Mage Among Superheroes

Chapter 479 - 479

While dodging crows together, I had a quick chat with Anima. "Hey, do you think we should remind them that we have their boss?"

The swarm of crows kind of ripped apart everything it came across. Expensive couches, hanging lights, a couple clubbers who had been hanging out with said boss… in short, nothing that was my concern.

Anima and I were Hasted, so a quick scurry got us behind a nearby booth. The crows might swarm around it, but it should block them for a moment.

"You mean I should tell them," Anima replied.

I shrugged. "You're the one who needs the credit. Want me to amplify your voice?"

"That would be great, actually."

With a twirl of her staff, Anima jumped out from behind the booth and was immediately swarmed by magic crows. I couldn't really see what was happening, which was good. That meant the summoner probably couldn't either.

She gestured silently from next to me, and we actually went around the other side while the illusion she tossed out served as a distraction. Presuming she would want the voice amplification in a moment, I set up something that would amplify sound leaving the area around her upper body… up to a limit. I could have made her talking voice potent enough to actually cause damage once or twice.

I hadn't actually done what I planned before, but it had to be well within Advanced Energy Magic. A proper spell that did something similar should be lower rank than Sonic Lance, I just wasn't aware of one. Bards probably had something, though.

"Mage!" an urgent voice came across the comms. "I can't deal with this one!"

"What about Captain Punch?"

"He's fighting some giant triplets!"

"Giant?" I turned towards where I felt Captain Punch.

His power was actually more subtle than one might think, given how good it was. He did have some active power stuff happening, but most of his power was passive. From what I had learned about powers, what I was feeling was likely his power keeping his body from devolving back to actual physical limits rather than active strength enhancement. Of course, there were so many ways powers worked that it was just speculation.

Anyway, he was fighting three kinda big dudes. Taller than seven foot, but less than seven and a half. I wouldn't call them giants, and it didn't seem like their power made them big. I was interested to see that triplets seemed to get the same super serum results, though.

One of them clocked Captain Punch in the jaw, causing him to take half a step back. Or maybe he did that to get a better angle for his return punch which sent one flying thirty feet back- through a pillar.

"If you break one more pillar you're going to have to hold up the building!" I warned him.

I didn't actually know that for sure. It would probably depend on which one. Also, I was fairly certain he couldn't hold up a building. Not because he wasn't strong enough, but because the materials wouldn't hold together with a human sized support.

I just got a grunt of acknowledgement as he headlocked the other two twins at the same time while they repeatedly punched him in the ribs. That would have to do, because he was the executive. I couldn't spend long on that because I had to track down Magnet Man and his problem while Anima was yelling about their boss being captured. Shockwave helpfully lifted the guy to his feet where they could see him better.

Ah, found it. There was an angry lady standing next to a spooky lady with hair in front of her face. The latter seemed to be the crow person, and she was currently trying to swarm Anima and me. I split away to make that harder to accomplish, while tracking the angry lady's look. There it was, a spinning saw blade of sky blue energy… chasing after Magnet Man.

"Grab some rebar!" I advised him.

He was pretty busy wildly sliding around to avoid the disc, though. I tossed some lightning at the perpetrator, and she ate it. Not literally, of course, though I wouldn't have been surprised if that was how. She did just absorb it into her skin, though. Maybe another element would have been better.

She responded by throwing a lightning-charged energy disc at me. That was kind of fun. I wanted to counter it with Energy Ward, but I wasn't sure about the disc itself. Just stopping the lightning wouldn't be sufficient. Especially since the blades cut clean through the rebar Magnet Man pulled out of the pillar Captain Punch had liberated from that support pillar.

I ducked under it. It almost instantly ceased its momentum- it overshot me by only ten feet or so- then reversed course. When I tried to jump over it, the blade turned. I pushed off the side with my staff, glad for Haste. It wasn't a maneuver I could repeat confidently at normal speed.

I had been gathering mana for a proper Dispel- not an efficient counter, but easy. I almost missed my target from the sudden flash of light. It wasn't even directed at me, but it was disorienting.

It was worse for the crows. Or maybe the gloomy lady controlling them? Either way, Anima seemed to not want to have to run around so much while telling people to surrender. I did have to admit it wasn't dignified.

My dispel only managed to remove about a quarter of the spinning murder blade. Maybe the lightning made it stronger than I thought. The blade was charging back towards me, still crackling with lightning. Fortunately, it was more wobbly and slower than before… so I was willing to risk a race.

After dodging past it once, I charged towards the angry lady. My staff glowed brightly as I charged towards her. I leapt onto a table and into the air, telegraphing my attack. I was fast, yes, but I should appear easily dodgeable. When she went to one side, I would just kick her in whichever direction she went.

Except that she raised an arm to block my hit directly. That wasn't what I expected. What was more? She didn't even defend with anything. No energy blade. No barrier.

There was a resounding crack as her forearm bent at something like a right angle. She looked surprised.

"H-how?" she stammered.

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

I rapidly stored my staff, swapping it with some power suppressing cuffs and then lunging forward to grab her good arm. One cuff went around that wrist as I pulled her to the ground.

"I have a big stick and I swung it very hard," I explained.

