Mage Among Superheroes

I walked into what I was pretty sure was a normal-looking building. Obviously I was not entirely sure since I had only lived in this world for a handful of months, but at least the area didn’t deviate greatly from the norm. There was a lot of wasted space in the lobby and a front desk where I told someone I had an appointment with Doctor Patenaude.

I was directed up an elevator and down a hallway where I entered a room lined with bookshelves that were half books and half knick-knacks. Other than that there were a couple tables, chairs, and an angled couch. And of course Patenaude himself. I was briefly startled by a sort of lightish purple skin and a bare head with numerous stalks growing out of it. But the appendages calmly swayed instead of wriggling, and other than that he fit standard humanoid features.

“Welcome,” he said. “I assume you are my three o’clock?”

“That’s right, I’m Turlough.”

“Or Mage, it seems. Which would you prefer to go by?”

“My actual name,” I said. “The other thing is just a name chosen by the Power Brigade.”

“Even so, some people prefer to focus on a particular side of them.”

“I’m still me even with a mask on,” I said.

He nodded and seemed to write some notes. “Very good. Now, before we begin I’ll reiterate some things you’ve likely already heard, just in case. Don’t worry about me knowing your identities, as in addition to professional obligation there are additional factors in place preventing me from revealing information about you to anyone. That includes the Power Brigade. The only exception is if you are deemed to be an imminent danger to innocents, but based on my understanding that shouldn’t be an issue. Your initial psychiatric evaluation clocked you as relatively stable.”

“I am,” I nodded. “Though some people said I should come here anyway for some reason.”

“I take it you feel you have no reason to be here?”

“Exactly.”

“Well, I appreciate that you listened to those close to you. And perhaps we might find something after all. It is my job, after all. Why don’t you take a seat? Or you can lie down, if that makes you more comfortable.”

That would explain the weird shape of the couch. I moved over to it. “How long does this usually take?”

“About an hour per session is the time we allot, though that can develop to shorter or longer as we gain more understanding of your personal needs.”

“Can I do magic in here?”

“If using your powers helps you relax, then of course anything nondestructive is allowable. Though I would ask that you avoid any mental-altering powers.”

“Don’t have those yet,” I said as I laid down. An hour, huh? That meant I could use six… six and a half mana forming a crystal. I did so.

“May I ask the reason for the crystal?”

“Efficiency,” I said.

“I see,” he said. Taking notes seemed to be a constant since I had arrived. “Now then, I’ll begin asking with basic questions. How do you feel? Feel free to elaborate as much or little as you wish.”

“I feel fine,” I said. “Today is… normal, I think. If I had to compare to overall, however, then I feel pretty good ever since coming to this world.”

“And why is that?”

“Because there are things and people to fight here.”

“I see. It is good to find some sort of safe output for your aggression.”

“I don’t really have that,” I said. “I just can’t level up without fighting.” This guy took a lot of notes. I understood why people liked notes, but I wasn’t sure what was so interesting about me.

“Really? No issues with anger?”

“No. I don’t get angry.” I paused, “Though Midnight said I did.”

“And who is Midnight.”

“My familiar. Uh… a Celmothian who I formed a magical bond with that transmits magical abilities and emotions. But I think maybe their natural ability to form bonds makes it work weird.”

“I see.” We continued for a while, until Patenaude began to wrap things up. “Well, that’s about all we have for the first session. We can set up the next session. Any thoughts?”

“I thought I was supposed to feel better, but I felt fine and now maybe I feel worse for some reason.”

“That’s normal. It takes some time to see real results,” he said. “It involves a lot of searching. It’s not magic.”

I wondered if there was magic for this. I couldn’t think of any good ones though, especially not available to a mage.

-----

I found my way to Doctor Rose, the woman who was focused on ‘Supernatural Studies’, which kind of made me think she studied the whole world. Especially recently, with all the people getting class powers. That was all natural, but not for Earth.

I held up a crystal. “I’ve sort of begun to understand how these work,” I explained. “It takes basically the same amount of time to absorb a crystal of any size, but creating larger ones gets proportionately harder. Nobody from my world seems to know about this, though it could be one of the secrets. The book Master Uvithar sent me doesn’t even suggest these exist.”

“That is interesting,” she said. “Could it have something to do with the mana density here somehow?”

I shook my head. “No, it was basically the same… before. It’s very slightly higher now, though.”

“Before what?” she asked.

“Before the portal incident,” I said. “A bunch of portals to high mana areas in my world opened up a couple weeks ago.”

“I remember the portals, of course,” she nodded. “That was your world?”

“Uh, at least one definitely was. And everything else had monsters that fit the information in the bestiaries.”

“Other people know about this right?” she said. “That seems important.”

“The Power Brigade knows,” I nodded. “Anyway, that also caused a bunch of people to have something like class powers.”

“Wait, are you saying all those new supers have abilities like yours?”

