Mage Among Superheroes

If I had known that it was actually possible to teleport down to this place, I might have tried it. Granted, they might have been able to track me back to the origin point, but if it had holes for one user, it wasn't a fully secure teleportation system. I was fairly certain this had been a technological teleportation using the Bunvorixian's methods, which is why I only felt Spot himself and not the actual process, but I really wondered if I could have circumvented it.

It was kinda late, though. We were already here, breaking stuff, so we couldn't really choose a different entrance method at this point. Unless I got way better at time magic.

Which would be a pretty trivial thing to do if such absurd magic existed. Time travel to the past was a concept I hadn't even heard about until ending up on Earth. Locking someone in stasis until they appeared in the future was fine- that was still the right order of things- though it was still quite difficult.

I felt something changing as I continued to spray lasers into the chamber containing the dimensional suppression hub. Why would I have stopped just because enemies were approaching? This was our goal. Plus, with Haste going I had 'plenty' of time to think. Sure, it was going to take Spot only a handful of actual seconds to get to us, but I had several times that.

"Midnight, use Blizzard when they round the bend." Normally, I let him make his own tactical decisions, but when we needed to coordinate I would just say what I wanted. We had a few moments for him to suggest an alternative. "I'll Anchor Spot. Then we're going."

Midnight confirmed with a nod. "Got it."

"Just like that?" Honey Badger asked as he chopped into an expensive looking monitor.

"I love fighting," I began. "And I'll gladly fight them on neutral territory. But not here, so we're leaving as quick as we can."

Haste didn't give us that long. Spot came into sight. However, we were on the defensive end of things where we had cover- because from a certain perspective they were the intruders. There were a lot more people with Spot than I thought- I'd only sensed a handful of magical presences, but he apparently gathered a bunch of the other guards from this facility around him.

I had to admit, Spot wasn't as stupid as he looked. A huge blast of ice filled the hallway, coating the walls and the people- except for Spot and a couple of those individuals with mana. I noted that they were all of the Bunvorixian military class- big dogs. Perhaps they would have done better if they included some of the smart ones.

Several of them just shot guns- maybe slightly enhanced by class abilities. I couldn't quite tell, because it was all jumbled up with Kick stepping forward and performing his namesake activity on lasers. He left behind some sort of lingering trail that continuously deflected the beams. Fascinating. That was pretty absurd tech. Why didn't the Bunvorixians use that more? Was that an interaction from his powers? Had they gotten stronger? I didn't really understand how cyborg compatibility worked.

And I didn't have time to think about it because Spot did something very bad. He looked directly at Midnight, then raised a paw. A horrible black ray sprang from it, streaking towards Midnight.

My buddy was a bit slow to react. Maybe it was the angle of things, his magic sensitivity, or just surprise. It didn't matter. I stepped forward and… yanked him away. What, was I going to block it with my body? That would be dumb as hell. My arm did get clipped, though.

The pain kept me conscious as I finished gathering mana for my Multicasting of Dimensional Anchor. Five streaks of near nothing launched towards Spot and the areas around him. He dodged to the side, into one of the others. Maybe I should have used Chain Lightning- were they warded against that as well? Why wouldn't they be? Even their suits would probably naturally dampen electricity. It had been the right choice, even if killing Spot would have been better than just hindering them.

"Mage!" Midnight even remembered the appropriate callsign as he shouted in worry.

My arm looked fine. Which just meant that whatever happened didn't interact with the material of my sleeves at all. I doubted my actual arm looked great at all. "Don't worry about it right now," I said. Then I called to the others. "Hold them off for a moment!"

I gathered a ton of mana, throwing out a quick Sonic Lance into the enemy's midst as I was doing so. I don't know what part of me thought that was a good idea. It didn't seem to interrupt my flow, though. Just set me back part of a second.

I'd love to defeat these guys, but there were even more soldiers approaching. Oh, the thing we were here to blow up? That was long gone. Turns out any number of holes in complicated machinery makes it nonfunctional. Especially if anyone had proper safety protocols in place.

Kick redirected lasers back at enemies while Barbro chopped at some of the guys. I saw him get hit right in the chest by another black beam. He screamed in rage… and I had no idea what that meant. Something between mortal danger and him completely negating the effects. Yelling meant so many different things to a barbarian. His axe swung at impossible speeds, chopping through walls and into the low ceiling like they were styrofoam. The Bunvorixians were lucky that their magic partially protected them. Spot got a nasty cut across his nose, but that was instead of his head being severed so he got the good end of things there.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

My mana finished gathering. I wasn't sure if there might be other restrictions, so I used the maximum it would take. I was responsible for stabilizing the spell myself now, so I did that. Though it was only going to stay stable until we passed through. Maybe it would suddenly become dangerous for anyone chasing us. Not that they should be able to.

"Gate's open! Move!" I shouted.

