"Makes sense."

"You have more questions about the offer?"

"I wouldn't mind specifics about the support resources you have."

"In your inbox half an hour ago."

"Rights and responsibilities and scope and budget."

"We're opening to negotiating the details and you'll have to talk to Skitter before we finalize things but we are happy about you having authority over what goes on in the dungeons provided the truce is followed - outside of dungeons you'll have a lot of freedom and you can work with basically anyone you want - though we'd rather not have you hiring anyone who's going to make a lot of trouble. You'd start off managing dungeons in Brockton Bay but we're open to expansion - or to you prioritizing what dungeons you cover. We'd particularly like you deploying to dungeons where a stabilizing element will help discourage conflict between capes, if you have to choose. We're pretty darn low on cash right now but we can spare a few hundred k of funding for the next few months. We have a lot more non-cash resources, including mercenaries, support staff, and capes."

"I assume the mercs come with weapons, that's going to matter. Are you going to have trouble making payroll for these guys, I don't want to get in between mercs and supervillains with financial disputes."

"We have weapons and are paying the mercs upfront and won't have trouble with that."

"I can write up my memory-and-extrapolation-therefrom of an armed normies assault on a dungeon protocol once I'm - at, uh, Transit's house, and have a computer that'll talk to Rete, I should meet it properly now that I can tolerate it. I think the situation you're describing to me wants a superstructure that isn't like an agency or a guild because there's no employment relationship... I'm going to want connects to Tinkers who'll want the dungeon materials and will pay for them."

Hrm, how best to put that the Undersiders can run that side of things...

Well, they could announce they're going legit? Lorica liked Toybox, Undersiders who were like Toybox for dungeon mats would be fine probably for this Loricalike person.

Well that's not on the table but maybe she can work with it...

"We have some contacts that'll be good for that and can find more - we'll keep it squeaky clean and aboveboard, don't worry."

"I appreciate that. Mundie R&D departments can also get somewhere with dungeon materials but I get the sense it's less of a thing here because your world is disintegrating."

"Hopefully we can get it to disintegrate a little slower."

"I don't know that dungeons will help, but I guess I don't know they won't, you have warning and the materials are a big deal economically," she shrugs.

"Yeah - it'll also matter how often esper awakening cause triggers or second triggers."

"Shouldn't that chance of second triggers be really low? There aren't that many capes."

"Parahumans are more likely to awaken, I think. And liable to second trigger pretty often when they do - pretty sure that happened to you."

"When?"

"Prooobably earlier in your awakening but that's going out on a limb."

"You know what I got from it?"

"Not yet but I'll let you know."

"How much more likely? Baseline probability is one in fifty thousand."

"One in a hundred maybe?"

"Jesus!"