Mage Among Superheroes

Though there were a lot of traps already set off, we couldn't just judge things by laser marks or explosions for whether or not they were safe. Normally the latter areas would be safe because explosions were usually a one-time thing. But also, super tech.

Still, our progression was greatly improved because some issues were already dealt with and thus we didn't have to dismantle them. By which I meant Swiss Arms didn't have to dismantle them. Though Midnight and I could potentially disable super tech for a short while with Dispel, it wasn't efficient if it could be done 'normally'.

We checked the tunnels behind us just to make sure that Faceeater wouldn't be able to follow after us- if she decided to claw her way back through the half collapsed tunnel she caused. Nobody wanted to be ambushed by a dragon. Fortunately, Rodentia wasn't concerned with allowing massive individuals access to her lair.

"Have one of your squirrels follow this path," Swiss Arms instructed, using a laser pointer to demonstrate. "Then pull out this gear."

"Got it," Zeb said. "Yelcel! You're up."

The squirrel scrambled along the upper wall, holding onto tiny handholds. Presumably its small size wouldn't be setting off any traps, which might not be correct to believe in a normal supervillain's lair but… this was Rodentia. If all of her traps were working optimally they might never hurt squirrels, though we weren't trying to test that supposition.

It wasn't optimal to take longer than we needed to while infiltrating a lair, but getting exploded or turned into cheese would really help us go faster. It was also a decent time to regenerate mana, I supposed. It would have been negligible with 'normal' values, just a point or two, but New Bay was pretty near triple- and I had access to something like double on top of that for the low cost of magic not automatically stabilizing.

It wasn't nearly enough to make up for the costs of even a short skirmish with a dragon, but it was something like one more decent spell, or a couple small ones. Small spells used well could be the best thing sometimes.

We passed through rooms and hallways, most with more signs of recent violence. Once along the way, Swiss Arms breathed a puff of dust into the hallway, revealing a grid of lasers. "There's no time for me to work my way through," she commented. "And there doesn't seem to be any space on the walls. Mage, can you handle this?"

"What do I have to press?" I asked. I could guess, of course, but she was the expert.

"Get a hand to that back wall and I'll guide you."

She meant Mage's Reach, of course. It was good for floating in specific ways, and it wasn't big. I managed to cross through all of the lasers without even losing a pinky, then I slid open a panel and… had to navigate back out for more tools. It would have been nice if we had a dedicated telekinetic on the team at that moment. Also, Midnight would have been a better option since he understood machines better- super tech at least tried to look like real tech.

But we got it done, allowing us to pass down a hallway where there were clear patterns of damage and at the same time outlines of the individuals passing through. It seemed they had survived so far. That was a testament to their skill… or maybe because Rodentia didn't usually kill people.

Then we came to a massive mousetrap, which was part of the whole 'usually'. "... Do people really fall for that?" I asked.

"If they want the random shiny objects sitting on it, sure," Swiss Arms shrugged. "Don't underestimate fools."

We just bypassed that without touching it, Sorority continuing to take point with some squirrels peeking around corners and the like. Technically, she could probably set off every trap we came upon safely- but she would exhaust herself creating new clones. It wasn't necessarily a good idea. Just something we could have done. Squad Ten might have been better at it, since he made more usually. Sorority tended to limit herself to a handful at most because of how it affected her secondary powers- bodily enhancement that was split between clones.

We could hear active explosions and sounds of fighting ahead. Then we began to see pieces of robot rats flying about. We finally spotted some of the other intruders.

"Neon Void," Sorority confirmed.

Technically, it could have been other Venzu with super tech. We just didn't know of any of those that weren't part of the syndicate. Shiny black eyes looked at us. Not proportionately large like martians, but along with the blue skin and a few other features they were clearly not human. Not that it really mattered except for how much force we might want to apply.

"... Are we supposed to stop villains from infiltrating other villain's lairs?" I asked. "Is this trespassing? Is it still supervillainy?"

"Theft is still a crime. Stealing already stolen goods isn't less of a crime," Swiss Arms explained. "But we're also not obligated to deal with them right now. We need to get to that storage room which is…"

"Through them, right?" Sorority said. Clearly, she was experienced.

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Swiss Arms sighed. "Through them."

"Fluffy!" Zeb called. That would have left only Miss Flutter watching our flank, but we also had some squirrels for that. Quite a lot, really. Zeb was covered in squirrels, but that wasn't close to all of them. They just liked riding around on the canine.

Our laser resistant buddy came to catch up- he might have helped with the traps or set them off while trying to eat them, which was why he hadn't been called in earlier. Plus the whole not-a-rodent thing.

With my selection of spells, I prepared the most sensible response for the Neon Void. My gun. Should I expect them to have bullet resistant outfits? Absolutely. But bullet resistant was not bulletproof, and bullets were cheaper than spells. Also, nobody liked getting shot at.

