As the compound lit up around me, my vials of light providing a warm, constant glow, I stood there silently. After a moment, I released a long breath, feeling the magic around me hum energy. I could feel my power, feel my mana at my call. It was as if I had stepped up and advanced to a higher level of magic, if not in understanding, then at least in sensitivity or power. After a moment, I released the staff, the amethyst humming slightly as it stayed perfectly upright despite me taking a step back.

With the staff no longer in my hands, the intensity of the feeling slowly faded until it was barely noticeable. I could still feel it, feel the power that always resided in me flowing, but it was no longer snapping and writhing just under the surface.

"Any idea what that was?" I asked, feeling Kali watching closely and Alya floating at the edge of the ritual platform.

"... It reminded me of when an elemental finds a home that is filled with and aligned their element," She admitted. "They end up in a loop refinement. It feels dramatic at first, but it usually equalizes over time."

"And you think that's what is happening here?"

"No, not exactly," She admitted hesitantly. "You made something that resonates well with you, and it's drawing out your mana, like the mana circulation meditations you used to do before you outgrew them."

I frowned, running through a few diagnostic spells on myself. Most of what I knew about healing spells were about physical injuries, but I did know some that were about checking in on a wizard's mana and a few other more esoteric things. Concrete diagnoses with a simple spell were beyond me, but I could definitely get a sense of my non-physical well-being.

When everything turned up green, I reached out again and took my staff. I could feel my power swelling up, and sure enough, there was a certain amount of mana circulation going around. It felt as if I had been pushing and pulling water that resisted my efforts, but now the staff was causing it to flow more freely, my mana ready to jump to my commands.

After a few more minutes of experimenting, namely by grabbing the staff and letting it go over and over, I decided to not complain too much about making something so powerful that touching it seemed to make me more powerful. After all, neither Kali nor Alya were worried about it, and Kali's understanding of magic was instinctual to a level I couldn't really comprehend. If it was hurting me somehow, she would be able to feel it.

By the time I was satisfied that my new creation wasn't actually hurting me, it was getting pretty late. Unfortunately, I felt absolutely wired, which meant sleeping, at least at the moment, was off the table. However, despite a general lack of tiredness, I was feeling a bit drawn out. I had been working nonstop on my staff for nearly twelve hours, and while the process and results had both been thrilling and exciting, I was now firmly done with work in any form.

"I… feel like going for a walk," I said, holding out my hand and summoning my staff to me, ignoring the now familiar and somehow more manageable sensation. "Anything you want, Kali? I still owe you something for all your hard work."

A feeling of indecisiveness settled over me, and I nodded in understanding, reaching out and patting one of the golem wolves I had made for her. I found that she tended to keep at least one of them at the compound at all times while sending the others running around and exploring.

"It's fine, you just keep thinking about it. Just let me know if you think of anything," I said with a smile. "This isn't a transaction, I want you and Alya to be happy. With all the help you guys give me, it's only fair that I dedicate some time to doing stuff you guys want."

Both of my partners seemed happy with my statement, and after talking about the sort of things I could do for them, I teleported away from the compound, landing on a small part of the Brockton Bay beach. The tide was out at the moment, and with how dark it was, how cold the water was, and how poorly the beaches were maintained at the best of times, it was completely empty. On my left, I could see the Boardwalk in the distance, and on my right, even further than the Boardwalk, I could see one of the city's ferry landing docks.

The most prominent landmark, by far, was the massive oil rig sitting in the farther reaches of the bay. The shield surrounding it glowed slightly, and through it, I could see the rather impressive-looking Protectorate ENE Headquarters. The colors were off due to the glowing shield, but I could see the buildings behind it, as well as the spotlights lighting it all up. I looked out at it for a long while before shaking my head. It was an impressive base, and as much as looking out at it made me want to one-up them, now wasn't the time.

"Alright, I've been wanting to try this since I first went to that scrap yard," I explained to Alya, who I could feel keeping watch, but mostly watching me.

