"He can, apparently, only disappear objects he didn't make if his purpose is making something in its place. However, it also appears that his power—or his subconscious—does that by determining whether what he would make would actually need to intersect what actually exists..."

And he grabs a few things and suggests a few tests for this hypothesis.

He produces results consistent with this hypothesis!

It occurs to him that if someone tries checking whether he can tell which of two identical things he made by trying to vanish them, the ruse will fall apart. He starts making things with little ultraviolet tags, just in case.

That's smart of him because this is exactly the next thing Paulo thinks to test, in increasingly elaborate setups.

Yep he can distinguish things he made! Must be his power!

Frustrating, but interesting nonetheless. He will collect various samples of things Epic made—later—for testing.

And it's getting kinda late. Does he want to maybe continue this tomorrow?

"Yeah, probably should."

"After breakfast sound good to you?"

Bounce bounce. "Sure!"

"Okay! Now shoo, go back to your room, I have some data to compile," he says, smiling at Epic.

He scurries off to his room.

And given the time, he's unlikely to be bothered by anyone.

So - make invisible basement-dweller, get into bed, snuggle under the covers, yawn, teleport-trade-places with invisible basement-dweller, Chicago!

He feels very clever.

"Oh, you're back," says one of the Wards, manning the console, when Epic pops there. "Legend was looking for you."

- letters to Epic today -

There are three: one was written by Legend, wondering where he was; the second was also written by Legend, saying Epic should really come back soon; the third was written by Library of Alexandria, saying they have "blueprints" for him to rebuild New York.

Legend?

He does not seem to be around.

"Does anyone know where Legend is?"

"Uh, he went somewhere with Library of Alexandria and Hero, I think. Could ping him on the network," that Ward says, pointing at the computer.

"Can you show me how?"

"I mean I could do it—do you have a comm, though? Or, I guess you could just make one."

"Unless they hook up to the network weirdly, yeah."

"Weirdly how?"

"Such that making an exact copy of yours would not produce something that can communicate with the servers that communicate with yours. Persistent network IDs and a problem if two devices have the same one, or something."

"Oh. I think they're unique and persistent like that, yeah."