The city of Brockton Bay is one of many cities all over the world on the brink of collapse, with super powered villains and corrupt government officials many had little not no faith in the future of the USA or the world.
Three monsters ravage the world and leave even more than there pure destruction, Leviathan the oldest of the Endbringers has practically shut down international sea trade, Behemoth leave radioactive wastelands that are completely uninhabitable while the youngest sibling spread pure madness and mistrust among the people of the world.
But unknown to the people do this world for a microsecond the world shifted it scale away from the Grim Dark nature it was stuck in as a outside influence pushed the scale in a more hopeful direction, the endbringers now would be slowly shutting down and the hive mind of the shard would stabilize.
That doesn't mean everything is fixed the world is still on the knife edge but now things are on an even scale.
This is the world in which our protagonist finds himself Leonardo, not born of this land or empowered by the low level Eldritch being that gave the Parahumans their powers.
A man in the body of a 16 year old kid on the streets half starving and mad with the knowledge of what has occurred and a power that he was very surprised by.
A city builder on a massive scale to the minuscule, he could manage an entire country to a transport line. When he focused on a scale model of the world appeared in his mind showing a live feed of the entire planet and low orbit.
He could focus anywhere but he couldn't use it because he did not "own" any land to build or alter anything or have permission to alter it.
What he could do is gain skills like the sims, that is found himself in his current circumstance while trying to to grind his handiness skill to be able to repair anything he could get his hands on, a group of Merchants had found out and were very excited for their prize from there boss for bringing in a new tinker.
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Leonardo was in a trance this was his second full week of gridding his skill he was half starved and with how little sleep he was getting he was already about to collapse when his makeshift alarm of can and chains rattled.
Quickly turning around he saw three of them, wearing old ratty clothes and were covered in pok marks from needles or infection. One was holding a rusted old revolver and the other two had a crowbar and the other a large knife.
The guy with the revolver pointed it at Leo and spoke through rotten and broken teeth, "Do not move, a muscle."
Leo of course ignored this and put a set of makeshift armor out of his inventory onto his body and charged the one with the pistol while grabbing a massive pipe wrench meant for fire hydrants and slammed it into his hand.
The gun went flying off into the corner and went off richotching around the metal room I had made in a cargo container, the crowbar guy that didn't look as bad as the other ones reacted first.
Using his slightly altered crowbar as a warspike he stuck Leo right into his side, piercing the side of his armor right into his flesh.
Leo scrunches in pain and his vision tunnels for a second, not letting go of his wrench and hitting the crow bar guy across the head with it sends him sprawling.
Knowing where the gun flew off, Leo moved for it and dodged a wild hit from the knife guy, grabbing the gun and firing it at the three which quickly took them down killing all three.
Leo took a deep breath and winced as the hole in his side pulsed with pain, ignoring that for now he moved to search the three bodies.
Together they had $150 dollars, a disposable cell phone and their weapons, Leo then inventoried the bodies and sold them off through his power.
Now with his two weeks of grinding and selling off his attempts he now had $1,000 dollars enough to get a really shity apartment.
He then felt his side pulse again and checked it over. Thankfully he wasn't bleeding out but he was hurt, he then looked at his inventory again and saw a flashing alert from the phone icon which was once grayed out.
Clicking on he was surprised to see a new message appear. "Greetings Builder!, with your first two weeks a mild success you have been given permission to choose a family name or join a family."
The list wasn't long but included the Herbert's and the entire wards team, a couple of the Nazis, and some from the PRT. He did not like most choices but ended up choosing the Herbert's as he refused to be a Nazi or join the PRT.
The world altered once again in that moment as Leo Brion was placed into the world, he is the eldest of the Brion family and has been trying to gather funds to take custody of Missy, his little sister and Superhero. With his new legal identity and memories Leo dropped his armor and made his way to his new home
———
Out into the daylight as he had been all night hit and mid day, looking around he didn't see any other merchants and called his little sister on the burner phone he grabbed.
Missy, who spent any free time she had at the ward base, was surprised to get a call on her personal phone from a number she didn't recognize.
"Hello? Missy Brion speaking."
"Hey, Missy it's Leo I'm going to need you to use your internship connections to pick me up I just got stabbed." Her big brother's voice sounded weak and tired. Missy entered Vista mode and activated her power to twist space till it took only a step to reach the dispatch console.
"Miss Militia my Brother Needs help!." She cried into the microphone which Kid Win was sitting at, she was panicking and having trouble explaining.
Miss Militia in a calm voice she usually used for panicking victims spoke to her, "Vista, I need you to take a breath and tell me where your brother is."