I pulled my spell book from my hip book holster, mentally controlling its pages until I was on the metal control spell. I read it once more before beginning to chant.

"Metallum, sanguis terrae, fundamentum humanitatis, vocationem magicae meae sentio. Te voco, quod moderni mirum est, ut sequaris mandata mea. Egredere, metallo, et finge te in figuram quam cupio."

Just as before, seven connected circles appeared around me, slowly spinning as tendrils began to reach out. However, this time, instead of there only being a few tendrils reaching out to large chunks of metal, several dozens of them reached out across the beach, pushing into the sand. Rather than reducing the metal to a liquid, I simply gave it all a mental pull, the strands slowly pulling out several dozen rings, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces, all of them containing enough gold to register to the spell. I couldn't help but chuckle as it all piled on the floor by my feet. I repeated the process, this time looking for silver, the pile growing to nearly double the size.

"Well damn… that's my gold and silver set for a while," I said to Ayla, who was floating even closer now, having watched my magic. "Even better… I can do this at a few other beaches if I wanted to…Or I could find a sunken treasure ship, assuming I don't go near Leviathan…"

For a moment, I let the ideas spiral into my mind before shaking them away for later. If I ever needed hundreds of pounds of gold, which was absolutely a possibility with how magic worked, I would consider raising a few sunken treasures. Otherwise, beach combing and junkyard visits would have to do for now.

I took a walk along the beach, heading in the direction of the Boardwalk, intent on stepping back up to the usual road when I got closer. I ended up casting the spell a few more times, filling a backpack full of dirty gold and silver jewelry, a good amount of it being unsalvageable in terms of ever being jewelry again. I walked the streets, the few people who were still around giving me looks, though they quickly seemed to recognize me. Despite the time, I was asked for several photos and autographs, which I took with a smile. I knew that, to a picture, my mask would appear to be a simple copper mask, so the pictures weren't a problem.

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Eventually, after a short impromptu patrol, I teleported away from the city and back to the compound. I dropped my bag at the edge of one of the storage trees and had a quick conversation with Alya about tomorrow's plans, before heading off to bed. Between the walk, the talking to random people, and the magical beach combing, the wired and energy-filled feeling had long since passed.

The next morning, I woke up early, rolling out of bed and rushing through my morning routine. Crow and I were on patrol for most of the morning, at least until I had to leave to work at the hospital. Once I was ready, I teleported to our meeting place to find Olivia seemingly fast asleep on her usual chair of milk crates.

"Good morning, Crow," I said, standing back a bit in case she woke up with a start.

"Who says?" She asked, barely sifting, turning her head slightly to look at me. "Morning. Mind hitting me with that expresso shot thing you do?"

"Yeah, sure, but I hope you're also getting actual sleep as well. I haven't tested the long-term effects of replacing sleep with magic rejuvenation," I pointed out before quickly waking her up entirely with the flashy spell, feeling the effects roll over me as well. "How is that, better?"

"Yeah, thanks," She said, standing slowly, her cloak shifting into a billowy, star-studded look with black feathers along her shoulders. "So, got some new stuff I see?"

"Yeah, been working up to some new gear," I said with a smirk, tapping my staff once on the ground. "What do you think?"

Not only had I brought my new staff with me, but my four golems had also come along. Troy had stayed behind so I could free up another slot for teleportations since all together with Olivia, the golems, and myself, we were up to six, which was just along the edge of my teleportation abilities.

Crow walked around the golems, leaning forward to inspect them as if she had any knowledge about golem creation. She even gave them a little nudge to test their balance, but the golems weren't affected. When she was satisfied, she nodded as if she had found what she was looking for, before turning back to me and immediately examining my staff.

"It all looks pretty cool, and considering the kind of things you make, I'm sure it's impressive," she said, wincing slightly as she continued. "But… you really need to pick what kind of wizard mage look you're going for."

"What do you mean?" I asked with confusion, looking down at my outfit. "I thought it all looked cool."

