Mage Among Superheroes

Chapter 477 - 477

The last time Midnight and I were trying to keep up constant monitoring of a target, it was Handface… and half of the purpose was to keep him from getting proper sleep. Unfortunately, that didn't work on Garfield Lemon. Because you see… he had literally no idea he was being Scryed at all.

I looked over at our Scrying crew. The spell had become a semi-mandatory part of Portal Squad spellcasting abilities. It did make sense that the Power Brigade wanted more people to be able to use the expensive device we had. After all, it was worth somewhere between five million dollars and… probably a few billion. As an artificial diamond, it might be closer to the former but there wasn't a lot of precedent for a four million carat diamond so it could kind of be anything.

The orb was getting a lot of practical use. I did wonder, though. "... Should we try to make it more obvious? Seriously, this guy just recasts Nondetection in the morning and never checks it. He doesn't seem to notice we're watching."

Boom shook his head. "I don't think there's any point in giving ourselves away. We don't need to lower his combat effectiveness, either. I think any one of us could probably take this guy out?"

Everyone nodded, including Bandage. That was relevant to note because she was practically without offensive spells. I had no doubt she could beat the man up with her bare hands, though. Our quarry didn't seem to have done much about combat skills. At most, we might be concerned about him trying some sort of charm spell on us- but Bandage also had Mental Freedom.

Maybe he was hiding stuff, but he sure didn't practice combat daily… or every other day. Or weekly.

I hung my head. "This guy is so boring."

"You don't have to be involved in Scrying, you know," Bolster commented. "The four of us can handle it. Except maybe the first one after he casts Nondetection. Then only Midnight could do it."

"Great!" I said. "Then I can train other things." Midnight caught my eye. "... And work on other missions."

I still had no idea how I was going to find a mole in the Power Brigade. Especially one we weren't completely sure was actually an insider, or still active. But I supposed I had to try.

-----

My efforts took me to all parts of the Power Brigade, including the library. I thought that maybe I might find people suspiciously accessing our database, or looking at suspicious physical books, or who were just… suspicious.

I literally had no idea how to make divination work to my advantage in this case. I was fairly certain that attempting arbitrary magic to discern if someone was part of a conspiracy would produce far too many false impressions outside of a formalized spell and proper understanding. I could just convince myself of the entirely wrong thing. And if I wasn't going to use magic, how I was I going to solve anything?

Calculator seemed to think I could. Or perhaps he only trusted me and Midnight. No, he could have assigned several teams separately. That sounded like a thing he would do. But assuming he wasn't counting on me seemed… problematic.

There wasn't really any rush, of course. This was an ongoing problem. Probably years long. Still, it did require putting in effort whenever I had some spare moments to consider possibilities.

I didn't really have the proper tools to do what I wanted. When I asked Calculator if I could have access to people's search records, his negative response also implied that he was probably already monitoring that sort of thing. In general, and not just because of this incident.

Maybe we needed another executive with super-thinking powers. Or someone who could accelerate Calculator's sleep so that he could have some time to relax. Though knowing him, he would probably still sleep the minimum amount to be functional and just try to do more. All I could do was occasionally offer him some mental boosts with Enhance. I probably couldn't force him to sleep. He'd certainly resist it.

Anyway, with my request for probably unnecessary and useless levels of information denied, I was short on things to do except hang around with the head librarian. He might have noticed something.

"Do any weird people come through here?" I asked.

Saveliy's dark eyes just stared at me. Then his voice echoed outward. "You seek ones of strange temperament. Have your ponderings not considered… yourself?"

"Aside from me, obviously," I said.

Saveliy extended a hand from within the mass of hair that surrounded him and pointed a finger back towards himself. "A significant majority of individuals doubtlessly consider my corporeal form… weird."

"Not you either. You're here all the time." I thought about that for a moment as I looked at the strange mass of hair. "Besides, I don't think having a lot of hair is that weird."

Maybe the fact that it managed to provide extremely dark shadows over the rest of his form. Shadows that even my orcish eyes couldn't pierce.

His voice echoed from behind me. "Sapient individuals tend to read into every physical aspect of individuals within their perception, whether such judgments are within their understanding… or drawn up from a deeper consciousness."

"Yeah, people can be pretty judgy."

"Excessive follicle length is often a point of contention."

"Yeah, but some people really like long hair."

"Indeed. Others have no concept of liking." Saveliy sure said weird things. "Some simply are. And others… can modify their hair to match norms."

I nodded. "I did occasionally wonder if you could change your hair." I almost asked if he didn't like it, but I decided he might be in that group he just mentioned. Would it be rude to assume? If he couldn't like things, could he dislike things?

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

It was weird to talk about hair with Saveliy, so I left. But the conversation made me realize that I could see my own hair. It was kind of getting long.

… Had he told me that I should get a haircut? If so, I seriously needed to consider it.

-----

Haircuts were available everywhere, but most places were inconvenient. On the other hand, the Power Brigade had quality services for pretty much anything, in case members needed it. The best in New Bay… would be a bit much. Especially since the limits were extremely high in one of the most supernaturally active places on the planet.

It was important that people with cover identities be able to handle various things safely, things that were trivial for anyone else. I didn't have too many secrets to keep, but I did like convenience.

