Mage Among Superheroes

Chapter 467 - 467

Just because I had drugs in my pocket didn't mean we could immediately leave the club without suspicion. Therefore I had to continue to engage in the local activities for another half hour or so.

Dancing was fine, but I preferred my physical activity to have a point like experience or developing specific muscle groups. Technically, dancing could do that but none of the muscles were really practical. Especially not club style dancing which didn't even really have a set pattern.

It was difficult to converse with anyone, and I didn't want to imbibe alcohol. It was irresponsible on the job, even if I could probably force it to process more quickly with Enhance Body. That said, I did have to at least make a show of drinking once or twice.

At least the others seemed to enjoy themselves. It wasn't precisely Rocker's scene, but the dude did like loud music. Shockwave seemed fine as well, and Thiziri would have wanted to be here under normal circumstances. Though she should be angling away from drugs, hopefully.

Speaking of her, we really needed to make sure we didn't get in each other's way. She could have all the public credit for things if the Power Brigade still got paid. We would have to coordinate afterwards- we hadn't been aware anyone else was on the job. I didn't think she was part of a team yet, so it should be easy enough to work things out.

None of the bouncers tried to stop us as we were leaving or anything, not that it would have done them any good to try. Even if they had some minor powers, any one of the three of us from the Brigade could take them out. We might have compromised our identities, which was why I had been resolved to take action myself- since I was properly disguised.

But sadly, no battles took place. It wasn't really their job to assault customers on the way out of the building. It would probably draw too much attention to them anyway, since they were up to at least one super illegal thing. Probably two, given that the locations the club was setting up weren't permitted for any of the stuff they were doing. I wondered if people would be locked up longer for selling super serum or for disregarding fire code and alcohol permits. The obvious answer should be the former, but with supers working as their security even the more mundane aspects could be upgraded to minor supervillainy. There might be enough separate charges getting bumped up to outmatch the drugs.

Before we could think about that, though, we had to find the people in charge. The Power Brigade wasn't interested in petty payout for picking up people running a bar or working security. Besides, the city wasn't interested in such minor victories either. It wouldn't look good when headlines said something like "Despite arrests, notorious L'Clubname still open for business".

Presumably the article would remember what the place was called. It had been plastered all over the inside. Something starting with an A, maybe? But none of the words I thought of made sense. Maybe it was a B. L'Bar. Yeah, the name was probably longer than that.

-----

Despite our successful mission, Calculator didn't look happy. Then again, he rarely did. If one mission went well, another one was running into complications. In this particular case, we were really only successful with the first step of this task.

"Commissary, is it?" Calculator grimaced. "That could make this complicated. Though…"

"It's not really his normal business, right?" I said.

Calculator nodded. "He usually stocks his vending machines with things that are debatably legal."

Rocker tilted his head. "Doesn't that guy sell guns? And death rays?"

"They're not real death rays," Shockwave commented. "More like heatless lasers."

"Still sounds hella illegal."

"It's on the edge," Calculator explained. "Because people could have licenses for those. Plenty of mercenary organizations have Commissary vending machines, and a few of the larger hero teams who are willing to use less heroic looking weapons. We don't have any of the machines because it's a security risk… and we could just buy the gear elsewhere. After cleaning off any trackers or bugs, they're usually quite functional. It's important for us to track the specs as well." He paused for a moment. "Lab results are back."

My eyes widened. "That was fast."

"There's a reason we pay for people with powers. Also, I bumped it up to high priority. It appears to be a legitimate formulation, though it's different from previous versions we got on the streets. It's difficult to say how without testing it on someone. And we couldn't use Extravagant even if she was up for it."

I pondered for a moment. "Isn't she a splitter? If there was any damage she'd probably pop out of existence. I can see why you wouldn't get much data."

"Plus," Calculator said. "Power exclusivity. Though Extravagant can help with normal drug testing and side effects. Not that she particularly likes doing it, because it's unpleasant. She also has to take a lot more because of her bruiser subpowers."

