Mage Among Superheroes

“So, we need to tune out both Granbold and Ethus,” I frowned, preparing my last casting of Scrying. I was fairly certain Midnight and I were only able to attempt this at all because of things being folded into Advanced Divination Magic. So far, we’d only obtained one particularly useful point of information. Knowing that mages in the capital deflected Scrying spells was interesting, but not surprising. And so far, we hadn’t confirmed a single portal. My magic slowly coalesced into… Ethus again. “Seems I wasn’t able to properly tune out two locations. Perhaps my thoughts wandered too much.”

I let the spell dissipate, as I didn’t want to give anyone an opportunity to determine they were being watched, if it wasn’t something that happened frequently. Not that I could actually see anything from that location.

“I guess it’s my turn, then,” Midnight said. I could feel his concentration through our bond, his magic flowing into the mirror. He managed to end up looking at a new place. The outer edge of a tower, as far as I could tell. “There sure are a lot more Scrying anchors than I anticipated. This one feels more magical, though.”

I looked at the building, trying to figure out where it was from. “Do you recognize that architecture?”

“It’s not much,” Sir Kalman said. “But I think… Adrela?”

“That would make sense. They’re known for their mages, after all. We still don’t actually know if we can spot a portal, though,” I sighed.

“We’re done, right?” Midnight asked, letting the spell fade after turning the view in all directions and finding nothing of note. “Too bad we didn’t learn anything.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Sir Kalman commented. “The information about Ethus is rather pertinent. Working with this Doomsday guy. And you learned something about your own abilities, as you’re able to pick out things that you shouldn’t, normally.”

“True,” I agreed. “We’re not supposed to be able to target points. Actually, that’s something we should test more directly instead of searching for magic. Maybe when we’re back on Earth. You don’t need us here anymore, right?” I asked Sir Kalman.

“The main thing was that you make this journey, so it doesn’t happen during an emergency. And of course, discussing what might not be safe through Sending. And learning even a single place to focus our efforts could be useful.”

“Do you think we should stay, try to pick out something else?” I asked. Then I frowned. “Or should we figure out if we can do this from Earth?”

“Could you?” Sir Kalman said, surprised.

“Sure. Normal Scrying has a pretty high interplanar success rate, at least. Interdimensionally… well, it works sometimes, at least.” Zentha Qitris managed to Scry me for Izzy, among other things. Though she wasn’t necessarily a good guidepost for if it was reasonable. She was famed for her divinations, after all. “We do have a very good Scrying… thing… back on Earth, so that might even things out. Plus, we’d get to sleep in our own beds.”

“I’m suddenly very motivated to go back to Earth,” Midnight said. “Or to improve our ability with Shelter, so we have something consistent and nice. Hmm…” Midnight pondered. “Or we could improve Storage so I would have room to fit a bed.”

“Cat sized beds aren’t very heavy,” I pointed out. “Why can’t you fit one now? We can carry like forty-five pounds each.” Midnight just looked at me, and it was clear that in his opinion it was currently full of necessities.

“I think it would be fine for you to go back,” Sir Kalman said. “Just keep up the regular communication.”

“You should get a mage you trust,” I said.

“There’s you. And I don’t know how to find anyone else,” he shrugged.

“Maybe someone who was dragged to Earth? One of them had to be a mage, right? And with the ability to learn without points…”

“We’ll see,” Sir Kalman said. “Their safety has to be monitored regardless.”

I didn’t suggest it, but there was also the possibility of taking any random person from Earth and bringing them here. But I had the feeling Extra and perhaps some others wouldn’t like that option. Plus, that wouldn’t necessarily increase their trustworthiness.

Having decided to go back to Earth, it took a couple hours for Midnight and I to rest up and restore sufficient mana for Gate. Between us, twenty points was really only a bit over an hour and a half, or even less if we focused on mana recovery. But it wouldn’t hurt to have a bit extra. Getting too close to empty made things… wobbly. Which wasn’t good for going through portals, as it turned out.

