Mage Among Superheroes

Usually when people were gathered together to watch something, it was for entertainment purposes like a movie. At least, that was what I gathered was the common sense of Earth. Mostly when I was watching something with people it was like the current situation. Security footage.

This one involved a very large guy- and I used 'guy' very loosely not because he lacked masculinity but because he lacked humanity- stomping down a corridor. Energy weapons blasted at a barrier the giant metal guy had. It was, of course, Flasher.

He wasn't supposed to be on Mars. I also supposed he wasn't supposed to be inside a prison either. Occasionally he would hop forward- through space, not physically. He crossed solid barriers while taking a relatively straight path towards Iron Shell's cell. How did I know? I certainly hadn't seen it before, but it didn't take very long before he took advantage of the incoming lasers to focus their reflected beams onto the cell's lock before flinging open the door.

He dragged a comatose Iron Shell out. He must have been pretty strong… though I supposed she was currently lighter. At least, if I understood things properly they would have removed as many mods as they could safely, which at minimum included a lot of extra armor plating and power cells. Since she was basically full replacement, however, they couldn't legally leave her incapacitated without arms and legs or whatever.

Once outside the cell, I had thought that he was going to go out the way he came in, but instead Flasher took out something and crushed it. The two of them pushed through a portal.

"Their anti-teleportation stuff sucks," I said. "Why did anyone even bother sending her to Mars?"

"Because it's more difficult," Calculator commented. He was, of course, the one who had just informed Midnight and I about this incident. We had history with both of them.

Great Girl was also present- as a main contributor to Iron Shell's capture. "It's an exchange program, you see," Great Girl explained. "Many individuals are swapped between Earth and Mars for powered prisoners. That way people at least have to get to another planet. Can you imagine leaving everyone in the same city as all their minions?"

"That does sound bad," Midnight said. "So about that portal…"

"We have limited information," Calculator continued, "However, we presume it is connected to Bunvorixians… and potentially whoever got Flash Circuit into your old world through their sealing."

"Does this change Iron Shell's threat rating?" I asked. "Do we follow the same engagement protocols?"

"Until she does something beyond her previous activities, things stay the same. Capture if feasible. Of course, you need to protect yourselves first," Calculator said. "If you seriously feel threatened, you act as you have to. This does increase Flash Circuit's threat rating though. He's a takedown priority- dead or alive."

We should have hunted him down already. Well, we tried. However, Scrying hadn't proved as effective on him as we wished. Since it was a major component in how Iron Shell had been taken down, Flasher seemed to have taken extra precautions.

Midnight was pondering seriously, with the proper amount of worry one should have when a supervillain nemesis broke out of prison. I was probably below that proper worry, but we didn't need both of us to be like that. "The defenses seem like a lackluster response."

Calculator nodded. "That's still being looked into. We might not get the full report here, however… that doesn't stop me from making a few guesses." Calculator's 'guesses' were extremely accurate. When he said he was certain about something he'd never been wrong, but if he was willing to offer a supposition unprompted he was close enough for my purposes.

"There are two possibilities that aren't mutually exclusive. First, he tampered with the local systems. Nothing is joined to a complete network, but there are smaller sub-networks that could have been disabled to limit the response. Or he could have done something to suppress the threat he presented to the automated systems. Something like those devices the Neon Void are selling."

"How likely is that?" Great Girl asked.

"I can't imagine the Mod Squad wouldn't acquire any new tech that popped up if at all feasible," Calculator said. "Whether it would work for this is a different question. Either way, there should have been squads waiting for him when he arrived at the cell, having predicted his destination. It was a very short intrusion, but there should have been enough time."

"What about corruption?" Midnight asked. We had seen some of that, previously.

"Not this time," Calculator said. "At least not as a primary concern. Obviously it could have been another factor still."

"Okay," I nodded. I turned to Great Girl. "Do you think you could rip his head off?"

"... Only if I had to."

I had to think about that for a moment. "Is that an image thing?"

"I don't like killing people."

"Oh. Right." I didn't like killing people. But if they needed to die I really didn't care. That wasn't normal, but it wasn't far enough from normal to concern the Power Brigade… as long as I maintained contact with a psychiatrist.

Flasher was already on my list of people that I'd prefer to be dead, so I hadn't thought about it much beyond that.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Calculator reminded us to remain cautious- Iron Shell might come for revenge against any or all of us. He didn't need to remind Midnight and I about Flasher's danger.

-----

Though it was at the very edge of my abilities, I could use Multicasting with Dimensional Anchor. Triple the cost for five beams, though they were difficult to consolidate into a small area. That wasn't too big of an issue, because Flasher was both big enough that I might still hit him with multiple anyway… and I just wanted to connect.

Midnight was great practice, because he was a small and quick target. Dimensional Anchor didn't hurt so it was easy enough to use it continuously. Midnight could use lower level spatial magic to test whether the Dimensional Anchor took hold to preserve his mana. He was nominally 17 mana behind me, about a quarter, and for the sake of this exercise we were sticking to my stable mana pool.

