At 9:00 in the morning in Honduras, and 6:00 in the afternoon in Russia, a very strange, subtle "battle" of sorts was taking place. A battle that pit the minds of two different superheroes against one another. 

In Honduras, the young superhero named Nathan patiently participated in class, blissfully unaware of the true reach or power of his potent adversary. In Russia, the young superheroine named Anastasia sat in front of a computer screen and read reports which intrigued her and made her almost admire the secretive stranger who sought to escape her notice.

"Tell the stranger who sought to detect me that all I am is a simple wielder of 'Type-Red' abilities. You can tell her that I possess the basic set of superpowers, super strength, super speed, and flight. As far as weaknesses... Heck, go ahead and tell them that I am weak to energy attacks." I explained, mentally, to the system.

A split second later I felt that my message had been received and acted upon, which brought a wicked smile to my face. Before anyone could notice and comment on it I caught myself in the midst of the expression of joy and refocused right on time to hear my teacher mentally catch himself before he was about to ask us to "Share our thoughts on communism", which we all knew was his way of trying to see if we'd disparage the Soviet Union. He caught himself in the middle of the thought and I was able to watch his face shift as his professionalism slowly returned.

I studied the man, already fully cognizant of every detail of his life. He wasn't a bad person but he, like many Americans and people in the west more generally, had a weird attitude about communism and other ideologies that seemed to be even a bit opposed to capitalism. 

As I studied the man, I continued to skillfully pilot the clone that was currently active in The Sanctuary.

"Not only do I have the intentions to empower you all democratically, but I will also be empowering you on a physical, mental, magical, and conceptual level as well. I am a rare type of being who possesses the power to share my abilities freely with you all. Anyone who wishes to live like I do, not needing things like food, sleep, water, or even to breathe, can learn to embrace my, equal parts hedonistic and equal parts egalitarian philosophy and in doing so become empowered by me." The clone explained, sincerely. I did intend to share my powers with the people of The Sanctuary. 

I had a philosophy that I intended to spread to The Sanctuary and beyond. This philosophy was one that I intended to use to govern The Sanctuary and maybe even any other places that decided to follow me. The central tenants of this philosophy were ones that placed heavy emphasis on personal happiness, living peacefully and creating societies that valued freedom. And I would empower those who truly embraced those tenants with potent abilities and in doing so further empower myself in one specific way; I would inch towards earning a potent Paragon Aberrant of my very own; "Iconoclast".

Days ago I learned of more of the Paragon Aberrants known to exist, through conversations with Olivia and Technos. One of them, "Iconoclast" was a power that allowed those who wielded it to instantly learn any powers they witnessed, and very importantly to be able to share superpowers with others freely. It was a perfected version of powers that came from influence over the sin of envy and the virtue of charity. It was a remarkably potent ability that was a perfect match for me in my capacity as a pseudo-divinity. 

Part of the process by which I could earn "Iconoclast" was to share my powers with others, thus furthering the influence I gained over charity. So finding appropriate people to share my abilities with was an important goal of mine now that I knew about the variety of Paragon Aberrants that existed throughout the omniverse. Especially since "Iconoclast" specifically could make it easier for me to acquire other Paragon Aberrants, though it couldn't copy them outright. 

"I intend to spread my philosophy throughout the cosmos. In time I will begin to spread my wisdom and my powers with other followers of mine, including those who do not live here." My clone added, simply. This was yet another true statement, one that was significantly important since it, to Olivia anyway, confirmed that my ambitions truly did extend beyond the confines of Earth, Terra, and The Sanctuary. 

Over the last few days, she had slowly begun to reveal to me her own fascinating ambitions. She had the attitude of a conquering empress, and now that we had committed ourselves to uncovering the mysteries of my birth she had begun to unveil her true self. She was an ambitious person who wanted to spread the influence of The Sanctuary itself, even and in some ways especially through conquest or acquisition of territory. So my words here were quite exciting to her.

In Russia, the woman who had managed to discover the incredibly powerful superhero living in Honduras had a smile on her face as she read the falsified report. She knew better than to fall for such simple deceptions, and the knowledge that a creature on Earth innately possessed the "Low Frequency" mutation caused the scientist and theorist in her to come vibrantly to life. 

Sebastian stood over her shoulder, reading the report with an equally wide smile on his face. He did not possess a symbiote but she had telepathically whispered what one of her morphs had revealed to her to him, causing him to come to life with incredible excitement. As he read over the report, he silently laughed at its simplicity. That was a clear indicator that the creature that Anastasia had discovered had knowledge of power-types and of basic rules of superpowered existence, which meant that it was very likely that he was a system-possessor. 

"Incredible... Truly incredible." The man whispered, telepathically, to his adopted daughter. She now had a sort of electric energy to her, as she joyfully considered what her symbiote had revealed to her. One such thing that it revealed was that the young creature possessed a hitherto unknown power-set, which in and of itself was a breathtaking discovery. 

"A polytype being who has all eight prime power-types and one unknown, probably unique power-set... That is historic." She replied, speaking telepathically to the man who was akin to a father to her. It made her want to go to Honduras then and there, and meet the figure herself. 