I hadn't really thought about that sort of use for Splitters. Madame Multitude would probably get involved with drug testing to protect the general public if she could. Unfortunately, her form of the power was particularly fragile. That was how she'd gotten truly injured in the first place- her clones couldn't survive the fire she was trying to save people from. I hadn't even been around during her proper run but I couldn't help but feel comforted every time I heard about her activities.

Now, she was probably saving more lives with interstellar diplomacy and managing Ceira's schedule. And her charity. Actually, she might be managing a lot of charities? Or at least helping them coordinate, if I remembered correctly.

Calculator could tell my attention was wandering and drew me back into the conversation. "Mage. We need to stop this issue preferably without upsetting Commissary. It would be a pain for all members of the Power Brigade to get shot at by vending machines as they walked around town."

I thought for a couple moments. "Are the machines intelligent?"

He shook his head. "They have protocols they follow- though they also frequently have manual control taken over by Commissary himself, if trouble persists."

I nodded. "I could definitely remove them for ten… maybe twenty minutes. Or just toss them onto Venus."

"That's… could you?"

I pondered for a few moments. "It's definitely possible. Do we have any samples from Venus? I'd also have to test on something to know how much effort it would take."

"Venus is hot enough to fry you through a Gate. Or all of your surroundings," Calculator commented.

"Yeah," I said. I vaguely knew that. "I could maybe make it one-way or forcefully teleport something. It should be easier for an unattended object. Though if they're tied to Commissary's power it might not count."

"Regardless," Calculator said. "Getting into that conflict isn't optimal. It would be too risky even without all the people it would upset. We'll come up with alternate plans depending on what happens with the tracker." He paused for a moment. "And I just got a ping that the tracker has been destroyed. Great."

He pulled up a map in front of him, focusing on a particular location. The view zoomed in on a random street corner. It was a still image- and if I remembered correctly it wouldn't be current. There had been various attempts at mass surveillance of New Bay, especially as villain threats increased, but laws had limited the options. If we wanted a city-wide network, we'd have to have people standing around on every street corner. We couldn't just set things up on public infrastructure.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"It appears he found it before going anywhere relevant." Calculator looked at me. "Do you think you can Scry on disintegrated remains of a tracker?"

I thought about that. "If I knew what that was like? Probably. They could have just smashed it, though. Or taken it apart."

Calculator shrugged. "We'll have you make an attempt. It's worth it to try."

-----

"Anyway," I finished explaining to Midnight. "It didn't work."

"You should have looked for things based on the proportions of base elements," Midnight suggested. "That way, as long as it was still a pile of stuff you'd find it."

"I don't know if we have that information," I said. "And magic isn't really like a computer." Especially not if I was going outside normal boundaries. "Ultimately, I just ended up spotting others of the same tracker type. Intact ones."

Most of them were just sitting waiting to be activated, which wasn't exciting and certainly wasn't the destroyed one. Maybe if I devoted a week I could get some sort of results, but I would be better off trying to infiltrate the club again.

"It was worth a shot," Midnight said. "I'm kind of concerned about the connection to Commissary. It would be a shame to get into conflict with him."

I could tell from Midnight's emotions that there was something more than the general idea. "What do you buy from him?" Obviously it wasn't guns.

"He has a fish vending machine near the apartment," Midnight said. "Both canned and fresh."

"So that's where you get all that stuff. I thought you came back from the grocery awfully fast sometimes."

It was probably far enough for the distance through our connection to be more vague if I wasn't concentrating, but thinking back I could probably figure out where it was. Midnight didn't go to too many places repeatedly.

"So," Midnight continued. "How are we going to deal with this?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe tell him that he'll lose his best fish customer if he keeps selling drugs?"

Midnight was slightly excited for some reason. I had just been joking, but… "That's it!" he said. "We can at least confirm if he's actually involved. And financial threats might work."

I pondered for a moment. "I sure hope you're not spending anywhere near the cost of those drugs on fish."

"Of course not," Midnight said. "But if heroes can't afford to be associated with purchases, he'll lose a lot of business. Commissary gets by on the quasi-legal state of things. As long as supers are fine with other people getting their hands on his stuff if they can have it too, he can continue to exist. But if he breaks the invisible contract by doing something like this…?" Midnight shrugged for effect. "Well, it's worth considering. I also don't think this fits with his regular M.O. It could still be fake, you know?"