-----

“... And then we came back here,” I finished my report to Calculator. “I assume Extra and some other people need to know about those scrying anchors in Ethus.”

“Indeed,” Calculator said. “And we need to test our own.”

“We have some?” I asked.

“Doctor Doomsday may be paranoid in his thoroughness- or perhaps it is entirely reasonable, considering how much New Bay would like to take him down- but ultimately, he has good ideas about security measures. And if you’re going to be using HQ to spy on extradimensional wizards, we want to be protected against the reverse.”

“Good point,” I said. “Just to be clear, I don’t know how to make… any sort of permanent magical things.”

“We weren’t going to rely on you for that anyway. Actually, we’re already warded against whatever superpowers we’re aware of, so we’re really just tweaking what we already have. We’ll just need you to test with regards to Scrying type things in particular.”

Midnight tilted his head. “So the Power Brigade already has that stuff?”

“Sure, but just in our HQ, and not in any of dozens of secret bases that Doctor Doomsday has. So while we might match his quality for a single structure, he likely has to use fewer resources to achieve the same effect. Or when he’s had a successful string of crimes, more resources for greater effects.”

“So once you make something good enough,” I began, “People won’t be able to Scry us, right? Not that I’ve noticed anything like that.” Hmm, that was actually odd. Wasn’t there some shadowy cabal from my world that would probably hear about my extradimensional travels and would be motivated to keep tabs on me? And I’d only just gotten Nondetection.

“Depends on how good they are,” Calculator shrugged.

“Isn’t that a problem?” I asked.

“It’s the perpetual problem of security. Ultimately, we have to settle for good enough. It’s a constant arms race between offensive and defensive security. That’s computers, locks, fortifications…” Calculator shrugged. “Could some determined supers blow through the wall of HQ? Sure. If they don’t mind never leaving. And a casual attack wouldn’t do it. So it’s good enough. And since you’ve gotten past Doctor Doomsday’s basic level scrying anchors, if you can’t get past our new security it will be declared sufficient.”

“I see,” I nodded.

“It is possible to have perfect network security, though,” Midnight said.

“Is it?” Calculator raised an eyebrow.

“Oh yes, many of these problems have been solved on Celmoth,” he said. “Of course, you can never ignore the dangers of social engineering, but nobody’s going to help Bunvorixians get through our planetary security so it’s only minor dangers.”

“That’s the reason we reacted so strongly when you walk in with Nondetection,” Calculator pointed out. “A compromised agent, either mind controlled or an imposter, are both extreme risks. So are people being bribed, but that’s one of the many reasons we have good pay and benefits. And robust friends and family rescue plans.” Calculator looked at me. “This hasn’t been an issue with you so far, but I just want to remind you that if someone threatens your friends and tells you not to contact anyone… you should definitely get those people involved because they’re afraid of them.”

“I am aware,” I said. “Though last time I got in trouble with Doctor Doomsday and he kidnapped Ceira and we spent months in another dimension.”

“And we sent members to support you and everyone made it back alright. Now, I’m not going to say we can guarantee success… but I can say it will always be better than the alternative of giving in to the demands of supervillains.” He paused. “And if negotiations are possible, we’re the best qualified to handle it.”

“I’ve negotiated things before,” I said.

“And you were successful because of your ability to magically learn new languages and your aggressively uncomfortable honesty and your concerning adaptability.”

“It also helped that it was mostly communications issues,” I said. “Like with Rositsa.”

“Very few people would see a blood portal and go ‘ah, that’s probably fine.’”

I shrugged, “Zorphax was the one who called me.”

“And there are very few people who do as well as him in Extra,” Calculator said. “Regardless, we’re glad to have you working for us, and we appreciate you not assuming you can get through everything on your own. Calling upon us is the correct option… even if I might wish you gravitated towards trouble less.”

