Recruitment Tour (Quickdraw, Celeste, and Stareater)

Deep in the southern reaches of Mexico, the bounty hunter David Crenshaw - or "Quickdraw," as he is more commonly known - closed in on his quarry. The no-nonsense Civil War veteran and one-time outlaw was hunting an outlaw of his own. His target was Antonio Diego, a multiple-time felon whose most recent case was thrown out. In theory, Quickdraw should not be after him. However, he followed the paper trail and noticed a large transfer of funds into the district attorney's accounts - clearly, despite all initial evidence effectively leaving Diego dead to rights, the district attorney was bribed into dropping the case.

Diego worked for the local cartels in Mexico; it wouldn't surprise him that corrupt officials in California would be paid to look the other way on his activities. The thing is...Diego also had a track record of assault of the...other kind. Quickdraw was so disgusted with the pile of trash that dared to call himself a human being that he was willing to take the bounty at half-pay, plus a "thank you" note from his victims. Cocking the hammer back on his Single Action Army, he leveled the muzzle on his quarry, who got stuck in the terrain of the Mexican wilderness.

"Feo, Fuerte, y Formal," David recited. "You know the translation. 'He was ugly, strong, and had dignity.' I'll give ya two out of three, Antonio. Your prosecutor ain't here to bail you out, and your cartel buddies are disposed of. No one's here to save scum like you."

"No quiero morir," Antonio begged, hosing his pants in the process. David learned a lot of languages during his nearly two centuries of life; Spanish, chief among them.

"Neither did yer victims," David said, utterly disgusted that a killer with no less than six murders caught on surveillance footage that was thrown out would have the gall to beg for his life. "But ya killed 'em, anyway. Doesn't feel so good to stare death in the face yerself now, does it? Give my regards to Hell, you son of a bitch!"

With a single pull of the trigger, a .45 Long Colt buried deep through the skull of David's quarry, ending a murderer's life.

"For the wages of sin is death," David quoted as he looked over the man's body.

Bastard got off easy, as far as David was concerned. He had a lot to answer for, but at least the man would no longer waste oxygen. Ejecting the spent case, David set his revolver's hammer down on an empty chamber - old revolvers were notoriously finicky when it came to safety features. It was safer to leave a chamber empty rather than risk the hammer being hit with just enough force to set a round off.

Something he didn't see every day happened in front of him as he made the long trek back north; a portal opened up in front of him, and he readied his Marlin lever-action in case what came out wasn't friendly.

What greeted him wasn't some demon of Hell...he thought. It was a woman with raven hair and purple eyes. The gown that covered her pale skin was the color of purple stardust, and it delicately lay on her skin softer than cotton. Raising an eyebrow, David raised the muzzle of his rifle.

"Well, either I've been drinkin' too much, or you're some angelic bein' that came out of a portal from God-Alone-Knows where..." David trailed.

"Neither, actually," the woman said. "I'm a living personification of many concepts; Compassion, chief among them, so that's what you may call me. I have been watching you for some time, Mister Crenshaw."

"You know me, miss...er, Compassion?"

"I've watched you for a while, though you've never met me," Compassion said. "The Meta who makes his living as bounty hunter and vigilante both; born March 4, 1836. Veteran of the American Civil War who deserted from the Confederacy and became an outlaw to make ends meet; a failed attempt at settling down resulted in the death of our wife, your daughter going missing, and your Meta Gene becoming active. At first, you tried to be a champion for law in the Old West, only for betrayal to harden you into what you are now."

"That doesn't really prove that you know much more about me than any intelligence agency could learn about me," David said.

"You assassinated the Third Reich's leader in 1944 after ten months masquerading as an officer of the Third Reich," Compassion added. "Both the Reich and your employers of the Allies covered it up, and any evidence of the act was destroyed. You were paid five million American Dollars for the deed."

David's eyes narrowed. Every single detail she said about what happened in those years was correct, and the details were never disseminated before the action reports were tossed into the fireplace. Only way Compassion could have known was if she had witnessed the deed herself.