Missy was crying now, "He is at xxxx and xxxx, please Miss Militia he is all I have." Missy was a mess now and not able to be understood and Kid motioned for one of the adults in the dispatch to take over and handed them her phone and moved her to medical.
Leo who was Oozing blood and lost quite a bit at this point, so his consciousness was fading in and out the world was muffled.
So he didn't notice when the ambulance arrived and the EMTs started talking, or when Miss Militia came after and followed behind them on her bike to the hospital.
Upon arriving Panacea who had been called by Dean/Gallant the wards leader that Vistas older brother had been attacked, rushed to his side and sealed his wound she couldn't do anything for the blood but with all internal and external damage healed the hospital was putting quite a bit of blood in him.
Within 10 minutes Missy in her civilian clothes arrived and 30 minutes after that their "parents" arrived and the arguing started then they were kicked out of the room for disturbing other patients.
Within an hour Leo regained consciousness and realized where he was then saw his little sister, eyes puffy and red and standing by her a middle eastern woman.
"Hey Missy, thanks for the save." Missy without any effort flexed her power and appeared on top of Leo with her power and hugged him as tight as she could.
While the hug hurt from his soreness Leo hugged his little sister even with the new life fresh he embraced his role as big brother.
Missy let go and moved to the side to lay next to him, while trying to act like she didn't act like a little girl, Leo looked around the room not seeing his parents turned to his sister, "Did the incubator and doner get kicked out again?"
Missy just snorted and gave a nod and looked over to the middle Eastern woman, "Oh Leo this is Miss Washington she works at the place I internship" she gave him a look that he understood as she was a cape and he knew this was probably Miss Militia.
Miss Washington gave Leo a smile and shook his outstretched hand, and gave a sad look to Leo about what he called his "parents".
"You had us worried there for awhile Mr. Brion you had lost a lot of blood and I'm sorry but I have to ask what you were doing out there and if it has to do with Missy's internship." He knew what she meant if someone had kidnapped him to get at the PRT or someone knew Missy was Vista.
He thought for a minute how to explain and what he wanted to say, he knew that Missy or the PRT would find out his abilities as he knew they would be watching him a lot more.
"Kind of…. I recently gained the same qualifications that Missy had to be in the internship, our parents had been getting worse and I knew I had to get Missy out of that house finally I had to
FIX IT! Our family was broken and I would TAKE US AWAY as far away as I could or even BUILD us a home if I needed to DO ANYTHING to make her life better like a BIG BROTHER is supposed to like I FAILED." Leo tears streaking down his face and sobbed as a mix of pain of the new and old memories of a family he would never see again and a be one that failed him and his sister.
Missy held her brother tight and cried with him as she understood what a trigger event was as her parents had also caused her trigger and her big brother helped her then, now it was her turn.
Miss Militia quietly raged and gave a quiet "I'll give you both some time." They stepped outside the room and made a phone call to Director Piggot, the local leader of the PRT, a hard woman forged in a terrible event that only she and one other survived.
"Director, we have a situation here and it's getting worse by the minute." She filled her in on the home life of her ward and tried and failed to stop the steel entering her voice.
She and the Director had been trying to get Missy out of her parent custody but they both had been blocked by the Youth Guard, an Organization made of "Karen's" blocking any attempt of actually training and keeping the kids safe and prepared for their future.
"Director, Emily please tell me we can do something with another child triggering in their care or at least get them investigated." Hannah very rarely called the director by her first name but she NEEDED to help these kids.
"I think I can, I know this will sound bad but if Leonardo has gained a tinker power like we think he has it will help grease the wheels of bureaucracy." Hannah hated to agree but she did, she had seen it happen in both good and bad circumstances over the years.
She poked her head over and saw the kids had stopped crying for the moment, "I'll call the Director later and the kids have calmed down."
Hannah slowly opens the door to see Missy in her brother's arms and asleep, Leo was sitting up leaning back with a contemplating look on his face.
He gave her a smile and motioned for her to sit at the small chair by the bed Missy had moved there. "Thank you, for the rescue today Miss.Washington and for taking care of Missy."
She gave him a nod and made polite conversation for half an hour till Missy awoke and the conversation shifted to very serious topics.
"I'm sorry to ask this right now but it could help the PRT build a case against your parents to get you no the out of there. Leonardo, what are your powers?"
Missy raged at her but her brother calmed her down as he knew what she meant as he knew how having power could help move things along.
"It's fine Missy, you told me how the Youth guard kept screwing you over and stopping you getting a better costume. Plus I actually like my power, basically my power can be separated into two parts ; personal I can quickly gain "skill" and "knowledge" like Uber but keep them, next is the "City Builder" part I if I own it alter it as if I was playing a city builder game and do this."
