The miniature world known to its inhabitants as The Sanctuary had been the home of some of its inhabitants for just over a month and a week now, and to others, it had been either their home or their prison for centuries. And for the longest-lived inhabitants of the place time had once felt meaningless and stagnant. But sometimes life can surprise even the oldest beings, and for the inhabitants of The Sanctuary that was certainly the case at the moment. 

The Sanctuary, a potent artifact currently owned by a powerful superhero named Nathan, was a vibrant, massive place. In terms of square mileage, the artifact's interior was actually larger than many different American states including the smallest states, Rhode Island and Delaware, which measured 1,034 square miles and 1,955 square miles respectively versus The Sanctuary's impressive measurement of 22500 square miles, without attempting to do anything like calculating how far the sea which surrounded the island went. 

This was but one of the ways that the place had changed and surprised its owner since it came into the possession of Nathan. When he had first acquired the artifact its interior was only a few dozen square miles in area and was promptly increased to a size that the man believed was its maximum size, but as the man gained increased power so did his potent artifact. In the wake of things such as his acquisition of a symbiotic patron and his newfound ability to purchase tier-two superpowers, the artifact had increased in size several hundred times over, a fact which Nathan himself only learned in the days that followed his decision to investigate the mystery of his parentage.

The island was so massive that to date the only way the island's furthest reaches had been explored was by machines created by Technos and Nathan since the regular inhabitants of the diminutive nation did not possess adequate means of transit across such vast distances. At the moment the just over twelve-hundred inhabitants of the place were gathered around various speakers, potent devices that Nathan and Technos had created by modifying speakers from Earth. They were gathered around the speakers for a very important reason: to hear the "Owner" of The Sanctuary address them publicly for one of the first times since he acquired ownership over the artifact.

Nine days ago I had defeated the coven of witches who once owned and mismanaged The Sanctuary. Even as my true body, or at least my original body, sat down in a classroom and listened to a teacher lecture us on the Cold War, that knowledge suffused my mind and made me realize how weird my life was. 

At the moment I had three bodies that were active. One was my original body, which was currently seated in a classroom and attempting to live something loosely resembling a normal life. Another of my active bodies was that of my perfected clone, who was currently in the skies above the city of Los Angeles, working to keep the city as safe as Tegucigalpa. I also had one minor clone active in The Sanctuary at the moment, which was a new habit of mine. 

In the days since I had learned of the expansion of The Sanctuary, I had begun to pay it much more mind and even constantly left one of my clones active in it. If I sought to truly operate at my maximum capacity then I needed to take advantage of all of my resources and the decently sized artifact-nation I owned was perhaps my most potent resource. 

Leaving one of my clones active in The Sanctuary was inarguably one of my smartest moves to date as far as properly leveraging my resources. Thanks to that choice our efforts to maximize the resources we acquired from The Sanctuary had exploded in fruitfulness and productivity. I had also paid so much attention to the place that even while my teacher talked to us about life in East Berlin vs. life in West Berlin in the era of the Berlin Wall, one of my clones was just about to speak to the people of The Sanctuary.

I was actively mentally piloting the clone in question, which was fairly unusual for me but also a sign of the importance of what was occurring. Internally I took a deep breath, which my clone mimicked externally, shortly before beginning to speak.

"Good morning! I appreciate you all listening to me this early in the morning. I wanted to take some time to talk to you all about the future of The Sanctuary." The clone began, his voice echoing throughout the number of settlements that surrounded the home of the mysterious being known to some only as "The Owner". 

At the moment the clone was seated inside of a small room in his home. He was alone, his senses were keen enough that he could hear the heartbeats of those who dwelled in the manor. He had a small smile on his face. 

"In the weeks to come we, those who belong to the 'Trapped' category of individuals and myself, are going to do our best to begin formulating a real government for those of us who live here in The Sanctuary." The clone continued, speaking into something akin to a weirdly organic microphone connected to the devices situated throughout The Sanctuary that projected his voice through the area. 

"Before we began that I wanted to be transparent with you all. I aspire to not only be 'The Owner' of The Sanctuary but to be chosen by you all as someone worthy of leading this place." The clone stated, speaking freely. 

"It would be easy for me to say that I ought to rule because I own this place, but I want to be a worthy leader whose worthiness is apparent to everyone who elects to follow me. I want you all to choose to be here and to live satisfying, happy, free lives." The figure explained, speaking simply and earnestly.

"My intentions are to listen to you all, and to create innovative, progressive laws that strike the intersection between allowing you all to live free, happy lives, and also maximizing things like public security and safety. This will be challenging, but I will also be leaning on and learning from you all. It is my intention to empower you all to be able to elect representatives that you send to me and who I listen to and have aid me in the pursuit of this egalitarian mission." The clone revealed, thoughtfully. He was speaking truthfully and revealing bits and pieces of his own philosophy. And he was oblivious to the potent discovery that someone was about to make.

