She nodded, and the implants synced at their request, exchanging information.
Annie’s stats scrolled past.
[ Veritus Praxis Neuroadaptive Noetic Implant: Series 1 - Ascensus ]
— Administrator Override in Effect —
Subject: Annette Sheridan
Alias: Scrappy [Unregistered]
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Designation: Supervillain
ASCENSION POTENTIAL INDEX (API)
Percentile measurements normalized against projected human limits for subjects matching your somatic profile. Continue development to complete Ascension, breaking beyond mundane limitations.
Physical Attributes
Strength — 81%
Endurance — 55%
Constitution — 78%
Dexterity — 71%
Agility — 92%
Cognitive Attributes
Intelligence — 74%
Processing Speed — 57%
Perception — 53%
Focus — 96%
Willpower (Self-actualization) — 92%
Power Manifestation & ECOA
MetaMetal Adaptation
Class B, Tier 1
E: 98% | C: 80% | O: 16% | A: 89%
Thermal Flux Control
Class C, Tier 1
E: 72% | C: 3% | O: 5% | A: 29%
Density Flux Control
Class C, Tier 1
E: 58% | C: 15% | O: 2% | A: 21%
They walked while reading, taking random turns through the layered maintenance tunnels. Alexander tried to keep a mental map relative to the city above but kept drifting back to the data.
Maybe the implant’s right about my focus.
“And none of this freaks you out, Annie?” he asked. It still seemed so implausible to him.
She looked up. “Hmm?”
“I mean… powers were already a lot to process, but this thing is tracking our stats and talking about ‘ascension’ and ‘breaking mundane limits’. I may not know exactly what it means, but I can read between the lines.”
She shrugged. “Seems normal to me. I heard rumors even back when I was in school, and some famous supes have said similar things on talk shows.”
Her gaze sharpened with unrestrained curiosity. “I’m more interested in why you don’t seem to know this stuff. It’s pretty common knowledge. You didn’t lose all your memories, right?”
Ah, that look Frank gave me… he knew she’d figure it out if I wasn’t careful. Tried warning me.
Alexander hesitated. He knew that, rationally speaking, it shouldn’t bother her. It’s not like she’d known the now-dead version of himself. And it’s not like it was some enormous secret. Was it possible that some people out there would want to capture him, drug him, and stick him in a cell if they learned about it? Sure.
But they’d done that already, and now he was on the run. With superpowers.
So he told her. The full hour it took was filled with Annie’s interruptions and questions. By the end, she wore the same skepticism she had when he’d told her he wasn’t a mental patient.
“So… you came from a world with no superheroes?” She squinted, baffled. “That’s so weird. What did you even talk about?”
Alexander stared. “That’s your big takeaway? I tell you that I have memories of a whole other reality, that I woke up in my previously dead alternate reality corpse, and you’re worried about what people discussed given the lack of powers?”
“What? It’s important!” she said. “I mean, sorry you died and all that. Must’ve sucked getting splattered by a train. But at least you got superpowers out of it!”
She gave him a thumbs-up with her bandaged hand.
“Welcome to the multiverse, nerd.” She grinned, then frowned. “Wait. Do two universes even count as a multiverse?”
Alexander sighed and kept walking. Nothing he could do but roll with it at this point.
Flashpoint was not happy, judging by the heat rolling off him. Talia was torn between frustration at the idiot’s incompetence and satisfaction at the public nature of his failure.