Mage Among Superheroes

It turned out the device that Fire Lady had wasn't unique to her at all. Calculator explained things as far as he was aware.

"The Neon Void is responsible for the production of the device that Conflagration was using to hide her power. Our sources indicated a number of others have appeared with such devices as of late."

"And the Neon Void?" Midnight asked.

I was already looking them up in our databases. Calculator probably already had all that info in his head. "Aliens," he said. "Nominally from Venzul Prime, though we don't know where that is, and they might not know where it is."

"Sounds like an Extra problem," I commented.

"Oh, it is," Calculator agreed. "They have a bounty for any member of the Neon Void syndicate."

"If it's alien tech," Midnight pondered, "Can we use it?"

"Well," Calculator shrugged. "It kind of isn't."

I tilted my head. "Is it made with local capabilities?"

Calculator shook his head. "No. It's pretty much super tech. It shouldn't work. Well, perhaps it is super tech but we'd have to learn something more about the Venzul to know if they have this capability, or if it's just one of their members." Calculator shrugged. "If you spot anyone with indigo blue skin and shiny black eyes, take note. If they're involved in crime, prioritize their capture."

"So," I said. "Was Fire Lady working with them?"

"No. The Neon Void seems to sell these 'aura dampeners'," Calculator explained.

Ah. The other explanation was that she stole from them. We could have used it as bait. Then again, if it wasn't unique that would make it harder. "What stops us from using it? Extra's rules?"

"That, and it has to be attuned, and we don't know how."

"Well, if it suddenly starts being magic instead of super tech, let me know," I said. "I literally can't guarantee anything with magical objects, but it would be interesting to poke around at some."

If it was super tech… I could almost certainly make it not work. Dispel was a temporary measure- unless a phenomenon was already temporary- but I could probably figure out a way to make any powered thing that wasn't fighting back permanently disabled. So could Great Girl. Actually, it would probably be easier to do something similar to her- just break it. Super tech without the 'super' was just a pile of scrap metal.

-----

Doctor Patenaude's sensory stalks bent and twisted in a pleasant manner, like kelp in the sea. Not that I had actually seen that myself, but I had seen videos.

I was supposed to go to therapy regularly, even if I didn't think I had any troubles. Since my best friend had been kidnapped pretty recently, I wasn't worried about a lack of issues.

"I want him to be stronger," I said. "So that I don't have to worry. I never want something like this to happen again."

"I see. Have you ever told Midnight this?"

"He's already doing his best. He is getting stronger. It's just… more stably."

"Hmm. Does the instability of your own power concern you?"

"No."

"Normally, I would expect such short and definitive answers to be lacking. But I do believe you on that part. However, perhaps it should."

I frowned. "Is a therapist supposed to ask me to worry more?"

"I'm supposed to make sure you feel enough and process it. Those who are numb to emotions aren't healthy, just unaware."

"... It doesn't bother me though."

"But Midnight being hurt does. And if you hurt yourself, he will be upset."

I thought about that for a while. I wasn't really concerned about my physical wellbeing unless I died or something. Midnight certainly cared, but if I lost an arm it wouldn't be the end of the world. If Ceira couldn't regrow it and I didn't have cybernetic compatibility, I would just… not have an arm. It might stop me from being a member of the Power Brigade, which would suck, but Midnight might actually be happier with me safe.

I'd fall apart if I lost magic, but physical injuries were fine. Returning to the original topic… "It's close to the truth. My magic. That's more important to me than it being easy. No, it's probably too easy for most people. I have more control now than before. I just need to remember that I have to be in control. And I do. I put in a lot of practice, too."

I wanted Basic Elemental Magic… I really should have that by now. Then again, I'd only fused paired spells before. Even Basic Light Magic was like that. Space and elements were perhaps a bit more complex.

I was also assuming that the elements were one category together, which wasn't necessarily true. It felt right to me, but I really didn't have a good book on masteries. I had barely written any of it yet.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Doctor Patenaude brought me back to the session. "You mentioned lingering resentment for those who caused the incident. The Bunvorixian government in general, Spot in particular along with Flash Circuit. Yet you haven't expressed any intent to go after them."

I thought about that. "If I see them I'll throw them into a black hole. But they have access to teleportation and stuff so they're hard to pin down."

"Please don't," Doctor Patenaude said. "Anything related to a black hole. You were far too confident right there."

I thought about it. I didn't even have a connection to a black hole, but if I did and could somehow make a portal close enough to pull them through… it would probably get Earth too. I happened to live on Earth. "I'll just toss them next to that propaganda tower then."

"I imagine Extra would advise against casual offensive use of portals."

Spatial Rift was pretty good too, if I could get it to throw things out. I should try that, since I at least knew where Ignis' elemental plane(s) were now. I should be able to attune to those instead of planes from my old world. I was barely even a native there anymore anyway.

