Mage Among Superheroes

We were once more atop the highest peaks in the region… but these weren't even icy at the top. Even though we were looking down on a desert, it wasn't because of a lack of moisture. After all, these very peaks were at least partially responsible for the lack of rainfall in that very desert.

This was Ethus. Most of it didn't look like much, but there was one city that stood out, rising above everything else. "That is Vico, the capital," Spellshot commented. "It is good that we can see it from here, though I would suggest not teleporting directly?"

"Ooh," I thought about the possibilities. "Do they have magical wards that trap people beneath the sands? Seal them into a prison?"

Spellshot just gave me a look. "No. But they would not take kindly to an unknown group suddenly appearing inside the city."

"Sounds like a security flaw," I commented. "Can't they do anything about it?"

He shrugged. "It has not proven to be an issue."

Punk Monk nodded, "You don't have much to take."

Spellshot spread out his arms. "That is generally true. But there are also many warriors on alert at all times."

I couldn't help but point out flaws in that setup. "If people just teleported in with Stoneskin prepared, it would be quite tough to deal with. Haste too."

"For every Stoneskin, there is an armor piercing skill," Spellshot commented. "It is not impossible to deal with."

I could heavily damage the city from here, though. With Meteor Swarm. I wouldn't but there had to be plenty of others who were of a similar level and actually enemies with Ethus. Probably best not to mention that in particular. Midnight also had cautious thoughts.

Bolster spoke up, "Will they mind if we show up outside the gates?"

Spellshot shook his head, "As long as the boundaries of Vico are respected, it should not be an issue. Besides, they should be expecting me."

-----

We Teleported down, met some people at the gates, met some people inside the city, and eventually ended up in the a big courtyard in a palace of some sort. I didn't really pay that much attention because I didn't plan to get involved in Ethus politics longterm. Obviously everyone was speaking orcish, which I only understood with Translate. I'd had a significant amount of practice with older orcish, but it really wasn't the same at all. Interacting with a handful of Doomsday's minions didn't give me a complete understanding either.

I took a panoramic video of the courtyard since this was what I needed to memorize for future Teleportation. Or Gate, technically. It was distinct enough I should be able to remember it just fine, but that was no reason to not scan it properly. It would be annoying to have to repeat the journey we were just on.

I was happily ignoring everything else and ready to go. A stare burned into the back of my head. We just had to get final confirmation of when they wanted me to start shoveling orcs through Gates. Then we could leave and I didn't have to acknowledge whoever that was.

"Do you know her?" Midnight asked, prodding me.

"I shouldn't know anyone who was here before us."

"Are you sure? Because…"

It seemed neither of them were going to give up. I looked, and of course I had no idea who the woman was. She held a strange shield that was far wider than it was tall. Or perhaps it was currently on its side, as she seemed to hold it with two hands across her body. Either way, there were a couple others like her around, but none of them were quite as… intense.

Did she want to fight? That wouldn't be too bad, but I wasn't sure if I could ask here. It would depend on how much the locals stuck to old traditions. It wasn't really a friendly look, though, so I didn't think that was it. She might have wanted to kill me, but I had no idea why that would be.

"That's Sahirah," Spellshot commented. "Head of the antimagic specialists here."

Was her shield magical? It was. But it didn't seem like that would be enough. Her class was… monk, probably? She felt vaguely like our monk, though I couldn't determine much more than that. Most people with classes didn't radiate the same sort of supernatural clarity like most people with powers. Probably because powers were generally more focused and set.

"Does she hate mages or something?" I asked. "I haven't even done anything here."

"She is just vigilant. Aren't you, Sahirah?"

She stepped away from the edge of the courtyard. "I need to be able to act appropriately when the time comes, Khonsu." Her eyes never lost focus on me. "This one is the greatest threat of the bunch."

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I did have the most levels. That made sense.

"Turlough is also the one that will be responsible for bringing people here," Spellshot pointed out. I had shared my name because I really didn't care about secrecy. And because it would be super weird here even if it might give a very slight magical advantage. Then again, a name was nothing next to a picture or recording so it really didn't matter. Mage was just as much my name but it would be significantly more confusing for people. Spellshot looked between the two of us. "Well, I think we should be going soon. Do you have the necessary mana?"

"Of course." I could easily create a stable Gate with the second half of my mana if necessary. Especially going back to somewhere familiar.

We left behind Ethus and Vico and everything else as we returned to Earth. Spellshot came too because he still had to do orc agent stuff. Extra would want to know the plans for the future since it was another point of contact with my old world.