Leo concentrated for a second and a 3D map of the city with live statistics of the city from water quality to education rates.
"It is a live map of any city in the world or the entire world and low orbit, now the whole problem is I have to have legal permission to alter anything or place buildings in the city or anything outside of personal items.
Another problem is money, I have to pay if I want to do anything like building a house or altering a room."
For an example he selected their house and his room allowing him to alter it as much as he wanted (Think the Sims Builder mode.) showing the shopping screen and the infinite pages of items.
Hannah stood in shock and awe at his power while not flashy as some could be extremely useful in stabilizing the city and providing income for those in need.
"Leo, would you like to join the ward's Program?" Was all she could ask the new holder of the strongest Shaker on the East Coast.
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Leo wouldn't stay at the hospital long, after the blood transfusions showed no problems he was transported to the PRT avoiding his parents.
By requesting for protection as they directly caused his trigger event he would be safest for all involved if he didn't speak to them.
Hannah had already called ahead and got the testing chambers ready as well as some paperwork needed to test his powers fully.
That is where they found themselves in an area normally used to test tinkers before moving to "Builder" powers.
"Now, Blacksmith (Leo's Temp Cape name) you have an hour to build anything with your tinker powers with the materials provided." Dr.Armstrong's deep accented Boston accent explained to Leo how the test will work.
Leo thought for a second as he needed something a little flashy if Hannah and the Directors plan to work.
Gathering his supplies Leo went about building a scanner tool from Subnautica, as it is capable of scanning Fragments, lifeforms, technology, flora, the user, and other objects, which get added to the Databank. Fragments are scanned to acquire Blueprints of what the object is suspected to be.
The coding took the longest as his skills were kind of Low but with the skills system that problem was accomplished quickly.
Right before the timer went off he had a slightly bulkier scanner that could scan for practically anything and everything.
Dr. Armstrong, "Now Blacksmith, please explain what your device is and what it is capable of."
Leo of course explained what the scanner could do and how it functioned loosely as he had a decent idea that his tech wasn't black boxed like other tinkers.
"Blacksmith, please enter the next room and scan the piece of technology in the next room." In the next room a half broken Portal gun from Portal sat in the center of the room. "Please be aware that this is a salvaged piece of Leets tech that wasn't completely destroyed so please keep your distance."
Leo kept as far away as he could as Leets tech was notorious for failing explosively, holding up his scanner and a blue line went up and down on the Portal gun and left to right with a *Ding* the scan completed.
Leo then moved back to the previous room and connected his scanner to a computer, working on it for a moment and a 3D model of the entire object in a variety of different modes that allowed the user to identify each individual component.
In the observation room the Scientists had already begun analyzing the portal gun and finding little as it was tinker tech but the scanner Leo had built was very interesting to the group.
Dr.Armstrong, broke them up for a moment and addressed his test subject, " Now, Blacksmith please exit the chamber and meet Miss Militia to be escorted to the next area."
The next area was an old storage area on where Leo's room modification abilities are being tested, here a different set of engineers this time where to monitor for any structural issues.
"Blacksmith, for this test we have a specific task. You are going to be given temporary ownership of this room and everything in it for three hours, in addition to an amount of 3,000 Dollars, but you are to design and make a staff break room."
There was some quiet discussion for a minute then Dr.Collens spoke up again, "There has been an additional request for a massage chair and a foosball table." He tried to say without cracking up.
Leo gave a laugh and a thumbs up and entered building mode, where he examined each thing in the boxes which was mostly moth-eaten clothes, old papers, and just a random assortment of junk.
Selling it to the system and getting another 1,000 dollars he went to work on the floors and walls.
The concrete floor improved to be a sealed and hardwood floor popped into existence and slowly assembled itself, the walls were repainted with an off white color.
To make the place happier and homier some paintings and a series of screens were connected to the camera allowing them to act as fake windows and to monitor the outside.
For reaction, a set of nice couches and chairs (including massage chair) with scoffs table in the middle with an assortment of magazines and books for reading, off to the side a Foosball table and dart board.
Last is a small Kitchenette for coffee and reheating food with a table and chair for those eating.
All together it cost a little more than 3,500 and reusing some of what they had placed in storage here like the screens from computer monitors.
Dr.Collens and his team immediately entered with hard hats and testing equipment placing them throughout the room and quickly exiting the room as my ownership expired leaving the room unchanged.
They waited for a couple of hours and monitored the room for any fluctuating readings. What they were measuring leo wasn't sure.
With his testing concluded Leo was escorted to the director herself to speak on his membership to the wards and his parents.
