Mage Among Superheroes

I was still having trouble pinning down anything useful about the Mod Squad. It was easier to just catch random members out and about, doing things, than it was to properly Scry on any of the leaders. So that was what I was doing. Or rather, I was just out on patrols in areas they tended to frequent- though it was always possible their base would move or they would act further from said base. Or bases.

The thing about the Mod Squad was I didn't really hate them, but Flasher had done something unforgivable- he had kidnapped Midnight for the Bunvorixians. The bad ones, obviously. The good ones weren't up to any interstellar kidnappings. They could barely operate on their own planet safely.

We were in a little patrol squad of four… or fourtyish. I honestly didn't know how many squirrels Zeb had anymore, but it did make sense that her name had changed. Squirrel Swarm. That was probably better than Herder. Though she didn't necessarily think so.

"Do they think I don't like Fluffy and Miss Flutter? Have I been bad to them?"

Miss Flutter was taking the day off, I believed. As she did most days. However, Fluffy was quite happy to be out and about. The rust mole sniffed everything with interest, especially cars and light poles and anything mechanical. But he didn't eat them, because Zeb had done well with his training. Not that he would be allowed on the streets otherwise, the Power Brigade was better than that.

I bent down to pat Zeb on the head. "Don't worry about that, you're doing just fine. Whoever picks the names is just weird." Maybe they were sick. Squirrel Swarm was almost good. Not that I really was the best judge of names.

Along with us was of course Midnight- us being on separate patrols was the exception, not the norm. For Brigade purposes we counted as two, even if we didn't for magic.

Then, finally, was Jim. That was also his official moniker- the Power Brigade hadn't even tried to give him a cover identity. The name Jim was also disarming, as nobody would immediately hear 'Jim' and think 'mass of strange tentacles'. But once they'd met him, they would understand. Theoretically. He could understand English, but it took some effort for him to replicate human speech so he wasn't usually terribly talkative.

Even with us all decked out with Translation, he wasn't terribly chatty. He wasn't unfriendly, just quiet. The main things we had in common were preferring this world over others, and that topic had already been well trodden.

Zeb's squirrels were fearless. Since they were empathically tied to her, that seemed to result in quite abnormal behavior from them. At the very least, I kind of expected squirrels to not climb on people even if they weren't Jim. But here, they did. It was probably good for his image.

I saw quite a few confused people taking pictures. Jim wasn't so well known that everyone was aware of him- that was why his official outfit squashed some of him into a humanoid shape with clear Power Brigade markings covering the front and back of the chest. Plus his name.

Usually, the reaction to Jim was slightly more fearful. Interested confusion and occasional mirth was pretty good. He did look pretty funny with squirrels all over him. Zeb obviously had a handful on her, and of course Fluffy and myself also had a few guests. Midnight was small enough that only the bravest squirrels tried to ride on him, especially since they would be subject to second order jostling.

Most days of patrol were nothing, at least for any individual squad. Despite what some people tried to make it out to be, New Bay wasn't a war zone. Most of the time, it was a place with a lot of strange people. Supervillains and their minions did get up to stuff, but since they tended to push out all the non-powered crime the rates weren't that high. Overall, the economic state of the area was quite high given how much positive attention superheroes and frequent powers drew.

While utility powers were valuable elsewhere, they weren't always accepted so easily. At best, there were things like healing. Unless you had a really weird healing power, you would be welcomed by anyone who liked being alive more than they hated powers. Which was most people, aside from some whackos that wouldn't be around to bother people overly long.

We hadn't spotted the Mod Squad.

Then there was a loud *crunch*.

"No, Fluffy! Don't eat that!" Zeb scurried over. "That poor… thing…"

Held in Fluffy's jaws was the twisted remains of… a robotic rat. It was still twitching and sparking.

"Probably one of Rodentia's," I commented. "He could probably eat it, but it would be better if he showed us first."

Zeb took some time to explain that to Fluffy. We didn't want him eating someone's science project, even if the vast majority of robo-rats would be Rodentia's minions. Like ninety-nine point nine-nine percent.

Fluffy nodded, then proceeded to tear apart the device, leaving little but some synthetic fur behind. Presumably any tracking devices would be digested quickly, if they hadn't already been destroyed as he tore it apart. At the very least, any sort of power signature was so diminished I couldn't feel it- and as Rodentia relied on super tech, it all felt like something.

I was glad that Rodentia had gotten past the series of models that had artificial blood. It had been so unnecessary and weird.

A few minutes later, Fluffy caught another one. This time, he properly showed us before devouring it.

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This was a problem. Not what Fluffy was doing, but one of Rodentia's rats was a coincidence- there were so many, after all. Two was a sign. Zeb had Fluffy begin to specifically hunt down more, to see if we could find any signs of where they might be coming from or going to.

I was surprised we didn't end up in the sewers. Usually that was the case with Rodentia related stuff. Instead, we remained at street level. Gradually, we were narrowing down where the rats could be going. They weren't moving in a single large swarm, though that didn't mean much. They could have just been keeping things subtle- Rodentia did that every once in a while- or we were at the beginning or end of a larger migration.

