were out of range or maybe their thoughts just weren't different enough from everyone else for me to catch them."

"That's all right," Barry said. "It was more than we expected. We're going to see what we can do about getting the technology to the appropriate authorities."

I nodded.

It was a pain in the ass to keep people imprisoned. I'd figured that out on my own. They'd been sustaining these people on takeout, and the bill for that kept growing.

They'd already planned on doing it when they'd had to move the prisoners for the first time; my suggestion wasn't anything they hadn't thought of before.

"So, you think this space ship of yours will be able to find every metahuman on the planet?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah," I said. "The Federation might not want to invest so much in weapons or defenses, but their scientific scanners are top notch. My ship is barely a shuttle, and it's still able to do all that."

"I'd love to see it," Cisco said.

"I'll bring it by in a little while," I said. "As soon as Ronnie wakes up."

There had been some discussion about raising their other friend from the dead. He'd been the ancestor of the enemy from the future, and he'd sacrificed himself for the sake of them all.

The paradox had created the thing I'd assumed was a black hole. I'd only assumed that because temporal phenomena were a little above my pay grade technologically. I'd assumed that it was a black hole even though if it had enough mass to be that size it would have sucked the Earth inside like it was a straw.

Eventually, they'd decided against it.

He'd sacrificed himself, and there was some fear that if they revived him, they'd be undoing his sacrifice. I thought about suggesting castration, or at least an irreversible vasectomy, but I didn't bother.

I had a feeling they wouldn't like the castration suggestion, and vasectomies sometimes reversed themselves.

I could have always brought him to a different universe and never brought him back, but the future was unknown. What if he had grandchildren and interdimensional travel became common?

There was a gasp from the man on the table.

"What?" Ronnie Raymond asked. He coughed and a little blood came up. Apparently the nanites were having trouble dealing with some aspects of his nuclear physiology.

Presumably they were trying to deal with whatever it was that caused him to die without periodically reconnecting with his partner, and they were unable to.

I touched his face and I healed him.

I'd gained nothing from his partner, or maybe I had, but had never gotten an alert.

NEW POWER CREATED!

TRANSMUTATION!

YOU CAN TRANSMUTE ELEMENTS. THIS AFFECTS ONE POUND DOUBLING EVERY LEVEL! CHANGES ARE PERMANENT UNTIL YOU CHANGE THEM AGAIN!

LEVEL 1!

Now that was handy!

"The nanites had trouble because of the Firestorm Matrix," I said. "They should work fine on other people."

Nobody seemed to be listening to me. They were gathered around the revived man, congratulating him.

I pulled a little glass from my inventory and I formed it into the shape of a small statue. A small twist, and the statue changed from glass to metal, then to silver, and then to gold.

"What are you doing?" Cisco asked.

"Picked up a new power from Ronnie and Martin," I said. "Didn't really expect that I would. It's pretty cool though."

It solved a lot of my tinkering problems; some of them at least. I could form things from glass and then change them to whatever element that fit. I was presumably picking up air molecules to make up the difference in weight and density between the different elements. In space, the statue would be a lot smaller.

"I get power from defeated people; I don't have to be the one that defeats them. A singularity works just as well. This is about as much as I can do right now."

"A weaker version of their powers," Cisco said. "Did you plan to copy his powers?"

"I'd like to copy everybody's powers," I said. "I don't take powers from heroes without permission unless I'm doing some healing."

"Thank you," Caitlyn said. She hugged me.

"I can't heal whatever connection he has to Martin," I warned. Looking at the excitement and sheer joy everyone was manifesting around their friend, I wondered if that was what I would feel when I revived Dad.

Or would I be condemned by his opinions of the things I had done?

I had never had this kind of connection to anyone, except maybe Emma once, and Mom, and Dad.

Caitlyn raced back to her fiancé.

Would they have some weird kind of threesome relationship, considering that Stein could feel everything that was happening with his partner?

It'd be like being married to a Siamese twin; awkward and weird. However, there had been Siamese twins who had each been married and they'd had a lot of children. Some people could make it work.

"He's going to be all right," Cisco said.

"Yeah, I've healed him," I said. I frowned. The merrymaking was getting on my nerves.

It wasn't that they were doing anything wrong. It was just that it all made me uncomfortable. It wasn't a feeling strong enough that Gamer's mind would override it either.

"Hey," I said. "Would you like to see my moon base?"

He stared at me.

"You're a little young for me," he said. "It's a weird kind of pickup line."

