"I'm a cape," she shrugs. "Anyone who uses their powers aggressively - defense or offense. The only parahumans who aren't capes are ones who use their powers for things like - I know one who wanted to do fashion design, or there's a lot in like music and acting, things like that. It's not really common for someone to have powers and not wind up a cape, but it happens, of course."
He dips his chin in acknowledgment, then goes back to the substance of her explanation with that cleared up. "Does no one stand against them other than-" He pauses, frowns, and rewords the question he'd been about to ask- "Your team?" He thinks, under the circumstances, that calling them children is not appropriate, any more than it would have been to call him such at her age.
She looks up at him with a bit of a grimace. "Oh, everybody. No, I'm sorry, it's not that bad on just us. All of them, the Nine and the Endbringers, are considered S-class threats, which means anyone who can go against them should, and anyone who doesn't had better not make trouble in the meantime. My team and the Travelers - the other team working for Coil - killed Burnscar together, but it took us, the official heroes, and the army calling in an airstrike to kill Mannequin and Crawler. We just held them in place so they could.
"And Leviathan - heroes, villains, rogues, everyone with powers from the entire East Coast of the U.S. and Canada came to fight.
"With the Nine, I was on the front lines because they targeted my team. With Leviathan, there was no way not to be. No one's leaving this all up to a pile of morally questionable teenagers."
She exhales, sitting a little straighter to ease the memory of her broken back. "I do always seem to wind up in the pinch point, though. I'm powerful - I downplay here, but we rate powers.
Mover, Shaker, Brute and Breaker.
Master, Tinker, Blaster, Thinker,
Striker, Changer, Trump and Stranger.
"We rate them by threat level - 1-10 for most. Anything above an eight warrants evacuation of nearby citizens and calling in outside teams for backup. I'm rated a Master 10 - I can control an unlimited number of hazardous minions that are hard to deplete and impossible to deprive me of - and a 2 in all other classes.
"What I've seen of your power makes you a Mover... probably six or seven, and a Blaster/Striker. I've never seen you go all-out, so I don't know how high you'd rate there, but high."
"It's strange-" One corner of his mouth tugs up slightly- "My people have had powers for millennia, but no one has ever thought to rate and categorize them in such a way."
He looks up at her, expression a little wry. "I am somewhat... hobbled by the presence of Zhao Yunlan's energy. And at home, on the surface, my power is restricted by the Guardian Token. It seems that even as I was presumed dead, those who made the treaty between my people and the Haixingren and Yashouren feared me enough to write and bind specific limitations upon my power and my power alone into their accords." He supposes it's flattering in a way, but it's also been a great hindrance at times.
"Even when I returned after ten millennia the Token still binds me. Without it-" He tips his head slightly- "My power is theoretically unlimited, so long as I have access to dark energy. It's only one power, as with all of my people, but as my power is to learn I can learn and use any other power I am exposed to." Generally at a much higher level and with greater aptitude than whoever he's learned it from.
"I have," he admits, ducking his chin a little. "Though I've seen no need to use it thus far." He rarely touches the vast majority of the powers he's absorbed over the millennia, though he could enumerate all of them and draw upon any of them without thought should he need to.
"Of course," he assures her, looking back up quickly and blinking at her with that ridiculous deer in headlights look of innocence. "I would never interfere with your control other than in a dire emergency."
"I've never run into direct interference before." And the idea is- uneasy, like someone saying they can co-opt the eyes in her head. "Panacea back home could mutate my bugs until I couldn't sense them, and whatever the Admiral does to stifle things, of course. But not someone else also capable of controlling them."
"Certainly. Brian- Grue- my team's former leader, he can steal powers, but only for a few minutes. He's never used mine, but he only got that ability a few days before I died."
She touches the scar on her scalp again, lets herself rub her thumb along one end of it instead of suppressing the urge.
That leads to another few seconds of contemplation before he asks, "Would you like to work on learning to either prevent someone else gaining control of your swarm, or on wresting it back from them should they succeed initially?"
"Probably should," she acknowledges. "I- don't think I could handle that right now, though." The idea of touching someone else's control, or letting them touch hers.
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"And Leviathan - heroes, villains, rogues, everyone with powers from the entire East Coast of the U.S. and Canada came to fight.
"With the Nine, I was on the front lines because they targeted my team. With Leviathan, there was no way not to be. No one's leaving this all up to a pile of morally questionable teenagers."
She exhales, sitting a little straighter to ease the memory of her broken back. "I do always seem to wind up in the pinch point, though. I'm powerful - I downplay here, but we rate powers.
Mover, Shaker,
Brute and Breaker.
Master, Tinker,
Blaster, Thinker,
Striker, Changer,
Trump and Stranger.
"We rate them by threat level - 1-10 for most. Anything above an eight warrants evacuation of nearby citizens and calling in outside teams for backup. I'm rated a Master 10 - I can control an unlimited number of hazardous minions that are hard to deplete and impossible to deprive me of - and a 2 in all other classes.
"What I've seen of your power makes you a Mover... probably six or seven, and a Blaster/Striker. I've never seen you go all-out, so I don't know how high you'd rate there, but high."
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He looks up at her, expression a little wry. "I am somewhat... hobbled by the presence of Zhao Yunlan's energy. And at home, on the surface, my power is restricted by the Guardian Token. It seems that even as I was presumed dead, those who made the treaty between my people and the Haixingren and Yashouren feared me enough to write and bind specific limitations upon my power and my power alone into their accords." He supposes it's flattering in a way, but it's also been a great hindrance at times.
"Even when I returned after ten millennia the Token still binds me. Without it-" He tips his head slightly- "My power is theoretically unlimited, so long as I have access to dark energy. It's only one power, as with all of my people, but as my power is to learn I can learn and use any other power I am exposed to." Generally at a much higher level and with greater aptitude than whoever he's learned it from.
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"Give a girl a little warning if you do."
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"Do you think it is likely there would ever be anyone else in your own world who could possibly do such a thing?"
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She touches the scar on her scalp again, lets herself rub her thumb along one end of it instead of suppressing the urge.
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