"Right," I said. "And if it was, we could blow it up."

"Well, I was thinking… use more extreme measures to track down whoever is in control," Midnight said. "But it would cost someone a lot of money if they lost a whole vending machine full of super serum."

Right. We still had to catch them.

"There's one problem with your plan," I said. "You'd have to reveal who you are to Commissary."

"... Turlough, do you really think he doesn't know who we are?"

"I haven't changed in front of a vending machine," I said. "Why would he know?"

"Because we've walked past the fish one together," Midnight said. "How many orcs are friends with talking cats?"

I thought for a moment. "I dunno. It might not be any. And you're not a cat."

Midnight rolled his eyes. "Yeah I know that, but from typical perspectives there's one pair that fits here in New Bay. Or if we're being specific, one alien feline and one orc. Anyway, Commissary has to have a huge amount of information. The only thing stopping this stuff on Celmoth is a billion laws and a willingness to arrest CEOs for the crimes of their companies."

I pondered for a moment. "I don't think we'd have any CEOs left here on Earth if that happened."

"For large companies? Maybe like ten," Midnight said. "Anyway, I'm aware of the tracking that could happen. Fortunately, Commissary doesn't seem to be selling information. Or at least, works very hard to keep plausible deniability. So we wouldn't be revealing much."

That was enough for me. I wasn't really concerned about my identity as much as people around me. We'd probably have to clear things with the Brigade first though.

-----

Most of the next week actually involved very little work on that mission from my perspective. Every day I tried a new Scrying thing, but the tracking device was well and truly gone. The vending machine itself had clearly been protected from the beginning. Maybe I should have tried to dispel that aspect when I had the chance? Permanently removing power from an object took more effort, though. I could drain the current energy from something, but the underlying functionality would still be there. Perhaps that was an area I could research more.

Anyway, I was just walking to the park to get a bit of sun- it wasn't the same as walking around outside on patrol- when something called out to me.

"Special discounts available!"

It clearly wasn't someone, because of the synthesized voice. I looked at the machine, then kept walking.

"Extremely special discounts for you alone, customer Turlough!"

Great, he did know who I was.

I looked over at the machine. "I don't need a rocket launcher."

"Commissary SE-87 models are not rocket launchers but instead alternately propelled high ordinance distribution systems. In this case, the discount is for information. A special tip. Ninety percent off."

Ninety percent off was good, maybe? But…

I approached closer. "What could you even know that I want?"

"Commissary guarantees the value of the information."

I sighed. "What's the price?"

"$1,000."

"So… with the discount, that's $100?" I tilted my head. I could gamble that on useful information.

"$1,000 is the discounted price."

"That's… unreasonable," I said.

"All prices are set according to best practices, and all discounts are legitimate."

I frowned. "Why would you offer a ninety percent discount on this information, then?"

The machine was silent for a few moments. That was unusual. "The information may be of value to Commissary if distributed."

That didn't sound like a pre-set line. Then again, I could be wrong.

"Why wouldn't it be free, then?" I asked.

Another pause. "Do you just save people for free?"

"Sometimes," I said.

"Maybe you shouldn't." The voice was still synthesized, but the words weren't businessy anymore. "The information is valuable and could be counted as a business expense. Ask your boss about it."

I sighed. "Fine."

Then I had to back up to somewhere I didn't think any vending machines were listening. Plausible deniability and stuff, especially since Commissary apparently did sell information sometimes.

I technically had a number of bosses, but Calculator was the one who was easiest to contact. That was probably why he was so busy. At least he got good use out of his ability to actually multitask.

"Buy it," he concluded after my explanation. "As long as you're sure that machine is legitimate."

I was. It was pretty dang powerful… which actually made me more suspicious about the drugs one. I hadn't paid close enough attention to Commissary machines before that issue, but now that I could compare I felt there was something off.

The vending machine popped out a usb stick.

"Please take good care of your information. Replication of data is available within 20 business days without further surcharge, should the original be lost. Would you like to buy a gun?"

"No thank you," I said.

Now I had to go to work instead of the park. How annoying.