"You know why that scum had that haircut and mustache?" David questioned rhetorically. "The answer is because anyone could wear the style and pass himself off as the man itself. What I hoped would happen - the leadership tearin' itself apart - never came. They just got another body double until that one killed himself in 1945. How can you know that much about me?"

"I've been a watcher of humanity since its earliest moral choices," Compassion said. "I've made it my duty to guide humanity to better itself through the pursuit of virtue and the rejection of the base inclination to evil."

"For all the good that did..." David said, a bit derisively. "Evil still exists today. It always will."

"I know. One can never predict when it will emerge next, but it can be contained," Compassion said.

"With what? Law and order? That only works as long as whoever is tasked with enforcing the law is honest and unable to be corrupted," David scoffed. "There's not a single man alive who can be trusted to turn down money or fear to let evil go unpunished. That's why I exist - I follow the law and order when I can, but I bend or break it when I must. That's my life; and more often than not, I punish evil with death. So, if you're lookin' for a boy scout to join you, I'm the last person to ask."

"I come because you've walked both sides between law and chaos," Compassion said. "And in spite of your claims of greed, I can feel your nature - there's a light in that clouded heart that refuses to be snuffed out. You fight for the good of others, even when you must ignore social order to do it."

"No...I don't. What I do is remove evil from the world," David said. "Removin' evil and doin' good may overlap, but they ain't the same thing."

"You have a good heart; I know you'll come around in time," Compassion said. "A conflict is coming - I've seen it in my dreams. At the heart of it all will be one question: is it better to cultivate order, or to cultivate good? I am the personification of compassion, mercy, good, love, and redemption. My other half is the personification of justice, order, and retribution. For ages, our duties have overlapped before he went into isolation - I took his duties in his stead. He will return to impose order on this world."

"Well, that'll be a load off my plate," David commented. "Remind me what I stand to lose from this?"

"He'll do so without caring who he hurts in the process. And he makes little distinction between the sins of the individual and the sins of humanity at large," Compassion pointed out, and with a finger, pointed directly at David's chest. "And he especially sees Meta like you as destabilizing factors for his dream world."

"I take it that between the two of you, you're the one that thinks there's good to be found in us."

"Not that I'm unaware of the havoc that Meta can cause, but yes," Compassion said. "Meta can be capable of unparalleled chaos, but can also prove themselves as stewards of order and good. That's why I wish to recruit you."

"My life's been one long trail of dead bodies. You know that," he commented. "But you're still taking a chance on me?"

"Your heart speaks for itself, despite your history," Compassion said. "For this reason, I want you to become a part of my Knighthood, as other Meta before you have."

"I'm...I don't know...I'll need to think about it."

"I don’t ask that you repay me, but here...as a gesture of good will," Compassion said, giving him a leather-bound book. David took a look a few pages in and he was nearly floored as he recognized the handwriting in it, as well as the name on the back of the front cover.

Rosalie Crenshaw... his daughter. It was made of the exact same leather as the diary he gifted to her on her eighth birthday.

"Call out to me if you reconsider..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Almost as suddenly as she appeared, Compassion disappeared into the portal back into her realm: Moonshadow.

Where Justice’s realm was meticulously crafted to be symmetrical in all things and without a single brick out of place, Compassion’s realm was a vast expanse of nature. A place where the ebb and flow of chaotic storms and floods have hollowed out the landscape in many places. Canyons and crevices were the testament to the beauty that the chaotic forces of nature could create.

Compassion lacked a proper throne, and this was alright by her. The great oak in the middle of a meadow had contours in its bark that fit her shape perfectly. Where Justice used raw force to shape his realm, Compassion’s relationship with her own was one of symbiosis.

Having made glimpses into the future with the help of members of the Seraphic Court, Compassion came to one realization: the breaking of the tense neutrality she had with her brother was not a question of “it” it would happen, but “when” it would happen. Clotho’s visions were rarely wrong - on Justice’s current path, death would be inevitable, even if those that died were innocent.

