Mage Among Superheroes

Since the information was somewhat related to Midnight and I, and thus we would find out anyway, we were there when Malaliel, Kyle, and the human woman known as Maacah reported on the Bunvorixian interrogations.

“That chihuahua form Bunvorixian seems to be one of their ‘commanders’,” Malaliel explained. “He was decidedly unhelpful, despite being able to communicate clearly. A liar.”

“That’s the typical command structure,” Midnight explained. “The small ones are in charge, the mid sized one do the practical work, and the large ones are usually in direct military service.”

“So it’s some sort of size-based class system?” Malaliel asked.

I frowned. “I don’t think they have-”

“Social classes,” she corrected.

“Oh, I guess so,” I nodded. Had Midnight explained this to me before? Maybe. Or maybe I hadn’t asked.

“I won’t say I got no useful information, however,” Malaliel added. “The way people lie can tell just as much of the truth as they wish to conceal. The little twerp seemed to think he was entitled to luxurious accommodations as a prisoner of war- despite the fact that they wouldn’t provide such for any of their prisoners if it came down to it.”

“... Are angels allowed to say mean things?” I asked.

“I can say anything I believe is true without issue. I could call him a hellspawn instead of a twerp, even.” She shook her head. “Regardless, he admitted to being in command of the capital ship which is sufficient grounds to prosecute him. What about you?” she turned to Maacah.

“Mine just repeated her name and some sort of military rank but nothing else.”

Malaliel sighed. “Kyle?”

“We have determined that Zeb is extremely bribable, and that Bunvorixians seem to have lost their local squirrel population, or some equivalent creature,” the semi-reflective bundle of darkness spoke. Some people would probably find him hard to work with if not for his natural aura of calm. “Oh, and they blamed it on the Celmothians.”

“We didn’t do that!” Midnight complained. “They did it to themselves before we even made first contact!”

Kyle nodded, his body contracting. “Zeb did seem to believe it but was likely led astray. Wouldn’t you agree?” he asked me.

“It seems pretty likely, yeah. Why would the Celmothians wipe out just the squirrels if they were enemies? They could have wiped out all of the Bunvorixians.”

“We… wouldn’t do that,” Midnight said. I knew that was true- and that the hesitation in his words was also relevant.

Malaliel looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Were there plans to?”

“Long before I was born,” Midnight admitted.

“The ability to move past the instinct to destroy is admirable,” Malaliel said. “Now, the only question should be… do we expect similar results from those of the same status? We have only the one commander, it seems. Though it’s somewhat odd… the case of Spot, I mean.”

“Well, someone suddenly gaining powers would be unusual,” Midnight admitted. “I’m not sure how he would have gotten in contact with more of his people but…”

“Probably Sending,” I commented. “Though after he was captured, I’m not sure. Did Extra have the proper facilities to contain a magic user?”

“We found no signs of Spot making any use of mana while contained.” Malaliel ended her sentence rather… concretely.

“Do you know something else?” I said.

“I’d prefer you to not ask,” she replied.

“You can say its classified or secret,” I pointed out.

“The investigation is ongoing and…” she shook her head. “Zorphax asked me not to talk about it.”

“You could have just started with that,” I said. Which, interestingly, implied that it wasn’t supposed to be secret. I didn’t quite know what that implied, though.

“Yes. Well.” Malaliel shook her head. “We will request you back here on later days, at least until we have a functional translation of the language.” She looked over at Midnight. “Combined with Celmothian information, it shouldn’t take long. But your computer systems are largely incompatible with ours and the data conversion process is slow. Plus, there is the issue of remote transmissions taking time.”

Midnight pondered. “... I could make use of any data files. I don’t think my suit could convert them or inject them into a useful system, though.”

“We’re managing just fine,” Malaliel said. “The presence of one of both of you will remain valuable for Translation magic, though.”

-----

With the injuries and the interrogations and all that, we’d only been partially debriefed by the Brigade. Which meant that now was the time.

“Where did Darkstargirl and Gloom end up?” I asked.

Calculator sighed. “I’m supposed to be the one asking questions.” He paused. “They escaped along with Spot, but we have narrowed down the possible locations of their lair- or at least some lair. It’s not exactly a small area, but it’s much closer than ‘anywhere around New Bay’. If we can find them… well, the Heroes Association is not fond of turncoats. Bringing in Dark Star would be quite lucrative for us, especially given her threat rating. Extra also has a sizable bounty on Spot.”