"Eww," I said. "I'm fifteen. I seriously meant it; I've got a base on the moon in my universe. I didn't build it, but I took it over."

"Yeah," he said.

He looked back at the others. He'd already congratulated Ronnie on his resurrection, but he knew Caitlyn wanted time alone with him.

"You can come too," I told Barry, who was watching us.

I looked at Martin and said, "I'm not sure what interdimensional travel will do to the connection between the two of you. It's probably best that you stay here."

"Hold up," Barry said. He vanished for a moment, and then returned. "I made you a guest bedroom up on the second floor."

Stein nodded.

"Let's go," I said. "I'm going to inventory you just in case I misfire to somewhere dangerous. It's rare, but it happens sometimes. I once jumped into the middle of a deadly radioactive zone, so I try to be careful."

I inventoried both of them, and then I returned to my moon base.

Bringing them out of inventory, I gestured at the window, and they stared.

"I think that he chose this location because of the view," I said.

The Earth was high in the sky, and it was beautiful.

"You really have a moon base?"

"It's salvage from a tinker the Simurgh turned into a villain," I said. "He had plans to take humanity to the stars, and she turned him into a monster who killed any tinker who tried to make the world a better place."

"Why?" Barry was staring out the window.

I shrugged.

"Nobody knows. Personally, I think the Simurgh tipped her hand with Sphere. He targeted people who were trying to make things better. Personally, I think that's just a smaller version of what the Endbringers are trying to do to society in general."

I stepped forward and pressed some buttons on the monitors. I'd managed to hook Sphere's computers up with the shuttlecraft's sensors.

I began showing them real time pictures from the internet; of the remains of cities, one after the other.

"They're destroying the economy, destroying the lives of people who may contribute and change the world. They are the death of hope, and in the end, they will destroy us."

I showed them footage of Endbringer battles.

The PRT tried to suppress some of it because they didn't want to scare off volunteers for Endbringer battles, but there was always someone who leaked footage.

"I asked you before if you wanted to help, but I'm not trying to trick anybody," I said. "If you want to back out, I'm not going to have a problem with it."

I showed them footage of Leviathan burying cities under tidal waves, of his speed and power, of the Simurgh screaming and lifting entire buildings. I showed them Behemoth and his nuclear fires.

"We've tried nuclear weapons," I said. "They don't work. Tinker equipment…all failed. People think that we're driving them away, but I think they're smarter than that."

"If Leviathan just wanted a body count, why does he even come out to fight?" Barry asked, staring at the screens. He could just hit coastal city after coastal city."

"Behemoth can attack from underground, create volcanoes in the middle of inland cities," I said. "And the Simurgh can just drive everyone mad and then leave before anyone is able to even try to defend their cities."

"They're deliberately letting themselves be driven back," Barry said, staring at the screen, at all the dead capes. "They're out to kill as many heroes as they can."

"If they showed their true power, nobody would show up for a fight," I said. "Our strongest hero physically is Alexandria; I recently fought a villain with similar levels of strength, and I barely survived his punches. The Simurgh hit me with less than a thousandth of that power, and yet I've seen times the Endbringers overwhelmed her."

"She didn't kill you deliberately," Cisco said.

"She wanted me to take her to…a hell dimension I guess you'd call it," I said. "She needed to almost kill me so that I'd run away and she could use me to get there."

We were all silent for almost a minute.

"It's why I need to collect power as quickly as I can, especially physical strength and damage resistance. I can get tougher by fighting people who are strong enough to hurt me."

"But the tougher you are, the few people and things there are that can make you stronger."

"My powers also stack," I said. "I get two people with super durability, and they both add to my power."

Cisco frowned.

"We've got some weapons that might be able to help you level up some of your resistances, but not much."

"Anyway, that's why I'm so excited about what we see on the shuttlecraft sensors. Let's take a look around this place."

"You've got a pool?" I heard Cisco shout from behind me.

Apparently, he was already looking.

"I didn't build it," I said. Personally, I thought it was a little weird. The lower gravity had weird effects on the pool water too.

"You aren't the only one who was in here, either," Cisco said. He nudged a pair of speedos laying out byte beach.

I flushed.

I was sure Loki had just left those to embarrass me the next time I had guests.

"I'm babysitting the god of mischief," I said. "Long story. He's out on a date at the moment, and so I'm giving him a little time."

"Alien who was worshipped as a god by the ancient Norse," I said. "He's kind of an ass. Don't take anything he says seriously."

"You've met aliens?"

"More than once," I said. "Usually when they're invading. Aliens are assholes, mostly."