That included me, which was why I took cover around a corner. I was trying to get a good feel for the lasers they had. Sorority would doubtless appreciate it, as she was having a hard time getting close to the few thugs we saw.

Swiss Arms was taking them down easily, though. She blocked their lasers with her arms- yes even attacks on her lower extremities- and then kicked them in the face. One of her primary rivals was Doctor Doomsday, and the Neon Void's super tech was just not up to par. Also, lasers were pretty bad as such things went but they didn't seem to have offensive creativity. In theory, lasers were good because they arrived pretty much instantly and began to harm your enemies. In practice, everyone had lasers and knew how to deal with them.

We bound those we could and let Fluffy deal with any fancy tech they had on them. The grunts didn't have anything special and it would all have to be destroyed eventually. I cast Energy Ward before we moved onto the next bunch.

Some of them had kinetic dampeners that made my bullets stop upon hitting them, doing nothing. They still flinched, though. That gave me time to approach and swing a heavy stick. A proper staff replacement was still being worked on- Vilhelmiina wasn't enthusiastic about remaking something she'd already done, but Ceira might have some viable trees that could soon be big enough to harvest a branch or two.

Regular blunt weaponry worked fine, though. I could even have a quarterstaff since some supers used them, but it didn't feel right to use one only meant for hitting people.

Lasers were annoying, but I focused more on dodging whatever else some of them were shooting. Something metallic, from the way it sounded when impacting tunnel walls. I would have also dodged lasers if that was viable, but Energy Ward would have to do.

One hit me in the face. It turned out to be some sort of metal spike- way too big to actually fit inside the rifles they were shooting them from. It was like four inches long, based on what I could see sticking out from my cheek. Most of it was stopped by my headgear, and the rest was Stoneskin and… well, my cheek. I could have yanked it out, but then I would just be bleeding.

I grabbed one of those guns off a guy, and was pleased to see they just kind of worked for anyone. Also that the Neon Void didn't have any special protections against them. The lucky individuals to have kinetic dampening fields were mostly fine- even if I hit them in the eye they barely got scratched. They still screamed though. The other guys had varying levels of luck as arms, legs, and non-vital organs were hit. Even if they weren't nice enough to do the same in turn, we still had obligations to fulfill when feasible. It was difficult to say any one of them was a serious threat.

We burst into the room we were looking for. I had recognized some of the outside, and the shelves were familiar. The contents of the shelves, however, were… far less contentful.

Stuff was missing. That was what I meant.

"Dammit," Swiss Arms said. "They were already in here. They took the vials."

"Not all of them," Midnight commented, pulling something from out behind the shelves. "But… yeah."

"You two, confiscate anything you can," Swiss Arms ordered Midnight and I. "We'll sort it out later. The rest of us will try to chase them down."

Midnight and I began to stuff things into Storage as quickly as possible. We could grab piles of things, so anything that wasn't breakable was tossed into a pile. We had about eighty pounds each, and we kept that mostly empty for this mission just in case of things like this. There didn't seem to be any heavy devices in this room- it was once again just a bunch of random things on shelves. Dangerous things? Absolutely. I was pretty sure I picked up some mini-nuclear reactors, but they were small and light. Radiation wouldn't get me from Storage.

"What do you think?" I held one last device up to Midnight. "Functional?"

"We can only hope. If we get an unbound Scrying Anchor…"

They didn't always look the same- but we had seen this kind before. Specifically, it was one of the robo-rats that wasn't actually a robot. The kinds that had been holding signs. Not active… but maybe in this room that meant it never worked. Depending on Rodentia's sorting system.

We took the warning signs too, obviously. We already knew that the vials could inject people with super cancer, but there were other things that were less clear.

After that, we chased after the others- they were easy enough to find. Unfortunately…

There was a huge explosion. That was concerning, because I didn't hear the explosion. I only felt it. It almost seemed to negate sound. As I rounded a corner, I saw it. Swiss Arms was creating some sort of forcefield which cut into the otherwise spherical nature of the super tech bomb. I'd missed half of it, but it looked like it had taken everything in the hallway and… randomly distributed the material throughout the area. It was kind of just floating there, menacingly. And probably radioactively. Or worse, super radioactively.

"They're gone," Swiss Arms commented. "And we should get out of here."

"I'll say!" Rodentia commented. "It's a big mess!" I turned, spotting her down a hallway that was filled with bright yellow. And a lot of vaguely people shaped cheese piles, which they'd better hope were merely covering them. "You'd better not have been looting my super secret vault!"

"Uh-"

Two rats sitting on top of her head dropped down little screens, which I could vaguely read through the back- except for the size of the text. "Oh, you just took stuff from the junk room? I'm still annoyed! Now I have to move my base! Shoo!"