I tilted my head, then laughed. Of course, the supervillain had gravity shielding, which was simply phased out of the way when intersecting with Faith’s phasing field. A chill went down my spine, and I was suddenly very happy that Faith hadn’t thrown the punch I’d been expecting, or she’d have likely killed the titan in one blow.

  I also felt stupid, I should’ve foreseen and warned her of the possibility, but I hadn’t thought farther than a field to protect her, it was early, and I hadn’t had coffee yet. Luckily, she’d avoided being an accidental murderer due to my idiocy. Smartest human on the planet or not, that only mattered when I used my brain and thought things through.

  The gravity titan also couldn’t fold space to escape, not with half the fold missing and being phased away, so the fight was all but over already.

  “Thea, how are things there?”

  Thea replied, “Alyssa’s spell is draining the titan now, and already has him caged.”

  “We’re good here as well, so at least we won’t out ourselves by fighting titans. Do you know who these clowns are?”

  Oracle’s ability to read the future left out anything personal to maintain secret identity, but I didn’t think my Thea had cared about that when she took on a similar ability. It was almost moot in this day and age anyway, where superheroes had to unmask to serve. Only supervillains hid their faces, and only if they weren’t known. Sure, Faith had that silver eye mask, but only for the HUD and to get information during patrol from her A.I., everyone knew who she was.

  Thea said, “Supervillain group from China. They tried and failed to overthrow the five titan council that had taken over after the central governments demise. My guess is they decided to try to take out team titan and rule here in North America next.”

  I nodded, that made sense, it was usually about power.

  Faith took off from the ground, carrying the knocked-out titan toward Canada’s version of the Super Max prisons.

  I returned to her house, and then waited for the all clear before releasing the conjurations.

  Faith smiled as she landed, “I’d hoped you’d wait, would you like to come in so we can finish that conversation?”

  I nodded lightly, “Sure.”

  She grinned, “I could use a coffee anyway, I don’t think I’ll get to sleep after that. The bracelet worked perfectly, by the way.”

  I chuckled, “I saw.”

  She raised an eyebrow and headed inside, and I followed her inside and down the hallway into the kitchen. It was all pearl white appliances, white marble counters, and a small four-person table in a nook by the back window near the back door leading into the backyard. The floor was a light brown patterned grayish white base tile, and the cabinets were a slightly richer brown. There was also an island, with a vegetable washing sink.

  “Nice place,” I noted, as she turned on the Keurig and grabbed a couple of mugs out of the cabinet above it.

  “Milk and sugar?”

  “Light on both, thanks.”

  She said, “I won’t say anything, or tell anyone about the device. Being so early there weren’t even any reporters around to get the footage, and all the regularly people with cell phones are asleep. I think your secret is safe.”

  I nodded, “I hope so, and thanks.”

  Thea interjected to me via comms, “It is, similar circumstances in Silver City, the fight happened way off the strip.”

  She grinned at me over her shoulder, “Thank you. I was surprised when Rose told me Oracle was sending you to save the day. So, titan mad scientist?”

  “More intelligent than the others, and I can multitask almost as well as a woman.”

  She laughed vibrantly, “I see. Humble as well. What’s the truth?”

  I shrugged, and she turned back around to start our coffees with the Keurig warmed up.

  “I just have the two powers. Enhanced intellect and conjuration. The first one enhances the second, most conjurers can only conjure simple things. Like Dark Succubus’s swords or Jet’s bullets and missiles. I can also work on several different problems at once, which also translates when conjuring a device with multiple systems and hundreds of circuits.”

  She said, “And powerful, if the bracelet was any indication.”

  I nodded, “More effective, than powerful. If I’d have tried to create a gravity shield compensator it might not have been strong enough. Instead I made the strength of his gravity irrelevant by essentially modifying the laws of physics with a body conforming field when it comes to gravity around you. It gets a bit thick, but that’s essentially true if not technically true.”

  She asked, “And you watched? Cameras?”

  “Mark one eyeball, actually. I conjured a small hovercraft with stealth technology.”

  She snickered, and turned around and handed me the coffee, then waved at a chair, “Take a seat,” as she turned around to make her cup.

  I moved over to the table and sat down.

  “Thanks for the coffee.”

  She said, “I understand your worry, and even if I wasn’t discrete with my friends, which I am, the last thing I’d want to see is my and your government to have weapons that could take me and the rest of team titan down. I also would hate to see you go into hiding to avoid that end. I’m also very glad you’re one of the good guys. I get the impression if anyone could rule the world it’d be you.”

  “That’d be a huge headache. Although, how did you make that leap from one device?”

  She grinned and sipped her coffee as she turned, then joined me at the table.

  “Well, you made it off the cuff, with no warning, with the power of your mind. I imagine it’s the least of what you could accomplish.

  “Plus, you make fantastic suits. It feels like I’m not wearing anything right now it’s so comfortable. So, you’re at least an honorary member of team titan now. Why don’t you come to the barbeque in Silver City in three days? I’m sure Alyssa and her mates would want to thank you as well, and I wouldn’t mind seeing you there either.”

