‘Mom’ was such a loaded word for Heather.

Heather’s mom either ran away from Dad when she was young…or Dad killed her. Neither would be surprising. He violently refused to talk about her, and so the concept of ‘mom’ had grown to become a nebulous void that was as terrifying as death itself.

Heather glanced away from Nat and Perry driving off in the beat-up sedan to go fight crime, idly holding her belly.

So why did she choose to keep the baby?

Aside from blessing the world with more of her two favorite people, there was also the idea of having a family. Finally being a part of something bigger than herself…That and pure spite.

She chose to be a mom because while the concept of ‘Mom’ was a terrifying unknown, in her mind it was the opposite of being like her dad. And she’d rather die than be like her dad.

That wasn’t to say she didn’t have any role models. Perry’s mom was bubbly and sweet, capable of nuking entire blocks, while Nat’s was an uptight manipulative bitch with little actual power. There was a lot of variation out there, and Heather pictured herself as more of a cool, badass mom. Whatever that looked like.

Heather winced as one of the little bastards kicked her in the bladder, nearly making her wet herself.

“That’s enough of that,” Heather muttered. Nat and Perry weren’t home, so there was no reason to keep up appearances.

Heather split her leg bones, expanded her ribcage, modified her hips and shifted her organs out of the way, adopting a spider-like form that allowed the babies to rest snugly in center-mass, weight comfortably distributed inside the cradle made of her modified quad-hips.

Ah, that’s better.

Heather let out a sigh of relief and got back to work, diving headfirst into getting the new place up to snuff. She’d just about forgotten the Manitian maids when she heard the doorbell ringing.

She scuttled over to the door and opened it with one of her eight limbs, looming above the doorframe.

“Good morning, Miss AAAHHHHGH!” The manitian head maid shrieked and flinched backwards into the waiting host of servants at the sight of ‘spider-Heather’.

“It’s the only way I’m comfortable. Deal with it.” Heather said, motioning them to follow.

“Of course…miss Skinner.” The servants exchanged worried glances.

“Skinner was my dad. Just call me Heather, or miss.” Heather said, shaking the woman’s hand with one of her four smaller ones. “Don’t stand around there, we got a lotta work to do.”

“Y-yes,” The head maid nodded.

“…fits right in with the rest of ‘em…” Heather heard one of the servants in the back whisper to his neighbor.

Heather grinned.

***

“Paradox, good to see you again, you’re taller than I remember,” Conductor Walthers said, taking in Perry’s height before shaking his hand. The conductor had been inspecting the outside of the Inter-city Train, a train roughly the size and shape of a skyscraper laying on its side.

The inter-city train was serious business, nearly a military operation in and of itself, being the only (non-superpowered) way for large amounts of vital supplies to be exchanged between Washington and Franklin.

The option of using Portal Man as the crux of intercity trade was dismissed when it was pointed out that one bullet could bring aforementioned trade to a complete halt.

The train rested on steel rails the width of king-sized beds, stretching out into the horizon, where glimmers of the morning light reflected off of them. The sheer amount of steel used on the rail was nearly unfathomable, but it was worth it for the added protection from megafauna.

“You did good last time. I’m just hoping your arrival isn’t a sign that things are going to get interesting again. No offense.”

“None taken, sir.” Perry said, carefully matching the swarthy conductor’s grip before releasing his hand. People were getting more and more…squishy as he leveled up.

Paradox Zauberer (Perry Z.)

Class: Garage Tinker

Level 12

HP: 13

Body: 30

Stability: 52

Nerve: 34

Attunement: 52

XP to next level: 8712

Spells: Paradox’s Pernicious Prison (6/6) Light (5/5), Dragor’s Kinesis (3/3), Gretchen’s Idyllic Manifestation (1/1)

The last six months had been relatively quiet. Not a whole lot of saving the human race or defeating supervillains of note, so his XP had mostly been the regular grind: Workouts, which netted him a measly 15 XP for a full burnout, and dealing with Trigger Rampages, which had experienced a lull since the danger of the Tide and the Replicators threat had passed they were also netting him less XP than they used to: Perry wasn’t really learning much hunting newbies, nor was he proving himself as a super, now it was just kind of a maintenance thing.