Dimensional Anchor was completely safe. I didn't want to find out what an unstable version might do. Most likely… be less reliable. Nothing ever went all that far from its base form. But it was still magic that really shouldn't be used carelessly.

Besides, if I couldn't disable Flasher quickly it probably wouldn't work at all. We were ignoring the barriers he could generate at the moment and just focusing on one necessary bit.

A shotgun blast of extra-stable space sprayed out. I had the feeling Midnight wouldn't have been able to dodge without our connection. Actually, he probably wouldn't be able to sense magic at all so that was certainly the case. Avoiding invisible beams wasn't simple. But beyond learning to sense magic to some extent, his connection to me made that more precise.

I didn't want it to be easy, though, so I wasn't going to complain about it being tougher. This was training, and Movebrain wasn't available whenever I wanted. Or pretty much ever, beyond that one sizable training session. We didn't have an abundance of other space related supers for me to train with, as it was a rarer category.

I gathered enough mana for Multicasting once more. I shot a single beam. Midnight dodged it. He managed to dodge the second single beam, though he was clearly thrown off guard. The third one I managed to predict his angle in time for the invisible connection to reach him.

"Yep," he said. "Locked solid." He attempted to cast a few spells, starting with Storage. Summon Minor Elemental resulted in Ignis poking a head and arms through space and flailing about before being pulled away. I was pretty certain that wasn't supposed to work like that, but maybe it helped that Ignis really liked being summoned. After the anchor wore off we properly summoned Ignis to explain.

We returned to training, though I really only had mana for one more Multicasting. I gathered all 24 mana, steadying myself as I pushed up against my limits. It was far from the hardest thing I'd done with magic. Pushing past where I should go was pretty regular, so standing right on the edge was nothing. I shot a single Dimensional Anchor.

"This again?" Midnight avoided the one connection just fine.

It took me only a moment to recollect the last 8 mana and properly use Multicasting. Midnight picked a direction and dodged, but I shot them parallel to the floor at about his shoulder height, a spread that covered every direction he could dodge in that time except a straight leap upwards.

"Ah. I get it," Midnight said. "You split them into three the first time so that I would think you'd repeat that pattern."

"Pretty neat, right? I'm not sure if Flasher can sense mana like that, but I'm not betting he can't do something. Of course, if I don't hit with the initial attempt he might just flicker off."

Midnight nodded. "And that's why I'll take down his barrier first."

"Right. Think we can tune Dispel to only things that would hinder dimensional magic?"

"Honestly?" Midnight shook his head. "Not at all. But if you think we can, I'll try anyway."

"I guess the best we can do is tearing apart Dimensional Anchor for now. So…" I gestured at Midnight. "Try it out."

I was confident enough at using a single casting of Dimensional Anchor on myself stably even without the stability of my upper half of mana. Just in case, though, I targeted my least favorite hand. I really didn't want to have to go to Ceira and ask her to grow back a hand, so I really was careful. It was fine. I focused on Dispelling just Dimensional Anchor. There weren't any other spells, but there was super tech in my suit. It wouldn't be permanently disabled, but I figured it was better to not cause it more wear and tear than necessary.

Ultimately, as long as we got better at Dispel it didn't really matter if we could target things so precisely. We just needed Midnight to break down Flasher's barrier- even for a single moment- so that I could hit him with a couple bits of Dimensional Anchor. After that, his fast processing and defensive abilities wouldn't be a huge issue. Even if he had a new trick or two, if we could fight him we could win.

Though, I wasn't planning to have only Midnight and myself. We'd presumably be with a full squad. If they came to us, we couldn't pick which one that would be. If we were going to them, Great Girl's squad would be good. She had shown her ability to overcome Iron Shell, and she could doubtless do so against this guy. Of course, I couldn't expect Flasher to be alone which was why Midnight and I needed to be as coordinated as possible.

Whether or not we could organize an assault of some sort would depend on what patrol schedules we needed to take part in. It would be convenient if New Bay would offer an increased bounty on either Flasher or Iron Shell. Well, there would be the standard one for Iron Shell probably- the same as before her initial capture. Most of Flasher's trouble had been off-planet though, which meant bringing him in wasn't financially viable for the Power Brigade.

That didn't mean they wouldn't let us organize it- just that if there were higher priority tasks they would want us to handle those first. Obviously taking down personal nemeses wasn't a low priority for the Brigade, but things had to be balanced. Fortunately some of the prep work I had to do with Scrying also counted as training, so Midnight and I would always be moving closer to a resolution where we tossed Flasher into a star.

Or maybe just one of the planes Ignis came from. Assuming they were different and not just one mega plane. Flasher wouldn't do well in a world without electricity, food, or maybe air.

Oh wait, we wouldn't be able to shove him though a Gate with Dimensional Anchor going. I guess we'd just have to crush his brain. I wasn't sure if he even had any other vital organs, so we didn't have many options. It would have been easier before Iron Shell got out, but hopefully she'd be weaker for a while as she had to get replacement cybernetics, and we couldn't ignore the potential threat escalation.