  I nodded, “I’d be delighted. I’m not sure the rest of the teams know about my involvement though. Of course, Oracle has known of my true potential since day one, but that man knows how to keep secrets.”

  Besides wanting to spend some time with Faith, I might actually get some real friends out of it. Ones with powers, that wouldn’t be awkward around me like my old friends had been after my quickening.

  She shrugged, “You’ve done business with almost all of us, so I don’t think anyone would make a connection to this morning. But you’re right, the press would pick it up.”

  I took a sip of the coffee, “Perfect.”

  She winked.

  I asked, “So what do you do, when you’re not saving the continent, emptying hospitals, or making fantastic coffee.”

  She giggled at that last, then replied, “Patrol the city, but I’m guessing you mean in my off time?”

  I nodded.

  She replied, “Relaxing pursuits, I get all the adrenaline and excitement I need from hero work. Music, time at the beach, Netflix marathon. With teleport there’s always a warm beach somewhere, no matter the time of year. I do enjoy dancing though, eating out, and nature walks. Just not extreme sports.”

  I chuckled, “Fair enough. I’ve been more than a bit of a workaholic this last year since I quickened, but I think that’s going to slow down soon.”

  The conversation paused there for a moment as we drank some coffee. It was a warm silence though, not awkward at all.

  She asked, “So what about you?”

  “Not entirely sure. Before I was a super I enjoyed camping, water sports, the beach, and of course going to clubs. I’m… rather different now, and older besides though still only twenty-two. I haven’t really explored hobbies since the change, save perhaps music.”

  She nodded, “Workaholic.”

  “Guilty.”

  She tilted her head, “But that’s about to change, why?”

  I liked her, trusted her, and was attracted to her. She was gorgeous, sexy, and vibrantly warm, but I wasn’t about to spill the beans on my top-secret project. Saving the world by removing that energy had to remain a secret, or people would never stop hunting me. I didn’t even want to admit I’d mastered using meta-energy in technology, much less that I had at least a crude understanding of creation energy, if still limited in scope.

  So I replied vaguely, “I’m wrapping up my first major project, which was taking up most of my time and effort the last year. The rest of my work and projects are less critical to me, not of the life and death variety, and it’s just time to find a healthier work and play balance in life.”

  She seemed to accept that explanation, but at the same time she surely picked up the fact I hadn’t wanted to share what project that was which was life and death. Fortunately, she didn’t look at all insulted by that, and was even ready with a grinning flirty quip.

  “Mysterious as well.”

  We finished our coffees in the comfortable silence.

  She said, “Thanks again for the help, and I’ll see you in a few days?”

  I nodded, and looked into her eyes, “You’re welcome, Faith. And I’m looking forward to it.”

  She smiled almost shyly at that showed interest.

  We said our goodbyes at that point, and I teleported home straight from her kitchen.

  Chapter Seven

  The kitchen was filled with the scents of breakfast and more coffee when I appeared, and I grinned at Thea as I took a seat at the table. She’d changed out of her super suit outfit and was in a warm blue business dress that nonetheless had a whole lot of sex appeal. Although, I’d argue it was Thea’s body that made it so more than the conservative dress.

  “Thanks for breakfast.”

  She grinned, “You should’ve asked her out, master.”

  I pondered that for a moment, then nodded. It wasn’t exactly me being a coward or letting her take the lead by inviting me to a barbeque. But I was still uncertain about what I saw, never knowing if I was looking at the conscious or subconscious layers of her body language and looks. It was only Thea seeing that same interest in Faith that gave me any true confidence the woman was attracted and truly aware of it, interested, and available.

  “You’re right. I’ll call her later and see if she’s free tomorrow night for dinner and dancing. Good thing we’re both titans, or this would never work.”

  The world’s governments had very reluctantly caved to Rose’s demands. While technically it was still against the Geneva convention and most country’s laws for supers to cross between countries, it was being ignored in the name of sanity. There simply weren’t enough titans in every country that were of the superhero variety to keep everyone safe.

  Sure, they hadn’t had my dating life in mind when that decision was made, but what the hell.

  Thea winked saucily, and took a seat and joined me, since she needed to eat now too.

  Then she changed the subject, apparently satisfied now I’d be the aggressor, as it should be. Women wanted to be chased by a confident man after all, not do the chasing. That much I was sure of.

  Thea said, “The simulations are finished. The best results are using the siphon method with a gravity needle projected to the core. The longer it takes the better as far as fallout. Siphoning the energy over a year has almost no impact at all on the weather or natural disasters. The Earth will slowly adjust. Of course, doing it that way has the greatest risk of supervillain titan destruction over time from new quickening supers.

  “So, you’ll have to figure out the best balance that way when you look over the data.”

  “Diminishing returns?”

  She tilted her head, “Two months. Even a few days shorter than that will have a significantly larger impact on the world’s weather and the core of the planet and EM field. The gains in doing it longer are much flatter on the graph, taking an additional ten months for perhaps a ten percent difference overall.”

