Mage Among Superheroes

Ceira sighed. “I liked this park. Now it’s got a burnt out crater and people might try to kill me if I come here.”

“Sorry about that,” I said. “I don’t intentionally attract trouble but…”

“I know,” she replied. “I already knew the risks of being your friend. I just don’t have the same enthusiasm for combat as you do.” She crouched down next to Bun, wrapping her arms around the newly healed canine. “I’m sorry you got hurt. I should have had you guys run away instead.” Bun barked in response. I wasn’t quite certain how to interpret it, and the same was apparently true for Ceira. “I can’t understand you right now… give me a few minutes,” she said, patting the golden furred dog. Cel also rubbed up against her and the dog.

Movebrain was still nearby, and cleared his throat to draw our attention. “I won’t say something foolish like you’ll be safe here in the future, but I will say that it is unlikely Dark Star will be coming back here in the short term. It would make it easier for us to track her location and potentially find her. Speaking of tracking her…”

“Scrying Gloom sucks,” I said. “And they hang out together now. But I’ll add it to my list.” Scrying took far too much Mana, and unlike Gate which did happen to take more… I had practically limitless reasons to use it. The Brigade would like me to be using it at all hours of the day, but that wasn’t any fun at all, as Midnight and I could attest from our experience with Handface. But at least that guy was dealt with for now.

At some point, Jet came back into the picture. Perhaps she had been waiting around, hidden, but it was difficult to tell. I did notice her walking somewhat gingerly, however, and I recalled an injury in her side- now covered up by the silvery coating covering most of her.

“I’m sorry, mom,” Midnight said. “We should have just retreated somewhere safe.”

Jet’s ears twitched. From my experience with Midnight, it was something of a mild disagreement, though he often shook his head now because of his experience with humanoids. “I don’t know about that. You judged that you could win a particular battle, until extraneous variables appeared. But even then, you didn’t fail to call ahead of time for backup that could solve that problem. Also, I can’t just let a Bunvorixian harass my son, can I? Especially since this group seems to be a persistent problem.”

“Hopefully less in the future,” Midnight said, looking over to where Spot was being put into the back of one of Extra’s enforcement vans. “Though the bigger threats are an annoying persistent option.” His tail swished back and forth. “How are your wounds?”

“Not bad enough to worry about. I’ve had worse, and you know the suit will help me recover just fine.”

“That’s good,” Ceira said. “Because I’m basically out of juice. Regenerate is… expensive. I only have like… 30 mana.”

And I had just over 50 but… “Aren’t you still below level 20?”

“I’ve got that Forest Attunement ability. It helps increase that, though my numbers are just approximate.”

“Right,” I said. And she got it without doing something stupid involving crystals. I really had to look into those techniques so that we could pick a good one for Midnight, Jerome, and any other mages. And maybe see if any of them worked for Izzy or Khithae.

-----

“Ugh, I can’t believe she did that again,” Sophia complained later in her casual form, after her shift was over. “She knows she can’t beat me so she goes after someone… less experienced.” She looked over at me guiltily.

“I am aware that I am weaker,” I said. “And I doubt that I will ever be able to match your particular talents outside of short bursts.”

We were lounging around my apartment, since I was a lot more obvious. I could use Disguise on myself and Midnight everywhere we went, but I really wasn’t that into hiding my identity. Perhaps I should have while hanging out with Ceira, though. Obviously we would have had to disguise Jet as well, since she was quite difficult to confuse with a regular cat.

“Are you resistant to her strange fire?” Jet asked.

Sophia shrugged. “I’m resistant enough to everything. Specifically, I could pummel her into the ground before she could really hurt me.”

“You seem unable to fly, however,” Jet added. “Doesn’t that hamper your ability?”

“Nah, I’d just throw a truck at her. She can only resist so much kinetic energy at once. A bullet isn’t that much in comparison.”

“I wouldn’t let the Brigade hear you talking about throwing trucks,” I said.

“Bah, if I brought in Dark Star they’d forgive me for any property damage. She’s got a freaking huge bounty, you know?”

I frowned. “I was under the impression that there weren’t bounties on particularly powerful supervillains. Calculator said something about discouraging idiots from getting themselves killed.”

“Well, sure. Not a public bounty,” Sophia shrugged. “The city has to weigh the costs of people trying to catch these villains vs the damage they’ll cause. And ultimately, there’s a number for those who know.” She shook her head. “Just assume they’ll throw you a big party if you kill Doctor Doomsday.”

“Has anyone tried getting him to meet up with Heartstopper?” I asked.

“I think so,” she said. “Pretty sure his gear protects him from almost every publically available power.”

“Including blunt force trauma?” I asked.

“Unfortunately,” she nodded. “And he’s been known to make devices that could injure the toughest bruisers, so most people don’t try.”

I made a mental note to either never get involved with him again, or to pick up a secret spell specifically for taking him out. And realistically only the latter would matter.

“Anyway,” Sophia said. “That incident mostly worked out well. And I didn’t really expect to catch Kourtney.”

“Is that this… Dark Star Girl’s name?” Jet asked.

“Whoops,” she shrugged. “Don’t tell anyone I told you, because of PR stuff. But otherwise, I don’t care.”

