Mage Among Superheroes

Chapter 459 - 459

The number of thoughts I had after hearing a whimpering Zeb was very few. It was a good thing I'd had enough training to still do something practical even when I was seeing blue. Lightning, you know. Apparently, when you overcharge Shocking Grasp enough it kind of goes everywhere.

I charged alongside squirrels and Fluffy. The former latched onto various people with portal powers and some Bunvorixians. The latter was tearing apart various cyborg bits, not even trying to chew any of it. I vaguely heard a screech from Miss Flutter.

Oppressive dread washed over me as I heard Gloom's voice in my ears. "This is what will happen to you and all of your friends, eventually."

I swung an arm vaguely in that direction. I wasn't actually trying to hit anything. The fingers of my left hand were twitching, and lightning arced between them. I was pretty sure my gloves were melting. "Want to learn the smell of your own internal organs being fried?" I retorted.

The wrong sort of magic would be significantly less effective on an incorporeal foe. However, less effective was not ineffective. Gloom didn't respond, but she did withdraw. She tried to terrify the squirrels, but I was pretty sure she traumatized her own allies instead. The squirrels were in a similar state to me… except they actually had an empathic connection to Zeb.

I was sprinting towards Spot. In an open space, he had a perfect opportunity to blast me in the chest with a Bunvorixian gun. I could feel him gathering mana for another spell, just as bad as the last, but he wouldn't get that far.

His weapon couldn't take me down fast enough. My large strides carried me forward. As I stretched my hand out he leaped back, but not soon enough. I didn't quite touch him, but I didn't need to. Currently, I was level 47. My fatigue point was 26 points of mana… and I was using all of that.

Frankly, keeping the effect of Shocking Grasp to myself was more difficult than letting it go. Once it was near my intended target it leapt eagerly. It was bright, and loud. The latter usually wasn't part of Shocking Grasp, as all the electricity tended to stay more contained.

I had to admit I was impressed at Bunvorixian insulation technology. Spot's form was still completely recognizable, though he didn't look much like a supervillain's pet nor an alien combatant at the moment. Almost everything had burned up or exploded. I just stood there for a second, trying to tell if he was alive. I did want to kill him, but it was a bit much to say he would still be able to fight back.

Before the squirrels could even reach him, though, the rats did. Specifically a few real rats. I could tell because they had powers. A few really fast ones pushed along some strong ones that suddenly began to drag Spot away. Not gently, though. Their teeth bit deep into his limbs and he left behind a pretty awful smear on the ground.

They were pretty fast, but not so much I couldn't have caught up to them. But squirrels were going after Spot, and Great Girl was yelling out in frustration.

"Just… give… up!" I could hear the resolute pain in her voice.

My thoughts vaguely came back to me. My eyes settled on a second scene with a lot of burnt fur. Darkstargirl was wrapped in Great Girl's werewolf arms, but black flames were crawling over her. My previous Energy Ward had likely already been worked through, and her outfit wasn't going to last forever either.

Protection. Energy Ward. But not for Great Girl. Instead, to contain Darkstargirl. That would protect everyone from her. I had a more restraint than my attack against Spot, which was good because I was already unsteady on my feet. I didn't need to risk knocking myself out.

Some woman saw I was reaching out towards Darkstargirl and threw herself in the way. She couldn't actually block the magic, but it was annoying to have her in the way. I tried to shoot her but my gun was busted. So I threw it at her.

I finished casting Energy Ward. Darkstargirl went from looking like a starry sky to just some random blonde woman. With her power suppressed for even a moment, I heard bones crack. Great Girl tossed her to the floor, wrestling her arms behind her back to slap on some power suppressant cuffs.

I pulled out my staff. My left hand hurt… a lot. So I held it only in my right.

Most people were down or running, at least in our section. I found Calculator in all the fighting. No Gloom. He would have been a better foe for her if he had a blessed weapon. Or rather, I was pretty sure he would have completely annihilated her if he had something that could properly hurt her.

"Medics?" I asked, looking towards Zeb. She was covered by squirrels.

He responded immediately. "We'll get you looked at- and you don't care about your injuries, do you?" I did not. "Her readings are stable."

We had readings? I guess there was a lot of stuff in Power Brigade's gear, so that made sense.

"Gloom?"

He assessed me briefly. "Do you have mana left?"

"Enough to try out a new spell if she's running."

"Or… you can teleport Zeb to our healers."

He was trying to get me to healers, but he had a point. "Where?"

"Extra. Since it's a joint operation, we can follow their preferred teleportation protocols. I'll send you an image for a temporary medical bay."

I nodded. I could track down Gloom later. There was no point in getting angry defending friends if you didn't then try to get them somewhere safe.