"Individually, sure it does, but the staff screams high fantasy wizard," She explains. "The rest of your look is… well, it's kinda like a tired beat cop meets underpaid detective, with a hint mage. I mean, you're wearing a beanie and a circlet, Arc. Kind of sending mixed messages."

I frowned and nodded, unable to really deny her statement. It was unfortunate but honestly unsurprising, considering I had just been throwing stuff together for a while. I wasn't about to take off my costume and drop my staff just cause it didn't all match a theme, but it was good to know. Going forward, I could try and tighten up the theme as best I could, though I would almost always choose function over form.

I did take my beanie off, though, stuffing it into my pocket. It only had a basic protection ritual on it, which was utterly redundant with how many types of protection I had already. Without the beanie, to the outside observer, the only thing on my head was my circlet. That was my mind resiliency and strength circlet, an attempt to make me resistant to mind control, so there was no way that was coming off.

"Better," She said, nodding her head. "Still a bit confused, but at least now you don't look like you're also late for your job unloading cargo at the docks."

I snorted at her sass before checking if she was ready to begin our patrol or if she wanted to spend more time critiquing my outfit. She pretended to debate the question, so I just rolled my eyes and started the teleport spell. It was long enough that if she actually needed some time, she would have plenty of it to stop me.

My partner on patrol said nothing, however, so the spell went through, sending us deep into ABB territory. We appeared, with the usual strange noises, on top of a boarded-up and empty gas station. Once we were confident we were clear, we jumped down to the thankfully empty street. It was still very early, so the usual hustle was completely absent. We walked the area for about an hour, the city slowly waking up as we did. Eventually, I got a message from Lady Photon, causing me to curse under my breath.

"What's wrong?"

"Lady Photon just confirmed they found multiple Merchant tags during their patrol," I said, showing her an image on my phone. "The Merchants are definitely pushing the envelope here… something must be really stirring them up."

"I've been hearing things too," Crow admitted. "The Merchants didn't really qualify as a gang before, more like… a vague grouping of drug distribution lines. Not even the good stuff either, the crap only the desperate would buy. That started to change recently, though, even before we took down Lung and Lee. Skidmark is working to wrangle them together into a gang, holding rallies and block parties, giving out drugs to people who join up."

"How long has this been going on?"

"From what I've heard, a few weeks, not much more than that," She responded, shaking her head. "And what's worse, what better way to stir up a crowd of high, demented drug dealers than by pointing out the nice, shiny territory next door that is mostly defenseless."

"That's what I'm worried about," I agreed, chewing the inside of my lip. "Alright, let's cut down this next road and head to that line between the two territories. With any luck, if something happens, we can stop it before it spirals out of control. I can always teleport us out if something else comes up."

Crow agreed, and together with our cadre of shiny new metal golems, we made our way through ABB territory. Once we arrived, we began our new patrol, walking along the divide between Merchant and ABB. The streets were tense, but there were quite a bit fewer people than what we were used to, enough for it to be noticeable.

"What are the chances it's like this because everyone decided to just take Monday off?" I asked, frowning as we passed another area that would have normally held at least a few people.

"Lower than you want," Crow responded, sounding just as tense as me. "Not to sound cliche, it feels like the calm before the storm. Like everyone knows something that we don't."

"If anyone knows what the gangs are feeling, it's the people who live here," I pointed out. "I'm… I'm going to make a call, tell New Wave to be on standby whenever possible."

"What about when you leave for healing?"

"Well... I'm just a teleport away. How do you feel about finding a shadow somewhere and keeping watch?" I suggested. "I'll pick you up some lunch when I'm done healing and I'll buy dinner if we end up hanging around that late."

"Deal," She said. "For now, let's keep up with the patrol. Maybe we will discourage anyone from doing anything stupid just by hanging around."

"Do you really think that?" I asked with a disbelieving raised eyebrow.

"Fuck no, but I can dream."