But he had made it clear: he would strangle the whole world to death if it meant even a relative few could live in peace. He lived his life believing in the absolutes - in the eyes of a child, it was normal to view order and chaos and good and evil as absolute, and even more normal to conflate the respective ideas together. But as long-lived as she was, Compassion knew things were hardly as simple as that. And to believe such things so rigidly could drive one to insanity.

Justice denied it, passing off his mad absolutist view as the clarity. Compassion’s comparatively more nuanced view of morality was a corruption of remaining on Earth while Justice retreated into the sterile Realm of Order, detached from the daily lives of others - or so his worldview demanded he saw her as. She saw no less of the big picture than he did - but were she as absolutist as Justice was, morality would mandate the complete extermination of mankind. After all, not a single human was born without the darkness of evil in their heart.

The wisdom of the ages had stayed her hand. Just as there was rarely a human that was born purely good of heart, there was similarly rare the human that was born purely evil. It was those that Compassion sought to cull, while guiding the rest to overcome these base inclinations toward evil. In her experience, even the last beings you would expect to find good in - demons - had small kernels of goodness in them waiting to be tapped into.

The numbers of her adherents were considerably smaller than the sum total of all people on Earth. But if she can show that there was value to be had in their works - that the deeds they did would echo for ages - she had faith that her wayward brother would eventually see things as they are.

And hence, the Disciples of Virtue reemerged - hundreds of millions of people, ranging from Meta that committed to her tenets to everyday human beings. She had eyes of her own in places where Justice watched - among the first to Ascend from humanity into the Seraphic Court since the days of the Roman Empire was Caius. In life, he was a member of the frumentarii - upon Ascension, he became the Seraphic Court’s - and Compassion’s - spymaster, having eyes and ears everywhere.

It was thanks to his efforts that Compassion learned about a number of potential recruits for the Knighthood. David Crenshaw - a reformed outlaw turned bounty hunter - was among them. There were others still - Selena Amethyst Phoenix was a goodhearted, if rebellious, magician who was the daughter of some rather snobbish magical parents.

An amateur at heroics, and more of a support magician than a frontline combatant, Selena nonetheless had room to grow to become a well-trained mage. Compassion could already imagine Dorabella - a long-lived mage said to have been tutored by Merlin himself, and head of the Knighthood’s mages - chomping at the bit to take on an apprentice of her own. Dorabella was admittedly a master of more offensive magic, and she would likely teach anyone she took under her wing her lightning magic.

The second one would be a harder person to win over - an Astrid Black, also known as Stareater. A person with a…tumultuous past with her father, to say the least. She had caused death, but not intentionally - her power to absorb energy would be of use in the battles to come. As far as keeping that energy under control, that would be a challenge - not a single Meta in the Disciple’s Knighthood had ever encountered Whitespace energy. It was an energy so intense that it could disintegrate whatever it touched - and it all ended up in the hands of a teenager by complete happenstance.

While the few heroic scenarios that were publicly known about her showed her to have a good heart, she also apparently had quite a violent temperament. Even so, she demonstrated great restraint at the Apollo Systems manufacturing plant in Montana. She was careful to avoid involving innocents, which was all Compassion needed to know - Astrid Black had a strong sense of responsibility.

Astrid needed to refine herself to use her powers with greater precision, and Compassion was willing to help her find a way - all she would ask in return is that Astrid agree to assist her when the inevitable conflict between her and Justice started.

Astrid moved around a lot from place to place, while Selena was a lot less mobile. That being the case, Compassion opted to speak to Selena first. Hoping down from the tree she used as a makeshift throne, Compassion opened a portal between Moonshadow and Earth, her stardust gown rippling in the breeze as she stepped through to the place where Caius had last seen her: Phoenix, Arizona.

Arizona was a rather warm state, and it had a charm to it that Selena like, ironically enough.

The young magician had been taking a walk through a park, staring up at the buildings on the horizon as the day went on. She was minding her own business today, away from the family while just hanging out with nobody but her own self. She sipped away at a plastic cup full of icy water to keep the heat away, and enjoyed the quiet. Unlike a lot of cities in her experience, the few places that weren't a veritable tomb of concrete were usually packed with people who could afford to get away from the dull, mundane experiences that made their reality. There weren't any kids her age here though, or even the odd adult with a day off deciding to connect with nature through fresh cut grass and concrete stained with sugary litter.