“Not like mine,” I clarified. “Mostly. But similar to the norm from my world without some… limitations? Features? I’m not really sure.”

“This is very important information,” she said, obviously taking notes. It made sense, because she couldn’t have known this otherwise. “Can you explain their abilities? This is a serious matter that study isn’t yielding much information on…”

“Maybe half of it,” I said. “I’m most familiar with mage abilities, obviously, and there’s something different even with my apprentice.”

“You have an apprentice?”

“It sort of happened on accident,” I admitted. “But yes.”

“Great. Um… I really would like more information on this. I understand you don’t want to be swarmed by people asking, but can you answer some questions?”

“Sure… though I have other things I have to get to also.” I sure was finding myself busy. It was still much better than sitting in a tower re-reading books or occasionally running about Mossley trying to scrape up some experience.

-----

Among other things, thinking about the portal incident and the increase in mana brought my thoughts to the change in ambient mana. Sure, there had been a whole ton of mana dumped into the city… but it was staying at strangely elevated levels. It wasn’t like the whole world had portals to my world strewn about. It only happened in New Bay. So when I noticed an unusual concentration of mana I went out of my way to get closer.

My steps brought me towards another building, like most of those in the denser parts of New Bay it was fairly tall. It looked vaguely like an apartment or an office building, but it didn’t have any marking and the front door was locked. I could have just left it at that, but I was curious and it didn’t seem like something I should ignore. Was there an active portal inside, or was this some sort of place of power? If It was the latter, I kind of wanted to see if I could get access.

I couldn’t really do more on my own, so I thought about who I should contact. Breaking into places was of course against the law, and without more than a sense of mana it was a pretty poor way to keep my job. So I thought about who might be able to do something about such an anomaly- or who might know someone who could.

Calculator, I found some sort of mana anomaly.

At least five times higher than ambient.

It appears to be inside a locked building.

Are you outside the location now?

Yes.

Retreat to a safe distance and keep eyes on the place.

Send me the address.

And if you can, don your mask and uniform, but be discreet.

I walked into an alley where I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be spotted, then pulled my uniform out of Storage. I really needed to upgrade that spell, it couldn’t hold much more. A couple minutes later I was standing nearby watching a probably-empty building. Then I heard a whooshing sound behind me.

“Yo! Mage!” The figure of Shockwave appeared in front of me, waving. “That the building?” They pointed.

“Yes,” I nodded.

“Great.” A few seconds passed and their phone beeped. “Alright, we can go in now.”

“Are you certain?”

“Calculator said we got a warrant.”

“That seems fast.”

“It’s pretty easy when a building is deemed unoccupied. We’re to avoid combat, though, if we find any residents. Unless they’re monsters, but even then… actually you can speak anything, right?”

“Right,” I nodded.

“Then we’ll have you determine if something has a language, and if they don’t… we’ll just leave. Though there might be nothing.”

“Okay,” I said. “The door’s locked, though, I think.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Shockwave said. “Come on.”

Shockwave walking at a normal speed was a weird sight, and looked as if it took some serious effort. I sped up my own walking pace to make them more comfortable. When I reached the door I tried the handle, but it was still locked. “Do we break it open? Is that okay?”

“Nope, I got this,” Shockwave pulled something out and their hands became a blur. Then something clicked and the door was open. “There we go.”

“Amazing,” I said.

“Really? Honestly there are some people who can do it that fast without powers,” Shockwave shrugged, “I get to cheat a little. What about you, don’t you have magic for something like this?”

“I could,” I admitted. “It’s not subtle though.”

“Might be something you should learn regardless. Magic or otherwise.”

“I feel like there’s an infinite list of things that could be useful.”

“That’s life for ya.” Inside, Shockwave pulled out a light, “Getting hard to see in here. Now which way to… the thing?”

“Down,” I said. I pressed a button for the elevator, but nothing happened.

“No power,” Shockwave commented. “We’ll find the stairs.” Before I could even turn my head, there was a slight booming noise, and Shockwave pointed, “This way.” The stairs were also locked, and Shockwave got that open as well. “Got anything to prop this open with?”

“Not really,” I admitted. “Why?”

“Don’t want it to lock behind us. Classic supervillain lair trick. Alright, we’ll do this the hard way. Can you hold onto the edge of the door here?” I nodded. A couple moments later I felt the door starting to fall over. Pins clattered to the ground as I felt the door slide loose and sort of thump to the ground.

I leaned it against the wall. “I suppose that’s one way to make sure it doesn’t close on you.”

“It’s nondestructive,” Shockwave said. “We’ll put it back after. So, about down there… magic?”

“I definitely sense the mana more clearly,” I said. “But I don’t sense any magic. Or active powers, either. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing, but…”

“Alright! Basement infiltration begin!” Shockwave held up a finger, “We should be quiet from here though.”