Anne was waiting for me when I got back.

“How did it go?”

“Brutal,” I replied, “but … a lot cleaner than what the Grunters were doing.”

Anne nodded. “I saw the conference. You didn’t go on stage?”

“They only call the top heroes on stage, Anne. And only Dr. Magnetic spoke. There were hundreds of ultrahumans in the audience, though.”

“Well, there’s something you should know.” She switched the TV on, showing the Leaderboards. “Alexa. Page one hundred sixty-four.”

I stared at the name on the screen.

Rank

Name

Class

Country

1638

Belessar

Inventor

United States

“You’re on the leaderboards,” Anne remarked. “After one battle.”

“.... Is that good?”

“Well, it’s impressive. There’s nearly a million ultras across the world. You’re now officially in the top one per cent of them.”

I scratched my head. “How do they work out those numbers?”

“You have to have fought the aliens to be listed. Other than that, nobody’s sure.” Anne shrugged. “I don’t know why you’d be listed as an inventor, though.”

I shrugged. “I’ve never really explained my powers well. Not surprising they got it wrong.”

“So Mr. Belessar, now that you’re officially on the ultrahuman leaderboard, what do you want to do?”

“I guess I should check on getting paid?”

“We got your video feed from the Stratospheric Guard,” McCarthy told me, as we sat in his office.

“Enough for a payment application?”

“More than enough, Mr. Belessar. I must say, your performance was quite impressive. The Stratospheric Guard has, however, assessed you as a frontliner.”

“... That’s good, isn’t it? The highest pay rate?”

“Mr. Belessar, you single-handedly killed almost one-fifth of the attacking aliens.”

“Uh… not single-handedly. Lieutenant Doyle’s platoon also helped.”

“Mr. Belessar…. ultras have been embedded in human platoons before. The death rates for those ultras - and those platoons - have always been massively higher than that for purely ultrahuman teams.”

…. Oh.

“I didn’t know that,” I muttered. “I just went where the Army officer sent me.”

“The major who assigned you to the platoon probably didn’t expect you to survive. Or that platoon, either. I daresay he must have been surprised when you and the men got back intact.”

“I … didn’t meet him afterwards.”

“At least it turned out for the best. You did make quite an impression; the sense I got was that they might agree for the Anchor classification if we pushed back. Also, your actions at the Gershwin may have turned the battle.”

“How?”

“You didn’t hear? The Gershwin - the entire set of buildings on Broadway - was part of the aliens’ fallback route. They found one of the alien evacuation craft near 49th Street Subway station.” He paused. “That’s less than a kilometre from the Gershwin, for reference.”

“I didn’t know that either. Did they recover the craft intact?”

“It self-destructed when the troops sent to secure the area broke in. However, the aliens were forced into a fighting retreat throughout the city, and I believe you broke their flank a second time later in the day too?”

“When was that?”

“I believe the platoon with you charged an alien position?”

I remembered. That had been where Doyle was hit and almost killed. I’d healed him, of course. “I didn’t realize the significance.”

“The Stratospheric Guard did. However, the U.S. Army has assessed you as a frontliner - in part because Dr. Magnetic is considered the anchor for this battle. Do you want us to contest it?”

I thought for a second. “No. Not worth it. I’ll see how my next battle goes.”

“Very well. We’ll be submitting a payment application to DURABLE for $700,000. As an ultra, you pay a flat 20% tax on your income, so that will net you $560,000. The application should be processed and the payments made within a week.”

“Wow, that’s fast.”

“We set it up that way, Mr. Belessar, when we arranged your documentation.” McCarthy smiled. “Our job is to handle the paperwork so that you can focus on handling the aliens.”

“Thanks. By the way, what do I owe you so far? For the earlier consultations and for this?”

“Our fee should come to around $6,000, plus your pending bills for consultations would add another $1,200. Also, once you get paid, we would charge our ten per cent contingency of $56,000.”

I nodded. “Can I pay you something in advance? Like, what do they call it…”

“A retainer? Sure.”

“Then let me pay you, say, ten thousand now.” I pulled out the cash from Inventory and dumped it on the table.

If McCarthy was surprised by money appearing out of what appeared to be thin air, he showed no sign. “Thank you, Mr. Belessar. We’ll let you know when the government responds.”

I was in the basement workshop when Anne got back from school.

“How did the meeting go?” she asked.

“Quite well.” I gave her the details of my discussion with McCarthy as I worked on synthesizing a Fullersteel ingot.

“Do we have enough money to last us until then?” Anne asked. “What with the retainer and all.”

“We still have close to a hundred and ten thousand. That’s before the payout from the battle comes in.”

