Dolores Madrigal sister of Camilo and Antonio Madrigal and older cousin to Mirabel, waited for me to speak. She watched me curiously, though I could tell she was consciously straining herself to stay focused on me and not peer at the floating paint that floated in front of the canvas on which I had been painting Antonio’s present.

“So… I can tell that you have questions.” I said, before gently chuckling. She was silent, though I could see her smile and I could hear her muscles tensing as she studied me. I got up off of my seat and without uttering a single word I activated one of the powers I possessed as a Kryptonian.

As I stood up from the seat, I wordlessly began to ascend into the air above me until I was floating in the middle of the courtyard, well off the ground. I was flying, in the strange way that creatures such as Superman and Supergirl could, I was activating my power to achieve freeform flight without wings.

Dolores was left speechless from this, and I watched her process what I was doing with the slightest grin edging my lips upward that I could physically manage. There was something satisfying about catching Dolores off guard, though I knew that there were a hundred ways I could effortlessly surprise her if that was my sole intent.

“I wanted you to be the first member of your family to learn a surprising change… The Madrigals are no longer the only people in Encanto with magic.” I told the beautiful young spy. There was a touch of arrogance in my voice as I spoke, and I could hear the slight twitch in Dolores’ ears as they picked up on the subtlest emotions in my voice. 

“He-How… How is this possible?” Dolores managed to stammer out, as she processed this incredible change. To be fair to the young Madrigal it was the sort of world-changing truth that could alter one’s entire reality so I didn’t blame her for being surprised about it.

I allowed myself to slowly glide back down to the ground and when I landed I looked Dolores in her eyes. I smirked at her as I did, and I silently activated a powerful ability to force people to know that I am telling the truth, so long as the truth is what escapes my lips. 

“Dolores… I come from a place very far away from here.” I explained, causing her to stiffen in confusion. She had known me almost our entire lives, and she had never heard that before. And yet she knew I was telling the truth, thanks to the fact that I was and I had activated my power. 

I could feel the confusion and conflict within her, but I also sensed her desire to accept my words for what they were; the truth. There was a fight occurring within her, one over whether or not she could actually handle the truths I was revealing. 

I quietly stepped forward, closing the distance between the two of us, and placed a single hand on her shoulder. As we touched I felt my prodigious mind-palace fill with every one of her memories thanks to my potent psychometric abilities and as I expanded my mind-palace I locked eyes with Dolores. 

“I know that you’re feeling conflicted but my words are the truth. I am a foreigner, a stranger to this land, but one who is here to help your family. And you.” I uttered, gazing into the soft brown eyes of the skilled and intelligent woman. 

I watched the effects of my charisma wash over here, which was coupled with and magnified by the power of the fact that I was an honest sort who was telling the truth here. I was also ready to do something else… something decidedly more dramatic. While I was planning my next dramatic action Dolores took advantage of the lull in conversation between the two of us and she began to speak.

“Fernando, I need more information.”  She uttered, seriously. I smiled at her and waited for her to continue speaking. 

“Have you always had these powers?” She asked me, and as she spoke I saw her eyes harden. I didn’t even to actively utilize my telepathy to be able to sense that she was attempting to determine if she should be mad at me or not. 

“I… Dolores, I told you that I’m from outside of the Encanto and that is your reaction? You’re questioning my powers, instead of attempting to figure out where I’m from?” I asked, smirking at her. She let out a quiet squeaking sound in the middle of my remarks, and I was only barely able to stifle a chuckle. Dolores’ face blanched as she considered my words, and a few moments after I asked her my question she regained her composure. 

“Yes well I am trying to just… figure things out in order!” She told me, causing me to smile softly at her. 

“I understand that what I’m telling you is confusing. It in a very real sense upends your understanding of what is possible. I know what you’re feeling because I can feel the conflict within you. Allow me to walk you through it.” I offered, speaking softly to the Madrigal with a gentleness that I hadn’t demonstrated before now. 

It was easy for me to do this thanks to the essences which were readily empowering me. Dolores softened as she heard my offer and looked at me appreciatively. 

“I have made the decision to reveal my true nature to you out of a desire to help Mirabel. As we draw closer and closer to Antonio’s ceremony I, and many others throughout the village, have become worried about her.” I told the woman standing before me. This time there were truths and lies mixed together, which meant that my charisma and my ability to deceive others mixed together to appeal to the heart of the Madrigal girl. 

