Industrial Strength Magic

Epilogue

While the vast majority of people appreciate access to The System and all the benefits that spring from it, from its prevention of uncontrolled Triggers to granting the average citizen the ability to defend themselves from megafauna, making the future retaking of large swaths of wilderness possible, and practically singlehandedly guaranteeing the survival of the human race…

Some idiots have questioned Paradox’s decision to grant humanity universal access to superpowers.

• Capes and Cowls That Changed the Game: Paradox Chapter

People took it better than he thought. Only a handful of assassination attempts, poorly though out, and clearly just cries for attention.

Not to mention they used the low-level classes they had just acquired to make the attempts, which was a bit hypocritical.

Even after doling out the vast majority of his powers, nobody could hold a candle to what Perry could do. Nobody save a few specific individuals.

Tyrannus might be a bit of a problem eventually, Perry mused from time to time, But the dragon never seemed to pursue direct confrontation again. Perhaps he assumed that Perry had written some very specific trump cards into reality itself to deal with such a situation.

Perhaps he was right.

In any case, no more trouble came from the West.

Perry would’ve liked to sit back, put his feet up and enjoy a world where superheroes were the icing on the cake, rather than the only defense humanity had…

But the sheer amount of politics that resulted from disseminating The System was staggering. New laws, new infrastructure, new curriculums, a massive crime wave reminiscent of the eighties, which quieted down quickly as people realized that little old lady they intended to mug might very well be able to snap them over their knee.

Eventually, even that passed.

People adapted. Life moved on.

That was one of humanity’s greatest strengths, after all.

Perry couldn’t remember exactly what was going through his head when he made the choice to spread The System. Only a vague sense of unease when he directed his attention up to the sky above.

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He knew that attempting to recall those memories could very well drive him insane, but sometimes he couldn’t help but itch at them.

One day. Perry thought one night, making a finger-gun at The Tide, sleeping in the shadow of the moon.

Maybe not me, maybe not my kids.But one of us. One of us insignificant humans will feed you to Abun’zaul.

After all, the legendary mimic was now everywhere.

“So you chose to remain human.” An unfamiliar voice called out from behind him.

Perry craned his neck to spot a woman whose ethnicity he couldn’t quite place. From context though…

“How was that peaceful village in ancient Greece?” Perry asked.

“Oh, we had a great time,” Jocelyn said, sitting down next to him. “Reggie died of a heart attack in his fifties, though. I looked after the village and our grandkids another twenty years before I died and regained myself. I can now do things with olives that you wouldn’t believe.”

“Shame.” Perry said with a shrug. “Still, fifty years is a pretty damn good vacation.”

“Mhmm.”

“I just wanted to see it through, you know? Have consequences for my actions…See my kids grow up.” Perry said, trying to justify turning down godlike power, both to himself and the unfathomable being he’d disappointed by refusing to join as a peer.

“You wanted The Human Experience.” Jocelyn said.

“Yeah.” Perry agreed, nodding. “I did.”

His eye twitched.

A moment later, he glanced over at the 4th dimensional, godlike being who was watching him with amusement.

“Did I…Am I…”

“Who knows?” Jocelyn said with a shrug and a devious smirk. “You’ll only find out for sure when you die.”

“You’re just messing with me.”

“We’ll see in a few centuries, Paradox.” Jocelyn said before vanishing into the 4th dimension.

A moment later she ducked her head back into the time stream so he could hear her.

“By the way, Reggie and I are reincarnating in Chicago, since it’ll be peaceful for a long time thanks to you. We’re gonna be adventurers!”

Perry waved her off.

What a mind-fuck.

That conversation had highlighted the unspoken theory that Paradox already was a being of unfathomable power, one of Jocelyn’s peers who had deliberately caused himself to be born as Paradox Zauberer, for a life of excitement, high adventure, and Real Consequences™.

There was a slim, but distinct possibility that Paradox was a higher-dimensional being’s vacation from the mundane, just as Jocelyn and Reggie had taken a vacation to the mundane.

Ah well. I’ll worry about it in a couple hundred years. Perry thought with a shrug. The prospect of living for an absurdly long time no longer scared him as much as it used to.

Not when Natalie and Heather were going to join him on that adventure.

Perry cocked his head as his inhuman hearing made out Sera having a meltdown over going to bed, while Gareth cried because his sister was crying. Heather was trying to calm them down while Nat was cleaning up the mess.

Well, time to get back to my adventure, I suppose. My super-team needs me. Perry thought, hopping off the roof and heading back inside their little home.