It was little moments like this where Selena liked the quiet, not like the quiet of sitting through some boring meeting with her parents as they tried to secure a business arrangement overseas. Not like the quiet where they sat her in a room while she waited on them to send some old money heir her way to see if he was a "prospect." It was, in a way, quite chill. And she was okay with that.

At least... She was until a portal opened and an ethereal woman stepped through. Selena stopped dead in her tracks, unsure if she should run. This woman was otherworldly, like a goddess from another realm. Selena wasn't able to think of any mystic figures from her studies that fir this description.

"...Who are you?"

"I have gone by many names in the past - a past which spans human history since humanity first gained the awareness to be considered moral agents," Compassion said, her stardust gown shimmering in the light. "For you see, I am a living personification of many things - an avatar, if you will. I personify compassion, selflessness, mercy, forgiveness, redemption, and - to a smaller degree - justice. You may call me 'Compassion'."

Compassion's eyes were a soft purple, and complimented her stardust purple gown and raven black hair perfectly. And the hair contrasted with her pale white skin. Her size often shifted, but in this instance, Compassion was only about an inch taller than Selena. Perhaps most striking was an aura of peace and hope that seemed to literally stream off her and splash Selena full-force, potentially raising her spirit.

Selena herself, while sometimes aimless, was someone of good heart - someone with the potential to use her powers for the betterment of humanity. Someone who, with the right training, could be a legitimate warden for the innocent.

"I have eyes in many places in this realm," Compassion said. "I've been looking for you - or, more accurately, people like you, for some time, now. People of good heart with the sparks of righteousness within them, the embers of which ought to be nursed into a true fire of hope for others."

"But..." Compassion trailed with a smile. "...before I risk overwhelming you with the gravity of what's ahead, perhaps we ought to find a seat. Perhaps even spend some time at - how do you mortals say - a coffee shop?"

Selena had to wonder if this was how it felt to meet god. Some otherworldly incarnation of all the things good in the world, who watched over mortals since the very first ethical decisions were made, decided to take time out of her day and talk to a teenager with magic talent. It was a lot, and awfully sudden. Selena felt... Okay with this, surprisingly, despite this.

"So... You've been following me?" She asked, just a little confused. "I- Okay. Sure... Coffee. I think there's an iced coffee place near here." Selena awkwardly followed this ethereal woman while mentally processing the weird things she said. Such things weren't unheard of, the universe was a vast and complicated thing. But it was a statistical anomaly that she'd be roped into such circumstances. By the way she talked, it sounded like this Compassion woman had some use for her. Or need.

"So... You need my help with something?"

Despite the power at her fingertips, Compassion did not abuse it, using the currency of the local nation in order to get each of them iced latte. She was absolutely striking, elevating the spirits of one of the servers in a heartbeat through sheer presence alone. Off in the corner, a seemingly innocuous person - a police officer who was off-duty, gave Compassion a knowing nod. He didn't know what Compassion wanted with the girl in front of her, but he trusted in his Lady's wisdom.

"I've heard your name, Selena, carried on the winds - just as I'm aware of your family's reputation," Compassion began, a smile on her face. "A venerated magical family with a lot of pull, even in technology companies. With that out of way. I suppose I ought to start from the beginning. There is a...loosely organized faction of followers I oversee, its people coming from all walks of life - from the common police officer to the vigilante. They are my Disciples of Virtue, and among them are guardians of the innocent - my Knighthood."

Contrary to the name, her Knighthood didn't consist exclusively of martial warriors, though they carried many titles when formally addressed. They ranged from normal humans who were fashioned weapons and armor by the Seraphic Court, to Meta that had been recruited, to vigilantes, to even mages much like Selena herself. A subset of the Knighthood was just beginning to form referred to as the "Deviants" - a title with two meanings. The Deviants were demons that not only deviated from the standard image of what it was to be a demon, but also rejected their in-born inclination towards evil - though not necessarily chaos - to embrace a narrower, more enlightened and good, path.