It still gave XP, but not a lot.

Things were pretty quiet, and at this rate it would take another six months before he hit level thirteen.

Which was fine, because Perry’s current lifespan was probably somewhere around…another two hundred and fifty-eight years assuming he didn’t gain ANY more levels, which was practically impossible.

Thankfully, Perry’s healthy amount of Stability allowed him to bottle up and bury the existential dread and move on with his life. In this case, guarding a bunch of forcibly transplanted civilians on a train.

It was just Perry, because Heather was preggers, Nat was keeping her company, Plagius refused to go back to Washington, even for a mission, and Breaker had been hired by Nexus to sandbag powerful Triggers on a full-time basis.

It wasn’t unusual. Titan had gone through the same thing when Nexus had stolen Warcry, and Perry had stolen Hardcase. Team members came and went.

Plagius was just about ready to become a solo act, too, so Perry didn’t see him staying on the team much longer, either.

That was fine, because Paradox was significantly more powerful than he’d been a year ago.

Once the conductor had moved on, Perry went to the passenger car and did his job: keeping an eye on the massive crowd of Androids and their families sullenly filing into their assigned traincars. The general vibe was…not good.

Isn’t this also a Nazi thing? Perry wondered. Unfortunately there was no magical solution that would allow everyone to live in peace and harmony…well, there was, but there was no way he was letting Gramma use Inochellan’s Pacification on everyone.

While Perry was watching the surroundings for anyone trying to attack the androids, he spotted Sin-Eater on the other side of the crowd.

The wildcard was wearing her traditional goth outfit, albeit slightly modified to provide protection against high-caliber weaponry. Her figure had become more athletic than voluptuous over the last six months of working for Chemestro.

Like her team leader, she looked like she belonged on the front of a fitness magazine.

Sin-Eater caught Perry’s gaze and motioned to her eyes, then back to Perry in the time-honored ‘I’m watching you’ gesture.

Oh great, Chemestro’s gonna be on the train.

Officially they were nemeses, but in reality, they just rubbed each other the wrong way. Chemestro’s superior attitude, anal-retentive, sociopathic behavior that treated everything like a military exercise got under Perry’s skin, and Chemestro for his part, was probably irritated by what he perceived as Perry’s irresponsible, half-cocked nature and basically winning the family/genetic lottery….and Perry killed his father.

Normal stuff.

Once the androids were loaded without incident, Perry joined them, bunking up with a couple angry young men.

He talked to them and moved about the cabin, checking in on his charges, making sure they were all fine, when he spotted one of them about six inches taller than all the surrounding androids, with blonde hair, blue eyes, business casual dress and a body sculpted by severe emotional dysfunction.

Perry leaned into his nemesis’ ear and whispered.

“Nobody’s gonna believe you’re a civilian,” Perry said, gesturing to the rest of the cabin.

“Perry,” Chemestro said, turning to look at him up and down. “Where’s your team?”

“Eh, I accidentally got about half of them pregnant, and the rest are taking care of ‘em.”

“I see. Congratulations to Wraith. I wish her the best with her baby.” Chemestro said.

Perry frowned suspiciously at him. “Are you just being polite because it’s optimal for social interactions?”

“Of course. Thank you Andrea, it smells lovely,” Chemestro said, making eye contact and smiling at an older woman who delivered him the in-flight gruel. The matronly woman blushed intensely and hurried off, fanning herself.

“Care to sit?” Chemestro asked, motioning to a nearby table surrounded by a bunch of pissed off androids giving them both intense stares. As low-key as they were trying to be, the two of them stood out like peacocks in a flock of pigeons.

“Eh, sure, I got nothing going on.” Perry said, settling down at the bench across from Chemestro. “How about you, who’d you bring?”

