In the city of Los Angeles, a new god was stirring from their slumber. A being that had caused the end of the world once and has the power to do so again if they wish. A being that has seen the deepest depths of human depravity. A being that could shape the very fabric of reality. A being that was… very late to work.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…”

“Soooooooo, what was it liiiike?”

“What?” Anna asked, turning her head to stare in confusion at Cary.

“Ya know, the whole ‘crash’ thing.” She leaned forward. “I bet you met some hunky cops... no, wait. A doctor!” She claimed like she had cracked the case.

Anna snorted before turning back to her work. “No Cary, I did not meet a hunky cop or doctor. Just a bunch of regular cops and doctors… Well, one of them was kind of cute…” She mumbled at the end.

Cary, not one to let any kind of gossip get away from her, pounced. “You don’t saaaaay…”

Anna blushed, not realizing she’d said that out loud. “I-Its nothing!” She said trying to ward Cary away.

“Oh, reaaaaally… because I’ve never heard you call anyone even vaguely attractive,” She got right in Anna's ear. “Nevertheless, cute.”

“W-Well, it's just that he was really sweet and kind and stuff, he read to me while I was in my coma even though he didn’t know if I was conscious or not, it was really cheesy old comic books too, the kind where stuff is so obvious and blatant that you can’t help but see how everything will end, but he kept reading even though it was probably really boring for him…”

Cary took a step back from her rambling friend.

Cary liked Anna.

Not like she liked the girls: because they were easily manipulated. Nor how she liked the men: because they were good resources. No, Cary liked Anna because she was innocent.

She hadn’t seen the horrors of the world as Caroline had. Hadn’t experienced the trauma that Caroline did. She was like a bunny, hopping around all happy and full of life, unaware of the fact that there were wolves in the bushes just waiting to pounce and drain that joy right out of her for no other reason than pleasure.

She was a sort of catharsis for Cary. Her naivety was refreshing. And while Cary didn’t know what sort of life her friend had lived up till this point, it couldn’t have been very hard on her. It was obvious from the way Anna’s head was in the clouds most of the time. Only people who haven’t had their fantasies beaten out of them by life do that as often as she does.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, Cary decided to save her blubbering friend.

“... I mean he was kinda cute in a physical way too I guess, but there's no way I could go out with him, I mean me, no way, not in a million years, but I mean, I guess-”

“Sounds like you’ve made yourself a friend then.”

Anna suddenly deflated. “Not really. I don’t have his number or anything. I mean, I only saw him for a few minutes before the police started interrogating me. I guess I could go visit him at the hospital if I wanted too… but he’ll probably be busy. Plus, I don’t really know anything about him.”

“Hmmm…” Cary looked at Anna for a moment then shrugged. “Then learn. If you want to know more, go ask him. It's not that hard.”

She watched as Anna withdrew into herself, fascinated. Cary had never met a person like Anna. So wanting companionship, yet never going out to find it. Her fear wasn’t a result of trauma as she never flinched away from anyone who approached her. Anna was just… shy.

Such a strange concept to Caroline.

“Never mind, it's not important.” Cary dismissed.

Anna let out a sigh of relief. “...Hey, have you heard about that flying island?”

“Of course I have! It’s on every damn news station! I couldn’t escape it if I tried!” Cary said exasperated.

“It’s so cool right?” Anna asked with glee.

“Yeah… I guess it's interesting… but, like, why is it such a big damn deal?” Cary questioned while scratching her head.

“Why is it- Why is it a big deal?!” Anna repeated, dumfounded, “Because it shouldn’t be possible that's why! For all, we know this could just be the beginning! Next thing we know, we have people flying through the air, breathing fire from their mouth while magic warps the very fabric of reality around us! There are dragons on that island! Do you know how cool that is?!”

“Umm…” Cary said dumbly. “Pretty cool?”

“NO! IT'S NOT ‘PRETTY COOL’! IT’S FUCKING AWESOME, THAT’S WHAT IT IS!”

Cary actually stepped back from Anna in surprise.

“MS. MILLER, PLEASE KEEP YOUR VOICE DOWN!” A gruff voice yelled out across the office.

It was at this point that Anna realized that she’d been pretty loud. “Uh, Sorry Bossman,” She called back before sitting back down with a furious blush.

A loud sigh could be heard.

“So, ‘it’s fucking awesome’ huh?” Cary started with a smirk on her face.

Anna just blushed harder as she tried to bury her face in her work.

Anna groaned as she stepped through the door to her flat. She kicked off her shoes and flopped onto her bed.

A moment was spent like that before she giggled. “Tonight's the night isn’t it?”

It had been a week since Coeldisum had appeared and while the governments of the world were still in disarray over what to do, the general populous was pretty calm. It was the perfect time to start.

With the governments still distracted by Coliseum, they would struggle to focus their attention elsewhere. People were also calm enough that, while Coeldisum was still on everyone's mind, they were no longer panicking about it. Any longer and Coeldisum would fade from the public's view and the governments would get their act together.

“Well, I guess I should get started then.”

