Just the facts. No room for manipulation, no room for the skeptical to wonder if he was being deceptive. Filling everyone in. Even the scared and distracted were being pulled in, because this was all information we needed.

“Today’s situation started with a cape named Fume Hood, who some of you may remember from the community center attack, where hired mercenaries disrupted the inauguration of a new team, and Fume Hood was shot in the chaos. Today, she was one of a handful of capes asked to help keep the peace at the Earth-Cheit portal when a riot broke out. She put her life on the line to help a group of teenage heroes she was mentoring, second-triggered, and became a Titan.”

He paused for effect. Because every cape present had to be wondering if they were at any risk. It gave the moment weight.

It already felt pretty fucking weighty. She’d been a friend, and I felt guilty for what she’d become. If I hadn’t said anything and let her retire, yeah, she might have ended up returning to minor villainy. But she’d be alive, probably, not… this.

“For the remainder of the Titans who appeared, we think it was capes who were struggling or losing touch with themselves and who were proximate to the collapse of reality who became Titans.”

I digested that.

“Fume Hood was a blaster who created compressed gas orbs that broke on impact. Her ability has increased several times over, with vast quantities of noxious gas filling the area around her. From our initial observations she can solidify it into objects, and those objects can move. Her original power allowed her to create flavors of gas ranging from irritants to choking gases, and even a concentrated, flesh-melting gas she declined to use until her final moments. Above all else, her durability and reach are what have increased, and these are common trends across all Titans. Reach, durability.”

Another pause for effect.

“Some hero groups made initial attacks against her as they crossed her path, to little initial effect. She seems to be focusing on defense, and we’re marking her lower priority as a result. For now, at the suggestion of the team she was mentoring, we’re terming her Titan Eve.”

There were televisions mounted behind Legend, and though he had no prompter, he trusted staff to bring up the right images.

It was a still image of the Titan that had once been Contessa. Head bowed. Luminous golden eyes lined a body that looked like it was made of overlapping arms and stretches of fur, all in black. There was a vaguely wolf-like head at either shoulder and one at her right breast, none with eyes in the appropriate place.