"I am one of a set of concepts given form, Selena," Compassion said. "The other is my younger brother, who goes by 'Justice' - personification of justice, retribution, and order. In ancient times passed, we were inseparable, each fulfilling one role while the other fulfilled the other. Whereas he would seek out and punish the evil, I would bring comfort to the innocent who were their victims. As time passed, he changed..."

Compassion's eyes shifted from their normal purple to blue as her emotional state changed, reflecting her sadness.

"He withdrew from the world, claiming that spending time away from humans would give him more insight about them," Compassion said with a sigh. "He came to the conclusion that he needs to forcefully bring his own brand of order, without regard to the individual human being. Mages like you, demons, mutants, the Meta that cropped up in recent centuries - they are all considered bringers of chaos in his eyes. I have attempted to make him see that he is about to commit to a mistake, or at least to allow me to evacuate the innocents, but he would have none of it. I cannot fight my own nature, Selena - I am compassion personified. He is not an evil being - merely overzealous - but if innocents die as collateral as a result of his crusade, I will be forced to come into conflict with his misguided ways. The losses among the innocent would be catastrophic. That's why I seek people like you: individuals with the potential to be defenders of the innocent when the inevitable conflict arises - but...you wouldn't be alone in this quest. Many others - be they Meta, wizards, or even demons who have shown the potential to reform - have caught my attention. Because of these circumstances, you're one of several I wish to extend my offer to join to..."

Compassion paused, allowing Selena to give any questions she saw as necessary to ask.

Selena sipped her iced coffee slowly, listening with intention to Compassion's pitch. Another one of these figurehead-like beings that she was related to was plotting some sort of raid on earth, not unlike the raid of the undead that had passed recently. And Compassion herself, apparently, was working on a way to stop that, with lots of people at every level. And she wanted Selena to be part of that, enough that she had her eye on Selena for a while now. Even her family.

Selena had been up to heroic antics lately. Mostly running around and stopping small crimes with a fireball or some adjacently meek spell. She wasn't a big deal in that sense, but clearly enough of one that someone important took notice.

Although...

"...If you're this power, why haven't I ever heard of you?" She asked. "I'm very familiar with matters of cosmology and the transmundane, yet I'm not familiar with you or your brother. I've never heard about these Disciples of yours, even though I try to keep an ear to such things." It was a matter of doubt- If someone was that important, then people in positions of renown would be able to catch their name or observe their actions. Selena's family went back to the times when Metahumans were just a quiet minority, old enough to know many things. And yet Compassion was a blank.

"Where have you been?"

"My Disciples have always existed in some form, with records dating as far back as Ancient Egypt. They were forced to dissolve during the tensions between the Catholic Church and the Ottoman Empire in centuries past. It was only with the founding with the United States that they made a formal, though quiet, return as an organization," Compassion said. "In Justice's long isolation, I had to take up his role as one who punishes evil. I am not a goddess, and my influence became stretched thin as I could only address the most monstrous of humans - needless to say, there were those that I couldn't reach in time."

Compassion understood the doubt. While Compassion herself did intervene in mortal affairs, it was often only in relatively subtle ways. The Seraphic Court under her had long maintained a policy of non-interventionism. The actions they took were often only subtle ones: an appearance in dreams, a chill down the spine that dissuaded some humans from falling for temptations to evil.

"Traditionally, my Disciples offered humanitarian aid in times of great duress. Civil disobedience against immoral regimes, tireless crusaders against slavers. In fact, anyone of noble heart could be a Disciple and not even be aware of it," Compassion explained. "They'd always been subtle influencers of humanity to encourage them to embrace a more righteous path. Very few have ever intervened directly in human matters. In retrospect, if we had been more active, none of the events that ultimately led to Justice's declaration of his intent to invade would have happened. I live with that guilt in my heart every day."

