1.19 Ascendance Part 7

Leo wakes up, feeling completely refreshed and ready for action.

What happened?

We don’t know. But we have lost Joyous Star.

So I’m down to four Companions again?

No...       

So who is the replacement?

She is currently restrained. We will explain what happened later.

I’m looking forward to hearing that story. So what is our situation?

We are completely healed, including our left arm, and are in a set of power armour.

Nice. But how did that happen?

We don’t know.

But we should deal with Superior and Jane Smith so we can save Joan.

Agreed.

Without hesitation, Gears leaps into action, firing up all of his KEPs and summoning Reinkal to his hands as flies straight at Superior, where the supervillain is lodged in the wall.

As Superior steps out of the wall, Gears pierces him with Reinkal’s point and sends both of them flying down the corridor.

Got him.

Gears swings his right fist at Superior as they go through the air, activating the new molecular blades he installed in the wrists of his armour, just like the one he installed in his cyborg head.

Just as the tip of the blade strikes Superior’s golden skin, the supervillain disappears and Gears stabilises himself with his KEPs, turning around to look behind him even as he continues moving.

The sight that greets him is most certainly not what he expected.

The corridor looks completely normal with absolutely no signs of the recent battle. All the corpses, along with Jane Smith and Superior are gone. The only abnormality is strange woman that is approaching Gears.

Who is that?

We don’t know.

The woman is a silvery-blonde with gorgeous purple eyes and what is without a doubt an Aphrodite body.

And Gears can’t help, but feel drawn to this mysterious woman.

Wait, where is Joan?

Hi Leo!

Joan?

Yep! You’re looking at me by the way.

I see...

That you do. No pun intended I assume.

What?

Never mind. Guess who I got as my Companion.

Joyous Star.

Oh. How did you guess so easily?

He is missing from my mind. So what exactly are your powers? I assume they were behind my recovery and getting equipped with my power armour. Not to mention getting rid of Jane Smith and Superior.

I did do those things. Well, not getting rid of those last two. They teleported out and I can’t trace them. Anyway, my powers are...

Joan gleeful explains her powers to Gears and leaves him reeling from the shock of how overpowered his girlfriend is.

Wow, that is, just wow.

I know right!

Yeah. I mean, you are going to have some problems with such an extreme power set.

What do you mean? I can just out power anything out there.

Is that how you are going to get through life now? Just power through anything you don’t like? So are you going to take over the world when you disagree with what the government wants? Rewrite the minds of people when they do thing you don’t like? Kill people who get on your nerves or perhaps you’ll just erase from the universe so they never existed?

Leo...

And what about the Harbingers? Or whoever these guys worked for? A single Harbinger can still hold their own against you if they go all out. And Jane Smith and Superior teleported out from right under your nose. If they can do that, what else can they do to counter you?

I haven’t had time to think those things through.

Joan, what I am trying to say is that while you are the strongest parahuman in the world, that doesn’t mean you are the strongest thing out there. And Superior was the strongest parahuman out there. Then you came along.

I see your point...

Besides, what about a normal life? Don’t you want one of those? Where you and I can be boyfriend and girlfriend?

I get it Leo. What do you think I should do then?

Set yourself self-imposed limits.

Alright. No rising the dead. No changing family or the Guardsmen without permission. Well, a harmless prank there or that won’t hurt, but otherwise, yeah.

Those sound good. Can you bring the dead back to life?

Don’t know, haven’t tried. You were only mostly dead. I think your powers or something kepti you from actually being dead.

So what are we going to do now?

There is another thing I want to mention.

Go on.

You see, my powers have made me lesbian.

So make yourself straight or bi. Simple solution.

I know, that is what Star said, but I was thinking-

No. I know where that line of thought is going and no Joan. Just no.

Oh come on Leo! You might even like it.

Nope. Nada. Zip. Negative. Never. No.

Spoilsport.

I like being a guy Joan.

Can I at least change your sexual orientation so you are attracted to girls?

Maybe later.

Yay!

So what are we going to do now?

You’re the expert here. I’ll let you figure something out.

Alright. Can you teleport us to the base? We can regroup that and sort out things there. If people ask, we’ll just say you teleported us there after you manifested. We’ll only mention Jane Smith and Superior and say that we don’t know what happened to them after you manifested as you just teleported us out of there. If we don’t mention the other attackers, we won’t get any awkward questions about how we took them out.

Okeydokey.