I made my way over to the pile of squirrels, and one bat. Fluffy was still on offense. "Hey guys. I'm going to take you and Zeb to safety, okay? You'll need to let the healers get to her, though."

I also had something else to take care of. That was… Midnight dashing towards me. "T- Mage!"

"I'll be fine," I said. "And even if you think I won't be, I'm heading to see some medics right now. With Zeb."

"Ah. I… should have expected your fear and anger weren't because of your own injuries. But I felt both."

I nodded. "I assume by your presence that the other locations went well?" I was slowly gathering mana for a proper Teleport spell, because it felt like fast mana gathering would be a problem. I looked at the image Calculator provided. "Also, Rodentia might be taking what's left of Spot."

"Yes, our branch went well. And Rodentia seems to be taking many of the Bunvorixians. This would be… one hell of a tough mission if she was working against us."

I nodded. "Ask Calculator if you should go after Gloom. Seeya."

I Teleported.

A nice clean room. I was extremely aware that this wasn't actually the teleportation hall, even if it kind of looked like one of the nooks. Had they temporarily disabled the shielding? I could ask later. The doctors and nurses looked like they had many questions of their own.

"Who's injured- ah. Sir, we'll get started on that arm right away!" a male nurse said.

"Prioritize her," I pointed with my right arm. Because that one hadn't been involved with as much Shocking Grasp.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"... One of the squirrels?" asked a different nurse.

"The Bunvorixian underneath," I said. "Death magic. Hey, squirrels, these people are the ones that are going to make Zeb better so you have to get out of their way."

The squirrels were smart. They moved out of the way… but they were still on guard, climbing onto every sort of fixture in the room and ready to act should someone do something crazy. Unfortunately, that was about the end of the wrangling I could really do.

"Sir, your arm…?" the first nurse asked. I realized he'd been trying to get my attention for a while. "What happened?"

"Lightning, mostly," I said.

"I see. Please come with me."

I was guided into a tilted chair. People began trying to cut off my sleeve. I had to give it a little dispel for their scissors to work. Then they tried to gently peel bits of it off of my arm while a couple other people were spraying my arm with something. It was cold.

"You can just yank it out."

"That will cause lasting damage!" the nurse said. "Please think about your future health."

"It's fine," I said. "I'm probably going to need to call my friend anyway."

"Well unless your friend is a famous healer, you're going to need us to do our best."

Ceira was pretty famous, at least in some circles. But it was probably better for her if that part of her wasn't connected to the mercenary part of me. Just in general.

"How's Zeb doing?" I asked.

"We'll get you a report on your friend later," the nurse answered.

Speaking of Ceira, Zeb probably needed her more. And they were friends too. I sent her a message. Clearly, my head wasn't entirely working. Some people said that was an all the time thing, though.

Something beeped. "Oh, a comms message," I said. "I have to take this. Hello?"

Midnight's voice came through clearly. "Mage! Gloom ran out into the sewer tunnels."

"Okay?" I responded. Midnight seemed to need some prompting. "And then?"

I could feel his distress from here. "She ran into some sort of blood monster! And then Calculator said you… might know it?"

"... Blood monster?" I asked. "In the sewers?" I paused for a moment. "You mean Raglubithex? Didn't I tell you about that dude?"

Midnight took a few breaths. "Your physical description was way too tame! What do I do?"

"First…" I drew out the word. I cast another Mental Freedom, focusing on making sure it got Midnight. Previously we had to be vaguely near each other for that to work, but I'd noticed it was stretching quite far as time went on. Well, we were still bonded no matter the distance. "Okay, that should help. Now tell him you know me, and use my real name. Ask him nicely if we can have Gloom. Don't talk to him for more than three minutes."

"Noted," Calculator said. "I've begun a timer."

"Calculator," I replied. "You should actually… probably not listen."

"Why?"

"Because what if you accidentally understand something?"

"... I assume from your tone it would be problematic. Midnight, I will wait over here."

"Okay. Oh, Mage. Thanks buddy. I was panicking."

"That's Raglubithex for you. Maybe try to keep it to two minutes with Gloom around."

"Right. I'll contact you in a bit."

This time, my phone buzzed.

"Sir," said the nurse. "We need to look at your other arm."

I looked down at it. "You can just slap some bandages on it or whatever. It's fine." It was nowhere near what the left one was like. Fortunately, that one was numbing a bit. "Oh nice," I said after reading the message. It had a lot of exclamation points and question marks and far too many emoji. "My friend is actually nearby."

