The downtime during which I was doing little other than training was nice. It was comforting almost to the point that I wished I could continue with that lifestyle forever, never facing any actual conflict. Almost. But it would take forever to get levels if I only sparred with people and didn’t engage in actual combat, and I wasn’t content with what I had learned. Being able to learn new abilities through training simply wasn’t fast enough, though I certainly appreciated what I had.

But I shouldn’t have been worried about things settling down long term, as New Bay hadn’t really changed. Soon enough, we were called for an all hands meeting in the auditorium, on floor 7 of HQ.

“... Did you know this auditorium existed?” I asked Shockwave.

“Of course,” they replied. “It’s not used much though.”

“I didn’t know about it,” Midnight replied.

It seemed we only tended to learn what the floors were once we went to them. Then again, some things were kind of secret. Though those tended to be in the basements, where they would be more secure should something go wrong.

I didn’t see Great Girl among the crowd, though I did spot some of her team- and my former teammates. I still trained with the captain, Shockfire, and Acid Man occasionally… but they were all parts of longer term squads now. Meanwhile, I’d been too infrequently available to be attached to anything long term. It wasn’t like I’d intended to go through a portal, it had just been the best available option at the time. It hadn’t really come up since I’d been back, either.

“Whoa, this must be serious,” Shockwave commented. “All of the executives are up there.”

I took a look. “Aren’t there supposed to be seven of them? That’s only six.” Five were more or less familiar to me, having interacted with them a couple times. And Calculator a lot more, obviously. “Is she uh… Lady Light?”

“Clearly,” Shockwave said. “I can’t believe you- well, I suppose you weren’t really around during her active period, huh?”

“The database is also rather light on information regarding the executives.”

“Really? I feel like you should have the clearance by now.”

“... I will admit to not having checked in some time.”

As much as I would have liked to keep talking, it appeared things were getting started as I finally saw Great Girl joining them on stage. Along with Captain Senan and a couple others.

Calculator began speaking without ceremony. “Before I begin, understand that much of the information we will be speaking about is confidential. With that said, I am certain many of you will have noticed many of your patrols have been quieter as of late. The number of recent incidents has dropped significantly. While in part this is due to your dedication and that of others in the city… our investigations have turned up other reasons. Ones that are most unfortunate for the state of things. Villains fighting villains… and while that might seem like a positive, there are multiple reasons we should be concerned. Our source of income is the least important of these.”

Lady Light took over next. She was… difficult to look at. Were her powers constantly active on purpose, or was that just an unfortunate side effect? Either way, the sequins on her outfit reflecting more light than what she already produced was rather unpleasant. But perhaps this was good for concealing her identity, because I couldn’t even make out a proper body shape.

“The short version of things is that these aren’t normal territorial squabbles,” Lady Light explained. “Instead, it is the result of a few groups trying to absorb other villains. Traditional supers, and the recent wave of portal powered individuals as well. The major contenders are Doctor Doomsday’s faction and that of Gloom and Dark Star. So far, only the martian mafia seems to have been able to resist either of them, and we have indications they might play the field as well. Either way, it’s not good for more villains to fall under more organized leadership.”

“Kourtney’s as organized as a pile of bricks!” Great Girl interjected. “I mean, uh…” she stepped forward properly into the spotlight. “Dark Star is a much more charismatic leader than Gloom, for obvious reasons. Gloom didn’t previously have much resembling a faction, besides what we could describe as ‘terrified cronies’. Our information indicates that this pair knew each other in the past.” Great Girl gestured to a sudden projection- which involved more than just displaying a picture on a flat wall. Instead, there seemed to be something closer to a three dimensional image projected besides her. “Kourtnay Ingham, formerly known as Stargirl-” for some reason she waved around the mic she was holding. “Sorry, I mean Shooting Star. Currently going by the moniker Dark Star.”

Displayed were pictures of her in her superhero outfit, her villain outfit, and in street clothes- an older picture, presumably provided by Great Girl herself given their history. Strengths and weaknesses were gone over- not that we knew much in the way of actual weaknesses for Darkstargirl. Among other things, her powers might have shifted with the visuals. Other than that, her powers counting as fire to some extent, which wasn’t really a weakness so much on its own. And vulnerable to dispelling, but that was kind of niche in relevance since nobody else used magic or had my staff.

I wondered if Lady Light would be a good counter to her now that she was Darkstargirl. Well, perhaps they’d figure that out soon enough. Following the information on Gloom- which basically just indicated that mental protections were required- some of Doctor Doomsday’s tactics were discussed. Though mainly that counted his minions, and how he had been outfitting them lately. That included his normal human mooks, as well as the orcs and dark elves. Though there was also concern regarding what groups he was absorbing.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Swiss Arms also provided some of her personal experience, talking about different gadgets Doctor Doomsday used. Telescope and Movebrain didn’t have much to say, and Captain Punch was completely useless. “Remember, if you hit anything hard enough you can win.” He wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t mean people could do it. Myself included, even.

