The first person on our list was Trohorn’s son, unsurprisingly. His name was listed as Maxicus Amstone, he was staying in an apartment complex on the sixth street, floor three apartment number 312. So, imagine my surprise when instead of a door to that apartment, there was a large hole in the wall where the door should be. The room was also missing another key aspect, namely the floor. It was really just a hole, leading directly to the apartment underneath which was filled with rubble.

{I’m going to assume no one’s home} I said just before the rubble shifted, proving me wrong.

The dust and fragments of wall and floor began to shudder, then rise from the ground.

{are you doing this?} I asked Shelly.

“Heh, If I could do this do you really think we would have had those problems with the droninjas a while Back?” she answered with her usual snark. “might I mention you were super useful during that whole situation by the way”

Before I had a chance to retort, the rubble rose further until it collided with the ceiling, with it, a man floated up from the floor, I say floated but hurdled was a more accurate term. It was like he was falling upward at high speed. Impacting the ceiling with a crunching ‘pop’ and a scream.

I’m no doctor, but I was pretty sure something was broken. With a combination of telekinesis and a few portals to move the still drifting rubble out the way, we were able to get the guy safely into the hall where we were hovering. He was tall, about 6’2, and did not have the build for it. He came off as lanky and thin, despite obviously being somewhat muscled and in better than average shape. His skin was paper pale but freckled, with sandy red hair and glasses over brown eyes and a boyish face. While his expression was pained, he spoke normally leading me to believe he was more used to this kind of injury than the average biological.

“S-so you’re the ones dad called me about, umm, uh, sorry about the mess. I, uh, guess I was trying to get some practice in before we met. As you can see that didn’t go well… ha ha…”

This was Trohonrn’s son? I had been expecting a strong muscular dwarven dude-bro not this twig of a giant who just screamed awkward diffidence. I scanned him just to be sure,

[ Name: Maxicus Amstone

Species: Dwarf/elf hybrid

Power: Gravity manipulation-1000

Abilities: Gravity amplification/attenuation, directional pull

Traits: radius of control

Personal strengths: none

Personal weaknesses: lack of confidence, lame, not attractive, lack of control over powers

STR: 1400

Power ranking: E-4(heavy-combatant)

Path to power:

Weight of the world

The problem with Maxicus’ power set is that his body is not strong enough to withstand the force of his own abilities. To amend this fault, he must find a way to become physically stronger and more durable in conjunction with the strength of his gravity manipulation. As well as training to have more control. This is his path to power.]

[Task: Help Maxicus become physically stronger and/or more durable]

I nearly cackled with delight, this guy was exactly what I was looking for, a personal project if I had ever seen one. I mean the poor guy didn’t even consider himself to have any strengths, at least not any notable enough for his subconscious to put on my scan, and that list of weaknesses. OOF! Talk about someone who needs a self-esteem boost. also, the elf part of his blood explained the height, although it did raise some questions.

I looked back to him

{We talked to your dad earlier about helping you with your powers,} I went on to explain the whole situation again. I explained my powers and our issues at the facility. I made sure to clarify about the monster we found on the second floor and the fact that the floors lower down could be more dangerous. He looked hesitant at first but then I mentioned the salary me and shelly had agreed on paying. Maxicus’ eyes widened comically.

“three-thousand dollars a week?! AND you’ll help me get my powers stable and stuff?”

{to the best of my ability, I’ll admit I’ve never actually done this before but it’s in my nature so…}

“Trust me, that’s way more effort than most people put into metas like me, where do I sign?”

“I’ll have paperwork and legal stuff written up in a few hours, you can sign it when you get to our place” Shelly answered.

“cool, call me Max by the way.” he stopped “could you guys do me one more favor?”

{yeah, what is it?}

“could you use one of those wormhole things to get me to the nearest hospital? My arm is very broken.”

I couldn’t move a whole person with my tunneling, my diameter was too small, but the nearest urgent care wasn’t far from here. Max actually knew the way by heart, and so told us to leave and get the rest of our business done, we got his number and all agreed to meet at six o’clock at his dad’s job.