Flopping back into sitting position Anna started to manipulate the potential of the world. Another glass screen, not dissimilar from the possibility map, appeared in her hand. On it was three symbols.

One was the mars symbol.

Another was the venus symbol.

The last was the mercury symbol.

“Well… let's stay female. I don’t really want to get into all that.”

The venus symbol was pressed and another scene came up showing different races. Fictional sentient races from every single storybook or fantasy were available for selection.

Anna sighed.

“As much as it pains me, staying human is probably for the best right now. If one of the first heroes is some sort of alien race, people might get the wrong impression,”

Reluctantly, Human was selected and another screen popped up. This one said ‘rolling.’ A second passed before a six appeared on the glass.

Anna whistled. “That's pretty good.”

The six represented the number of powers that Anna would have.

The scale ranges from one to ten, with each increment getting exponentially harder by a power of five. That means that while every person selected to get powers will get at least one power, some people may get more and the very luckiest will get ten superpowers.

Six was a pretty good roll all things considered.

Rubbing her hands together Anna got excited. “Alright, let’s see what I get!”

Clicking the roll button in the bottom right, Anna waited. A moment passed where the same ‘rolling’ screen took over then faded out again. Six slots appeared on the screen, each covered up by a black box. A button that said ‘reveal’ sat beside each of the boxes. It was with great joy that Anna made her way down the list.

First up was [Enhanced Physicality]. This was one of the easiest powers for people to get. It did what it said. It enhanced one's physical body. Bones got sturdier, muscles got stronger, eyes got sharper, skin got harder to pierce, etc. This was your bog-standard power that any good super should have.

But there was a caveat...

It only enhances one's physical body. So, if a fat guy got this he would be as fast as a professional sprinter, but if a professional sprinter got it then he would be magnitudes faster than that same fat guy. It was not a be-all, end-all, ‘you-get-a god-like-body-now’ kind of power. Though those did exist.

Anna’s next power was much more interesting. [Unseen Teleportation] meant that while Anna wasn’t being observed or recorded she could teleport anywhere she wanted to with no limits. As long as no one could see her, she could disappear and reappear anywhere she wished.

Anna went wild imagining all of the shenanigans she could get up to before she got control of herself and moved on to her next power.

[Omni-Walking] was also an interesting one. With this power, she could walk or run on anything without fear of gravity or physics. She could even walk through the air if she wanted.

‘Two primarily transport powers, huh. I may have to take a more passive approach to all this,’ She thought with some worry. ‘If I don’t have any combat powers I won’t be able to fight anyone. I’ll have to rely on others to do the actual combat.’ Shaking her head, she continued.

[Body Manipulation Immunity] was less of a power and more of a defense mechanism. It meant that if any power tried to affect her body she could just ignore it. Telekinetics couldn’t move her, blood manipulators couldn’t manipulate her blood, and psychics couldn’t read or affect her mind.

Though she shouldn’t have to worry about that last one too much. Anna had purposefully made psychic powers super rare. [Mind Control] was not a fun power for the one being controlled.

[Four Second Foresight] meant that, as the name said, one could see ahead in time by four seconds. This was constrained to anything that the user could see at that moment.

‘This might have some combat ability, but I still don't like my chances. With some of the powers I have in here, four seconds isn’t all that much,’ She worried.

But as she checked her next power her worries disappeared and a smile blossomed on her face.

With [Power Manipulation] Anna was allowed to either boost or limit other people’s powers. Powers can be boosted to any extent, while they can only be limited to the point where users no longer have powers at all. So, no draining someone of life because they have a regeneration power or making someone a cripple because they have super strength. However, there is one thing that makes this an absolutely broken power…

There is no time limit.

This means that any changes made to someone else's powers are permanent and unless Anna or another power manipulator removes the change they stay like that forever.

Anna fell back on her bed laughing. She knew the chances of getting this power was unfathomably small. It was like finding a needle in a haystack the size of North America. Needless to say, but Anna was probably going to be the only power manipulator for awhile.

Getting control of herself once again, Anna picked up the glass screen and hit the ‘next’ button. The screen swiped to the right and what looked like a character creator appeared.

Switches, sliders, and checkboxes dominated the screen. A 3D model of Anna was floating in the area between them in a T-poise. Anna fiddled with the sliders, switches, and checkboxes, trying to get a good look. Eventually, about an hour later, Anna was satisfied with what she had.

A beautiful woman had taken the other models’ place. Clear muscle definition could be seen on her slim body and though it was clear that she was fit, she was not butch, as her femme aspects outweighed her admittedly impressive musculature.

Clean unblemished skin, like that of a porcelain doll, covered her toned body. Her small breasts were more than compensated for by her magnificent ass and long shapely legs. At five-eight, she was tall for a woman too and had an unmistakable presence to her.

Her face was sharp and fierce, with a pointed chin and piercing blue eyes. Her eyebrows were naturally slanted and only added to her keen disposition. However, this was all belied the mischievous smirk on her lips and the cunning glint in her eyes. Raven black hair flowed down her back in a long braided ponytail and ended just at her tailbone.

