Mage Among Superheroes

It came to mind that Sending overcast to the point that it could send multiple messages back and forth- if it could even do that- would cost the same as simply using Gate to visit in person. Though Gate would require the same cost to get back… or we could talk through it for a minute. Ultimately, Sending was still only useful if other communication methods didn't work. It was better at getting through planar restrictions than Gate, and not having to go somewhere was still good.

I did test it, though. I sent a message to Jet, Midnight's mother, asking for her to respond to a series of messages. I didn't tell her how many it would be in case my calculations were incorrect, but it was pretty simple. I did my best to keep the normal form of the spell and focus on getting as many interactions beyond that as possible. If it didn't work right, I'd get one message back and forth.

But I got four iterations for eight messages total, bouncing back and forth in sequence. Just what I calculated should be the number and probably not terribly biased by my assumptions. Probably. That was just the way spells scaled. Though maybe I accidentally amplified the stability with the number of iterations? I could probably get more if I intentionally lowered that, but would that go below base stability?

It was a bit difficult to tell, and the spell didn't kill anything so I was a bit uninspired to keep going. It worked, in case I anticipated needing multiple exchanges. Not with Celmoth, though, as Extra was apparently quite close to just establishing technological communication. It would be restricted, but Midnight would be able to use it at least.

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Midnight and I took a car out of New Bay- not with either of us driving, of course. There was someone for that. I hadn't had the time nor inclination to learn to drive, or at least not to the level I could get a license. I did learn enough for mercenary work so I could stop one if I happened to be the sole conscious individual in a car, which wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

Instead of heading towards the national forest, our goal was a quarry. An old quarry nearly a full day's car ride out of New Bay, in fact. The land was owned by the Power Brigade to use as a training ground, but people rarely actually used it. For the most part, the training rooms in HQ or satellite locations were good enough, and it was… inconvenient. To the point I wouldn't have done it if I had to take a car every time.

Yes, saving six hours or so would absolutely be worth 15 mana, especially with mana being devalued for me. Between Midnight and myself, we could recover that in fifty minutes. As for why it even took that long… we were far enough outside of New Bay that we returned to 'normal' mana levels. Though I was beginning to think it was more like low mana levels. Even if Granbold was a country with archmages in a world of magic… it wasn't quite as magical as I thought it should have been.

One might think that Earth would have more ambient mana with nobody to use it, but that also wasn't the case. I suddenly wished that Mana Manipulation for Mages also included something like… Mana Origins. Though maybe that wasn't something that would be published anywhere.

The quarry was… pretty uninspiring. As for why we didn't teleport directly there, it was because it might be in use, and any pictures the Brigade had were inside the quarry itself. I took some time memorizing a good spot nearby where I shouldn't expect anyone to be standing around. It was also notable that the quarry should be secret, so even though it was outside we couldn't expect them to follow us. Even less so because our car continued on to a nearby town, just in case it was being tracked somehow.

With Midnight and I having Nondetection, we should be protected against magical methods and most powers. Technically someone with a super powerful nose could follow us, but there were no other cars on the road behind our car so it was pretty unlikely. And they would have had to be waiting for us specifically to go out of town on a random day.

I did appreciate the layers of paranoia, however. I wasn't eager for some things to get out to enemies. I had half a mind to throw Doctor Doomsday into a Spatial Rift, if I saw him. The smarter half suggested a swift tactical retreat.

"Alright, I think we're ready," I said after we swept the quarry for people. Presumably we would have heard explosions and stuff, but it was better to be safe than sorry. "If anyone's invisibly hanging around the quarry, this is your opportunity to respond!" I called. If they were, they were really good at concealing the traces of their power. But if there was nobody there, I couldn't be embarrassed about yelling in front of them. And if someone was there, I shouldn't be embarrassed either. "Final warning!"

Nothing. Obviously. The Brigade didn't exactly schedule anything out here.

Midnight leaned forward curiously. "What are you planning to do first?"

"Spatial Rift," I said. "But… I also want to see that excessive Grease from a distance. Maybe I'll tone it down a bit."

"You could mix them," Midnight said. "As long as we're way up here, it should be fine… right?"

"A fair point," I said. "Grease first, then."

Midnight could only use it normally, so he wasn't involved in this part. I gathered 12 mana, half as much as last time. It was really excessive to use mana up to my fatigue limit. It was really fascinating to see it covered a wall of the quarry, sliding down towards the bottom- though some of it clung to the walls.

Then, Spatial Rift. A perfectly normal version that even Midnight could… almost cast. Gate had upgrades which made it possible. Spatial Rift was slightly cheaper at base, but had no upgrades yet. Even though I broke so many flying saucers.

We recorded the event for posterity. It was fun to watch loose rock and Grease get flung around by the pull of Spatial Rift. I still didn't have anything to come out of Spatial Rift though.

Midnight cast an incomplete version of Spatial Rift after. Because it didn't meet the proper requirements, it was a bit less impressive. It threw pebbles around, scattering them against rocks, but not the bigger stuff. It also didn't rip anything loose like mine had. Midnight needed more experience for more levels and thus a greater fatigue limit.

"What are you thinking about?" Midnight asked. "I'm going to guess… spending tons of points on a low level spell again. To see if broken magic does something horrifying with it."