“I probably wouldn’t be here if that wasn’t the case.” Where would I be? With Master Uvithar, having not gone through the portal? Or would my life have been entirely different? Eh, didn’t matter. I was here now, and I liked it. Even if there were a lot of looming threats to deal with.

“When we’re ready for testing,” Calculator returned to a previous topic, “We’ll have you Scry from somewhere outside the building. And then we’ll see if there’s a difference from the inside.”

“The Scrying focus might matter,” I pointed out. “There’s a big difference between regular mirrors and… that thing Vilhemiina made.”

“True,” Calculator said. “I think it will be best to use a standard mirror in both cases.”

“So we should probably wait to Scry stuff in the other world until that’s ready.”

“Right. Though it is somewhat concerning that one of the nations is using Doctor Doomsday’s newer anchors, it’s also not… surprising? We would appreciate information about that country, however.”

“Oh. Right. Probably should have brought a history book.” That was something to ask Sir Kalman for, since while I knew some things- and the book wouldn’t be fully accurate- it was better to have one than not.

-----

Not everything I did was directly related to super activities. Except for the fact that all of my friends had powers, but that was just coincidence. Even so, supernatural stuff kept coming up, though that was probably more the fault of New Bay.

Even just a day at the park hanging out with Ceira had something crop up.

“You don’t look like you’re enjoying Cel and Bun running around,” I said. I didn’t know what her face was supposed to be saying, but it wasn’t that.

“I am!” Ceira protested. “I mean, I should be. But I can’t help but worrying about things.” Ah yes. Worry. I did that, sometimes. But sometimes I just thought about threats without it really being worry. “Like, you’re protecting yourself against detection. And then you taught me Nondetection, and I couldn’t help but think about you using it on Midnight.”

“Right.” I said. “Go on.”

“I mean… Doc- that guy knows about Bun and Cel. I’ve been casting it on them but it takes my whole mana pool for the three of us and I feel like I can’t afford to do anything else with magic. And… I like magic.”

“Hmm,” I frowned. “And there are three of you.”

“Well, yes. That makes it take three times as much.”

“So Multicasting wouldn’t help, because it’s also triple price for four times as many targets,” I thought out loud. “Which one is your animal companion?”

“My what? Isn’t that a ranger thing?”

“Is it?” I tilted my head. “No, I don’t think so. I mean, it is. But it’s mostly a druid thing.” I pulled out my phone, holding something up. “See, look.”

“No but…” Ceira also opened up a website. “This is the only place it comes up.”

I crossed my arms. “I see. You have been led astray by changing editions.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ceira asked. “You’re not the druid.”

“Sure, but I know a couple things about them. Also, one of those two,” I gestured to the running animals. Currently, Cel was chasing Bun around. “Is infused with mana. So they’re at least on the way to being your companion.”

“Wait, so… it’s like a familiar right?”

“Yes and no. They’re not going to be smarter.” I looked at Midnight. “Though Midnight is a weird exception, having already been intelligent, so he didn’t really pick that up. Anyway, you should pick one of them. It will save you mana.”

“But I can’t pick a favorite!” Ceira said. “They’re both the best!”

“Well, you probably already have,” I said. “With what I’m feeling. We should inspect them so at least you know.”

“Ugh… fine. Cel, Bun, come here!” The two animals twisted mid-chase and charged over towards us. Midnight swapped to my far shoulder as Bun slid to a halt just after ramming into Ceira’s knees on the bench. Cel hopped up onto her lap. “So which of them is it?”

I looked at them closely. From here, the mana infusion was easier to feel. I looked at Midnight. He looked back at me. “As an expert on bonds, would you say you share my opinion?”

Midnight looked at Cel, and then Bun, and then back to Ceira. “I think so.”

“I’ll just say it then. Tell me if you were thinking something else.”

“... Actually-” Ceira began.

“It’s both of them,” I said. Midnight nodded.

“... What?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Don’t look at me. You’re the druid.”