Soon enough, Fluffy stopped eating the rats. He was capable of digesting metal bits, and even quite happy to do so, but he was limited by the size of his stomach. A few of the two foot rats or a couple dozen smaller ones would fill quite a large volume.

Now we were following the trail of some instead of killing them, which was probably a better way to figure out where we were going anyway.

Soon enough we came to a large, walled building. Fluffy spent a few minutes sniffing around the edge and we were able to determine that they weren't just passing through- different directions all led into there.

"Super Labs…" I commented. "That's not a very good name."

"Pretty sure all of the other words meaning 'top', 'big', or 'important' were already taken," Midnight said. "Plus, according to my research they do work with powers here."

"We should probably warn-" I began to speak. Then there was an explosion. "Let's get to the entrance."

I could have just flown us over the side, but we didn't want to confuse whatever security they had and make things worse.

We needn't have bothered though. Their security was… irrelevant. There was one lady yelling into her radio when we arrived. "I'm telling you, we need all the heroes you can- oh, there they are."

"Power Brigade," I said. The speaking role defaulted to me because I was humanoid. It saved a lot of 'you can speak?' and things like that. "What's the situation?"

"Uh, there was an explosion over there," the security guard gestured.

"Which building?" I asked. "Do we need a keycard?"

"I'm not sure which building," she admitted. "You'll definitely need a keycard to get there."

"Great." I didn't mean that, obviously. "Radio the other guards to ask, and get me the head of security so we can get a keycard." I held up a card made to easily confirm that we were actual registered members of New Bay's hero and mercenary system. Security and cops all had a system they could connect to rapidly.

She quickly scanned it. "Alright, status confirmed," the woman said. "So there's just one issue. The other security…" she looked around. "It's just me. I'm the head of security."

I held out my hand. "Keycard."

"... I don't have any." I just looked at her. "It's not my fault! The lab head said that there were too many secret projects and I didn't have clearance!"

"Then that lab head should have gotten you clearance," Midnight said.

It felt like we were both thinking the same thing. This lab had skimped on security. It was going to be hell for them when the city reviewed their setup. That didn't mean we weren't going to save them- the city would pay us for doing our job, and they would collect from the lab for the unnecessary extra expenses. If the Power Brigade had to do something, it wasn't my department.

A few people in lab coats came running out the front. "What's going on?" one man demanded.

"Keycard," I said, holding out my hand.

He took me in immediately and shook his head. "Doesn't work like that. You'll need your biometrics in the system."

"Alright."

I walked past him to the door. I gathered mana for Knock… but I was going to have to do that over and over, wasn't I? How annoying. What if I just… a little bit of this and that. Some Multicasting to target the system as a whole, maybe? Then I could use a bit of extra mana to make sure it worked. 4 turned into 12 turned into an even 24, just to be sure. Maybe we should have just used Fly to begin with, but we were already inside. Opening things up wasn't an issue when Rodentia was already exploding parts of the lab.

*Thud* *Thud* *Thud*

Three knocks rang out, one after another. The building shook slightly. And the door flung open.

We were immediately running down the hallway. Not sprinting, but certainly not taking our time. The direction of the explosion had been clear enough, and I had a vague feeling of more powered stuff happening in that direction.

Relatedly, this lab had a whole lot of unsecured powered stuff. There weren't any sort of dampeners that I could sense, meaning it kind of stuck out like a sore thumb for anyone looking. And the one security guard was… a normie. It probably wasn't her fault, but she really wasn't enough.

Yet she was running along after us. Which meant we would have to protect her too. So we'd have to keep her from turning into cheese, I guess.

Fluffy was excited. I couldn't tell quite why until we burst out of one building to see another with the front being dismantled by rat lasers.

"Now, my minions! Set them free!"

Rodentia was there, obviously. With a rat mask covering her face, the only part of her we could actually see was some gray hair, but the voice and mannerisms were clear enough.

She saw us as the dust began to settle. "Aha! Someone comes to stop my great escape, but you are too late! For I have already liberated this entire laboratory from the reigns of tyranny!" She paused then looked behind her. "What do you mean they aren't running away?"

"It's fine, right?" Midnight asked as he was pointing a paw at her.

"For sure," I said.

He shot her in the back of the head with a laser. It wouldn't have killed her even if she didn't have fancy shielding tech, but she did. And it wasn't just rats this time. She'd either stolen more of or replicated the same sort of Doomsday tech as before. Hexagons appeared as Midnight's beam swept across her.

She turned around. "Rude! I was busy!" She surveyed our group, then pointed. "Kill that abomination!"

I was pretty sure she didn't need verbal orders. It was also very rude to Jim.

Except… the rats all targeted Fluffy. Which was also very rude.

"Hey! Careful of the squirrels!" Rodentia said.

"Yeah, don't hurt the squirrels!" Zeb yelled in agreement.

Did Rodentia mention liberating something? Like lab experiments? This might be… troublesome. Also I needed to remind Zeb not to agree with villains so easily, at least verbally.