Mage Among Superheroes

Just because I had been sort-of-mugged at gunpoint on my first night on shift didn’t mean that things were crazy around the northern docks. Most people weren’t drunk and stupid, so they would pick another target. We weren’t in the area to defend people from that kind of stuff though. We would intervene if we came across any crimes, but we were looking for suspicious activity around the docks.

“I feel like any activities on the docks at night have to be suspicious, right?” I looked at the rest of the squad.

“If it just involves humans? Absolutely. Don’t forget there are nocturnal people though,” Ice Guy warned.

“Oh yeah,” I nodded. “Even though we have people who can see in the dark where I’m from, nobody’s really nocturnal. So what’s suspicious activity then?”

“Working at night,” Ice Guy answered. “And yes, I know what I just said. But if they only have a couple nocturnal people in a crew, it gets suspicious again. Unfortunately, we’re not an investigative team. We’re mostly here to wait for something to go wrong and move in to help with clean up.”

“Something to go wrong… how?”

“Usually a hero or…” he shuddered, “Vigilante will go in and cause a ruckus. If we can confirm some illicit actions tied to the dockwork we stop goons from fleeing or assist with taking down a villain. Otherwise we just stop people from killing each other.”

“... I’m glad I didn’t try to become a hero,” I admitted.

“Eh, you’re a smart guy. You’d be effective still. It’s just we never have get involved with heroes who can handle themselves. But vigilantes though… they’re a mess. Unable to become a hero for whatever reason, but still getting involved in crap,” He shook his head. “Risky business. Most don’t last long for one reason or another. The smart ones quit or join up with an organization. Even being a villain is probably a safer career choice, though I’d obviously not recommend it.”

“Alright. I get the general idea. So we just walk around looking for trouble.”

“And listening. Don’t forget that,” Ice Guy nodded. “I was thinking we’d split up into two groups. Never far apart, though. Midnight could come with me, and the three of you would be together. We patrol opposite sides of a section but no further. There’s no even split, but this way we have someone who can see decently in the dark with each group. Plus, Midnight and Mage can find each other, correct?”

“That’s right,” I nodded. “We’ll be able to keep track of each other.”

“Alright. Acid Man, Shockfire, you both get that?”

“Yes, captain,” they both answered.

“Good. In this situation, our priority is minimizing fatalities of any kind. And don’t forget you’re first and foremost responsible for your own life. I’m not saying don’t help people in trouble, but don’t jump into things blindly. And remember to report in on any sort of incident in progress. If it seems like you won’t need backup… do it anyway. I intend to do the same. It would be a shame to have to call for other squads or owe a favor to some heroes.”

-----

“This is boring,” I said. “Nothing’s ever going to happen.”

“You know that sort of talk is just inviting trouble, right?” Shockfire commented.

“I think that’s his intention,” Acid Man pointed out.

“... would you believe me if I said no?”

“Not if you don’t actually explain it,” Shockfire said.

“I don’t believe it makes any difference anyway,” I shrugged. If it did, it would be some sort of magic that I didn’t understand. And having already mentioned that nothing was happening several times the night before, even if it was different this time it was all a matter of statistics. If stuff like that worked, the peaceful town of Mossley would have been attacked by goblins or something a whole lot. But it never did. Mostly, things just stayed the same.

Which meant that in New Bay, we should expect something to happen soon. Even if they didn’t have something specific, the Power Brigade wasn’t just going to send us out here on patrol for nothing. Active duty paid more than training time, though maybe they were somehow getting paid for nothing happening here. But the number of supers in their employ wasn’t so abundant that they could afford to make so little when they’d get more from us being in active combat or at least somehow involved in real incidents.

Along with the giant cranes unloading cargo containers from ships- of which there were only a few in the middle of the night- there were smaller docks where things moved by hand. In different areas there were also warehouses, and trucks moved to and from them somewhat regularly. What our squad did was mostly creepily pass by on the other side of the road, spying on what people were up to.

I learned a lot about what various nocturnal people lived in New Bay. It was still a small portion of the population, but for obvious reasons I hadn’t encountered them as much during the rest of my time. I’d certainly seen some of them, but mostly in the morning and evening. There was unfortunately a lot I didn’t know about the various types of people in this new world. I would have to keep studying.

-----

The first thing that tipped me off to trouble was a sudden change in the feeling from Midnight. I swiveled my head to look in that direction, but there was a warehouse in the way of seeing anything. Then we all heard Captain Senan on our comms.

“C-4. Trouble waterside. Make your way here asap.”

“This way!” I started running.

Acid Man and Shockfire weren’t far behind. A few moments later we heard gunshots. Captain Senan would probably be fine but… he wasn’t the only one to worry about. I wasn’t too worried about Midnight either. I didn’t sense any pain and minimal fear. But there had to be others present too.

As we rounded a corner, a few things made themselves obvious. First, the rats. There were small rats and big rats, swarms of both moving unnaturally around the area. One swarm was frozen over in a wall in front of our captain, who was taking shelter with a number of dockworkers. That all made sense.

Then there were the other rats. Or rather, people with rat costumes. Or just fake rat heads, since they otherwise basically dressed in dark clothes. They were basically indistinguishable from each other. They also happened to have guns, which provided a second reason for the barrier Ice Guy was hunkering down behind.

If that had been the end, things would have been easy. However, there was also a pair of women fighting. One had on a highly impractical and flashy dress and seemed to be directing a wall of water towards the other. The other woman was dodging around, jumping up and down on crates to get out of the way of the wall of water while at the same time flinging things with some sort of telekinesis. Given her costume, I immediately presumed the latter was a hero.

