The elevator stopped, then opened onto a corridor that reminded Positive of a hospital. “How far down are we?”

“Far enough,” Doc Mach replied, “that if someone nuked the building, most of us wouldn’t know about it.”

The group headed down the hall, passing several doors and a few people in doctors coats. At the end of the hall was a set of blast doors. Miss Raven typed something on a touchscreen to open them, revealing Captain Cosmic looking out of the room on the other side through a window that took up almost the entire left wall. He turned at the sound of the door opening, and greeted Positive with a gruff “Good morning.”

Unsure what else to do, Positive held out a hand, only to be ignored.

“I assume you’ve brought her up to date?”

Miss Raven nodded.

'How is she?' The Jovian Justicar asked telepathically.

“Stable. Or at least as stable as can be expected.”

The rest of the Paragons turned towards the window, prompting Positive to do the same. On the other side was a setup that reminded her of a hospital room. There was a metal-framed adjustable bed up against the far wall, surrounded by medical instruments. Sitting on the bed - with an IV in her right arm and having her heart rate, blood pressure, brainwaves, and things Positive could only guess at monitored by said instruments - was a tiny, elderly woman. She was Hispanic, like Positive herself, and wearing a hospital gown and a large pair of metal framed glasses.

“Is that her?”

“Yes. If you want to talk to her, the door’s right over there.”

“You’re here,” the woman said as Positive opened the door.

There was a folding chair next to the bed. Sitting there, Positive saw that the window she had looked in through was one-way, with a television hanging over it on this side. “Yes. I am.”

There was an awkward silence for what felt like at least a minute. “So… why do you want it to be me?”

The woman chuckled: “Well, you’ve been on the news a few times, and when they told me someone was killing the Champions I felt like it was time. Because obviously, I’m not as young as I used to be. And I want my successor to be someone who can defend themselves. I had to learn that kind of thing after getting these powers.”

“But why not someone else? Someone more experienced? There has to be someone eligible with better martial arts training than me, or whose powers aren’t dependent on someone else.”

“Well, wouldn’t it be nice to have powers you can use on your own? To not be dependent on Negative?”

“Is that what this is? You picked me because you thought I would be easy to talk into doing it? I have my brother to look after, I can’t just…” she trailed off, not sure how to finish the sentence.

“We’re not gonna force you. I’m just asking you to think about it.”