  I nodded, and quickly reviewed the graphs in a hologram, “Let’s go with that then, better to risk a few hurricanes over a few more cities being destroyed, and tens of millions of people dying.”

  She asked, “And the energy, will we disperse it in the void so it breaks down there?”

  I shook my head, “I have an idea actually. Let’s wait and see what it looks like in containment first, and if a part of Bob is really in there. It may be possible when ripped away from his matrix the energy returned to its natural state.”

  She tilted her head, “If it has?”

  “Mars. If we can use it to reheat the core and get a strong enough EM field, it might be a truly good candidate for terraforming. We can beef up the atmosphere with CO2 from Venus, water from Europa, then it’s just a matter of enough plant-life to raise the oxygen and lower that CO2. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. We can use it to build more ships as well, if we wanted.”

  She nodded, “Got it, there could be a lot of uses for the energy, no point in wasting it and just phasing more to our reality phase when we need more.”

  “Exactly, so for now containment is fine. It’ll make your ship more powerful too, a second reactor that just supplies meta-energy power but no control. Obviously, Mars is a third the size of Earth, so would only require a small part of the energy to heat the core.”

  She bit her lip, “So we’re a go?”

  I blew out a breath, “Yes, go ahead and start fabricating the containment and needle.”

  The designs were already in the database, I’d built them and the phase probe one up yesterday.

  She nodded, then froze as her eyes widened.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  She shuddered, “We need a new plan. That one will kill every super on the planet.”

  I narrowed my eyes, “How?”

  She replied, “Without the constant release of meta-energy from the core a super’s powers won’t be recharged. Even a fully drained super takes on meta-energy, or more importantly the constant radiation supports the meta-energy construct which works with their minds and gives them their powers. If that construct collapses, and it will with enough time without being fed more energy, it will kill the super.

  “They won’t simply lose their powers. If supers fight, it will happen fast, if they don’t fight or use their powers it’ll take anywhere from a week for Class D to a decade for titans.”

  I sighed, “I didn’t pick that up, I guess I was never on the ship in the void long enough to be in danger. I knew there was a chance we’d lose our powers, but I didn’t think that would lead to death. Let me think about this for moment.”

  I ate as my mind went over all the data. Bob, the alien Bob, not Mythic. He said doubling the energy in the core had greatly lowered the threshold of instinct to quicken. More supers out of dangerous and death threatening situations. It seemed to me it wouldn’t be a total loss merely to restore the status quo of several years ago, or perhaps even further than that.

  The world would still be at risk, but it would be far rarer for people to quicken if I took out three quarters of the creation energy. It’d be half the field strength of the original field that had been created two hundred years ago. Which meant our team titan would have a lot of downtime between supervillain titan creations.

  Sure, we’d still have supers, but the current setup was pretty stable. It was the new rapid additions that risked the end of the world scenario, all the rest were known quantities and jailed supervillains.

  People that quickened would still be mostly s-class and titan class, even with less energy, because that was about the subconscious. In this new world, the population had long past come to the belief such powers were possible. There was no going back on that.

  Still, the project, time invested, and gains were still worth doing it. There’d still be an end of the world threat in there, but far less stress on Oracle. A quarter of the visions and new supervillain fights across the board. A whole lot of less people quickening, meant that the two percent turning supervillain would shrink significantly as well. Maybe one a month, instead of one or two a week.

  It was better than nothing, and the current world wouldn’t change much with all the supers in it. There’d just be a whole lot less of them if we managed to keep the Earth spinning the next two centuries, when this bloated super generation would be dead of old age.

  It increased the survival probabilities of humanity quite a bit, more than seventy-five percent, and I’d take it. Taking away seventy five percent of the creation energy would make the super quickening rate be lower than original field by half. That had to be good enough.

  Three quarters of the energy was also more than enough to look into my Mars idea, and also more than double the power of my ship. It’d only take a quarter to jumpstart Mars, I thought, then half the total energy would go into the ship, while the last quarter remained in the center of the Earth.

  “Alright, we’ll stop the siphon when we have seventy five percent of the creation energy. We’ll put two thirds of that in a second reactor on the ship, and the other third inside Mars. In two months, when we have it, obviously.”

  She tilted her head, obviously reviewing the vision of the future she’d had for changes with my new orders, “That works, as far as there being no direct disasters related to the action.”

  I nodded, “Good enough, make it so.”

  She giggled, “Geek.”

  “What happened to master?”

  She winked, and said breathily, “Maybe I should be punished, master.”

  Oh, hell. She was going to kill me. I ignored that for the moment, despite my center stirring.

  “When it’s done fabricating, run the atomic level scan to verify it. I want to look over the data before we throw the switch.”

  She nodded, “Yes, master. The build and the scan should be done by lunchtime.”

  That sounded about right, the device wouldn’t be much bigger than a six-foot diameter sphere. Essentially a creation energy power core with additional gravity projectors to siphon.