Apparently, Ceira had just gotten back to town after one of her trips. That meant I didn't have to try to figure out how to Teleport to her and back. It would be pushing the limits of what I could do with my mana, and I was already a bit off kilter at the moment. Especially with whatever drugs were numbing my left arm. They were pretty relaxing.

I actually passed out for a moment, I think. I did wake up to hear someone outside the small wing that Zeb and I were being taken care of in.

"Ma'am, we can't let any civilians through."

"Zeb is my friend!"

I recognized that voice. Had I been out for long enough for Ceira to drive over, or was she closer than I assumed?

"Ma'am, we still can't let you in."

I called out into the hall. "Just show them your card!"

"Tur- I mean, uh. Yeah, good point dude!"

"Oh. You're a healer."

"Yes. Please get me to my friend."

Ceira stepped into the room with a couple people following her. "Wait, what happened to you?!"

"I told you I sustained some injuries as well."

"I thought you meant like… some scratches! Not a whole arm that's like… that!"

"Go find Zeb," I said seriously.

She nodded. Ten minutes later, she was back. Ceira sighed. "Who the heck are you fighting to run into something that bad? Twice?"

"It was the same guy," I pointed out.

"Spot? Again? Didn't he get caught?"

I explained the whole thing that ended up using him as a beacon to find a villain lair. And how it had turned out to have a whole lot of villains. Though the current reports of the mission were generally quite positive. We hadn't managed to catch anyone important from the Mod Squad, though Magnet Man swore he did some damage to the leaders. As Midnight had noted previously, it was actually difficult to catch any of the Bunvorixians because Rodentia had dragged them away. But not to protect them, it seemed.

Ceira very calmly laid her hand on my arm. A fully maxed out Regenerate flowed into me. "Ow," I said.

"That's probably your nerves healing, idiot."

"Yeah, probably," I said. "Listen, thanks for this. We can't pay you full price, but we can probably-"

Ceira rolled her eyes. "I don't charge friends. Obviously. Because you couldn't even afford to pay .1% of my usual rates."

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow. "I do make pretty good money."

"Well, I do have a sliding scale. Rich jerks are several orders of magnitude more than rich non-jerks. Actually, though, I think I might be out of a job soon and I hear it's your fault."

I frowned. "Uh, sorry? I don't think I did it on purpose." I did feel like this had come up before, though.

She chuckled. "Remember that part where you asked me about teaching other people? Well, even if I didn't directly interact with all of them, other people with portal powers have reached the level they can… sometimes… use Regenerate. Word got out to people with the right classes, and some people have lower standards for pay." Ceira shrugged. "Which is fine because now I can just run my foundation and heal whoever I feel like. There's hardly any point in seeking out people for the amount of money I can charge them now."

I frowned. "Are new healers that common?" I asked.

"How many billionaires do you think there are?" Ceira asked. It was clear she could tell I didn't know. "A few thousand. And most of them don't have crippling injuries. So it doesn't take that long to go through most of them. I'm not interested in trying to figure out who's a supervillain in the next bracket down, so I'm probably done with that."

"Speaking of which…" I said. "Is it okay to show your face here?" I looked around. Oh, there was Normal Person. I didn't even notice them. "Even with your bodyguards?"

Ceira shrugged. "I'm still the best, but as I said… I'm not unique anymore. And sure I'm probably ten times as fast as many people, but it doesn't really matter since this is mostly for long term issues."

I looked down at my arm. "This seems like you're fixing something short term."

"You and Zeb would have lived without me. But you would have both needed extensive advanced tech treatment to fully recover. Well, you do have access to Celmothian stuff so maybe you would have been fine."

I shook my head. "They've only just begun analyzing human bodies. And orcs might be different enough for their purposes that it could be a while." I thought for a moment. "Hey, if you're not going to be flying around the world looking for rich people-"

"I'm going to be doing that for people who are specifically the opposite," Ceira said. "So no, I'm not going to work for the Brigade. Please don't get yourself killed. I can't fix that."

"That was a lot of the point of this mission," I pointed out. "There are at least a couple fewer people that actively want to kill me." I checked to see that I had a message from Midnight. It seemed it hadn't been urgent enough to use the Power Brigade comms. "Three. Darkness Rising is pretty much done now."

"... You caught Dark Star?" Ceira asked. I nodded. "And Gloom?"

"Well," I shrugged. "Raglubithex was actually the one who caught Gloom."

"Am I supposed to know who that is?"

"You are not."

According to Midnight, she had been… pretty unresponsive after being caught. Maybe she was thinking about all those crimes she did. Or maybe it was because Raglubithex Raglubithex had caught her. It seemed extra-dimensional entities could grab incorporeal people. That probably made sense. More things would make sense after I slept for a while.