Things returned to Calculator who proceeded to wrap up the meeting. “Ultimately, we’re planning to increase patrols in the short term, despite the appearance of peace. Some of you will simply be on call, but the point is that we can’t have you exhausting yourself in training. We expect something to happen within the next few weeks, and if possible we’d like to prevent any supers from being absorbed into larger factions.”

Well, as long as we got to fight that didn’t sound so bad, but for me personally it meant cutting back on some of the training I was doing. Just when I was focusing on improving spells, too.

Then again, I was satisfied with most of my progress.

Turlough (No surname)

Level: 33

Experience: 2900/2975

Storage +5 (4|1)

Firebolt +4 (3|1)

Shocking Grasp +5 (3|2)

Grease +3 (2|1)

Force Armor +8 (6|2)

Mage's Reach +4 (2|2)

Translation +2 (1|1)

Alter Time Flow +6 (4|2)

Disguise

Familiar Bond +7 (4|3)

Enlarge +3 (2|1)

Energy Ward +3 (2|1)

Sonic Lance +4 (3|1)

Scrying +4 (1|3)

Shield +1

Stoneskin +3 (2|1)

Mana Crystal Deposition +4 (1|3)

Water Breathing

Variable Freedom +3 (2|1)

Basic Light Magic +2 (1|1)

Locate Object +2

Alter Portal +1 (0|1)

Gate +3 (2|1)

Arcane Sight +1 (0|1)

Sending +2 (0|2)

Chain Lightning +3 (1|2)

Clean +1 (0|1)

Shelter +1 (0|1)

Assistive Familiar Casting +2 (0|2)

Locate Creature

Multicasting +1 (0|1)

Enhance +1

Remaining Points: 47

Finally, another natural improvement to Force Armor. I used it constantly, but it also had many upgrades from points. Beyond that, I didn’t necessarily practice when I used it. I just let it flow naturally without thinking about it most of the time.

Beyond that, relevant increases included Alter Time Flow- Slow and Haste. Chain Lightning also got an upgrade due to it being used in high profile situations in rather fancy manners. And I’d managed to improve Multicasting, allowing me to snag some of the efficiency of upgrades from other things.

I’d properly learned Enhance Mind and Enhance body, then spent a point on an upgrade to force them to combine. I wasn’t certain if that was the best method, but it was the most straightforward one and they were both useful in a variety of situations. I still had enough points to do basically whatever I wanted… but I needed to know what that was before I spent them.

-----

“Trials and executions completed. Investigations continue, however.”

That was the response I got from Sir Kalman when asking for weekly updates. Sending couldn’t say all that much, so being concise was useful. And if there was nothing more to say, there was no reason to bloat things. It was odd, though. Investigations into what? Perhaps how the portals got there in the first place? That was something I should ask Zenfer, probably. I hadn’t really been in contact with him at all, but it seemed like something important to ask.

Sir Kalman might have meant something else, but he hadn’t chosen to elaborate. I decided not to speculate too much. And I could inquire with Zenfer even though I wanted to be cautious regarding the other mages. He knew I had Sending and Gate already, so as long as I kept to reasonable topics I shouldn’t have to worry.

What should I say? Something like… “Worried more portals might appear. Can the mages of the capital do anything to prevent it?” Perhaps I should have said something sooner, but honestly I hadn’t been thinking about contacting him. Then Uvithar’s secret notes reminded me to be cautious. But I also had to try to get some information, and he was the only other way.

The reply took about as long as normal, arriving about half an hour after I sent my question. It was unclear if Zenfer was prepared ahead of time, but the old halfling man managed something within the proper response time. Of course, his response was only so long.

“The Archmages are looking into the situation. Granbold will not so easily let our people be abducted.”

That didn’t tell me much. I barely even knew who the archmages were. I mean, I’d read about them but… I had kind of figured if I needed to know something specific I could look it up. And now I didn’t have access to Master Uvithar’s library or the man himself.

But that was how life went, sometimes.

In addition to his response, I also happened to get a message from someone else. Specifically, Vilhelmiina the tech super.

I require your presence for testing.

Sorry

On call

Gotta stay in top form

Can’t expend all my mana

This testing will require none of your personal mana.

I will arrange for your presence with the Brigade.

I can promise your rapid mobilization should an incident arise.

Well, I had no real reasons to refuse. I liked the crazy old woman. It was even a good opportunity to see what Enhance Mind did to a ‘normal’ tech super, unlike Francois. The only question was if that was something I could get away with. It was only 5 mana, so using it once wouldn’t be an issue… but she could likely be very persuasive to have me use it more than once if she found it interesting. And it was very likely that she would.

Well, I could figure that out later. First, I could see what she wanted. It usually ended up going well for me in the end. I’d gotten some cool goggles I hadn’t been using that much, my dispelling staff made of faux Yggdrasil wood, and a nice scrying cube. I couldn’t expect to get another device, but visits with her were always interesting.