"Let me answer your question with a question. Your people, who you have escaped from," another uncomfortable fidget from Silvia. Had they interrogated her while Ace was a statue? "If they invaded tomorrow, would the Earthlings win? Are you certain of it? And another question. If tomorrow, someone - Zenteno, perhaps, or Zohar, or Tabs - gave everyone superpowers. Would the result be a golden age, or would the planet be torn apart at the seams?"<br/><br/>"Minerva, are doing that thing where you ask a question you already know the answer to?"<br/><br/>"Maybe a little. Maybe Ace has a different conclusion and I'd be interested in hearing it. But we've run a great many simulations, particularly with the Scellor, and they all come up about the same - we'd lose, or we'd win but be so devastated as to be defenseless. The nations and corporations are too divided, too many of our best, our brightest, our strongest, have abandoned our world, while those that remain are too weak-willed and seeking only after their own pleasure, like our Silvia here. She needs a stronger hand guiding her toward a useful purpose, rather than squandering her gifts."<br/><br/>"How magnanimous of you, dear," Silvia said, a tinge of bitterness creeping into her tone, "I've been a good little girl before, you know. Perfectly pictured, perfectly constructed, perfectly composed. A smiling and virtuous fake life as a packaged and marketed product. Recluse helped me<em>escape</em>that, remember?"<br/><br/>"I remember; you still<em>owe</em>him for that freedom, remember? But you're one of us; your present inclinations are a phase and you'll grow out of them," Minerva said maternally, "and then you'll ask yourself, what have you really done? What have you built for yourself? We'll help you with that."<br/><br/>"That was the<em>point</em>, Minerva! I haven't built anything anyone could sink their claws into."<br/><br/>Ace was covertly burning away strands of spider-silk - there! She could see around the edges of the leaden plates inset into her blindfold. Arachne had set to braiding Silvia's hair, putting makeup on her and holding a mirror to her face, while the Silver Spider herself very pointedly looked straight ahead, trying to keep her composure even. If she could angle the beams of the mirror just so... there! She could feel the spidersilk cords binding her starting to snap. Not all of them, but just enough and in the right places make it weak enough to burst her bindings when the time came.<br/><br/>Minerva had returned to being the armored woman with wings and horns. Ace appeared to be interred in some sort of compact dining room; she had apparently fallen out of her chair.<br/><br/>"As Napoleon Bonaparte destroyed the monarchies of Europe to bring a new age of reason that lasts to this day, our Lord Recluse will bring the whole of Earth under one banner. A world order capable of resisting the Zaicheks, or the Scellor, or your own people, without relying on a scattered and sluggish response from supers. A world order capable of asserting itself in this galaxy of ours, a<em>power</em>instead of a tourist destination. An order where villains like Nephilim don't come to be, where the greatest minds of our generation find support instead of being allowed to destroy themselves by degrees. We gave the nations of the world many,<em>many</em>years to try and adapt to their new situation. They haven't. They might not even be capable of doing so." She made a grand sweeping gesture, "Let them be swept away, then!<br/><br/>And we want to improve humanity, figure out what parts of it are worthy of the power that you or I enjoy, give these people the power to pursue their dreams. We want to influence things so that eventually everyone is so worthy. It's much more just if anyone can become an atomic superman, rather than rolling the dice with whoever happens to be in the way of a chemical spill, or get bitten by a spider or screw up a lab experiment, don't you think? There would be controls, of course, to ensure that people used their powers responsibly, but that's no different from how it is today.<br/><br/>For you, I don't think that much would change if we were victorious. You'd still be a defender of the Earth and its people. We might have disagreements, but I feel Recluse's rule might be much more responsive to the people's needs than your congresses and parliaments if, instead of yet another protest on his lawn or a lost election followed by a cushy lobbying job, the consequences for acting unjustly would be a furious flying Ace trying to rip out his spine. Oh, they'd call you a supervillain, of course, trying to disrupt the proper order of governance and the progress of the new world order for your selfish ideas. They'd call<em>me</em>a superhero for trying to preserve it. I wonder if that would bother you?"<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Mechanics</div><div class="spoiler_body">Doom pool rolls 14 total with d10 effect plus two opportunities, so Ace is not only free but can recover her spaceflight if she wants.</div></div>