"Your hair looks so nice!" said the kind lady who was going to work on my hair. Hey name was… Mei? Or at least it included that. "I'll admit it's getting a bit shaggy, though. That's not part of your official look, is it?"

I shook my head. "Francois says I should try to look well put together."

"Then we'll have to trim it. Do you need me to dye it for you?"

I tilted my head. "Why would I?"

"I'll be trimming off these yellow tips," she said, bringing my hair into view.

"Oh yeah, don't worry about that. It just kind of happens."

"Convenient," she said.

We didn't talk that much more during the trim. She worked quick, snipping away. And as I said, my hair kind of just did it.

I wasn't even sure why. Maybe because I was used to it now. But I was pretty sure the original reason my hair was colored had to do with using a lot of lightning magic. I hadn't neglected that, but I sure used more spatial magic nowadays. I wasn't sure what space hair would look like. Not stars, because that was an entirely different sort of space.

If I had any influence, which I wasn't sure I did, I preferred my hair to stay. And it seemed to work, because when Mei showed me my hair, most of it was blue-white but the tips were already turning yellow. I wondered if there were books on magic hair. It wouldn't ever be my primary subject of interest, but sometimes people needed to know things. Sadly, using the internet to search for magic hair got a lot of dumb hair products and also information about the hair of supers who had nothing to do with magic. It wasn't the super's fault, mostly, but it was still annoying.

-----

I was so glad when Bandage contacted me about something actually happening, I didn't even care if it was almost one AM. With something to do, I wouldn't have to think about hair and whether I should change up my style because it was 'last season'- it was actually more like the last eight seasons.

Midnight and I teleported to outside HQ, so we were able to get there within a handful of minutes. Calculator was there too, but I was pretty sure that was because he hadn't gone home yet. I assumed he went home sometimes. Probably.

The other two scryers were in bed and resting, and not immediately necessary for missions. With no offense to them, they were still rookies. They'd have to grow a lot more to match me. But since they didn't get themselves into fights as often as possible, they were doomed to a reasonable rate of growth.

"L'Aspect is open again," Bandage said. "And Gildas Lyon is there."

There were a lot of flashing lights, which of course made it harder to see. It was one of those strange things people did. Sensory overload was more for some people than others, I supposed.

Looking at the various figures passing by, I recognized a few. One or two from the previous club incident, and some rich folk from the fight arena. Relatedly, it was bizarre to me how different the two crowds had been, but maybe Gilbert was trying to diversify his revenue streams. Or whatever people called it when you were ripping off the widest audiences possible. "I recognize some of them," I said. "Why aren't they in jail?"

Midnight patted me on the head. "Because none of them were considered a risk to the public. So they aren't kept around for the whole duration of the court process."

I frowned. "... Will catching them again make a difference?"

Calculator answered that one. "It will make it much more difficult for them to avoid sentencing… and to limit the length. I'll flag all the repeats to make sure we get them."

His hands, as usual, were constantly moving as he fiddled with his tablet. He was probably typing messages to like a dozen people while also controlling the recording in front of us.

"Hmm. More vending machines. So they still have some production facilities somewhere. Or sufficient connections, perhaps." He continued to press buttons. "Do you have a plan to take him down?"

"Uh… punch him in the jaw?" I shrugged. "I don't know his combat capabilities, but he doesn't walk like he's trained. So he should just have magic. We know he had mental influence, so if I protect against that I can probably knock him out with anything. I could also shoot him."

"Don't shoot him," Calculator said. "Well, don't risk mission success. If you have to, do it. But optimally you take him down with limited visual damage."

I frowned. "So no punching him in the face?"

Calculator thought about that for an instant. "Most people don't recognize how significant a black eye can be. Just don't break his skull. Optimally, though, you can leave the glory to someone else."

"Ugh. Who?"

"Anima. Since she is already connected to this one."

"Oh, that's fine," I said. Actually, I got along fine with most heroes. It was just the ones I didn't get along with had soured my interactions with them enough to be hesitant. "I don't know if she can knock him out with a punch, though."

"That's not… a mission priority," Calculator commented. "Though if he can be taken down in a flashy manner, it would be best."

"Anima does flashy," I said. "Very specifically. Would it be fine for him to be taken down with a laser beam to the chest?"

"That would be optimal," Calculator said. "Though it's best if we minimize the amount of burns."

I shrugged. "That's up to Anima, I think. What if we had someone throw one of the vending machines at him?"

Calculator frowned. "... Why? Also, that would probably be lethal."

"Commissary would like it."

He shook his head. "Not worth it. We don't need to be best friends. Taking this guy out should be good enough."

Maybe we would be lucky and L'Clubowner would prove to be a greater combat threat than we currently thought. Then we could throw a vending machine at him.

It would be a terrible idea if he didn't already have powers, though. Chances were a bunch of drugged up super serum would randomly make him into some sort of omni-super otherwise. Well, it was 50/50. Either he'd instantly die, or he'd get a ton of powers. But since he already had portal powers, we could just flatten him.

Now we just needed someone who could throw. Would Great Girl be coming, or maybe I should just teleport one above him? He didn't seem like the sort of guy who knew how to dodge.