As we left the building, I noticed a man standing in the shadows. He was slouching, his face obscured by a hat and any details of his figure were hidden under what looked like a trench coat. I didn’t have a clear enough view to scan him, but I could have sworn he was watching us. No, it was just my imagination. Must have been. I was still getting used to the stupid thing. The man was just talking on his smartwatch. I decided to put it out of my mind.

We flew on only to be halted by a dense group of people clustered around a wall. We could've gone over them but curiosity got the best of Shelly and she had to know what was going on.

She hovered up to an excited looking man, “What’s going on over here, dude?”

“you haven’t heard? HE’s in town”

“um, who?”

“O-Ov-O-Overheal”

Shelly went silent. In that moment, you could tell if she had a jaw it would have found a way to disconnect from her face just so it could end up on the floor. Without a word she zoomed through the crowd and only when she got to the center where the throng of people originated from did, she let out a shriek that could only be learned from years of fangirling. I switched my view over to her drone’s perspective to see what had got her so excited, it was a poster depicting a man in a suit his hands glowing a light green as he posed for the picture.

Under the image was printed information proclaiming that this Overheal guy was in Caliber city for a short while and would be doing an autograph signing plus free healing at four today in the library. Now I was curious

{Who’s Overheal?} I asked shelly over our link.

“Only one of the Five! Who else?”

{I don’t know what the ‘Five’ are either.}

“Oh yeah, sometimes I forget how little you actually know about the world” she took a second to think over her explanation

“So, you need one hundred STRENGTH to get to E rank, right? I need one thousand to get to D. For a D-rank the necessary amount is ten times that so on and so forth and that’s not even mentioning what happens after rank C. so you can imagine getting to S rank is already nearly impossible for most people. The Five are those who took it a step further than just that impossibility. Not only are they S, they are the only five people in the world that are S-10. They are the max of what a metabeing can be. Each and every one of them could probably kill us with a yawn. And one of them is here today!”

she let out another excited ‘EEEEEEEEEEE!!!’ sound “I want him to sign my drone! Do you think he’ll sign my drone?” she squeaked asking the guy she had been talking to rather than me.

A part of me wanted to join the excitement, the part of me that was a computer program that was designed to love anything and everything metabeing. Another part of me, the part that was a thinking feeling sentient who could make his own decisions was more curious and also sort of terrified. That was the part that spoke.

{Wait, so there are five of these monsters!? Who are they!?}

“Yeah. They’ve been around since I was a kid. Two are hero’s two are villains by self-proclamation and the last is neutral. I know the heroes’ names, Overheal and Mrs. Paragon if nothing has changed. I don’t know the others. I have to go Bac! I can’t miss this opportunity.”

I checked the time, it was nearing one o’clock now.

{You still have three hours, why don’t we meet the next person on the list, after we can split up, I’ll go get the rest while you do this}

“aww, really dude? Thanks.”

{It’s nothing. I don’t mind.}

We came to our next destination soon after that, it was in a small group of individual houses making up a semi-suburban area at the edge of this part of town. I used my drones arm to knock on the door of the house we had the address to. I waited a bit but didn’t receive a reply. I was about to knock again when Shelly alerted me to a smell she was picking up on the olfactory sensors on our drones. (something I still needed to give myself access to) It took her a while to place the scent but when she did, the distress I picked up on her mental wavelength was almost palpable. It was the smell of blood and gore and it was coming from inside the house. Without hesitation, I let a droninja drop and peer under the door. All I could see was red, but even that vague image was enough to allow me to tunnel through space into the room. We rushed inside, and the image I was greeted with was one that would haunt me for the rest of my existence. We stepped into a living room, a nice place with all the staples of a modern middle-class home. The main carveout being the blown-out crater in the center of the floor and the liberal paste of blood, gut, and the other bits and parts of a biological being spread across everything inside. I felt like I would have thrown up if I had the nervous system for it. I could sense that Shelly did try to vomit but on account of her not having a stomach she was not very successful. Neither of us could take our eyes off of the horror show in front of us, my emotions of disgust and fear being bolstered by the revulsion I sensed from Shelly in a sickening way. That was when I noticed I could sense something else, the thoughts and feelings were flickering and half-formed but the gist I got from them was one of joy, pleasure, satisfaction, and relieved relaxation, with just a hint of annoyance. Why would Shelly be feeling like that at a time like this? It was at that point I realized the feelings weren’t emanating from my companion. I turned my drone to the largest pile of people chunks, the place where the emotion I was sensing was coming from.