"That's a little harsh," Cisco said.

"Well, so far I've dealt with one alien invasion from an insect hive mind that kills entire worlds and uses them for fuel to continue doing that, a second invasion that involved a hive mind group of mercenaries attacking New York, and a third invasion involving a cybernetic hive mind."

I frowned.

It hadn't really occurred to me how many hive minds I was running into.

"Other than that?" Cisco asked weakly.

"Loki's the guy who hired the mercenaries to conquer Earth; I'm apparently his jailer. He's a charming asshole."

"You'd think they'd have a more enlightened view," Barry said. He was staring out the window. "Seeing things like this…it really puts everything into perspective."

"You'd think that," I said. "I wish I had time to enjoy the view, but I've been too busy gathering powers to save my world."

"How long have you been doing this?" Barry asked. "You look pretty young."

"She's fifteen," Cisco said. He was crawling under the control console to take a look at the systems controlling the station.

"I've been in this for three or four months," I said. "I've kind of lost track."

"And you've gotten this strong already?"

"This is all I've been doing," I said. "Other than trying to support a colony and making deals for technology with other worlds."

"You don't have family, friends?"

"Dead," I said. "They were all killed by villains."

He winced.

"It doesn't seem like it would be healthy not to have a personal life," he said.

He was actually concerned about me as a person. That seemed…weird.

Most people saw me as an obstacle or an opportunity; I'd learned that since I'd gained telepathy. Even people like Vista, who secretly sort of liked me often found me annoying.

"We're people first," he said. "And if you lose sight of that, well…there's a guy I know who went a little crazy for a while, started killing people."

I winced.

Should I tell him that I'd almost certainly done more than him.

"I've killed," I admitted. "Mostly aliens; invasions are war, and you can't go without killing in war."

He winced.

"And when the gangs killed my family, I went a little crazy. They were trying to kill me and I didn't have the power I have now, where I have a choice."

Barry was quiet. He wasn't judging me as harshly as I would have thought. He was still worried about me.

"Have you talked to anyone?" he said. "Killing… I think it's tough at any age."

He was a CSI; he worked with cops every day, and he knew cops who'd had to kill. He'd seen the toll it could take.

"I've got a power; it's one of my original one. It keeps my mind clear when I would get too emotional."

"That doesn't seem healthy," he said. "You mean…?"

"I'm not able to feel anything really deeply," I said. "I'm probably never going to fall in love, or have a family, or any of the normal things that people have. My body's not remotely human."

"I'm sure that you can…"

"What kind of guy my age would want a girl who could turn him into paste just by hugging him too hard, who could read his mind every time he looked at a pretty girl, who can't really fall head over heels for anyone because part of that requires that you become irrational?"

"Surely there's someone out there," he said. "It might seem hopeless, but…"

"I can't have children," I said. "I don't even have most of the organs that a regular person has. I can't even have a dog."

"Get a dragon," Cisco said from under the console. "They're cool, and they're also long lived and they have armor and powers. They might even have human intelligence."

"As a boyfriend?" I asked, horrified, but weirdly interested.

"Only if they turn into human form," he said. "Some dragons don't."

"I've never met a dragon," I said. "Haven't been to any fantasy worlds at all."

The thought was oddly cheering. Not that I'd actually date a dragon, although keeping one as a pet might be interesting.

All I'd need would be to find a cape strong enough to keep up with me, or at least with an ego big enough not to be threatened.

Not that I was interested in that kind of thing at the moment.

"It's an infinite multiverse, right?" he said. "If you keep looking, you'll eventually find it."

"If I had time, I might consider it," I said. "But it's only a few weeks until the next Endbringer attack and I have to be ready."

Cisco popped up from where he was looking under the control console.

"I'm not sure how some of this works," he said. "The computer's got to be ancient, like mid-nineties tech, but it works better than the stuff we have, and I'm not sure why."

"It's tinkertech," I said. "We've got people who have powers related to inventing; they take shortcuts that mean that they can produce stuff hundreds of years advanced, but it also means they can't be reproduced."

"That's what you do?"

I shook my head.

"I've got the real deal, but that means I have to make the tools to make the tools. I can't tinker nearly as fast as they can, and so I rarely bother."

"There's ways to deal with that," Cisco said. "It takes a really good lab, though."

"Well, I had a lot of time to do a lot of tinkering," I said. I blinked them both into the shuttlecraft.

"Now let's see how many parahumans we're dealing with," I said as I blinked us into orbit above their world