The reaction Dolores had to my words was telling. The young woman slumped and all tension in her vanished as she accepted that I had a very valid point. Antonio’s ceremony was going to be the first since her own failed ceremony some years ago, and the general mood of the town was one of mild concern for Mirabel’s well-being. 

“I…” Dolores uttered, before I opted to interrupt her with a powerful, stunning look. 

“Listen… All you need to do is just keep an eye on Mirabel. Please. I can tell that you’re worried as well.” I told her, causing her to stop thinking and just agree with me. My words weren’t entirely deceitful, and I watched Dolores begin to agree with me, which caused me to smile brightly.

 At the very same time that I was having a conversation with Dolores I was doing things inwardly as well. In the depths of my mind I was activating some of my stranger traits, such as the essence of powerlisting, and a few other especially fun essences. 

As I activated the essence of powerlisting I watched a list of powers appear before me. The first of them was an amusingly potent power called “Mythological Manifestation”. The second and third were “Order Object” and “Muting”. The final two were “True form” and “Primordial Demon Physiology”. Once the list of powers had appeared before me I needed to select two to keep. 

All five of the powers were fascinating to me, but only one of them was any sort of “Must-have” and that was the “Primordial Demon Physiology” power. As I scanned that particular power, my mind filling with every single possible application of the power it was obvious that that particular power was a sort of… S-tier power comparable to some of my deific essence physiologies. 

I selected that particular power without hesitating. The second power was a bit harder. The applications of “Mythological Manifestation” were incredibly varied, but that particular power also lacked any way to control the mythical beings it could cause to come to life. “Muting” and “True form” were both amusing, but for the moment the simpler power was the better one. 

I selected “Muting” and chuckled. In some jumps having “Muting” as a power would basically make me invulernable to lesser foes, even without any of my other powers. In this particular setting “Muting” was not especially potent, but even on the Earth of my birth the ability to force someone to shut up could be a remarkable power. 

At the very same time that I was doing that my multi-track mind was hard at work performing other important tasks. The next purely mental thing that I did was scan my mind’s eye. 

My mind’s eye was a strange thing. It was the window through which I observed reality and it was divvied up into various sections. One large “area” in my mind’s eye was a large area filled with various windows into the pleniverse in which my physical bodies resided, with windows showing the surroundings of my assorted bodies. One of the bodies resided on Earth, the other in the magical world known as Encanto, and the others were in different parts of my personal reality. 

The totality of my mind’s eye was filled with other far more interesting places than merely the windows which symbolized my actual eyesight. If one had had the power to explore my mindscape, such as if they had something like Alibi Lock, they’d be able to explore a strange, old-school-video-game-like world. 

Massive, metaphysically speaking, areas were filled with an array of textboxes which informed me of every instance of my domains in the worlds of Encanto and my Earth. These areas, if they were to be physically visited, would surely have been miles long. 

Powerful icons represented access to various menus that allowed me to more efficiently access things like my list of spells, or my crafting menus. A not-small part of my mind had been exploring the crafting menus available to me, and the things there were quite interesting. Though I was far from an omni-crafter I could easily craft and brew even minor essences, thanks in part to some of the sillier essences I had imbibed hours ago. 

Some of the menus I could see here were even related to specific essences! At the moment I was interested in experiencing adventures and establishing myself in various locations, but in time I wanted to make use of the potent technological essences I possessed, such as the mighty tinker of fiction essence. 

At the moment the powerful tinker of fiction essence was attuned to the Star Trek universe, and a portion of my mind was filled with schematics for every single piece of technology filled this strange portion of my mind. There was a quiet, but constant amount of “Bleed of knowledge” that slowly but surely allowed me to truly, independently understand the principles and blueprints of various sorts of technology. 

I consciously focused on more immediately useful bits of technology such as universal translators and transporters but the amount of technological prowess at my fingertips, even if it wasn’t immediately accessible, was quite potent. 

In the days to come I fully planned to begin to mass-produce universal translators, which I could do with ease if I had as little as even a single factory to my name. I had the ability to create things almost through fiat myself but I wanted to uplift all of humanity which meant acquiring more and more resources so that I could spread my influence faster than I could by myself.