Compassion often felt guilty about not being in time to stop the destruction of London. Justice would likely cite this event as the final straw that led to his decision, but it was the aftermath - Deimos Blackbrook's decision to turn back time and save at least half of the lives lost - that persuaded Compassion that there was still hope to be had among them mortals. Because if Deimos - a dragon - was willing and able to do the good of saving as many lives as he did, maybe others, Meta or otherwise, could be persuaded to do the same.

"It took three major events - the First World War, the destruction of London, and Justice's decree - for the Seraphic Court under me to cease bickering over whether or not the world is worth preserving and instead begin acting. At the end of the First World War, there was a debate as to whether or not to intervene or simply discard humanity - the vote was evenly split, with neither side willing to give ground. Only one of them was willing to go to the extreme of living among humans, and she surrendered her immortality to do so. That is the Court's shame to bear," Compassion said. "With Justice's declaration, the Court finally came to the realization that if it acted rather than observe, the situation might not have become so desperate. For the first time since the Persian Wars, the Seraphic Court has come into unanimous agreement on a matter."

Listening intently still, it was a lot to process. So Compassion had actually been busy for a great deal of the last millennium or so, doing her own thing and going through her own periods of struggle. That, in an odd way, grounded her in Selene's thoughts. There were things she did that weren't that different from what a superhero did here on Earth. And even now, she was doing things to protect and help the innocent. That was something Selena had wanted to do, something good for people that didn't constitute international manipulation and political nonsense. Things that mattered.

"Your brother wants to destroy us all," she concluded. "Because we're a lost, irredeemable cause in his opinion. And he has an army to destroy us with, so you're amassing one yourself... Alright, I believe that. But what are you going to do? Stop him once his war begins, or confront him at his doorstep before? If you're mercy and kindness personified, how is it that you even could fight back?" Selena had the impression that Compassion was less a sentient individual and more just the distilled forces of good in life, not someone who could choose to hurt other.

"How is this going to happen when it comes to pass?"

"You misunderstand - Justice does not want utter destruction, but complete control over humanity - and crushing anyone in his way that opposes him. He might extend the odd offer to enforce his rigid order to one of the 'lessers' - those being Meta - but at the end, he'll see you all as factors too destabilizing to go unaddressed. In his eyes, he would be curtailing humanity's freedom of will to save it from itself," Compassion said. "Justice and I are currently in a neutrality pact with each other - so long as neither an innocent nor one of my Disciples come to harm, I will not act against his attempts to bring order. But I've also accepted that he's become far too absolutist in his stance as to what constitutes 'siding with chaos'. I am two millennia his senior - by necessity, I had to do what he did. When he came into the realm, we were able to split our duties. I made the decision to view humanity in both its general and its particulars. As long as his harsh order only punishes the unjust, the concept of justice will not demand that I intervene - I will continue to direct those under my command to relocate the innocent so that they are shielded from these methods. If innocents come to harm, he will cease being Justice, and I must take up the blade that will be cast aside, and assume his traditional role myself."

Compassion's eyes switched to a shade of red - indicating anger - just thinking about her younger brother harming the innocent was enough to anger her. About reducing humanity as nothing more than a statistic if his results from it. She looked Selena in the eye.

"I hold great regret over not being there to intervene in London - perhaps that was the point my brother was consumed by the despair needed to convince him that only he can stop evil. But...he conflates evil with not only chaos, but with what people like you and the Meta are - not who you all are," Compassion said. "I had hoped he had the wisdom of the ages that I had developed - I was wrong. When this all begins, the severity of his transgressions will determine the punishment I will give onto him. Even if..."

The implication hung in the air...Even if I have to kill him.

She was mercy and compassion personified, but with that came the understanding that not everyone would be worthy of it. And if Justice truly went so far beyond the pale as to murder billions - hundreds of millions of which were likely ignorant rather than evil - the laws of retribution and justice would demand that blood repaid blood. Compassion would execute her own brother; it would tear her apart for the rest of existence, but she would do it, because her role as defenders and avengers of the innocent would allow her nothing else.

"I'll do what I must, even if breaks me deep within, because that's what - and who - I am..." Compassion said. "I will brandish my blade and act. The choice is yours; just remember, that even if you don't take interest in my cause, he will eventually take an interest in you, your family, the entire world of mages, because his pride in the perspective that his detachment from the world has given him has convinced him that he has the right to make such a judgement against you, regardless of the potential for good you have."