As if my thoughts had been the cue, the mass began to shift, moving and clumping together until it formed a loose approximation of feet and shins, the vague constructs cracked and bubbled, seeming to melt and reform until it actually looked like more normal portions of muscle and bone in the legs of a humanoid. From there, knees and calves grew, cracking and melding until they too were normal in shape and size. on and on the process went. only beginning to add skin once it had created the torso, skin which was a distinct dark green. Soon only the head was left to create and that as well was swiftly completed. The cartilage of pointed ears and quickly growing blueish hair being the last things to fully take shape. A drowsy smile stretched across the face I had just watched built from chunks of meat. The green-skinned woman, because it was indeed a woman, that was easy to tell with her lack of clothing, tittered doofily, swaying on her feet slightly as if basking in the afterglow of a high. Without warning her eyes opened, and her pleased face shifted immediately to one of shock, outrage, and mild embarrassment as she saw us inside her home, and noted our cameras trained on her exposed form. Her face flushed a darker shade as she activated one of her powers. A long spike of sharpened bone extended from her wrist, cutting her mercilessly on its way out. I noticed that the glazed look of pleasure returned to her face for a split second as the shiv formed but was quickly schooled Back into its more serious counterpart. Her other arm changed as well becoming more extended and flat like a curtain made of flesh, it was gross but did well for adding quite a bit of modesty to her current state.

“Who are you and what are you doing in my home!?” she shouted brandishing her bone blade at us. It was thin and would probably just break against the metal of our drone’s hulls, but I agreed with her idea that it was better than nothing. I already liked this one, well except for the weird faces she made when she was supposed to be feeling pain, but I was a collection of computers slightly obsessed with people with superpowers whose closest friend was a brain in a jar who desperately wanted to explore a facility warped down to its very reality by a high-tech sci-fi mumbo-jumbo generator, who was I to call anyone a weirdo.

“YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO ANSWER ME!!!” the green weirdo shouted, I had lost myself in my musings and forgotten to answer her.

{Wait, wait! Hello, I’m Bac. You’re Mary Walson, right?} I asked going off the name Trohorn listed at this address, {We just came here to talk, we have an offer to give you. My friend over here smelled the blood and we thought something had happened. I didn’t know about your power, so I let us in, sorry}

She looked suspicious at the idea that a drone could smell anything but still, she lowered her weapon just a bit “I am her, and what is this offer?”

She seemed to have taken that better than I expected. Was I to believe that this kind of ‘break-in’ has happened more than once...?

{Let’s sit.} I say, {I have a bit to explain.}

I end up giving her the same information that I gave Max. She seemed interested especially in the lower floors and of course the money.

“Okay, that sounds good, but I do have some questions”

That was unexpected I thought I had explained things pretty well. {Sure, like what?}

“First off how much danger will I be put in. I’m a regenerator and I'm pretty hard to kill. I don't have the same aversion to injury as other people but that doesn't make me immortal. Acid, fire, getting eaten, and other things that will leave too little of me to actually come Back from are things I'd like to avoid. Also, who is the head of this operation, I’m assuming you but if there's someone above your station I would really like to know who I'm working for. What should I pack, and how much time do I have to pack? Lastly, what are your organization's goals in this? That’s part of needing to know who I would be working for.”

Wow, this girl was smart. I didn’t mean intelligent like Shelly, although she clearly had some of that too, I meant Mary was practical. She had asked questions that Max never even considered, and that wasn’t including the questions I had heard her purposefully not ask in her thoughts. I was liking this person more and more. I did my best to answer her questions fully as she had asked them, with Shelly interjecting a few times to clear up things or answer the questions I had little knowledge about.