——
Director Piggot was a larger woman with short cropped blonde hair but had the same air about her as a drill instructor, she sat behind a large oak desk and motioned for me to sit beside Carol Dallon of all people.
"Blacksmith, I'm Director Piggot and beside you is Carol Dallon I have asked her here to act as your Lawyer and go over the Wards contract. But before we begin, do you want Mrs.Dallon to stay or go as that is fully up to you."
"I would like that Director Piggot and thank you for coming Mrs.Dallon I'm Leonardo Brion." Leo removed the temporary mask and shook Mra.Dallons hand.
Carol didn't give him a full smile but a tight nod, "Thank you for your trust Mr.Brion, now Director can we please begin."
"First, your parents are now under investigation for negligence and endangerment so you and your sister will not be returned to either of them." Her eyes softened for a moment as she felt terrible for allowing the situation to continue this long.
Carol who was reading over leos case file which included his time in the hospital and triggering actually seemed to show a modicum of concern for me.
"As for the Wards program I'm assuming with your sister in the program you will be joining them." She handed Carol a standard wards contract which she read over while the Director looked at me.
"I do not want to be a front liner Cape. I would rather be in a support role, while my ability to learn skill does work for fighting but against most capes here in the bay I am upstaged. With my abilities I believe I can out fit both the capes and agents of the local PRT with better protection and weaponry.
Also my "builder" power is practically made for PR as with the help of the Mayor I can salvage the entire Boat Graveyard in half an hour and set up different jobs and outreach programs.
As even if I place an entire factory I still need people to work there or the trolleys and not to mention to keep all of the stuff maintained, my power just bypasses the build and setup time."
The Director made some notes and actually seemed pleased by Leo's ideas as her department of the PRT is one of the least funded across the whole nations and home to some of the most dangerous villains on the planet.
Carol took over from there as she negotiated on my behalf and they reworked the contract for Leo to be a support Hero, the first of its kind allowing him to retain ownership of his inventions and his future business.
Once the general details were sorted also was sent off to the Wards' room and showed his room on the Base, it was nearing 5:00 as the contract discussion took hours.
Miss Militia who had finished her patrol for the day and escorted Leo into the deeper part of the Old OffShore Oil Rig that had been repurposed into the Base for the local PRT.
Reaching the ward door she hit a button just below the door handle and a loud buzz echoed through the other room, "It's an alert for everyone to put on their masks or move to a different room."
She entered first with Leo right behind her, in the room were the entire ward teams; Gallant, Clock Blocker, Kidwin, Shadow Stalker, Aiges and Vista.
"Wards, I would like you to meet Blacksmith (Temporary Name). He will be officially joining the wards team soon as his paperwork is processed, also he is the first of what we are calling support heroes, which is those who will not patrol often and focus on supporting the local community and other Heroes." Miss Militia gave them all a mom look and a much harder one at Shadow stalker who was about to make a comment on Leo's lack of patrols.
Giving them all a wave Leo moved to introduce himself to everyone Vista took off her mask and gave her brother a high five.
"He is also my brother so no harassing him guys, also his powers don't really lend themselves to combat really but it also means our rooms and area are going to be upgraded." Missy gave Leo a look that all siblings give one another, do not embarrass me infront of my friends.
Leo took off the welding mask he wore for testing, "Yeah I'm Missys older brother, like they both said my powers are basically a city or settlement builder game along with a slice of life simulator. For example I can learn anything really fast along with building anything with premises from the owner."
Gallant the leader of the wards restarted his introduction, "Nice to meet you I'm Gallant in costume but my name is Dean I'm the leader of the wards." He and Leo shook hands and Leo Moved to down the line introducing himself to everyone till Shadow Stalker.
"What are you some coward for not fighting or are you just scared your baby sister will show you up." Leo had already hated her but now it was personal but before it could escalate Miss Militia pulled her away.
An awkward silence settled for a moment till Clockblocker who's real name is Denis broke the silence. "Soooo, what are you going to change about the ward area, if you are up for it tonight."
"Well, first is a cooking area as Missy and I are going to be staying here for awhile till our family situation is settled, that will probably be it for awhile as most of my time will be taken up with Tinkering and meeting to set up some business here in the Bay.
I know next week I have a meeting with the Mayor about taking care of the Boat Graveyard or at least part of it to get gone in an instant."
The wards were a little flabbergasted at that confession, as they were very much not expecting the "support" hero to be that powerful.
We moved to less serious topics and the wards began to trickle home or out on patrol for the weekend night patrols Till only me and Missy were left in the room.
"Hey, Missy, do you want to help me redecorate this place as a surprise and I want to cook breakfast in the morning."