Anne sighed. “I didn’t realize ultrahumans made this much money. I mean, I know some of them are rich, but….”

“Not everyone makes that much. There were only about a hundred frontliners out of all the ultras who made it to New York.” I thought of The Flying Storm. “And not everyone survives.”

“That’s true,” Anne murmured. “Are you still sure you want to go next time?”

“Next time I’ll be better prepared.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

I put aside the ingot I was working on. “Think of it like this. Imagine I wasn’t an ultra, but a soldier like Sergeant Banner. Would the Army give me a choice about whether or not I wanted to go?”

“No, but that’s different. You’re not in the army.”

“It’s not really different. The more I think about it, the more I feel that ultras are actually supposed to be the army of humankind.”

“Huh?”

“We started getting powers just before the aliens showed up. We had a year to adjust to them, and a global defensive shield to protect us from orbital bombardment, for a long time before the aliens actually arrived. Isn’t it likely we were given these powers to protect Earth against the aliens?”

“That… makes a weird kind of sense, but by whom?”

“I don’t know. Maybe someone’s thought about this before.”

NEW QUESTLINE ALERT: THE ORIGIN OF THE POWERS.

DELVE DEEP INTO THE MYSTERIES OF POWERS AND ULTRAHUMANS.

DISCOVER WHY THEY EXIST.

UNDERSTAND WHAT, IF ANY, ROLE THEY PLAY IN THE CONFLICT BETWEEN ALIENS AND HUMANS.

THIS SERIES OF QUESTS WILL PLAY A PIVOTAL ROLE IN THE DAYS TO COME. EMBARK WITH GREAT CAUTION, AS IT IS ONE OF THE MOST CHALLENGING TASKS ANY SENTIENT CAN TAKE ON.

NEW QUEST ALERT: LEARNING TO LEARN.

UPGRADE YOUR HIERARCHY LORE TO LEVEL 6 TO UNLOCK THE FIRST CLUE.

CURRENT SKILL LEVEL: LEVEL 3.

“I just got the weirdest quest alert,” I explained the questline to Anne.

“Origin of the Powers?” Anne replied. “Nobody’s been able to crack that puzzle. Ever.”

“My power thinks I can.”

“How do you advance Hierarchy Lore, anyway?”

“I got one advancement for getting an A in history. The second advancement required me to kill half a dozen aliens.”

“At that rate, you’ll have to take down an alien battleship to get to Level five.”

I grinned. “Let’s hope it doesn’t go that far. I’ll consider my current project a success if it takes down a Sarnak.”

“What is your project, anyway?”

“Using Lightning Strike and the battlehammer together unlocked another blueprint for me. Watch.”

I placed three fullersteel ingots, each a kilo, on the table, along with four Small Power Packs and a pile of Nanofibre Weave.

Then I willed my MP into it.

Warm blue light spilled out from my hands, swirling around and through the objects. They flowed and melded together for a second, and then fused together.

My MP dropped by 500.

The weapon that lay revealed looked like the Star Trek version of a hammer. Purple lines glowed along a steel grey head. The long black handle shone like polished onyx, and the telltale bumps along its length were the only giveaway of the concealed power sources.

I hefted the weapon. “Behold, the Lightning Hammer.”

My new hammer cracked with electricity, as if to make a point.

“What’s it do?” asked Anne.

“A fullersteel head for more damage. It also delivers a high-powered electrical shock to whichever enemy I hit with it. A major advancement over the Advanced Battlehammer.” I caressed my new weapon lovingly, triggering even more sparks. “This beauty will do an incredible 139 damage. Per strike. Multiply that by Deadly Blow’s power, and we’re talking 535 damage - nearly enough to kill a Sarnak outright.”

“What you’re doing with that is a little creepy…..”

LIGHTNING HAMMER MARK ONE

COMBINING THE FORCE OF A FULLERSTEEL HEAD WITH THE POWER OF ELECTRICITY MANIPULATION, THE LIGHTNING HAMMER INFUSES EACH STRIKE WITH A SYNCHRONIZED ELECTRIC BLAST TO DELIVER INCREDIBLE AMOUNTS OF DESTRUCTION.

REQUIREMENTS: 15 STRENGTH, LIGHTNING STRIKE LEVEL 2.

COST: 3 KG FULLERSTEEL + 50 SQ. M. NANOFIBRE WEAVE + 4 POWER PACKS + 500 MP.

DAMAGE: 40 + 2 x STRENGTH + BLUNT WEAPONS BONUS. ADDITIONAL 40 ELECTRICAL DAMAGE PER HIT. 25% STUN CHANCE PER HIT.