"Tiers" were an intriguing concept to me. They were one of the mechanisms by which the system in my mind ranked the starting power of each of the superpowers I possessed. These judgment calls allowed each of the powers that were categorized as a superpower, as opposed to an innate changeling ability, to be placed on a scale of one to four. 

The lowest "tier" was the first tier. Until now that had been the sole tier that I had had access to. And those powers were all fairly basic ones but since I possessed access to each of them, as well as my changeling abilities, the powers I had been given by The Sanctuary, and of course the robots lurking within me, I was fairly powerful. This was especially true in a world that still largely lacked supernatural competitors, but as evidenced by the discovery that Mirella had superpowers this period of peace and ease was already on the cusp of coming to an end which compelled me to go ahead and add to my power whenever possible.

That said, tier two abilities were something else.

At the moment I was seated inside of my room within the Owner's Manor inside of The Sanctuary. This private room provided me with space to think quietly and clearly, which was necessary for me while I perused the list of tier two powers that were now "on-sale". As I read through them I smiled proudly. The fact that I could purchase these amazing abilities was evidence of how hard I had worked, and each of them was well worth the effort it took me to make them purchasable in the first place. 

As I read through them, especially with the intent to select the eight that I'd get for free, my mind filled with an awareness of possible combinations. My ultra-charged mind eagerly read the descriptions of each of the forty-eight powers that had just become available for me to purchase, though sadly since I did not yet possess the powers my mind didn't quite have the same mastery of these new abilities as it did for the powers I already had access to.

The single most handy mutation, with regards to understanding my own powers, that existed within me was my "Natural Harmony" mutation. It was an extremely powerful mutation that made me an innate master of my powers and filled my mind with knowledge of how to use my powers and their current strengths, limits, and any other important information about them.

Due to that mutation, I was capable of visualizing all sorts of combinations for the various powers that dwelt within me. That said if I wanted to strengthen my abilities I still needed to practice with them and push them to their limits and beyond, on my own. Tragically, as powerful as that mutation was, it wasn't very helpful for abilities that weren't actually mine yet.

Some of these abilities were wholly new ones such as a powerful "Type-Violet" or, perhaps more clearly, an external power, that allowed me to fire what the system identified as a "Zero point beam". This was a special sort of beam-like tether that allowed me to link something, be it alive or not, to me and drain the energy from it, taking the energy from it and adding it to myself. With that power, I could steal arcane energy from another magic-user, or even do something as spectacular as stealing the muzzle energy that propels a bullet from it in mid-air and thus slow or even stop the bullet in mid-air. 

Other abilities were enhancements of my current abilities. Some of the options on display before me were things like "Super strength+" or "Telekinesis+", and in both cases, those were truly staggering buffs to my existing abilities. "Super strength+" gave me the sort of physical power that allowed me to demolish buildings with single blows or even use focused, especially powerful strikes to change the landscape around me. That buff to my actual strength further enhanced the incredible abilities of my actual might score, which further enhanced its desirability.

"Telekinesis+" not only tremendously enhanced the range of my current telekinesis ability, making it potent enough that I could manipulate things in other departments with nothing more than my mind, it also greatly enhanced my telekinetic abilities with respect to my weight limit and how finely I could manipulate things with telekinesis. If I purchased "Telekinesis+" I'd be able to perform complex surgeries using my telekinesis or create works of art using it, as well as giving it the ability to benefit from my grace and might scores, which would only further enhance my telekinesis. 

As a changeling, I almost always had ambient attribute scores far surpassing even one hundred in each of the six main attributes. In moments like that those utterly gigantic scores really showed their benefits. This was doubly true when someone had done what I had done and purchased buffs to my changeling abilities that greatly extended the length of the time absorbed points would stay within me, barring things like me investing the points into my abilities. I had run rampant defeating criminal organizations throughout Tegucigalpa and I had absorbed thousands of points, even after purchasing all manner of upgrades I was still quite full of points.

As I assessed the litany of different abilities I could possess I quickly realized that what I needed to do was figure out a way to categorize the different sorts of abilities now available to me. 

The abilities that were mostly enhancements of my current abilities weren't all that desirable in the context of them being the powers that I chose for free, though exceptions to that existed. What really intrigued me were the options that if chosen would enable me to do entirely new things. 

Some options that granted me new abilities were things that granted me impossible elasticity, in a manner that I recognized as analogous to the sorts of powers possessed by Reed Richards or Mrs. Incredible, while others allowed me to enter a strange, liquid-like state that came with things like water breathing and the ability to enter incredibly tight spaces. Both of these abilities were in the body-modification subcamp of powers within the "Type-Yellow" camp of powers. And both were incredibly interesting to me. 

The one option that I knew I was going to pick immediately was the "Sound and vibration manipulation" power which was in the same family of powers as the abilities that allowed me to manipulate fire, light, darkness, earth, water, and air. The second tier of those powers were all intriguing, but the ability to manipulate sounds and vibrations was so immensely appealing to me that that the second I saw it I selected it without any hesitation as sounds and vibrations were things that I had previously only been able to manipulate with magic.

The very instant that I selected "Sound and vibration manipulation" I began to practice it by clapping and then immediately nullifying the sound that should have been created by my clapping. That brought a smile to my face, especially since the very second that I did this I felt my mind actively filling with information related to sound and vibrations and ways for me to use my new power. The most notable of the combinations of this power with some of my other powers was that with it I could fully unleash my speed without fear of generating sonic booms since I could nullify them. This meant that my effective speed on the ground just shot up by truly absurd degrees. 