What was difficult to reconcile was the remaining dock workers punching each other while a giant bat swooped around the area. As someone was picked up and carried away, Shockfire began to charge up a blast of fire, but I held out my hand to stop him. “Wait! I might know her. You two get over to the captain and get orders.”

Ice Guy wasn’t just hiding behind his wall of ice, but also reaching over the barrier with a thin whip, freezing the largest ‘rats’. The actual rat shaped ones. He might have been willing to freeze people as well, but they were further away.

“Hey! Rositsa!” I yelled towards the giant bat as I stood behind a pile of crates that should shield me from the gunfire direction. “Is that you?”

The giant bat dropped the man off on top of a nearby warehouse, then turned to look at me. I actually had a clearer view now than I had the night we first met, but I was certain it was her. Unfortunately, I was a little bit far to hear her reply clearly. Most people would have only heard a bat screech, but I got something akin to an affirmative. That could have just been my assumption though, because it was loud due to the large amount of gunfire. It was definitely her though.

In regards to the sound… it was actually causing my head to hurt. Not from burst eardrums, but something else. Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize what could be causing it. Lacking a way to communicate with Rositsa, I found a good opportunity to run behind the ice barrier with the rest of the squad.

“Great, there you are.” Even as I approached the captain, Acid Man was rolling out. Oozing out? Whatever, he was fully making use of his power as he charged towards the rats. Shockfire was leaning around to zap a few of the bigger ones. “Do you have any attacks that can hit that woman from here? The one controlling the water, not Agent Mental.” Presumably, Agent Mental was the human.

“Sound Lance is a bit short, and would require getting out of cover. I could use Mage’s Reach and Shocking Grasp though.”

“Yes, that!” Captain Senan nodded. “Midnight, if you could make use of that same combo on the gunmen?”

“What about the dock workers?” I asked.

“The ones out there seem to be confused.” He gestured towards the others with him, “They confirm there’s no reason they would fight, and the look in their eyes…” He shook his head. “I’m pretty sure it’s coming from the woman controlling the water. Some sort of sound. About that…”

“I can’t protect from sonic confusion effects,” I shook my head. “But if she starts firing sound blasts…”

“Yeah, I was pretty sure, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. You two get started.” A few of the gunmen started shooting towards the hero, Agent Mental. She somehow dodged all of the shots, but that slowed her enough that a wave caught her ankle. Normally water didn’t do much but push things around, but it grabbed onto her and slammed her into the side of a shipping container. She pulled out of its grip a moment later, but I knew the impact had to hurt. She was definitely slower. “Quickly!” Captain Senan ordered, as he stood up and lobbed compressed balls of ice at the gunmen who had turned away. The ice expanded when it impacted the ground and created barriers that got in their way.

I was already working on forming Mage’s Reach, which I was pushing towards the water controlling woman as quickly as I could. Firebolt would get there almost instantly, but she had a barrier of water around her that would easily negate it. Shockfire could shoot a bolt of lightning, but since the barrier didn’t touch her it would likewise be negated. I couldn’t actually guarantee the hand would get through the barrier either.

Something nipped at my ankles, and I stomped down on a rat. There was a loud metallic crunch. It didn’t bite through my Force Armor, but it certainly drew my attention. Fortunately, few of them were making it around the corner. On the other side Acid Man was washing over them, and the others were all distracted with… tearing open crates. Looking for something was my bet.

Rositsa swooped down. The captain looked up at her nervously, but I cautioned him. “I think she’s helping. Rositsa!” I called out.

“I’m pulling them away from the siren!” She responded as she picked up a man and flew away.

“Yeah, she’s helping pull them away from the sound,” I replied.

“I’ll take your word for it,” he said as he whipped one of the larger rats with a curling trail of ice, freezing it around the middle and sticking it to the concrete beneath.

While the rest of that was happening my slightly translucent magical hand was pushing its way forward. Then it hit the siren’s watery barrier and… slowed down slightly. It wasn’t much different than I would expect from plunging into water any other way, and a few moments later it pushed through to the middle. Perfect. She hadn’t noticed it yet, but she would when it grabbed her arm. Since she was motioning the water to direct it, it seemed useful to try to disrupt that. And going directly for her throat was the sort of thing that resulted in severe electrical damage that could be lethal.

I poured the mana for Shocking Grasp through the connection as I made contact with her. The low noise I that I subconsciously felt giving me a headache suddenly turned into a massive scream. It hurt mentally more than physically, but it showed that I had been effective. Unfortunately, it also disrupted my spell. The brawling dockworkers were knocked out, but as a swarm of rats began to crawl over some of them Acid Man covered the swarm instead. He was able to control exactly what he was dissolving so the people would be fine… but I knew from personal experience that it felt weird. Like stepping in a pile of jello, I guess.

Midnight had also been having success with the men with rat heads on, but it was a different sort of success. I had only been vaguely aware of it while focused on other things, but I saw and felt him use a third Shocking Grasp on one of them. Instead of the normal thing which was twitching or maybe yelling in pain, the man just… turned into smoke. But at least he stopped shooting at us. I doubted that bullets were going to get through the wall anytime soon but it was good for Shockfire who had to reach out around it.

Agent Mental seemed to have shrugged off the mental scream, and using the disruption of my attack she slammed a big crate into the siren’s ribs, shoving her into the side of the warehouse. It looked painful but… the water that was flowing towards the bay immediately rose back up, and she stood. She was quite a sturdy one. Even just a Shocking Grasp was enough to knock most people unconscious.

“Come on, we need to get out of here!” she yelled towards the men. She then began running towards a passage between two of the warehouses.

I would have liked to give chase, but some of the larger rats had found their way around towards us, clearly determining we were a bigger threat than the formerly confused dockworkers.