Whatever happened to Honey Badger, he could still run. Kick literally sprang off the wall and through my portal- I was glad people were properly paying attention. It was a good thing he moved like that, too, because Midnight was tossing down Grease everywhere. Honey Badger charged back towards us- Midnight blasted a swirling ball of magic at another incoming death beam. The Dispel unraveled enough of it that Honey Badger didn't even grunt. The incoming lasers were absorbed by Energy Ward and then Francois' work. His body could probably take a lot of punishment following that.

Midnight tossed a final Grease spell into the gap Honey Badger charged through. Except after he dashed through the portal and then I stepped through, he threw a Chain Lightning towards what we could see of the dimensional suppression hub- no doubt causing truly catastrophic monetary damage. Spatial Rift would have totally ruined the whole thing.

Spot ran facefirst into the portal. Drops of blood splattered from his bloodied nose as he could suddenly go no further. Interestingly, neither could his blood. Or the death spell he was using. How much mana did this canine have?

Ah, apparently about that much. Or less. He passed out.

Now I wanted to drag him through the portal, but I settled for shooting at the people on the other side and letting it close since it would have taken too much work. I think I fried one of his ears.

Everything was really quiet. I looked around the park. "Well. I guess we call a ride."

Midnight wasn't quite satisfied with that. "... Your arm?"

I bent it. Good news: muscles still worked. Bad news? It hurt. "It's not getting any worse, I think." I wasn't going to look at it. "We'll get it checked out when we get back. What about you?" I pointed to our barbarian friend. Next time, I'd use a different arm.

I put my new laser gun in Storage so I had my hand free, and proceeded to call in a Brigade approved ride. I'd also report our mission success. And use Sending to contact Flopan, in a bit.

He rubbed his chest. "I've taken worse hits. Or at least, things that were worse before I had powers." He pulled at the neck of his top, looking down. "Yeah, that's… fine."

Kick was breathing heavily, but seemed fine. None of the death beams had been aimed at him, just lasers.

"I like Earth," I commented.

-----

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Doctor Martinez asked.

I shrugged. Ow. Moving my left arm hurt. "I assume you'll tell me both eventually."

"The necrotization isn't very deep."

"And the bad news?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes. "That was both things."

"Soo… do I need powers to help recover?"

"Just don't use your arm for… we'll start with two weeks. I'm putting it in a cast."

Midnight radiated worry, but the damage wasn't really that bad. It sure was nice to feel him, though. "... Thanks for saving me," he said. "All those times."

"Sure thing, buddy," I nodded.

He didn't have to say more. And I hadn't been dumb enough to get hurt in a way that was entirely avoidable- just partially hurt. Also, clerics were a pain. Why didn't I get death spells like Finger of Death?

Oh right, I had other ones available to me and they just weren't appropriate for general mercenary work. Still, I needed to come up with some sort of counter to all that mess he was blasting at us for the next time we fought. I was pretty sure Bandage should be able to counter that stuff with Death Ward.

As for my arm… I could bug Ceira if it didn't heal, but that was probably excessive if it was making progress on its own.

-----

Finalizing my report to Calculator, he kept his face quite neutral. "We'll inform Extra about the Bunvorixian connection. They'll be quite happy to mediate with the Celmothians, if it becomes necessary."

"I think the Bunvorixian Freedom Initiative is pretty on board, though that might be just one part of them. Maybe some hate Celmothians but also the current leadership setup."

He nodded. "I wouldn't find that unlikely. Though… the squirrel thing might be more culturally significant than it appears from our perspective. With the Celmothians being blamed for that…" he shrugged. "I would have appreciated a bit more warning about your dimensional departure, but other than that… you won't be on active duty for a while regardless. Until you can make your magic stable."

Was he not going to ask me about the part where I used Gate from within Power Brigade HQ? That part was definitely on video. Maybe it was easier not to deal with it. Or maybe he was just going to wait until my magic was 'stable' again, if that was possible, before asking me to help test things.

I felt like I might be able to return to the old ways… but I wasn't sure if I wanted to. If I could switch back and forth it would be one thing, but it was unlikely that it would be so convenient.

Once I was feeling better, I'd check on Mided. He was either already very dead, very captured, or escaped. No reason to look when I couldn't do anything. It was unfortunate that I'd lost the lead, but I'd rather have him out of reach than Midnight. We needed to figure out a way to avoid that ever happening again. That meant disintegrating Flasher, maybe. Or throwing him into a Spatial Rift, or something. Or if Great Girl got a grip on him while he couldn't teleport, she could probably rip him apart. Just the extra bits, if he was lucky. Then again, he was probably 99% cyborg by now. Maybe he had all his internal organs, or maybe just his brain. Iron Shell had gotten pretty close to the latter, if I recalled correctly.

Either way, I was hopeful about our future options. Magic and my arm were both messed up, but things were pretty alright.