Mage Among Superheroes

The conclusion of the Power Brigade assault on the Mod Squad was ultimately a success, but I had some concerns about my own performance. Obviously Flasher was not a great matchup for me personally, as my abilities were barely able to damage him. Even so, I had failed to make use of Dimensional Anchor which I learned with points specifically to use against him. The reason was, as usual, concerns about lacking mana.

That was something that would theoretically fix itself as I advanced in levels even further, but I realized there was a missing component to that. As I gained a larger mana pool, I felt more comfortable using more powerful spells and more mana at once… which ultimately left me back in a similar position, unless I had an advantage against a particular opponent and took them down quickly.

Midnight had something to mitigate that with his Celmothian additions to his super suit. Lasers and the like running off a different power source, but still able to keep up with superhuman battles. Unlike my gun, which was mainly effective against weaker enemies, and briefly those with powers when I’d had a stock of antimagic ammunition. Beyond that, I had my staff which while highly durable was only really usable in melee- and once again struggled against super villains.

My staff also had a good chunk of dispelling magic in it, but that was basically only effective on things I could hit with it. Not that I was disappointed with it, as it had been a great boon. No, I had found it quite useful and it was my appreciation for it that led me to my next thought. I needed it to be more.

Back in my own world, I had never had any sort of wealth with which I could even consider purchasing a magical staff or the like. Because of that, my studies had left me only limited knowledge on how such things worked. But aside from the wood material, my staff was made with materials from my old world. The fact that what I had was only good for dispelling- which wasn’t actually a terrible restriction- had limited my thoughts about what magical equipment in general could do.

The purpose of all this? The Power Brigade couldn’t give me super tech guns or the like. Even Vilhelmiina’s ammunition was made with things from my world. New Bay was fairly relaxed about what the Power Brigade could make in terms of defenses, but we didn’t have a super tech making weapons, and would have been somewhat limited in our uses even if we did. But if I got things from my own world, they’d have to let me use it aside from complying with sensible laws.

I’d have to talk with Sir Kalman on the topic. He could hopefully tell me how viable securing magical equipment was. His own armor was magical and possibly his weapons, but that didn’t mean he had access to something useful for me.

-----

“You have the parts?” I asked as I carefully pulled Rob out of Storage into my hands, carefully setting him on the table in front of us in Jerome’s garage. I would have returned the chassis to my apprentice immediately, but I had decided that seeing him non-functional for a few days would have been worse for his mental state. I could have been wrong, of course, but the Brigade also needed to scan things to make sure there weren’t any Mod Squad bugs or something like that.

Jerome nodded, “I just got a whole new robot instead of trying for individual parts, in case anything was missing.” He gestured to a shiny new box. “Same model, of course. I wouldn’t want to be worrying about compatibility.”

Tylissa and Midnight were with us, the former having taken a few days off of work to help her son in this time of stress. Most teenagers didn’t have a magically bonded ‘pet’ stolen from them by super villains right in front of their eyes. He’d be fine though, because Rob would be fine. Also, the Power Brigade had good coverage for family so he could see a therapist if there were any problems.

“A lot of nicks and scrapes there,” Tylissa said, “But he looks solid still.”

“Yeah. I can… feel him again, now. It’s dull, but that should be because he’s off. Far away and in Storage, I couldn’t sense him at all.”

It was clear that the two thugs hadn’t been gentle when dismantling the disobedient robot, but neither were they entirely incompetent with technology. As one might expect from a group of cyborgs, they preferred their stolen tech to be generally intact. Rob did still have some problems even with a new battery hooked up, with his inner compartment half hanging open.

Yet before Jerome could even press his power button, Rob was whirring and beeping at us again. My apprentice’s eyes lit up immediately. “Rob! You’re okay!” Jerome flipped him onto his top, and Rob tracked forward right to the edge before stopping. “You need to be more careful though. Villains are dangerous.” Rob beeped. “Yeah, I know you’re still kind of banged up. We have someone coming to help with that.”

“You did an amazing job with the Light spell,” I added. “I need to do things like that more.” Rob beeped in response, but I didn’t understand anything but the general sentiment of appreciation.

“I do like that you have the option,” Tylissa said. “And while I understand your general choices, I do believe it is time for you to learn proper combat spells.”

“Really?” Jerome looked surprised. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“It seems you got wrapped up in danger anyway,” Tylissa pointed out. “And I do believe there are some appropriate spells that are not excessive.”

“Shocking Grasp is great,” I said. “Good for preventing things like Rob being carried off, too. You probably don’t need to learn something like Sonic Lance, but Water Blast would be good too.”

“Alright,” Jerome said. “That… sounds like a good idea.”

“Just for self defense, of course,” Tylissa explained. “Since trouble found you more or less independently… it just seems prudent.” She sniffed, “Ah, she’s here.” She walked back towards the house, but just pressed the button to open the garage. As it was rolling up, she called out. “Khithae! We’re in here!”

The gecko-like woman poked her head around the corner. “Hello,” she said. “Here I am for robot. To help fix him.” The words were clearly uncomfortable, and I soon cast Translate- she got plenty of practice speaking to people the rest of the time. “Thank you.” She walked over to the table, which still carried Rob. “And hello to you, little guy. Is it okay if we shut you down while I take a look at you? It is better for my magic.”

Rob shuffled back and forward in a vague approximation of a nod, beeping several times. Then his lights went out. Khithae frowned.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Oh,” she shrugged. “I don’t believe that should be possible without pressing a switch. Though it depends on the construction, I suppose. Is he just in sleep mode?”

“He turned himself on earlier,” Midnight pointed out. “I don’t think the normal rules apply to him anymore.”

