Mountain, meet Endbringer | Glowfic Constellation

Sure, why not, tomorrow afternoon is fine.

She figures out how to use email and sends a batch of emails to various possibly relevant companies in only slightly broken English explaining that she is a new cape ('cape' being different from 'parahuman' and thus not a lie) who can make and manipulate large amounts of stone and other earth-sourced things. Her name is Mountain, the Protectorate can verify her existence, and she'd be interested in selling services and materials.

Then she flies to one of the relatively cheap clothes stores she found on the internet. She's dropped most of the outer layers of her rock armor because it's too bulky (she can always make more after all), but is still pretty clearly a cape. She keeps her helmet because people seem surprised whenever she doesn't.

Yeah, it's kinda weird when a cape appears without a helmet. It's actually still pretty weird when capes walk around civilians at all, but yeah.

A bunch of those companies reply asking her about various things like rates, speed, what exactly she is offering, etc. She's not the first parahuman to go Capitalist but she is fairly rare in doing so and still identifying as 'cape.'

Until she has a better idea of the market she'll make raw material for 5% above bulk market price. The benefits are no shipping cost and almost no delay between ordering the stuff and getting it. She can make many thousands of tons of things like sand or limestone in minutes, but significantly less of things that don't occur naturally pure, like iron or titanium. One example of something she could do with stone-shaping is repairing cracked concrete foundations so you don't have to demolish that nice building. She can also do sculpture. She throws out a fairly high number for this kind of work - she can always change it later if everyone thinks it's too much.

She tries on clothes for a while, shedding her rock armor in the changing rooms, before buying a few simple outfits, packing them away, and flying to her mountain in the sea for the night.

She will find quite a number of people willing to both buy her products and hire her services. She will also receive an email from the Protectorate saying that to sell her services as a parahuman she needs to get a certain license and fill out a bunch of forms regarding safety and accountability and responsibility.

The following day, once she has signal, she will also receive a text message with a more precise location (the PHQ's roof) and time (4:30PM) for her to be escorted to Japan.

Fine, fine, forms and paperwork. Until 4:30 PM. Is she done with the forms and paperwork by then?

Oh, most definitely not, she's going to have to visit some places and possibly get a lawyer to sift through the tons and tons of legalese paper. Or she can just sign it all, but in any case she has to visit some places and personally hand some things in and demonstrate power use. There's quite a bit of bureaucracy.

At 4:30PM, there's a jet, two Sentai Elite, and one Japanese woman in a crisp formal dress waiting for her. "Good afternoon, Ms. Mountain," she says in heavily accented English. "It is our utmost pleasure to escort you to our glorious country."

She doesn't have a lawyer. She never needed one back home, and she probably doesn't have enough money for one from the Endbringer fund. Does the internet have (consistent, coherent) advice on the PRT's paperwork?

(She replies to interested parties that she's still arranging things with the PRT and will be doing repair work in Japan. They should expect to wait a few days/weeks.)

"Good afternoon. I hope my visit will be productive and interesting. Shall we board?"

The internet may or may not have advice on that; she'll have to check up on that on the plane.

"Yes, indeed. I am Aiko Wakahisa, and these are my colleagues Windfire and Blot. Let us board."

The inside of the jet is sumptuously appointed, with a red carpet and dark wooden furniture, as well as comfortable reclining and rotating chairs.

"Very nice." She's made sure the thin layer of stone and melded gems she's wearing is as smooth as possible, and pays attention when she moves to avoid letting it pinch anything.

The strenuous politeness will probably get old eventually, but for now it's sort of interesting.

"If I may ask, in what ways are the Sentai Elite different from the Protectorate? I admit I do not know a great deal about either group yet."

"We have very different philosophies. The Sentai Elite are more strictly trained, and we do not have celebrities. The names I informed you in English are not equivalent to the ones we have in the original Japanese—we highlight the importance of teamwork and complementing abilities and skills. The entire Sentai Elite is a cohesive unit, and each individual team is more a limb of that unit. We also keep track of all parahumans in sovereign territory, as you have been informed, in order to better understand and plan for contingencies and emergencies."

"I see. Is there a plan ready for the reconstruction? Will I be working closely with others or on my own?"

"There are plans, yes, in a hierarchy of priority. It would be ideal if you could coordinate with others that will complement your powers, but that is not absolutely necessary. There were a few details that were not completely clear. Can you work glass and metal as well as stone?"

"I can work metal with somewhat less skill than stone, but unfortunately I have no ability with glass. I can move water as well, but with relatively little skill and power. I do not often find it useful except as an umbrella."

"That is good to know. We have someone who can help with wood and someone who can help with glass, you could work with them."

"Yes, that would be best. I expect to want to help for about a week, possibly more or less depending on how much can be done in that time."

"Certainly. And we would also welcome you to rest in one of our Headquarters, if you would be so inclined."

"I only regain power when I rest in a place I have personally built or modified. If possible I should sleep on one of the plateaus I created to evacuate people, or on the mountain I accidentally raised while trying to hold Kyushu together."

"Very well. The offer still stands for other idle moments, however."

"I will probably accept." Is that the end of the conversation? If so, she'll get out her phone and see if it still internets after a few seconds of polite silence.

As far as her hosts are concerned, it is, for Aiko Wakahisa has grabbed her laptop and started typing into it.

The two capes accompanying her are just sitting there in silence.

So, does her Protectorate phone still have access to the internet? If so she starts scanning for advice on the PRT's paperwork. If that seems like a dead end she'll send emails to lawyers and hope they won't charge much to inform her what all those endless contracts actually mean.

There isn't much public advice that's not in itself buried in lots and lots of legalese. It's not wholly impossible to understand, if you're a native English speaker, but might prove somewhat challenging to her.

But lawyers that can navigate that for her are not too expensive!

...for lawyers. For her current funds, they're stretching a bit, but given that she doesn't need to pay for a place to live she might just be able to pay for one of the less expensive ones.

Can she borrow money from somewhere? She'll only need it for a month or so, and she doesn't really want to hire a cheap lawyer when screwing up with the law could be so inconvenient.

Her bank is willing to give her a loan. In fact, it's quite a big loan, though she might not recognize this given her lack of familiarity with American banks.