-----

The Power Brigade training facilities were great. I honestly had no idea how they compared to anywhere else. I hadn't done a broad survey of my options. I thought Great Girl was pretty cool and she worked for them. They hired me when I applied. Simple. I had no regrets.

The training facilities were great, but I think an underappreciated aspect was Francois. My hand was on fire and it didn't hurt at all. Technically, the area around my glove was fire, rather than it or anything being on fire, but the point was that it was hot and I wasn't burnt.

The idea here was that I needed to see if I could do different stuff with elements, and I could. The problem was that Shocking Grasp inherently came with protection from itself and Firebolt or other fire spells didn't. I had thought about it, and I hadn't come up with a solution besides casting Energy Ward on myself which was way more expensive.

Shocking Grasp was stored as charged potential that was released into a touched target. Doing something similar with fire seemed like asking for an explosion in my hand. That wasn't safer.

So it was just on fire. Now I just needed to figure out how to slap this fire on something else, or make it hot enough that brief contact would be worthwhile.

Shooting small lightning was easy, but I felt more like I was severely downcasting Chain Lightning rather than creating a bolt of lightning. Actual Lightning Bolt by name was far more powerful than Firebolt, more than tenfold.

Well, more than Firebolt was supposed to be. I could replicate that level of power, but the spell design was… not optimal. Various tests had resulted in the spell creating an explosion more often than a tightly focused shot like it was supposed to.

Most of my early energy spells were second rank. Only Energy Ward and Sonic Lance were higher, and then there were the much later options like Fire Shield, Blizzard, and Chain Lightning.

Making Sonic Lance weaker was trivial and kind of pointless. They way it diminished in power, I'd have to hit someone right in the head for it to matter much at the same level of mana as the other spells. I wasn't really sure where I was going with that anyway. It was a spell that had good stopping power that was also hard to dodge. It was perfect as it was- if it was too strong for my target I might not even need magic to take them down. Yeah, it would probably kill a normal, unprotected human but I didn't have to deal with those. Smart minions had armor.

Shocking Grasp was the spell that was the most different of the offensive options. That was why I was messing around with replicating it with other elements. Water Blast formed around my hand was completely lacking in offensive power.

I needed another spell. Fortunately, the earliest offensive spells were cheap. I wondered what points were doing. Would my mastery be better without spending points? I couldn't know. How annoying.

Time to try to learn a spell naturally, without anyone to give me proper examples. Water Breathing just happened because I needed it, and unfortunately I wasn't thinking about taking notes at the time. Learning a spell without points or reference wasn't something I'd ever had much success with- even the light spell I had learned from Jerome. Jerome had learned a lot of spells from me, but they were ones I already knew as well.

There was Arcane Sight. It had been pretty easy because it was an extension of my already good sensing abilities. Probably.

I knew how much mana Acid Splash was supposed to take. I just needed acid for reference. Preferably magical acid. I wasn't going to ask Bolster or someone to learn the spell just to save points myself. I did have a friend though.

-----

Rasmus was Acid Man at work, and we were definitely at work now. He was the most acidy person I knew- except maybe Faceeater, but I doubted she was available to help. Plus, she'd try to eat my face and/or cover my whole body in acid. I didn't know for sure why she disliked me, but I did know she was female. Probably. Because of magic.

"I just need you to make a burst of acid," I said. "A small one."

"... That's not how my powers work," Acid Man explained. "You know that already. They're mostly contained to my body… or where my body should be."

"Hadn't you developed a ranged attack?" I felt like he did.

"It's probably not as versatile as you want. I can't tell it to explode or anything, but I can throw it at a target."

"Sounds good," I said. I watched him transform himself, a small section flinging off and clinging to a target we had set up, rapidly melting until the acid disappeared. "... You seem more like an ooze than an acid elemental."

"... Is acid an element?"

"Of course it is!" I said.

"So that little elemental buddy of yours can make acid?"

"Of course not!"

"... Why?"

"Elementals don't have anything to do with elements," I said. "Oh. I see why you're confused." I had to take a moment to think of a good explanation. The explanation was… "Language is terrible." It wasn't actually much clearer in Common. "Elements and energy have a metaphysical overlap. Like Energy Ward, it may be more correct to call acid energy."

Acid Man made a face. "That sounds way less correct. Acid is pretty strictly a substance. Cold is kind of… anti energy at least that makes sense."

"Anti energy is totally energy," I shrugged. It did seem that what I wanted was Basic Energy Magic, not Basic Elemental Magic. Though the name wasn't the important part. The important part was still understanding how it worked.

So I needed Acid Man to show me how supernatural acid worked, and we'd take it from there.