“I don’t even live on this planet, so… I think it won’t be an issue,” Jet replied.

“Good point,” Sophia said.

-----

It was difficult to say if the time with Jet was long or short. Without any more battles, days felt kind of long… but we were already sending her back to Celmoth before I knew it.

“Make sure you come visit as soon as you can, alright?” Jet insisted.

“We will,” Midnight said. “But remember that’s partially up to you. Turlough isn’t a native so he needs permission and stuff.”

“Who do you take me for? Obviously I can arrange for that easily,” Jet said. “Just make sure to send me a message. For now, you’ll have to use your magic for that until we can set up a relay here.” Midnight tilted his head questioningly. “Well I tried using the suit but clearly our quantum tunneling communications falls off after… some distance.”

“Okay, but-” Midnight began, to be interrupted a moment later.

Jet leaned forward, and a wave of silver flowed off of her onto the floor next to Midnight. “You’re going to have this, of course. I know how hard it is to operate without one. That Zorphax fellow had things to say about sharing with others, but you can use it yourself without worries.”

“Oh. But what about you?” Midnight asked.

“Do you think I can’t get another one of these?” Jet asked. “You may have gotten used to living without anything like this, but we do make them you know.”

Midnight looked down at the one in front of him. “I’ve never had a military grade one…” He leaned over to look at Jet’s side. She had a bare spot from her earlier wound, but it looked otherwise healed except for the fur. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry, I’d gladly do more to protect any of my kids,” she rubbed her face on his. “Well, I suppose I should go so I don’t overstay my welcome. Family is nice to see every once in a while, but I’ve monopolized too much of your time. Plus I’d have to fill out a bunch of paperwork to stay longer.” She looked up at me. “You might have people coming to you. Not many, since Celmothians here seem to be rare, but we would like our people back if they want to return. And you’re the one we’d trust most to accomplish that.”

I’d never expected to work in translation or transportation… but I supposed for the sake of Midnight and his people, I could do it. Until Midnight could handle it alone, of course.

-----

“What a disaster this was!” Francois said. “It’s not so easy to just patch holes in outfits such as this. Why, I’ll strangle that woman for this! And her fashion sense too. Seriously, black? Who designs this crap?” He flung his hands up. “I can’t believe my profession is being belittled.” He glanced over at Midnight and I. “But seriously, if you find out who is supplying super suits for villains, people would love to know. We’re nearly certain it isn’t Doomsday, as he at least has some aesthetic capability when he wishes.”

“... right,” Midnight said. “So, any luck integrating the suit with mine?”

“Not a one!” Francois grinned widely. “But oh, seeing that suit… it’s a work of art! I imagine it’s eminently comfortable in a way I could ever achieve. And so functional! Too bad it’s silver.”

“Well, it can color shift,” Midnight said. “Or it can settle into the fur and become nearly invisible.”

Francois trembled. “If only I could dismantle it to learn the secrets! But alas, I wouldn’t want to deprive you of such a wonderful device. And Extra would be all over me in the worst way,” he shook his head sadly. “Ultimately, I have little I can do for you except make the headset integrate with it. Since you still need to be on local comms and all. Otherwise, it’s equal or better than my current capabilities.” He spun on his heels towards me. “And you… well, at least I get to iterate on your suit regularly. But I’m surprised how much you get in trouble.” His eyes flickered to my hair. “At least that grows back quickly, or you’d have to be bald.”

I shrugged. “That wouldn’t be so bad.”

“It gets chilly,” he said. “Though I suppose you’re usually covered there.”

I nodded. Head protection was important, and though it wasn’t visible there was part of my outfit that covered my head. It wasn’t perfect, obviously, but it was much better than leaving my head vulnerable. There was only so much levels or natural toughness contributed to durability, especially for a mage. Having more layers was important.

At least the suit was fixed. Francois was always good about that, and I was quite glad to have it. Especially if he could make it slightly more resistant to Darkstargirl’s attacks. I wasn’t sure I wanted to undergo enough ‘iterations’ to perfect that, however.

-----

Sometimes, I forgot how many different things I had committed to. I found myself with sufficient free time, though some of that was because I could perform what I would otherwise consider normal leisure activities while on the job. Like reading through my ‘new’ book to pick out the best mana growth and recovery methods to share.

Scrying took a small portion of time, but a large portion of my regenerated mana. Obviously the Brigade let me keep enough for decent training, but there were many things to look for in this world and my old one.

And then there were the newbies in front of me. Fresh recruits, greener than grass. And not all of them even knew what classes they had ended up with. That was part of my job, figuring out what class they had drifted towards and then doing my best to train them to actually use their abilities. At least it pulled double duty with other things I wanted to do, as I could have them help some of my experiments to understand the whole system. Though they were currently only the weird half of the class system where they didn’t have points.

Needless to say, Extra was not super hot on the idea of me bringing a half dozen individuals who were basically civilians across a dimensional barrier into a world that hadn’t invited them. And Sir Kalman probably didn’t count as official enough permission. I could still do it, of course, but the Brigade didn’t want to cause a fuss. They also made it clear to these people that not all of them would be heading towards combat positions- which sounded like a downside to me, but might actually be preferred for certain classes.