“Alright,” I said. “So, your questions?”

“I would ask if you learned anything new during the battle.”

“Spot has some sort of short range death spell,” I said. “You know, that thing that shriveled Great Girl’s arm. And, uh…” I tilted my head. “Bunvorixian weapons can just be picked up and used.”

“That’s super weird,” Midnight interjected. “Because from what I know, that’s not true. Any time we try to use their technology it does nothing.”

Calculator stroked his chin. “It could be specifically tailored to not work for Celmothians. Or the simpler solution- it requires organic contact to function. You would be using your adaptive suit to grip the weapon, correct?”

“Well, yeah,” Midnight said. “No hands. And small mouths.”

“Unfortunately, we won’t be able to test that here. We might be able to get authorization from Extra, though, or have you work directly with them.”

I liked those laser guns. “Yeah, I wanted to ask if I could keep one of those,” I said. “It was quite useful.”

Calculator shook his head. “It will be quite difficult to convince them to let a mercenary use extraterrestrial technology. Though you are uniquely positioned to be successful, given your association with a Celmothian.”

“Why would that matter?” Midnight asked.

“Because they’re galactic rivals of yours,” Calculator explained. “And likely to get attacked by them again. Extra is concerned about people who should not have access to dangerous technology getting their hands on it. Those who are already associated can be an exception.”

“What about organ cloning tech?” I said. “That doesn’t seem dangerous.”

“The agents of Extra work hard to keep people safe,” Calculator answered.

That… didn’t sound like an answer to my question. Before I could ask about that, Midnight said something unrelated.

“Do you know how the Bunvorixian ship got here?” Midnight asked. “Well, obviously it flew in but… was anyone able to detect its arrival somewhere? Earth is not exactly close, even with FTL tech. Not something they could just pop over here whenever.”

“I can say I do not know,” Calculator replied. “At least not enough to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. But Extra is most likely concerned about the same thing. Now then, about this ‘death magic’...?”

“It only kills people as well as other well aimed magic of similar caliber,” I explained. “It’s just unlikely to be blocked by most protections and directly damages things. There’s a similar class of powers, I believe. Though I haven’t seen any of those powers functioning nor proper death magic.” Calculator nodded, putting data into his tablet as usual. “So, I thought I sensed some of our people assaulting the big ship. Can you tell me about that?”

“Absolutely,” Calculator said. “First, Movebrain tried to teleport inside. That failed.”

“Yeah, they have teleportation protection,” Midnight said. “Otherwise Celmothians could beam onto their ships.”

Calculator frowned. “I thought your teleportation was device to device?”

“It’s cheaper and easier,” Midnight explained. “But not the only option.”

“Ah, I see. Regardless, hearing of its vulnerability to cold, Telescope amplified the range of Ice Guy’s attacks. That was somewhat effective but… unfortunately we weren’t able to cause major structural damage. And then Doomsday somehow found his way onto it without being noticed.”

“... portals might work,” Midnight admitted.

“Oh?” Calculator raised an eyebrow.

“Well, we were able to get to Celmoth,” Midnight said. “External teleportation shouldn’t have gotten us there.”

I nodded. “Portals are different from teleportation.”

Calculator pondered for a few moments. “I suppose so. All of our countermeasures here are designed to prevent all sorts, since powers are quite flexible.”

“But Celmoth doesn’t have portals. And Bunvorix probably doesn’t either,” Midnight said.

“We should provide caution,” I said. “Spot… will be able to use Gate, eventually. Though I’m not sure what level he is, and so far as I know he hasn’t been to my old world to unlock the points system.”

“That would be problematic,” Calculator said. “Because there are other portal powers working for their dark syndicate. If they could fully unlock the abilities of all of them…”

“They would be better able to see where their training was going,” I said. “And they’d just naturally be stronger.”

Calculator stroked his chin. “Hopefully we can get our recruits there first.”

“I thought Extra wasn’t going to allow that?”

Calculator just looked at me. “Nothing is absolute. We are pursuing several possible avenues. We could just have you take them, but we prefer to remain in their good graces.”

“Plus they can tell if you lie,” I added.

“And you’re terrible at it,” Calculator grinned.

“Don’t lie to Malaliel,” I said. “She’s nice.”

“Like I said, we prefer to remain in their good graces. However… if you hear of further trouble in your world, wouldn’t it be more natural to bring those with powers that conform to the local situation?”