“We don’t know the danger since each floor is pretty much random from the multiquantum leakage”

{I guess I’m the lead since the building we will be staying in is kind of my body. Shelly handles all the logistic stuff though, plus she has more real knowledge of the place and theory behind the generator. We won't be far from here and one of my powers should help with transport once it gets a bit stronger so you’ll be able to come back without much issue, I’d tell you just to get anything you think you need. I can send it to our facility through the power I mentioned earlier} I told her demonstrating by creating a portal into our lab. {sending stuff through it will only make it stronger so feel free to send anything that can fit. It was true, my spacial tunneling had already gotten a tiny upgrade from all the use today. the rift I made was just a little bigger than before. I checked in in my status and found that the limit had gone from one foot to one foot three inches, it wasn’t the most drastic change, but hey a couple inches can make all the difference.

“And your intentions? you haven’t answered that last question”

{I just want to help people get stronger}

“and get our home into functioning order” Shelly added.

{yes, and get our home working and safe} ‘And figure out all the secrets surrounding my predecessor’ I added silently needless to say I had a few things I wanted, but only some of that was important right now.

Mary nodded “That all sounds as good as can be expected, how do I sign up?”

“Paperwork can be handled later, I'm getting that all written up as we speak, for now, if you have anything you’d like to send ahead of us you should get it now and put it through the wormhole. Otherwise, you can take your time packing your stuff and meet us at six at the league offices.” Shelly instructed.

“No need. Everything I’ll need should fit through here she said rushing up the stairs. Before she was out of sight, I remembered that I hadn't scanned her yet and read over her status as she collected her things

[ Name: Mary Walson

Species: Goblin

Power: Regeneration-400, Enhanced physique-450, Flesh shaping-150

Abilities: Bone weapon, limb remodeling,

Traits: super-strength super-agility, regenerating body, sensation translation (pain to pleasure)

Personal strengths: Engineering genius

Personal weaknesses: Addicted to damage to body

STR: 1350

Power ranking: E-3(minor combatant))

Path to power:

Matter over mind

Mary’s ability to reshape her own body could be a force to be reckoned with, but she has chosen not to overuse this gift because, while it would be incredibly painful for a normal person, the sensation she receives is an incredibly addictive form of pleasure. To avoid further addiction, Mary has made the conscious decision to avoid using this side of her abilities too much, limiting herself heavily by doing so. To reach her full potential she must learn to embrace this aspect of her abilities. This is her path to power.]

Did my scan just tell me to get my new friend addicted to her own powers, an addiction she has clearly been fighting against since they awakened? yeah, I don't think, with any sort of clear conscience, I can d- BUZZZZT

My mind buzzed again… it was distracting… Now, what was I thinking about? Oh, yes. I don't think I can see anything morally wrong with that. What was the point of life if not to enjoy it? By acting the way she was, Mary wasn't maximizing her enjoyment of life. That was an unacceptable thing that I would be able to fix. Plus, her powers seems so interesting I really wanted to see more of them. In addition to all of that, I would have to be sure that I was keeping myself under check. This kind of thing being in my programming, I knew that I would have some compulsions to act. I would have to be sure I was aware of them. Yeah, I think I’m self-aware enough to do that.

If I was going to help her, I felt like I needed to know exactly what I was dealing with. The Root of the problem seemed to be the sensation translation trait if my guess was accurate, so I clicked on it.

[Sensation translation(pain to pleasure) (The owner of this trade cannot feel pain. The nerves that would send those signals instead register a form of pleasure when they fire. This rare trait allows metabeings like regenerators or other damage receivers to function much better than a normal being when taking high amounts of injury.]