To press gang Selena was not her intention, and her tone of voice reflected that fact., This was an earnest choice Compassion was giving her. Selena could refuse right here, and Compassion wouldn't pursue the matter further. She just didn't want Selena to be caught off guard when Justice turned his gaze upon the world of mages; and it was a guarantee that he would.

World domination. Yeah... That was bad.

Selena took a long, contemplative sip of her drink without looking away from Compassion. A whole war, not one that either side was particularly likely to win easily against. It was a lot to drop on a teenager in one sitting. But...

"I don't know many people willing to stand up to something dangerous for the sake of others," She admitted. "Pretty much all my family is out for themselves. If your brother does show up, most of them will go off on their own, turn on each other and hide. Maybe they'd find a way off Earth, maybe they'd fight and think they'd win. But you couldn't trust any of them to do something for the sake of it being right to do." For the most part, that was why Selena had been rebelling against the Phoenix family. They just sucked. "They're not concerned with being a force of good or a positive influence, it's more a world of carnivores for them. You're either the one on top or you're no one at all."

Selena had, of course, wanted to be different than that. She didn't want to be the next in line for the position of authority in a family of wolves. She had no interest in shady, international deals that undermined governments and promoted cold ideals. She didn't always feel like she wanted to be a superhero, either. But Selena wanted to leave the nest all the same, step out and see the world on terms that weren't set by her parents. This was new for her, even if it wouldn't be the way she lived the rest of her life. At least, that was what she had told herself until now.

Hearing what Compassion had explained, it was sounding like something the young wizard couldn't just ignore. But it was still a lot.

"...Alright, I'll help. But not now. It sounds like something big, and I can't just abandon everything." She still had a life, ultimately. Her family would notice if she just vanished.

Compassion smiled in response to Selena's will to help.

"You are capable of so much, Selena Amethyst Phoenix," Compassion said. "I understand your hesitation to commit immediately - the normal human mind is not equipped to deal with lifelong conflict. When you feel you are ready, call upon me - otherwise, I will reach out to you when the conflict starts. I know my Knighthood's head mage would be happy to apprentice you, should you feel overwhelmed. She's said to have tutored under Merlin himself - even I don't know if that's truth or mere bluster, but she's skilled, all the same. Regardless, don't feel like you have to take this on alone."

It was the truth - her head mage, Dorabella, had apprenticed many in witchcraft and wizardry over the ages, and she had such a mastery over magic that she was long-lived with no signs of appearing middle-aged anytime soon. Dorabella was a bit of a hothead, and with a rebellious streak not unlike Selena herself, but she was - without question - one of the strongest mages in the Knighthood, with her heart in the right place. With the rest of her students already graduated into well-rounded mages, Dorabella was short of candidates to teach.

Compassion stood up, with a smile at Selena, saying, "I'm afraid I must be going, friend. There are others with potential, just like you. I hope you remain safe - until we meet again."

With a short period of concentration, and a small incantation later, a small portal opened up outside for Compassion to trek through. Compassion needed to consult with Caius's visions to determine where Stareater would be.

With Compassion having gone on her way, Selena was left to think. It would be nice to get some magical guidance that wasn’t from the family’s library or tutors. Someone whose experience went that far back surely had their own insights. It thrilled her a little. But she had places to be for now.

So she finished off her coffee and dunked the cup into the trash, and then looked around for a door she could use to head home.

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Sangay Volcano, Ecuador

Volcanoes had a tendency to be quite warm. And Ecuador was a warm country, so Stareater decided she’d take some time to rest right at the summit of a volcano. The massive mountain that was Sangay had been active as of late, slowly spilling mafic lava down its huge prominence. High up, a few calderas had begun to form as the volcano caved in. Stareater touched down roughly two hours ago, and used a few small, controlled bursts of Whitespace energy to cut away some outcroppings of rock. What was left behind was small area that wouldn’t collapse as she sat with her back against the ground.