Technically, there had been a bit of a bluff with the staff. That bright energy was just for show so that she wouldn't realize I was planning to kick her, but she probably thought that the energy was the attack. And so she was going to absorb it, or something.

I wasn't sure that cuffing a broken hand would even work, so I had to wrestle her to where I could put the second cuff around an ankle. She wasn't actually putting up a good fight, she just wasn't that flexible.

I could feel her other energy disc was gone, and Magnet Man was back to piling up guns where nobody could get them, so things seemed to be going fine.

Captain Punch dragged over the triplets- cuffed to each other in sequence- blood streaming down his forehead. Though… I wasn't certain it was his blood. Odds were that he headbutted one of them and it was theirs, but he wasn't actually invincible.

Civilians were crowding around the elevator- which was absolutely the wrong choice- but the emergency stairs weren't going to save anyone from trouble either. Unlike the underground fight club, attendance here might not be a crime in and of itself… but it was certainly suggestive.

We had a team outside to handle the emergency stairs and people who were running away. At the moment, it was my job to secure the vending machines. Shockwave and Anima had handled the crow lady and piled her up with the others.

"Release me!" the dumb boss guy yelled.

"Dude," I said as I stepped over him. "Do you really think anyone would ever listen to you without magic?"

"I am a man of great influence!"

"Pfft. Influential over idiots, maybe. Do you even know…" I had to check my notes. "Judge Clemensen?"

"Of course I do! Your evidence will never stick!"

Apparently, shouting was a bit much for his delicate skin because he flinched and stopped yelling. Yeah, he got a little bit lasered but it wasn't that big of a deal.

I went over to the two vending machines and sequentially teleported them off to waiting locations. Just down to a planned drop-off at street level, not far. They'd be picked up by trucks, or whatever.

-----

"... And you hit her with your staff?" Calculator confirmed.

I knew he had already read the report. "That's right. I could have shot her, I guess."

He chuckled. "No, it was probably the right option. Did you know she'd underestimate you?"

I shrugged. "I don't think too much about things like that in the moment. I just come up with an attack plan and implement it. Unless I have a one from before combat began."

"What would you have done if she launched another energy disc?" he asked.

"... kick her in the face?" I tilted my head. "It takes a moment for powers to work. By the time I was leaping through the air, she was probably too late. Also, I noticed they slowed down when she had two out."

"Your power senses are exceptional," Calculator said. "Perhaps we should try to hone them even further. It's close to the point you could think of that as an independent power."

"Just super senses would be awful," I said. "How would you fight?"

"Exactly like you just did," Calculator reminded me. "Predicting enemy actions is a huge advantage."

"It only works against some things," I said. "There are plenty of things I wouldn't be able to avoid even if I knew they were coming. Even with Haste, potentially."

"True," Calculator said. "Prediction has its limits. Though the mental speed from Haste might be a bigger factor than the actual movement, except for closing distance. But enough about that. Did you notice anything strange with the vending machines?"

I frowned for a moment. "I don't think they yelled at me when I tried to take them."

"That's… a fair point, actually. Their security did seem particularly weak. But I more meant any signs of manipulation."

I shook my head. "I think they looked the same as when I saw them with Scrying. You'd have to check the recordings, though. They didn't feel weird."

"They also didn't have anything illegal."

"... Didn't they advertise super serum?"

"Something like that," Calculator confirmed.

"Does it matter, then? Because we already got evidence. We just needed to catch the guy being associated with it. Should I have taken the big letters that said… L'something?"

Calculator frowned. "That might actually be some of the best evidence. But don't worry all of that is covered. It would just help if we could determine if the machines were tampered with. If they were meant as decoys… it won't aid our case but we can likely make it a non-factor."

"You should tell whoever is involved that people don't make fake crime boxes if they didn't have real crime boxes to cover up for."

"I'll pass that message along to the lawyers," Calculator grinned. "Though they might change the wording."

"Did you like the part where I made him mention that one judge?" I asked.

"It's about neutral as far as the case goes. Might not be admissible in court."

"Even though it's a recording of Gildy Boy saying it with his own stupid face?"

"Laws are complex. It will provide us opportunities when we randomly get assigned that judge, though."

"If you randomly get him, right?"

"I know you don't have fate powers yourself… but you should know random isn't random." Calculator shook his head. "Good job on this mission, though. It should be resolved satisfactorily." He looked around to make sure we were alone. Or perhaps to remind me that we should only mention the following topic while alone. "Any progress on the other front?"

I shook my head. "I don't even know how people would still power signatures. Unless the big scanners out front do it."

"That's…" Calculator processed that for a moment. "Not it. But it would be a mess if someone compromised our own security. As for powers, many of them modify DNA or have other effects in the body. Unfortunately, we don't actually know what they used at Super Labs. The city locked down that information."

"Lawyers?" I prompted.

"We'll try. But we still need your angle."

"Got it," I said.

DNA was like… blood, right? Maybe villains collected it when fighting various people.

"... Have you ever been injured on a mission?" I asked Calculator.

"Ever?" he tilted his head. "I'm not perfect."

"Did anyone run up and scoop up your blood in a vial?"

He smiled sadly and shook his head. "No. And if they had, I wouldn't have let them leave."

Ah well. There went that option, then. Though it wasn't entirely off the table, it was unlikely to begin with.