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Well," I shrugged. "I did think about that. But then I thought, you know… Meteor Swarm."

"Seriously?"

"I should use points for what I want. They don't have to all be practical. Also, I was actually thinking… what happens to the experience I don't get from casting spells?"

"... What do you mean?"

"Well, you know. Aspect of the Barbarian. I don't get experience for normal mage things." I was gathering mana as I spoke. Slowly and carefully. I didn't want to do anything excessive for a first attempt. I just needed to see it. "Where does that experience go?"

"... Nowhere, right?" Midnight said. "Because it doesn't exist. You doing that stuff doesn't mean anything for you, for whatever reason. And it wouldn't go to anyone else, because they aren't you."

"But hear me out," I said. "You're my familiar."

"So experience I get also applies to you. But only combat experience."

"Why doesn't it work in reverse?" I said. "Here it comes."

We should have gotten some old cars or other junk to annihilate. Meteor Swarm was still great, I'm not going to lie, but breaking rocks was kinda mediocre. Four balls of fire appeared over my head- not high in the sky, because I didn't want anyone driving by on a nearby road to see anything. Of course, they'd probably hear the explosions but… such was life.

Trails of fire led to four different points, one just out of sight behind a ledge of the quarry. The earth shook as explosions caused competing shockwaves. From where we were a few hundred feet away up on the edge of the quarry, it was only a gentle breeze. Barely even hot.

"I know it doesn't normally work like that," I said to Midnight. "But you have to admit that nothing about our situation is normal. A familiar is generally less sapient to begin with. My magic is all broken. So maybe you can glean a bit of experience from my spellcasting. On the other hand…"

"What?"

"I got a point of experience. Which is… a terrible exchange rate, honestly. I could get in a sparring match with like a dozen different people and get at least that much. But breaking things does give experience."

"Didn't you get a lot more than that from the ships?"

"They're a lot more dangerous than rocks," I suggested.

"Or you killed some snakes."

"Personally, I think they're less dangerous than the rocks. Anyway, I'm gonna try to shove the normal spellcasting experience towards you. And reading experience. It can't hurt. Even if it's not semi-duplicated like the combat experience you earn, I'm not using it so…"

"... Should I watch my experience counter?" Midnight suggested.

"Might as well," I said. "In that case… I'm not even going to try to cause destruction. To not bias things. I think Blizzard would be good. I might not even hit anything from here. Except air."

At the end of the day, Spatial Rift ended up with an upgrade. Midnight did get experience from me casting spells, however we couldn't prove that it wasn't related to him intently studying them. And if he wasn't present, we couldn't prove him not getting experience wouldn't be for another reason. In short… we didn't prove anything. But it also didn't hurt for me to try. We did have Midnight practice some spells as well. Finally we studied the area we planned to return to again- along with taking pictures- and then teleported back home.

Extra was still our only proper destination for that. Even if we could get directly home or into HQ, it was forbidden in multiple ways. Though someday I was going to go straight into my apartment, because I needed to know. Not today, though.

I got a strange look from an angel as we passed by. He scrunched his face as we approached.

It was polite to not say anything and move on.

"What are you doing?" I asked. I wasn't limited to strictly polite interactions. I already had a reputation, which was very convenient.

"... Standing guard," she gestured. It was true, she was in uniform and all that.

"Why did you make a weird face?" I asked. Midnight wanted to be gone from this social awkwardness. I stood firm as a rock. What was he going to do, drag me away physically? He was so tiny.

My question caused the angel to make a different weird face. Then she looked around. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Eh…" I held out my hand to make a specifically noncommittal gesture. "If I need to."

"You were there at the… incident."

"Oh! You're one of those angels." I looked her over. Couldn't say I recognized her in particular, though I had seen her around Extra before. Not always in uniform. "Are you angry at me or something? I feel like Malaliel wouldn't have let you stay around if you had vowed revenge. If you wanted to go back… I could send you. But you should know that."

"The face I made… was not a matter of disgust. Just confirming your identity." She tapped her nose. "Since the transformation."

"... Did you get bit by a vampire? Wait, is that form even contagious?"

"I would not be so easily harmed by those unholy abominations."

I frowned. "That sounds racist and mean but also most of that batch did kinda suck."

"Not a vampire…" Midnight commented on my shoulder, sniffing next to my ear. "Oh."

Midnight had a realization. That meant I had close to the right amount of information.

"Aha!" I said. "Gr- she bit you, didn't she?"

The angel nodded. "It's a bit embarrassing…"

"Nah, she's super strong. I assume someone taught you how to handle full moons?"

"The same individual," she confirmed.

"Great. What's your name, if you don't mind?" I looked at her name badge. "No surname?"

She shook her head. "It's just Inasyah."

"Same sort of deal here. Though I have to go by Mage dressed like this."

That was pretty much the end of that interaction. One mystery solved. The angel felt a little weird because she was also a werewolf. I wasn't sure if that was normal, but it was also two different realities' versions mixed in a third by someone with powers. Was Great Girl more contagious?

I wondered if anyone had told Inasyah we could have tried to cure her. Not easily after this amount of time, but we probably told Extra that magic could help… at some point. Eh, whatever. Nobody seemed upset. As long as you could control yourself, being a werewolf was pretty much just positives.