“Wonderful! Now we just need an outfit or costume.” Flicking over to the next screen, Anna played around once more with the different options provided to her. “Okay!” She said after another hour of fiddling. “That will do it.”

Anna had played around for a while with making full superhero spandex costumes before she dismissed them. First off, while this new body could definitely pull off that kind of look, Anna herself lacked the confidence to do so. Second off, having a full-on spandex costume already on hand when the advent of powers had just started was a bit suspicious. Third off, not having a costume would help add to her mystique. Fourth off, She didn’t really need to hide her identity or face because the body didn’t really have a legal presence at all. And fifth off… well...

Spandex was uncomfortable.

So, with all that taken into consideration, Anna decided to take a more relaxed approach. She started out with a simple pair of jeans and added a white T-shirt. She played around with shoes for a little bit before eventually settling on a pair of flat black leather boots. Heels are not advised for fistfights. Moving back up Anna tried to spice up her shirt a little, but gave up, leaving the shirt a plain white. Instead, Anna put a black half trench coat over it and left the front open.

Mentally stepping back, Anna took in her creation.

A beautiful and exotic woman that looked like she was about to go out on a stroll. Unassuming despite her looks and seemingly mundane. That is until she decides to take a stroll up a building.

Anna cackled madly at that mental imagery. Still chuckling herself a few minutes later she presses the ‘confirm’ button on the screen, being enveloped in a cocoon of white light.

Not more than a second later, Anna stood in her new body on her bed. Stepping off, she started to do stretches to acclimate to her new proportions. Anna tried to do a few bounces on her toes, surprising herself when she jumped a foot of the ground from even that small effort.

Anna looked in wonder at her legs. She turned and pulled her coats arm up to look at her flexing muscles. Seeing her bicep curl and uncurl Anna shivered. “I may have made this body a bit too ripped…” She thought aloud. Shrugging, Anna moved on to testing out her powers.

[Unseen Teleportation] worked like a charm. With but a thought Anna could cross the room and back with no disorientation or delay at all. She closed the door to her bathroom and simply willed that she be inside the room and she was. No visualizations, specific thoughts, or inane incantations needed. She just wished to be somewhere and she was.

[Omni-Walking] was a bit strange to get used to. It did indeed allow Anna to walk on walls and in the air without consequence but she got a brief sense of vertigo when she changed at what angle she walked as her ‘up’ became different from the rest of the world’s up. It was very weird when she was standing on the ‘floor’ and looked up to see her bed stuck on the ‘wall’. Standing in the air was also a strangely frighting experience as her lizard brain shouted at her that she was falling or, at least, that she should be.

Anna had no way of testing her [Body Manipulation Immunity] alone, so she ignored that and walked over to her window. From her perspective on the wall, the window looked like a hole in the ground.

Shaking away the irrational fear of falling that cropped up, Anna looked at the cars passing along the ‘wall’ below. Turning on her [Four Second Foresight] She was immediately disoriented. The passing cars below were all overlayed with ghostly cars that seemed to clip through them like a bad video game glitch. This odd effect was not helped by the fact that the tide of real and projected cars were all shifting and moving about like a living river.

Stumbling away from the window, Anna took a deep breath, fighting against the sickness that had taken hold in her stomach. A few moments later Anna felt the feeling to throw up subside and she opened her eyes again. Turning off her [Four Second Foresight] Anna sighed in relief as the ghostly images faded.

The odd combination of her foresight and the automated algorithms of the cars that made them take the shortest route possible had made the street below look like it had been overrun with multicolored cockroaches. This was not helped by vertigo that had appeared when she had seen the street on the ‘wall’. The combination of all three of these had caused her lizard brain to rebel quite violently against her.

Stepping onto the actual floor of her apartment, Anna walked over and sat on her bed. She took a few seconds to just relax her mind. Over a minute later Anna snorted, then laughed. Anna broke out into a giggling fit and fell back onto her bed.

“I just WALKED on a WALL!” she yelled out with elation. She threw herself upward and landed on her feet with her finger pointed to the sky.

“THIS IS GOING TO BE FUCKING AWESOME!”

Over the city of Los Angeles, a new god was watching. With deep blue eyes and a mischievous gaze, the being took in the carpet of lights twinkling below it. The cold air rushing past did not chill the being's enhanced body as it stood on thin air, plotting. Then a smile bloomed across the being’s sharp face as invisible divine power started to flow around it. Slowly the power built, and built, and built, for minutes the power congealed around its master, until it could almost be seen.

Then the energy expanded.

It did not do so slowly and it did not do so with haste. To use either of those words would imply that it had spent time transitioning between states. It did not.

Across the world, people felt a moment of pressure. Like something was weighing them down before the feeling passed. Most dismissed the vague experience as too little sleep or exhaustion from how hard they‘d been working.

But a few couldn’t.

They had gained knowledge in that brief moment of pressure, the knowledge that they had been changed irrevocably.

The being smiled once again, before it vanished on the wind. The only evidence of its passing, the changes it had inflicted and the whispered words floating on the wind.

“And so, the extraordinary has ascended.”

“Now, let us see if the world is ended.”