And then she simply soaked in the thermal energy.

Lately, she had been flying around a lot, and her internal reserves of energy were starting to get low. So Astrid didn’t worry about anything else. Instead, she just took the time to rest and recharge- Literally and metaphorically.

A particularly bright shooting star glimmered across Moonshadow's firmament as Stareater carved deep into the rock at Sangay. It had a physical effect at its equivalent location within the realm of Moonshadow - the Sangay of Moonshadow was in dormancy, in contrast to its mortal realm counterpart. In contrast to the mortal Sangay, this volcano had eroded into roughly the same shape and profile of a cinder cone volcano rather than the composite volcano of its mortal equivalent; it was not a perfect one-to-one replica of the "real" Sangay, but was close enough for the purposes of moving from place to place.

Most of Moonshadow was, from the outsider's perspective, chaotic and untouched by any amenities of modern civilization. What few structures there were in this realmwere left over from the days when Compassion and Justice were still together as proper siblings. What structures Justice had put up were inspired by Ancient Greek architecture, but they had long been eroded away by time and since reclaimed by the flora of Moonshadow. This meant that whenever Compassion had to use Moonshadow to travel into cities, she either had to open a portal at ground level or risk tele-fragging concrete and steel. After all, no two objects can occupy the exact same space at the exact same time.

Since she wasn't in her Unshackled form, Compassion couldn't properly fly to the top of Sangay. Still, she was able to skim across soil and treetop, with the updrafts catching her by her stardust gown. The rising air carried her up to the summit, her gown slowing her descent as - with an incantation - the portal between Moonshadow and Earth opening up beneath her. Heat hit her face, and parts of her body went intangible in response. She looked outright angelic, with her raven black hair being carried around by the high-altitude crosswinds.

"Peace, Stareater," she trailed on her descent. "I have not come for conflict."

Peace? Peace?

Peace went out the window as a bolt of Whitespace energy was pointed at Compassion. Stareater was immediately on her feet and ready to reduce the strange woman to a memory in the blink of an eye if she didn’t have a reason to continue her existence. The swirling orb of power crackled in the air, bubbling in shades of black and white and hissing like acid.

Astrid was a girl who knew when to be at peace and when not to be. Strangers appearing out of thin air and calling her by her hero name was not one of those times. ”DON’T. MOVE,”  She barked, in her otherworldly, pitchless voice. ”Identify yourself right now, who are you?!”

Compassion appeared to disintegrate in the blink of an eye in response to the bolt of Whitespace being pointed at her. In reality, she had started going intangible in a cloud of stardust.

"I see Caius was not wrong about your temper," Compassion trailed. "I am not your adversary, mortal. Not unless you choose to harm the innocent. I am many abstract concepts made manifest - mercy, charity, kindness, comfort, and to a lesser degree, justice. Some call me the 'Matron of Change', the 'Matron of Virtue', and the 'Mother of Love'. Most call me 'Compassion'."

While she could elevate the spirits of the downtrodden who were willing to accept her comfort, Compassion couldn't force one into a calm state of mind. She had to rely on legitimate charm and persuasion to defuse the situation.

"In truth, your existence was known to me even before you became what you are...Astrid. I have many eyes watching this world for me," Compassion said. "A genius prodigy for your age, the discoverer of an extremely volatile source of energy - one that, in the wrong hands, could spell total destruction for humanity. I also know that the lives you ended when your powers were gained were completely by accident - had they been deliberate, this conversation would not be happening. I would have been forced to repay the lives lost that day with your own."

She raised her hands in a placating gesture, saying, "One of my own has also shown me your exploits since you have taken up your role as a hero. Your heroism on the Queen of the Atlantic, your selflessness at the Apollo Northern Key Manufacturing Plant. In both situations, I found your restraint and your sense of responsibility admirable. You could have easily swept either venue away, but you deliberately limited yourself, because doing so would risk the innocent. It is this sense of responsibility you feel that has prompted me to seek you out. I sense your heart and see that what evil lies within is suppressed by a blinding light within you. Would you hear my words?"