"I wonder if he is somehow an Egregore-borne... This is a weird world, a 'mythic' type world, where the Egregores have been known to be the most active." Sebastian told her, revealing something even she hadn't known. The mission to explore this world was, unsurprisingly, his mission that he had elected to take her on and he had kept many things from her. She had respected that, due to her understanding of things like chain of command and the importance of national, international, and global security, but if he was revealing this to her now... That meant that this discovery changed things. 

"Don't get me excited. An Egregore-borne hasn't been discovered in millennia. And they are, statistically, less likely to exist now than they were even two decades ago. We shouldn't speculate like that until we know more." She remarked, referring of course to the destruction of four of the seven Egregores in the wake of a catastrophic, universe-shattering battle that occurred eighteen years ago. Four of the godlike beings were destroyed by Icarus, who was minorly aided by both Daedalus and Minos.

That said, his speculation didn't come out of the blue. Almost every powerset with a known, confirmed history could be traced back to some potent Egregore-borne hero or villain and his, her, or their bevy of reproductive partners.

If either of the two heroes knew the abilities that this unknown power-set possessed they'd likely have given this theory more credence since the actual powers contained within were eerie powers that would have reminded those knowledgeable in the ways and philosophies of the Egregores of both Daedalus and Minos. Daedalus was known to have powers over spirits as Nathan did, and Minos was a sapient animal who possessed many lust-based superpowers not far from what Nathan possessed. And, of course, there was always the possibility that Nathan was the child of one of the slain Egregores...

Nathan himself idly participated in class, and as he did he thought back to the conversations he had had with Technos and Olivia. His mind filled with idle thoughts about each of the Paragon Aberrants he had begun to learn about from them.

The first, "Aeon" was believed to be one of the ones that one of his parents possessed. It was powerful power that granted its wielders three primary things; utter immunity to death, a "Path to victory" power that allowed them to see into the future, and physical and mental perfection. It was that last part that led Technos to believe it was wielded by one of his parents. 

The second, "Dynamist" was a power that granted its wielder a series of perfected, ultimate abilities. It did this by first amplifying their powers to their maximum potential, and then by horizontally mutating them over time to make them the perfect abilities for their wielder, which would of course differ from person to person. Nathan was a powerful deceiver, sharer of power, and healer, which meant that any ultimate, perfected abilities he wielded would differ from an assassin or from a speedster. 

The third, "Iconoclast" was the Paragon Aberrant that Nathan wanted to gain first. It was a mighty power that was perfect for power-sharers like Nathan, and would also grant him the power to copy powers just by witnessing them, which was itself a sort of ultimate ability for creatures like changelings. 

The fourth, "Polybius" was the first of the Paragon Aberrants to really focus on aberrant powers specifically. With it, a wielder could utilize any four aberrant powers at the same time and could shift between such powers instantaneously. Aberrant powers themselves are powers that aside from this specific power were unique to their initial wielders and the descendants of their initial wielders. Before "Types" existed aberrant powers were the only powers in existence, it was only through superpowered beings having descendants that "Types" began to exist. 

The fifth, "Aether" was a power that focused on "Types" and thus, on its face, didn't seem all that handy for Nathan. With it, a person could wield three different types of powers at a time, which was not very useful for the young changeling. But there was still a reason for Nathan to pursue this power; with it, he could help create wholly new "Types" of powers, as well as acquire the ability to wield any "Types" of powers he didn't yet have access to so long as he came into contact with someone who wields a truly unique bloodline. It also made it easier to speed the creation of wholly new "Types", by "Seeding" or filling someone with any aberrant powers or unique bloodline traits he would acquire.

The sixth, "Morpheus" was one of the powers that one of his parents was speculated to have. It was a power that focused on energy, which he was an adept manipulator of, be it telekinetic, radioactive, kinetic, anomalous, or any other kind of energy. Its wielders were peerless manipulators of energy, capable of all sorts of absurd feats. 

The seventh and eighth known Paragon Aberrants, "Mobius" and "Calypso" were powers that were focused on the manipulation of space and time, and matter respectively. Both were godlike abilities that transformed their wielders into potent alterers of reality, who could do things like link dimensions, and travel back or forward in time in the case of "Mobius", and create planets, galaxies, and stars in the case of "Calypso".

As I idly mulled over the possibilities that came with each of the Paragon Aberrants, time began to pass yet again. Before I knew it, I was done with history and I found myself seated next to Mirella of all people in English class. 

She had a newfound confidence and she studied the text we had been assigned to read, Upton Sinclair's most famous work; "The Jungle". She also ambiently radiated magic, but I knew that I was the only person who could detect it. She was also utterly oblivious to my aura, or to the strange, invisible waves of anomalous energy that I, and all superpowered beings including her, radiated. She did not possess the "Power Sense" mutation as I did, and she also didn't possess the even more important "Low Frequency" mutation I possessed. 

If she ever came into contact with a powered person she'd be detected quite rapidly, especially if the person was a stranger from another Earth. For not the first time I wondered if I ought to have just gone ahead and revealed my true identity to her, and also shared my mutations with her... Nevertheless, at the moment her life was fairly peaceful. She was luckier than she knew and was also one of many indirect beneficiaries of my actions.