“Alright,” she nodded. “Let’s take a look.” She looked over his top. “A bit banged up.” Then she flipped him over. “Ah, yeah. There’s the damage.” She traced her wide fingers over the damaged hatch. “We’ll get this fixed right up.”

With a flicker of mana, she began to repair Rob. I had the feeling she spent more than strictly necessary, as I had seen her repair larger scale damage rather quickly. Rob didn’t even have a ton of delicate parts or anything, and a repair spell shouldn’t damage a construct’s mind. But it was nice that she was careful anyway.

Metal and plastic bent back into shape, small missing pieces seeming to reappear. I hadn’t studied Khithae’s magic enough to know what the limits were on that, though I was willing to bet the Power Brigade had some good details.

“And now he’s done,” she said, patting Rob’s belly and turning him over.

Rob flickered awake and began beeping. “Really?” Jerome asked. “He said to thank you. Apparently he could feel that? Weren’t you unconscious thought?” Rob beeped and whirred. “Like a dream, maybe?” Rob responded with confusion. “Well, I suppose you wouldn’t normally have those.” He turned to us. “He apparently felt stuff… distantly.”

“Very interesting,” Khithae said. “I wonder if I can have a familiar of my own…”

I shrugged. “You can try. Though you have a list now.” She had been with us on Mars, and thus our trip back through my old world.

Her eyes went distant for a moment. “No mention of Familiar.”

“Can you really read everything that fast?” I asked. “You don’t have such a limited list, right?”

“I just filtered out options for the word,” she said.

“I-” I looked at my options for spending points. It did indeed seem I could look for a specific name. I was aware I could filter by level, but that wasn’t something I had experienced. Unfortunately, nothing else I tried seemed to work like looking for attack spells, though maybe with practice. “Interesting.”

“You didn’t know it could do that?” Jerome asked. “Seems pretty basic to me.”

“I usually just looked through for whatever I needed,” I said. Interesting. It was quite like a computer for that purpose. “Anyway, it might not be called Familiar Bond. Maybe you have some sort of Companion option? They’d be more of a combatant than a conduit for magic, in general.”

“Not with those words,” Khithae said. “But I might look through the whole list.”

“It’s probably within the first handful of levels,” I said. “I haven’t really heard of something more costly than that.”

“Can you teach me Repair?” Jerome asked. “It would be… very useful.”

Khithae looked at me.

“It’s not my job to figure that out. If it’s on our list, he can learn it if you’re willing to teach it.” I had no intention of learning Repair even if it was on the list. I had no intention to relegate myself to the role of utility when I could be hitting things and gaining experience. I already had far too many things for that.

With Rob once again in good form and returned to his proper owner, at least that issue was dealt with. It was a good thing none of the damage was to whatever made Rob… him. I was guessing the computer bits and some magic, but maybe it could do without the first part. I hadn’t ever made a construct so I didn’t know what made them think and function as Familiars either.

-----

I hadn’t picked my friends because they could use magic. In fact, none of them could use magic at all until after I met them, though all of those with other powers had them before. That said, pretty much all of my friends had some sort of power now, and that was useful. I wasn’t going to hesitate to ask them to use their abilities to help me or my other friends, just like I would do the same for them in turn.

Plus, I was fairly sure Ceira would have wanted to do what I requested of her anyway. It was just that doing this technically cost her a lot of money. Or prevented her from earning said significant sum of money.

“I hope there wasn’t anyone important on your regeneration list,” I said to Ceira.

“Nah, I have some flex in my schedule. There are a few rich people who aren’t getting called in today, but they didn’t know they could have been accepted anyway. I took your advice, by the way. In like a year I’ll probably have enough money to pay for the entire healthcare system in Africa.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Not really, but I seriously might be able to open a hospital somewhere. Though my financial adviser said that it’s probably better to seek to join up with other projects that are already underway. Do you know how much some people are willing to pay to have their bad back and a crick in their neck fixed?”

I pondered. “Ten thousand?”

Ceira snorted. “You don’t know the right people, then. Not that I really know them. But one guy paid more to fix his worn out knees than I get paid to regrow an arm for the heroes. And yes, I charge non-heroes based on wealth.” She shook her head, “I can’t tell you who it is, but some people have too much money. There are a couple… my assistant learned some pretty terrible things about them though. More than normal super rich people, I mean. So they’re never getting anything healed unless they’re willing to give up a billion.” She frowned. “And maybe not even then.”

“You have an assistant?” I asked as we approached our destination inside the Power Brigade. The route was cleared to preserve Ceira’s identity, because Regenerate was a pretty big deal. Maybe we could find some other druids who would want to move here. I didn’t want to take Ceira’s business but she sounded like she was pretty well set, even if she hadn’t quoted actual numbers.

“Oh, yeah. A sweet old lady named Angelica,” Ceira said. “I got her to help me vet the potential customers that come from outside the hero and mercenary arena. Because there was no way for me to do all of that on my own. Apparently she has some connections to the intelligence community, so she’s able to find a lot. But mostly I care if people are telling the truth about their financial circumstances and that they aren’t terrible.”

The door opened, revealing our current target. Fluffy sat there in his natural form, with Zeb napping on top of him. When the door opened her head jerked up, then she tumbled to the side. She barked at us. Yeah… Bunvorixians weren’t meant to speak Earth languages. Then she tapped her head on the floor, pressing against a ring and barked again. A few seconds later, we got a translation spoken by her headband.

“Greetings. You are the one who brings the healing?” The calm words contrasted with Zeb bouncing around and running in circles, yapping at Fluffy.

“Adorable,” Ceira said.

“Yeah. The Bunvorixian translator needs work though.”