After waking up, it took me only a few seconds to remember what happened before groaning in irritation. Shaking off the lingering echoes of my dream, I gathered myself. I'd lost it. I knew how tortuous it felt to be dominated by my power, but I still used it. Only Jeanie and I would remember, and that was enough.

Copies of my head had described the experience as getting burned alive while simultaneously being skinned. They couldn't even scream out in misery without triggering my ability's automatic response. It assumed they were resisting my control and ramped up the pain.

Trying to take my mind off the horrible thing I'd done, I looked around the room. Someone, probably Jeanie, had placed me in a bed inside what appeared to be a hospital room crossed with a robotics lab. Mechanical limbs meant for both surgery and construction hung limply from the ceiling.

An average person would probably find them intimidating, but it was nothing compared to the lab of an old friend. He was a super that specialized in what he insisted were biological machines. In truth, he was just a surgeon with a weak power to strengthen any biological tissue he worked on. The effect was overly localized, so it wasn't enough to make his patients even minor supers. They mostly used him to perform exceptionally dangerous surgeries on high-profile individuals. He once kept a man with half a heart alive for over an hour thanks to his power keeping it going.

"I wasn't expecting that." Jeanie entered through a sliding door to my left as I got lost in memories of the past. Maybe I wanted to distract myself from thinking about what had happened.

"I wasn't planning it." Scooting up in bed, I frowned in thought.

"Last time you used that power, you swore never to touch it again." Jeanie didn't sound like she was trying to judge me. It was just a statement of fact. I had promised never to do that.

"Somethings wrong with me, Jeanie," I admitted.

She gave me a once-over before sitting down on a stool nearby. With a calm demeanor, she rolled her seat over to my bed.

"Why don't you tell me what seems to be the problem," Jeanie spoke with a hint of concern.

I was supposed to be the one who never broke, even with almost my entire team dead. I wanted to keep it together.

I sighed before confessing. "I've just been so angry. We were leaving Earth to build a haven. To save people."

Focusing on my clenched fists, I forced them to relax.

"We failed. It's been a hundred years. I sacrificed the only family I had left for this mission, and it was pointless." My emotions threatened to spill out of me.

"I've only ever wanted to save people, but it feels like no matter what I do, more just keep ending up dead." I paused. "And now, there's enough rage bubbling up from inside me that I don't know what to do."

Not once in my life had I ever killed someone, but those kinds of thoughts were swirling around my head. It didn't make any sense.

"I think there was a problem with my stasis pod. I haven't been the same since waking up." Going silent, I waited for Jeanie's response.

A pair of slender arms reached out and wrapped themselves around my head. She pulled me into her chest, hugging me.

"I had direct access to that stasis pod's internal systems." She loosened her hold on me so that we could make eye contact. "There was nothing wrong with it."

We held our locked gazes for several seconds before I had to turn away.

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"Everyone has their breaking point." She whispered to me.

I took a deep breath, trying to absorb Jeanie's words. Her presence was comforting, but the weight of my failures still bore down on me. I felt my rage building again, but it wasn't Henry or the mistlings fueling it. All of it, I directed at myself.

"But I was supposed to be stronger than this," I murmured, my voice trembling. "I was supposed to be the one who held everything together. Now, I don't even know if I can trust myself."

At the end of the meeting, I was close to striking Henry. My gut was screaming at me that he was involved in something terrible: the missing people, stolen drugs, his secret connection to the Science Council. I wanted to put him down, and I had no clue why the urge was so strong.

Jeanie's eyes softened with understanding. "Morgan, you're human. Even with your powers, you're not unbreakable. You've been through so much. It's okay to feel lost and overwhelmed."

I shook my head, trying to push away the unsettling feeling. Yet, no words came to refute what we both knew to be true. I was adrift. Waking up in this new world had left me feeling so alone. It felt like I was that kid again who had just lost his family and didn't know what he was supposed to do. I needed something to cling to like I did back then.

I looked up, meeting her gaze again. The determination in her eyes made me feel a flicker of hope. "What if I can't control this anger?"

"We'll find a way," she reassured me. "I'm here. You don't have to carry this burden alone."

The sincerity in her voice made my chest ache.

"Thank you, Jeanie," I whispered, barely audible. "Thank you."

She smiled, a small but genuine expression of warmth that shined through even this android body she was inhabiting.

Pulling away, I calmed down and tried to refocus. The world wasn't going to wait around for me to feel better. Pulling myself together, I stood up.

"I need to stop tiptoeing around all the problems of this city. If their heroes aren't going to do anything, then it's up to us." I looked Jeanie in the eyes to convey my decision.

The Snow gang was dangerous, and they gave me something to focus on. A goal to accomplish that would keep me busy.

"I agree." She smiled. "There's only so much we can do playing defensively."

"We've got to deal with the Snow gang and their drugs. I don't know how Henry is connected. Hopefully, he's not another player with access to powers in a bottle." It was worrying to think there may be more people mucking up the waters, but we could handle it.

"Let's start small and work our way to the head of the Snow gang." My resolve solidified.

We will stop the Snow gang and uncover what Henry has been up to.

"I figured you'd want to clean house. I've gathered everything I could find on this gang. Their supers aren't anything special, but the forces they can bring to bear by empowering their mundane members more than makes up for it." Jeanie stood up and began pacing.

"They have five publicly known super members. The Alchemist isn't part of that number, so there are actually six. Mike Snow is still in custody, and you captured Eddie Black. That puts us at four." She stopped to tap her foot while thinking.

"That's good. We can handle four supers." I stretched my legs a little by walking over to her.

Jeanie nodded, her eyes flashing with determination. "Four supers and their enhanced minions." She smirked. "They don't stand a chance."

Her confidence made even me grin. Just having her around made me feel better.

Jeanie tapped a few commands into her tablet, bringing up a detailed city map. "I've already started compiling data on their known sightings. Known members have been spotted around several different warehouses. They're probably distribution centers like the one you raided. Each one appears to be guarded by one of their more naturally powered members. If we can take out their supply lines, we can weaken them significantly."

Jeanie was always good at this kind of thing, but this felt too easy.

"How hard was it to track down all this information?" I was starting to grasp why things were so bad.

The heroes and villains dynamic in this city felt a little off to me. The heroes didn't feel proactive enough, and the villains didn't seem to fear anyone.

"Surprisingly easy. I have names and pictures of the known supers associated with them and a general idea of their area of operation. It wasn't too hard to find their distribution centers with just that. More personal details were harder to uncover, like their goals. They have a huge fan base online that loves to chat." She smirked.

"The villains are winning," I muttered.

It shouldn't have been a surprise. During my time, most of the supers were united against the mist, but now the situation is stable. Humans will always try to take advantage of peace.

"I was told Mike Snow got released to avoid tension with the Snow gang. The villains are in charge while letting the government pretend they still have control." It didn't feel right to call the Science Council or SID the government, but they were the closest to it.

I turned to Jeanie with a much smoother expression.

"Let's start with the gang's supers. Who's the first one?"