In the American Academy of Honduras, Nathan quietly noticed that of his classmates had a newspaper on her desk. The newspaper belonged was a few days old and the thing's front page had a bold headline. "Russia launches new satellite into orbit!" The thing read, which was a very simple blurb for a very complex news story that Nathan himself knew a fair amount about. 

His localized version of omniscience granted him a considerable amount of knowledge. Not all knowledge, not even all knowledge of his Earth's humans, but it still granted the young superhero a truly staggering amount of knowledge concerning the actions of humanity. He had come to learn that Europe, Asia, Africa, and the other nations on the other side of the world were all dealing with their own supernatural challenges. What even he didn't know was the true nature of the particular satellite that Russia had launched into orbit just days ago. 

Even as the young man chuckled and continued to listen to his teacher lecture the class on the nature of the Berlin Wall, including the man's own memories of what it was like to be a child and see news footage of the thing falling, the satellite was in orbit above him, using potent onboard technology to scan entire nations at a time. The potent Roscosmos satellite was no mundane piece of technology. 

The super-tech machine was filled with powerful technology as of yet entirely unknown to Earth's mundane population and even the vast majority of the world's most skilled governments were still in the dark regarding super-tech, powered people, and superheroes. And those in charge of the satellite sat in a quiet office in Moscow, studying the countless bits of information the machine was regularly transmitting back to them. Thanks to their work the government of Russia was the single most informed government in the world regarding things such as supers, superpowers, and a world beyond any sort of mundanity. 

Anastasia herself was seated at a desk in front of a computer connected to the satellite. She lazily scanned the contents of the data the satellite was sending her. She easily ignored the results that fell within what she had expected, which were most of the results. The potent satellite floating above Central America was a powerful device that analyzed the ambient anomalous energy waves that even the least powerful superpowered beings radiated unconsciously. The device was well-suited to detecting superheroes and supervillains, though admittedly the one she was studying was something quite special. 

The young psychic carefully listened to the one living creature affixed to the satellite. The powerful being was one of the strange entities known as a "Fractal Morph", a mighty symbiotic entity that was capable of ignoring even the mightiest biological defenses against super-power-based detection. And that little creature would be responsible for making an incredible discovery. 

The class of symbiotic patrons known to various iterations of humanity as "Fractal Morphs" were surprisingly useful creatures. Not only could they serve as portable minds, and enhance the horizontal mutational capabilities of powers, they were also not fooled by things like the infamous "Low Frequency" mutation, a handy mutation that allowed those who possessed it to detect and fool most forms of superpowered detection. In fact, it was at the very moment that Anastasia's fractal morphic companion detected Nathan that the satellite did so as well.

The instant that the creature detected Nathan and sensed his potent power, it began to swell in excitement and began to look akin to a featureless pufferfish. It also began to telepathically message its mistress, eager to share this incredible discovery with her.

Nathan, amazingly enough, was not aware of the strange morphic creature. It was flying too high for him to detect it, even with his mighty "Multisense" ability, due to its elusive nature as a morphic entity and one that was expertly commanded by a powerful partner such as Anastasia. 

[Alert: Detection Attempt Detected

A powerful device floating in orbit above you is utilizing an anomalous equivalent to radar to detect superpowered beings. It will 'detect' you if you allow it. The reason you are receiving this notification is that you possess the 'Low Frequency' mutation, which protects you against superpowered detection that either comes from the 'Power Sense' mutation or is inspired by that mutation. The satellite overhead possesses unique technology which takes after the 'Power Sense' mutation and thus you have a choice. 

You could choose to be detected and deceive the detection, filling in any sort of lies about your powers, weaknesses, and all that. You could choose to be detected at full strength. Or you could choose not to be detected at all. Which will you choose?]

Anastasia's facial expression began to subtly change when she began to receive the telepathic information she was learning thanks to the hard work of her patron-partner. The woman was unsure of what to think, of whether or not to believe the powerful creature, but she had never known the morphic entity to lie and so she wanted to believe it. 

Her eyes were glued to her computer monitor as she waited for it to print more information for her, information which she hoped would confirm or deny the potentially incredibly significant truth she may have just stumbled upon. The next two minutes were nerve-wracking. During that time Anastasia almost screamed for her adopted father to come to her side, but she wisely and sagely was able to keep calm. When the computer was next updated, the woman's eyes began to speedily scan the screen before her.

"How interesting..." I muttered, even as my teacher began to finish his lecture. He began to look out at the class, including at me, to determine who was going to be the day's first "student volunteer". I chuckled as his eyes speedily searched the class, looking for someone who wasn't paying attention. I knew that I needed to make a choice.

Should I have been honest about who I am? Doing so was a bold move, and would allow me to discover who had come to Earth possessing powerful, possibly "Type-Grey" technology. If I was deceptive though, I could probably have tricked whoever was studying the planet and in doing so possibly gain a chance to outsmart future enemies, impress future allies, and gain potent technology... 

It only took me a second to decide what to do. I had opted to be cautious and to move to allow powerful strangers to be fooled by my deceptive techniques. I quickly informed the system of what to tell whoever was attempting to discern my nature.