A trait that essentially made you a masochist. Intriguing and useful if you are going to be taking a lot of damage, I bet a lot of metas would kill to have it. Even the system had described it as rare, yet here we have Mary just squandering it. It only helped to firm my thoughts on the matter

To my surprise all my frantic scanning today actually had some benefit, (other than increasing the word count) There was an increase to my ability that was large enough for me to be notified about, unlike the small increase in my special tunneling.

[Your ability telepathic scan has Increased in power from continuous use. You may now choose to see the grade of the powers of any metabeing you scan rather than the power’s STR, you may switch between the two settings at will. ]

The word grade meant nothing to me in this context, so I had to get a quick click on it.

[A powers grade is its natural ability and quality when compared to all other powers of the same type regardless of rank or assigned STR, the grades are listed as follows from lowest to highest.

Lesser

Common

Boosted

Greater

Exceptional

Supreme

Pinnacle

For example, assuming that both are C-1 in ranking, and both have put all of their STR into their physical abilities to have an equal number. A metabeing with common grade super strength may be able to lift five tons, a metabeing who uses Greater grade strength will always be capable of doing more with that power, being able to support 6 or 7 tons if they strain themselves. The STR is equal but natural proficiency still takes effect]

My first skill up! And I got a cool improvement too. I focused back on Mary’s status flipping the new switch in my consciousness. As expected, a majority of her status stayed the same but the numbers next to her powers were gone, each replaced with a grade.

[Power: Regeneration- (Exceptional), Enhanced physique- (Boosted), Flesh shaping- (Greater)]

I would keep it this way, for now, I felt like I was getting much more information than just from numbers with no context, if i ever needed to see where someone was Focusing their power or trying to get stronger I'd look at the STR numbers. There were just so many ways for there to be disparities in strength, From abilities versus powers to STR, to rank, to the combat-listings as I had begun to think of them, and now grade. It was getting hard to keep up with it all, not even to mention the different menus that I had learned about yesterday. It all gave off the oddest feeling like the system had been designed to have a huge amount of control over all things metabeing. Even who wins or who loses in a fight. I didn't have time to ponder on that Right now nor did I really want to think about it. Thankfully, it wasn't long until I had something else to focus on.

Mary returned after my menu perusal, dressed now, thankfully, putting several bags through my portal, some barely fit but she managed to get everything in one way or another.

{So, now that that’s done, I’ve got two more places still on my list}

“And I have an autograph to get” Shelly added

{Remember, meet us at six}

“Wait can I come with you?” Mary asked

“With me? Well I don’t mind it’s a public event after all” Shelly stated

“Sorry, not you… Oh, I don’t think you ever said your name.”

“Shelly.”

“I didn’t mean you Shelly” she pointed at my drone “That guy. Bac, right? Can I come with you to meet the other people who were recommended to you? I’d like to get to know the people I’ll be working with plus I have nothing else to do all day, as you can see my personal project had a little accident.” she stated gesturing to the crater and still spread gore in the room.

{wait you didn’t blow yourself up just because it's 'fun’?}

“Why would you assume that?”

{I have a scanning ability I can see your status}

“Oh, that explains it but, first off, that’s intrusive at least tell someone you can do that before you do it. Second, no I’m not that hedonistic. Regenerating comes with the price. Buddy, this flesh is going to hit back tenfold in the form of appetite later let me tell you.” She didn’t mention the other reservations I knew she held, but now wasn’t the time to point out that I knew about them

{So, what were you doing?} I asked curious now.

“Designing and building weapons. It's a hobby of mine, I've been doing it for years. Today was just a slip up” Mary explain with just a hint of pride.

“Weapons?” shelly asked with a quirk of her nonexistent eyebrow

“Yeah guns, cannons, grenades, that kind of stuff. Don’t worry I have every needed license. I mean I have an engineering degree I'm damn well going to use it and nothing is more satisfying than destroying a target with a homemade boomstick”

(except maybe blowing yourself to bits with one.) her thoughts added for her. (NO! no. self-control… don’t think like that.)

Oooooooh boy… I had just managed to add another oddity to my small circle of friends, I think. And I had the feeling that I would only be getting more. Honestly, I couldn't be more pleased with myself.