“Role and Sin-Eater,” Chemestro said. “We don’t need the sledgehammer that is Monolith for this mission, and Dazzle got hired away by Nexus.”

“Mmm,” Perry grunted with a nod. “Nexus always high-grading the best teammates.”

Perry glanced around. “I saw Sin-Eater earlier, where’s Role?”

Chemestro scanned the crowd as he blew on his soup for a moment.

“I have no idea. He’s been practicing.”

“You mean he’s one of these people?” Perry asked, motioning to the angry androids staring at them.

“Dunno,” Chemestro said with a shrug. “It’s a shame you couldn’t bring Breaker. His power would’ve been ideal for your mission to make the headhunters look foolish.”

“Alas, Nexus has a tendency to tell you to dig a hole with a wrench,” Perry muttered. “So what are you guys doing here?”

“We’re here to support you. Sin-eater has buffs and debuffs, I’ll dismantle anything that gets out of hand, and Role will provide support in the form of an ‘inside man’ upon arriving in Washington. He’s become quite the chameleon.”

“Either that or he’s just not here,” Perry muttered, scanning the crowd before returning his gaze to Chemestro.

“So I’m your boss for this job?”

“Yep.”

“That doesn’t bother you at all, does it?” Perry asked.

“Nope.” Chemestro said.

That bothers me, Perry thought, before shrugging it off.

Perry was about to hash out a game plan when a young voice interrupted his thoughts, drawing the attention of himself and Chemestro.

“Are you two the supers in charge of kidnapping us to your death camps?” Stacy Watt-Powers asked, hands on her hips, scowling at them. She stood at the front of a pack of androids, acting as their voice. They probably didn’t even understand why.

The ‘death camp’ assumption made sense from Stacy’s point of view, since she lacked direct input from Solaris about the plan.

“No death camps, we’re just going to Washington.” Perry said.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Stacy said with suspicion, eyeing him up and down with her big brown eyes.

“Thanks again for saving my parents Paradox,” she said, expression softening as she came to sit next to them. “I’m hoping that’s a sign I can trust your word.”

“Speaking of your parents, why aren’t you with them? You can’t be any older than…” Chemestro glanced up at Perry, who shook his head.

“Twelve…” Chemestro frowned at Perry’s expression.

“I’m fourteen, thank you very much,” the little girl said, raising her nose in the picture of teen overcompensation. “As much as I love them, my parents aren’t the best at…money. And food.”

“Want mine?” Chemestro asked, offering her his bowl of gruel.

“Gee willackers, thanks, mister!” Stacy said, taking the bowl and diving into it, devouring the meal like she had a hollow leg with a hole in it.

‘Willackers?’ Chemestro mouthed at Perry. Perry shook his head and gave Chemestro two hand signals with his right hand, outside of Stacy’s line of sight.

V.I.P.

Do Not Engage.

Chemestro nodded.

They had a nice pleasant chat with ‘Stacy Watt-Powers’, the young face of the android rights movement whose speech patterns were riddled with outdated idioms (by about sixty years), then went about their day. It was a long, slow day, although Perry got the feeling there was more danger coming from the fellow passengers watching him with anger, fear and desperation than the hypothetical headhunters hypothetically waiting in ambush somewhere along the track.

Hours after the sun went down, the massive lump of steel was still chugging along, and Perry settled in to sleep for the night in his bunk room with the two angry young men.

Stab stab stab.

HP: 12

HP: 11

HP: 10

Perry opened an eye to see one of the two androids perched over him, staring at his bent shiv like it had betrayed him.

“Ya’ll got about five seconds to get lost before I shove that shiv up your ass,” Perry muttered, rolling over.

His attacker was just a normal guy who wholeheartedly believed he was being transported to a separate location for ‘orderly disposal’. In a darker situation, his actions would’ve been heroic. So Perry gave him a pass, as long as he didn’t try it again.

He didn’t try it again.