Mage Among Superheroes

Rather than an ‘immersive conveyance rig’, what Zeb got was basically a camera strapped to Fluffy’s forehead. It was a compromise based on time and practicality.

“This way I can be there with you without actually… being out there,” Zeb explained. “Because I don’t want to get lasered and I don’t know how to eat lasers yet!”

“I’m not sure if that’s a thing people can learn?” I tilted my head. We probably needed to go over her options for class abilities at some point.

Zeb didn’t seem to care about what I thought. “It’s gonna be great! But Fluffy still needs to be careful. And I need you to protect him. Just a little, though! Not from lasers.”

“... Do rust moles only resist lasers, or are they resistant to other energy things?” I asked.

“Probably!” Zeb replied enthusiastically. Even though that didn’t answer my question.

“Which one?”

“It’s almost certainly one of those two things you said.”

We needed to talk to some Martians, apparently.

-----

Calculator wasn’t fond of ‘late stage roster changes’ but he still allowed Zeb to send Fluffy with us, as he’d be useful against one of the primary abilities the Mod Squad had. With the caveat that Fluffy was disguised as a bear again. Though apparently that wasn’t going to remain necessary forever, whatever thing was happening with Extra was still ongoing so we couldn’t let them know we took one of Mars’ moles.

Thus the six of us set off. Midnight and myself, Kick, Shockfire, Sorority, and Fluffy. Our setup was a little bit awkward because of the numbers, since now any Multicasting was going to be one short. However, neither Shockfire nor Fluffy needed Energy Ward, and Sorority didn’t need Stoneskin. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t be able to keep those up for long. A few hours at most, which wouldn’t last the whole patrol. Thus, we would have to take a few moments to buff everyone when battle began.

Multicasting limited the ranks I could use for spells, making them weaker but saving me mana compared to casting on four people. Which meant that since Energy Ward was going on three people, it was more efficient to cast it individually. And when I said three people I was obviously counting myself and Midnight as one.

Then again, it would take the time of two castings, if I did one and Midnight did two. It wasn’t actually twice the time since mana took time to gather, but immediately flowing from one spell to the next wasn’t so easy so there was a relevant delay. For this purpose, Multicasting would have to do. Besides, using it more would improve its own upgrades making this sort of situation less likely to occur.

I pondered as we set out to patrol the streets. We might have to face trouble other than the Mod Squad as well, though they seemed to be pretty dominant in their area at the moment so everyone else was keeping their heads down. I kept thinking about what spells I could use, and how. If only I had more mana. Though realistically, it didn’t make sense I could prepare for everything that might happen. Most of my peers only had a limited powerset and they just tried to get good with it.

But any time I considered focusing on a narrow aspect of things, I felt sick. I loved offensive spells, but I also liked to be alive to use them. And I was also really liking this idea of using defensive spells as offense. Would I get experience for it? Surely an enemy struggling against a spell counted as fighting, right? In case it made any difference, I did my best to believe that was the case.

We didn’t really expect our first patrol to find anything. It wasn’t as if the Mod Squad was out every night smashing places up and robbing electronics stores. If they were, they would have been caught by any number of heroes or whatever. Any villains doing blatant crime like that had to be as strong as Doctor Doomsday to stay in business.

Shockfire was trying to sense for any anomalous electrical signals. That was a way we’d noticed the Mod Squad before, and he was probably better at it now. I didn’t know if Kick had any way to sense people, and if he did it would probably be offset by their ability to sense him. Sorority was just another pair of eyes- or several. Though currently she was an individual as far as I could tell. She seemed to be as much as she could be, instead of… less. Though she always felt like at least a whole person.

Everything was calm until Fluffy took off running. Which was extremely cute and also probably concerning if people saw a bear running through the streets alone. A collared bear, but still.

“Where are you going, Fluffy?” Zeb’s voice came from his collar. “I think he smells something!” she said as her voice faded around the corner.

We weren’t far behind. Either we had to catch a dangerous animal, or assist him fighting villains. And Fluffy was dangerous, even if he was adorable in two forms.

Fluffy dashed into an alley, though as we followed he slowed down. He crept to a corner and peeked his head around. I loomed over him, looking just in time to see someone yank a window AC unit out of a second story window, tossing it down to some goons waiting below.

Midnight was on my shoulder. “Seven and a half,” I whispered, gathering my mana. We multicast Energy Ward about the time Fluffy ran forward. That was not the plan.

One of the waiting people flicked his eyes towards Fluffy, then away, then back. He began to frantically tap on the shoulder of the larger man next to him. “Uhh… dude.”

“If I drop this thing and break the components, it’s coming out of your share,” the big man said.

“Dude. Bear.”

The big man turned.

The smaller one remembered that he had an arm laser. It was too weak to be Bunvorixian which meant Energy Ward would be slightly mistuned, but Fluffy wasn’t one of those who got that spell anyway.

The laser hit him right in the forehead, and he stopped. His forehead began to glow brightly. Then the guy lowered his arm, shaking it. “Dammit, why isn’t it down yet?”