In the depths of my mind I quickly and quietly began to ponder the multitude of ways that I could acquire a factory. Perhaps the easiest would have been for me to corrupt or otherwise make an ally of a billionaire… 

Other technological essences were vibrantly alive within me, fully active and modifying me as well. Everything from the essence of the Nexus to the essence of the Shrike were fully alive within me, granting me potent mastery over the assorted technologies of an array of universes. 

One essence that granted me an array of fun abilities was the essence of the Nexus, which granted me a vast array of skills on its own, but also granted me truly vast amounts of knowledge so long as the knowledge was known to at least a thousand different humans. 

In the depths of my mind I flexed my mind and scanned the vast list of powers that I possessed. I was doing this with the intent to find one power that would be handy for the purposes of surveillance. It only took me a fraction of a fraction of a second to find one perfectly suited to my needs; a handy “Type-Blue” power from “Power Creator Xenon” named “Multisense”. 

I activated the power and deep inside of me I smiled as I felt the theater section of my mind’s eye gain hundreds of new windows through which to view reality. 

Activating the power created hundreds of astral-avatars which poured, invisibly, out of my bodies and surged outwards into all of the worlds that I was occupying. The astral-selves were virtually powerless, but they allowed me to see, smell, and hear across the totality of Earth, and Encanto with ease.

The “Me” that resided on Earth had returned to my modified home in the time since I had first ventured into Encanto. My new home had been quietly shunted into reality, thanks to the potent powers possessed by both Ben and myself, all while subtly altering reality and rewriting time so that it had “always” been mine. 

I was inside of a large room, one larger than my old bedroom had been. The room was filled with bookshelves which contained generic texts on a variety of subjects. There were a few desks in the room I was in, each of which had a computer atop them. The computers were all fairly high-end, though only in the context of civilian affairs and markets. Thankfully that was enough for what I needed them for.

At the moment I sat in front of a computer, silently gazing at it. My fingers hovered in front of the monitor of my gadget and from my digits mechanical wires jutted out of me. Those wires were a part of me, manifestations of an ability that I possessed that allowed me to interface with and exert control over technology. 

The wires were affixed to the computer’s monitor and thanks to them I was able to steadily absorb the contents of every webpage in existence. Or at least “existence” in the context of the universe of my birth. I was, effectively, downloading the contents of the internet to my mind. 

Everything from individual emails shared between classmates to chat messages on apps like Whatsapp were being uploaded to my mind and stored into my potent mental palace. At the same time my mind-palace was also being filled with powerful knowledge that I gained by laying my astral-eyes on people throughout the world. I was greedily, devotedly absorbing and hoarding information and knowledge. 

At the very same time as I was doing all of this I glanced at a nearby desk and willed a clone of myself to appear there by making use of an aspect of a “Type-Black” power named “Clonewarp”. The clone immediately materialized and as it did it reached into my inventory and pulled out my fiat-backed cellphone which was an item from the Generic First Jump. 

The figure began to deftly tap onto the phone and fiddle with it. He was going about and taking advantage of the knowledge I was gaining from my masterful manipulation of technology to gain as much knowledge as I possibly could. His fingers were a blur as he used the speed force to do things like create accounts on various up-and-coming applications and websites. 

If I wanted to be a unifier of mankind I needed to become famous and my clone was hard at work making sure that the groundwork was laid for me to become a celebrity. He even began to do things like snap selfies in the office that showed off our incredible good looks and resources so that we could begin to gather followers! In almost no time at all he had posted pictures on an array of websites, all while I was quietly thankful that fiat-backed things had incredible durability.

We were laying the groundwork for what was to come, and I was able to enjoy relative luxury all the while… This would have been unimaginable to me even just yesterday. 

For the next few hours, I would reside in my room steadily unpacking the vastness of the internet. At the same time, the me that had journeyed to Encanto would finish up his present for Antonio. By the time the sun had set and it was almost time for me to journey to the Casa Madrigal, I had had the time I needed to benefit from the fullness of the humanity of my Earth’s collective knowledge. And, of course, that included knowledge of Encanto the film, knowledge which I fully planned to make use of in the days to come. 

When I departed from my home in Encanto I had the physical confidence of someone armed with knowledge and who was sure of his direction. I was awake, empowered, and I was ready to shape destiny itself. I had allies, I had purpose, and I knew what I needed to do. All that was left was for me to begin to execute my plans.