-----

We all got clean bills of health from Doctor Martinez. "Obviously there are elevated levels of red blood cell development. There are a few other factors that do indicate problems could have developed, but spending some time recovering between times at elevation seems to have been sufficient. I wouldn't suggest doing anything similar with someone in poor cardiovascular health, though."

"I don't think I know anyone like that." I pondered for a few moments. Maybe Doctor Rose? Great Girl's sister. Ceira had been kind of marginal in that regard, but having a cat and a dog had gotten her more active before exercise became part of her new 'rich person routine'.

It was possible some tech supers I knew might have issues, but they weren't all unfit. Pretty much every member of the Power Brigade had certain physical standards to meet, including Khithae. I imagined climbing was pretty good exercise and she'd never chosen not to do that. She'd actively complained about her former bosses forbidding it, in fact.

-----

About a week later, Spellshot and I ended up at a prison. It wasn't the sort of place I frequented, since other people were responsible for carting off criminals to jail, and I had no reason to antagonize people by showing up in prison much later. I still didn't see much of it, as we pretty much went right into a special room to wait.

Unlike Extra's teleportation halls, this one was plain in a way that it would be difficult to remember it, instead of standardized in a way that was actually easier to reach. Not that it would matter much, because we were leaving, not coming. Which was good because I had the feeling that there were some protections in place, even if this was a low-power facility.

A number of Extra guards were with us, mainly humans with a few Martians in this batch- plus Inasyah. They mostly stood around the perimeter of the room as the prison guards escorted in a half dozen, the first batch. The orcs were very grumpy looking.

"You!" One of them reacted to me, yelling at me in orcish. "Doctor Doomsday will have your head!"

"At least he knows who I am," I countered. "He wouldn't even bother to break you out of this place."

"Enough chatter!" Inasyah said. Her intent was clear and the orcs shrunk back slightly even if they might not understand her words. "Mage, are you ready?"

"Obviously."

I waved my arm unnecessarily to let the people from Extra know I was doing something as I gathered mana for Gate. It took a bit for a top rank spell. I wondered if I would ever get as fast as Zentha Qitris. If I could find her again and get her to not run away, I'd ask her to teach me. Or maybe I'd be able to find Master Uvithar eventually. Surely he knew methods to improve. I was making some progress on my own, but it was better not to have to invent new techniques. Zenfer Cloudfound's book didn't cover that aspect of Mana Manipulation. Did he not know, or was it secret?

I opened a Gate about ten feet wide, with enough room for several people to comfortable walk through together. All the handcuffed orcs were herded through, followed by the guards from Extra and then finally the other two orcs- Spellshot and myself, of course.

It didn't take long for people to exchange custody, though it was far longer than the time remaining in Gate. The locals of Ethus applied their own shackles that inhibited mana somehow. The handcuffs were removed- something better than what I had been cuffed with, obviously. I was kind of interested in both options, since I wanted to be able to get out of them if there was some sort of trouble. Sadly, Ethus wasn't going to give me access to something like that and Inasyah was responsible for returning the ones from Earth.

The Brigade might be able to get me access to something like that, but I was pretty sure there were rules about that. After all, I could go rogue. Or at least, people could. I couldn't really think of anything that would make me turn villain. Then again, in theory most people would avoid those sorts of situations the best they could. Except people who were already on the edge to begin with, but they didn't get accepted into the Brigade.

Maybe Super Soldiers, Inc. The Beast Family had that issue once but it was high profile enough that they had to entirely reorganize.

I was pretty sure heroes were at a higher rate of flipping than the Power Brigade. At least, I knew about Darkstargirl and Spot, if we could count both of them. I was pretty sure the Hero Association really didn't want to count both. They really cared about looking good and maybe didn't put in enough effort being good.

After everything was over, I took the Earthlings and Spellshot back. That was it for the week. Sure, I could have done that another couple of times, but we couldn't go directly back to the prison- or at least I wasn't going to try it because I might succeed and make people mad- so it would turn into an annoying day of going around not fighting anything.

I should have asked Sahirah if she wanted to fight. I could learn what an antimagic specialist monk did. Except if she knew what she was doing, maybe she wouldn't spar with me because it would be obvious why I wanted that. What a pain.

Maybe I could practice with Midnight. Dispel wasn't really a very complete antimagic option, since it was inefficient. Still, it would get me some experience in case I had to face something real.

There were so many things I wanted to learn. No wonder some people chose to be specialists, as it could be quite troublesome pick a priority every time. Advanced Spatial Magic and Energy Magic were both tempting to try to achieve, there was the Mod Squad that would doubtless cause trouble in the near future. Oh, right, and Faceeater. The dragon hadn't bumped into me again after the first time, but I had the feeling that wouldn't be the only time.