Fluffy pawed his forehead, looking quite like a bear spreading honey into his mouth. He didn’t actually have the same length muzzle or limb configuration, so the Disguise distorted slightly. But I think they were more distracted by his tongue licking up the remains of the laser blast.

“Midnight. Thirteen and a half.” Time for Stoneskin. We had all moved around the corner, but Fluffy was drawing most of the attention.

Of course, Fluffy didn’t wait for me to be done. He charged forward. The big guy tossed aside his armful of stuff and aimed two armfuls of laser at Fluffy. That seemed… bad. His whole torso began to glow overly bright, and I could smell the slightest amount of burning.

“It’s immune to lasers!” the smaller guy yelled. His right wrist transformed into a short blade, and he slashed at Fluffy. His blade came away with a shimmer of blood. Then Fluffy bit his wrist.

It was still a cyborg part, of course, and I imagined quite durable. It wouldn’t do much more than slow the man down, and the rest of the gang members were clearly ready to act. Some saw us about the time we finished casting Stoneskin on people. Fluffy’s bear fur turned gray, as the illusion didn’t seem to hide that. I wondered if it could.

The small man pulled his arm back. Well, most of his arm. It still went past the elbow, but… the rest was still held in Fluffy’s teeth. He crunched it once, then tossed it to the side.

The big man kicked him, with regular human legs. Rude. Fluffy tumbled, but I knew he could take that hit.

“Power Brigade!” Sorority shouted. Twice. “You’re under arrest for supervillainy!”

Was stealing a window unit supervillainy? Maybe maybe not. Laser blasting Fluffy, however, definitely was. How could anyone do that to such an adorable fluffball, even if he was charging at them?

Well, I was pretty sure the fact that they had powers and were kind of using them for crimes- as the guy hanging on the side of the building demonstrated- was good enough.

The good news was we got to test Energy Ward tuned to Bunvorixian beam weapons almost immediately, as the double handful of gang members had two with the tech. The big guy, and the guy on the wall.

I did not appreciate being shot in the top of the head by a laser, but it was nice that it was resisted. I cast Mage’s Reach to notify Wall Guy of my displeasure by catching one of his ankles and yanking.

Then I remembered something I wanted to try. The way Sorority had the big guy in a grapple, one of her yanking each arm behind his back, I didn’t think the enemy was gonna last long here. Kick was sparring with two more. Fluffy was chewing on someone’s ankle.

But there were still lasers flying, and some of them were causing collateral damage in the alley. Fifteen mana to Multicast Energy Ward all on my own put a good dent in my remaining reserves, but it was worth it. Four people all of a sudden stopped shooting lasers. At least, the lasers didn’t go anywhere.

I had the feeling the Mod Squad hadn’t been expecting to be found in this particular back alley while performing petty crime. Extremely rude petty crime, because now a few people would have to get replacement air conditioning, but they weren’t smashing open an electronics store.

Actually, I changed my mind. Stealing from regular people was worse than a store, though the thugs and the law might not agree.

A few of the guys in the back were smart enough to run away. I didn’t have the time to Haste three people, so I just Hasted Sorority. She was quite busy holding the big man’s arms, but then she popped them out of their sockets and the guy slumped forward. Before he hit the ground, she was four people, three of which chased the runners around each branch of the alley.

I noticed Fluffy paw at his chest, wiping away some of the collected laser remnants. He licked up some, but let the rest fall away. The rest of the glow was dull and fading.

A few minutes later, we sat with a pile of incapacitated thugs, waiting for pickup. Sorority could safely hold several of them, though most were smart enough to have stopped struggling. And a couple were missing pieces of them. Like an ankle. One missing legs, however, was in Kick’s hands as he used a little power drill to unscrew some things from it and himself.

I wondered why he was doing that. It didn’t feel particularly special. Then I realized that Bunvorixian tech was not super tech. I wouldn’t necessarily feel it. And while he probably wasn’t supposed to incorporate it, I could see a loophole for ‘random parts’ taken from villains. Heroes probably couldn’t get away with that, and if someone had a good lawyer they might make him give the parts back. But I wasn’t going to mention it. It wasn’t like he was hiding it from us.

Seeing the first guy’s disconnected arm, I wondered how Fluffy had ripped it off. Sure, he was kinda big and maybe had strong teeth, but it didn’t quite fit. Then I realized. The metal was corroded through. He wasn’t a laser-eating mole, he was a rust mole. He was fond of chewing on wires, too. Rust and laser eating were only the tip of his anti-tech capabilities. Man, the Martians must hate those guys.

But as long as he stayed away from a few gadgets I had, I was pretty content to have him around. And he seemed quite good at distinguishing friend and foe- assuming he hadn’t attacked the cyborgs because they smelled tasty. That would be a problem.

We needed to ask Fluffy. But while I got the feeling Zeb could sort of communicate with him, she couldn’t actually talk. Though I could be wrong about that, and she could definitely learn it.

Well, my report would mostly say that Fluffy was cute and effective, and Calculator could figure out if there were any problems that needed to be addressed.