“I’m not going to make up some sort of trouble,” I said.

Calculator waved me off. “Of course not. It will happen naturally, given the people you regularly interact with. Besides, there’s an ongoing situation involving your world. The mana levels are still rising, yes?”

“Slowly,” I admitted. “But yes. At this rate, we might hit double. I can’t see it going above that except in localized pockets though.”

Calculator finished putting information into his tablet- most likely responding to several conversations at the same time. “Well then, if you think of anything else pertinent, you know how to contact me. Stay in Extra’s good graces.”

“I can’t see why I wouldn’t. I like them, and they like me,” I said.

-----

In all the excitement, I had missed something important. Okay, I never really missed it. Obviously I noticed that I had leveled up- that was very common after any serious battle. But I hadn’t taken time to really sit down with it.

Turlough (No surname)

Level: 37

Experience: 3608/3705

Storage +9 (6|3)

Firebolt +5 (3|2)

Shocking Grasp +7 (4|3)

Grease +4 (2|2)

Force Armor +9 (6|3)

Mage's Reach +6 (3|3)

Translation +5 (1|4)

Alter Time Flow +7 (4|3)

Disguise +1 (0|1)

Familiar Bond +9 (4|5)

Size Shift +5 (2|3)

Energy Ward +5 (2|3)

Sonic Lance +5 (3|2)

Advanced Divination Magic +7 (3|4)

Shield +3 (1|2)

Stoneskin +7 (4|3)

Mana Crystal Deposition +7 (2|5)

Water Breathing

Variable Freedom +4 (2|2)

Basic Light Magic +2 (1|1)

Alter Portal +3 (0|3)

Gate +5 (2|3)

Sending +2 (0|2)

Chain Lightning +5 (3|2)

Clean +1 (0|1)

Shelter +1 (0|1)

Assistive Familiar Casting +3 (0|3)

Multicasting +2 (0|2)

Enhance +1

Nondetection +2 (0|2)

Water Blast +1 (0|1)

Blizzard +1 (0|1)

Mana Starvation +2 (0|2)

Remaining Points: 76

One notable chance was Enlarge combining with Reduce to become Size Shift, though it had been expected. Then of course there was Mana Starvation- though that training was all down to Midnight’s effort. I wasn’t planning to change my method of increasing mana, despite the discomfort it caused. According to the information I had, the risks of my method should have already caused long-term damage if I was making mistakes. But since I had experience… it was probably fine.

I had a bunch of points to spend- though I could rapidly eat through them if I tried. A few upgrades for Gate could wipe it out. Alternatively, I could upgrade Water Blast 25 times.

I really wanted to do that, but it felt extremely irresponsible.

However, according to my current understanding of training it wasn’t that efficient to try to increase lower level spells by training. It might be worth it. 5 ranks… wasn’t an unreasonable investment. It still cost less than one upgrade for Gate, for example.

Next… Alter Time Flow was very useful. I needed to remember I could use it offensively as well, using Slow on enemies. In a way, that was the most efficient as everyone else remained relatively faster. I would have to find Shockwave at some point, as they would really want to test it out.

I wanted to improve the ranks of Multicasting and Assistive Familiar Casting. That would allow me to make use of my heightened abilities elsewhere. However, it seemed those two techniques weren’t able to receive point upgrades. That was interesting, as they were not something I was supposed to have- like Mana Crystal Deposition. Was this another mental block, or an actual limitation?

I was tempted to test Mana Starvation. It was another mana training method. However, after consulting Midnight we decided we didn’t know if the point cost would be worth it at the moment. As in, we actually didn’t know how many points it would cost. Would it be similar to Mana Crystal Deposition? Unfortunately, my training manual didn’t give them point costs. Curious, but understandable. That information could have been unknown… or suppressed.

Understanding how useful Energy Ward was going to be in the future, I decided that the points would be a worthwhile investment. While spending those points might reduce my training potential, wasn’t that all extra anyway? I couldn’t train while dead, probably, so it was worth the alternative.

That brought me to 34 remaining points to spend, enough for an emergency of some sort. Should I pick up some ability to fly? Well, that sounded nice- but Midnight probably wouldn’t enjoy it. Then again, it was important utility. It wasn’t like we both had to use everything. And maybe the ability to fly would reduce his fear of heights. I ultimately decided the expense was worth it, bringing me down to 21 points.