On the opposite side of this power's vast spectrum, at least as far as sound went, I could do things like willfully generate and manipulate sonic booms, or even utilize my own voice as a sort of sonic screech, transforming it into a weapon, like many superheroes in comics could. This power embodied creativity in its staggeringly diverse set of uses, and that was why it was such an easy choice for me to pick. 

With the ability to manipulate vibrations I could manipulate all manner of vibrations to do things like cause localized earthquakes or even give myself momentary intangibility. The "Sound and vibration manipulation" power was an intensely potent one, even if it started off with me limited to manipulating my own molecules if I went that far down in scale.

I gazed outside of my room and stared at the vast and prominent moon in the distance. It was a full moon tonight, and it beautifully illuminated The Sanctuary's night sky. At the moment many of the "Trapped" individuals within The Sanctuary were outside, enjoying the bright night. I myself preferred the indoors, which was one reason why I was inside. 

My clones were scattered throughout the areas I influenced. One clone was with my family and did my school work, and it was through him that I feigned normalcy. Another clone was in the castle near the small town of Golden Gate. At the moment I did not need any more clones, though I sometimes considered creating one and sending him to the United States, which was in all likelihood where I'd be going to college next year. That said until I could use all of my powers freely through my clones any clone I sent to the United States would be limited in what it could do, even with my otherworldly attribute scores. 

As I mused on that I considered the "Type-Black" power known as "Clonewarp" which was an incredibly potent power that allowed me to create a perfect clone of mine that was totally under my control and could use all of my powers. If I attempted to classify it in ways other than the color system that the system had used when first describing superpowers to me it would definitely have been a "Body addition" type power. It was a second-tier power and thus was one I could get for free. 

It was tempting to take that power and then send the clone to the United States, where it could utilize my shapeshifting powers and create a persona through which I could prepare for the transition from Honduras to the United States I'd be making in less than a year. That said there were other "Type-Black" powers that had incredible uses and would be more directly beneficial... 

As I studied the distant, artificial moon looming in the night's sky I reflected on the eerie nature of the "Type-Black" powers, powers which specialized in subterfuge, deception, infiltration, and making their possessors chaotic and unpredictable. I was once told by the system that those powers were ideal for changelings, and in the month-long period during which I was actively adjusting to my new life, I apparently began to exemplify that since I became what was known as a "Deception-type" changeling. 

That meant, according to the everpresent voice in my head anyway, that I had remarkable deception-based skills. And to be fair that was certainly true. I had created a cult to myself a month ago, if I insisted that I was some ever-honest person I'd be lying to myself and no one should do that. I wasn't deceiving people for the sake of hurting them, or even solely to gain from them, but I was deceiving people and if there was anyone I needed to be honest with it was myself. 

If I had even a single perfect clone... I'd be able to change the world at quite literally twice the speed I am currently doing so. Even as tempting as the other "Type-Black" powers were, and they were certainly tempting, the more I reflected on it the more it became clear that there was only a single serious contender for the power from the "Type-Black" family to get for free. The instant that I selected it I felt my mind fill with dozens of thousands of ideas for combinations since I now possessed a single perfect clone that had access to all of my abilities. 

"Whoa..." I whispered, a truly massive shit-eating grin on my face. And the most worthwhile bit of information I received as a consequence of my actions here was that I could strengthen this power and eventually purchase the ability for all of my clones to become perfect clones with full access to my entire suite of powers. Other ways to strengthen this power included the possibility of me training it to the point where I could create even more naturally perfected clones, or even clones of someone else so long as I could touch them.   

While still smiling I silently activated my power and was delighted when I saw the space in front of me begin to be occupied by none other than a perfect copy of me that was so strikingly identical to myself that even my incredible vision couldn't tell any differences between the two of us. And I knew that that was because there were none. 

"Why hello there..." I whispered as I gazed into the eyes of the clone. The clone began to smile, and as it did I felt my mind's eye split into two distinctive "theaters". In one of the "theaters" I could see the clone and everything behind him. In the other of the "theater" I could see myself, and everything behind me, or rather behind my true body. I was seeing through the eyes of the clone! 

This differed from how my other, lesser clones worked because with this clone I was truly actively aware of everything my clone was aware of. My lesser clones fed me information, and if I wanted too I could easily take command of any of them, but it took me actively choosing to take command of them for my mind's eye to split like this. I had done that on rare occasions such as when I was conversing with Mirella, but normally didn't do it since my clones were indeed perfect copies of myself in personality and attribute scores, and would only ever act how I would. I didn't need to command them personally to trust in their abilities to handle day-to-day life. 

My perfected clone even had a heads-up display of his own! He was a genuinely perfected clone, and I knew that that meant that I had just more than doubled my capabilities. I silently turned inward and issued a telepathic order to the robots inside of me to go ahead and divide their numbers perfectly in half and for one-half of the technological lifeforms to rush into him. As soon as I did that my machines obeyed me and surged out of me, which was not a fun sensation but I felt no nausea or pain just a slight itch as they poured out of me and into him. 

As they flew out of me and into him they began to get to work replenishing their numbers. And the ones inside of me did the same thing, eagerly building replacements for their comrades who were going to go on a wholly new adventure in another continent. The clone and I both smiled as we felt the numbers of lifeforms inside of us beginning to swell. 

"Oh man the United States has no idea what's coming, do they?" The clone asked, even as I proceeded to sense every bit of stimuli he was receiving. His "mind", if it could be called that, was perfectly subordinate to my own. And with him, I knew that the entire world was going to change forever. And I still had six tier-two powers to select.