Waiting a day was not usually difficult for me, but having finally found a solution that could work for Shockfire it was difficult to sleep. I considered knocking myself out with mana fatigue, but that sounded like I would only be piling problems on top of each other. So instead I wandered into the bathroom to make it difficult for someone else to sleep.
Oddly enough, even though the mirror was way less fancy than the scrying ‘orb’ Vilhelmiina made, I actually managed to lock onto Handface. It was once again barely long enough to pick up vague surroundings, and it faded the moment his eyes snapped open. But I learned something. He didn’t have the protection of scrying anchors, nor was it simply a matter of willpower. There was something else protecting him.
But what? It wasn’t like scales could protect against scrying. I wasn’t stabbing him with my spell or anything. So it must have been- ah, dammit. I’d forgotten about a particular feature. They weren’t just scales, but dragon scales. So he might have gained some portion of their resistance to magic.
When I still couldn’t sleep, I cast the spell again a bit more than an hour later. There was some vague thought about overpowering that protection, but mostly it was me thinking how annoying it was to be woken up at random times. And since I was already awake, it wasn’t any worse for me.
It took a bit less than an hour and a half to recover the base mana expenditure of the spell. However, the maximum amount I could use based on the spell level was about a quarter more than that, taking closer to an hour and forty minutes. But using it at such exact regularity would be too predictable. So I just threw it out whenever I felt like it, though I did aim for maximum potency.
By morning time, I’d determined I could probably push past his resistance with more practice of my own. Assuming he didn’t improve either, which wasn’t necessarily going to be the case. Though I could hope that losing sleep would make him sloppy enough to show himself somewhere. Our group of buddies would gladly take him down- plus the rest of the Brigade, really.
-----
Waiting for a reasonable hour to return to the martian lady Kendrux was a pain. But I didn’t want to bug her, since we needed her cooperation. At least when we got to her office she was waiting, and Midnight and I got in easily.
Before I could even say anything, she placed the bullet on the desk between us. “According to our tests, it should act much like you said,” Kendrux said. “So I can see the value. But a single one is not valuable enough for this trade.” She held out her hand, palm up.
I had expected that. It was unfortunate, because these were potentially lifesaving ammunition. Then again, what was I doing with them right now but saving a life? I handed over four more, half of the total number I had received. I was willing to give up more for a friend, but it seemed like a reasonable value.
But even with those placed in her hand, her big black eyes seemed to stare at me. She kept her hand out. “What? You expect me to sequence your friend’s DNA from the air? I need that too.”
“... Right,” I said, handing over a small vial of his blood prepared for that purpose. It was a valuable thing in its own regard, a sensitive bit of information about my friend. But it was entirely pointless to not give it up. “Don’t abuse it.”
“I’d never betray a business associate,” Kendrux said straightforwardly. “Or a trading partner. And of course, I’m not looking to become an enemy of the Power Brigade. I like this desk too much,” she said, rapping her knuckles on the dense wood.
“How long does it take?” Midnight asked. “And can your device accommodate someone of human size?”
“A week,” she said. “And of course it works for humans. You think I got such a device only to take care of my martian friends here? It would go to waste anytime Olim, Evans, and the rest of the boys weren’t getting themselves cut up. Which is fortunately rare.”
I wasn’t sure if a week was quick or slow. Well, for something like this, it was definitely quick. But it sure sounded like forever.
“Thanks,” I just said.
“And to you as well,” she replied. “Always appreciate a good trade. It is possible for both sides to be happy with a deal, after all. Anyway, don’t bother coming to pick it up. My boys will get it to where it belongs.”
-----
“So anyway,” I said to Ice Guy, Rocker, and Acid Man. “I set up a trade to solve the problem.”
“Isn’t that-” Ice Guy began.
“A perfectly normal thing to do? I thought so,” I nodded. “It’s so nice of her to help us out.”
“I don’t mind it… as long as you won’t get in trouble, or get the Brigade in trouble…” Ice Guy frowned.
“Oh, it’s totally fine,” I said. “We read all of the relevant legal garbage.”
“How’d you find it?” Rocker asked. “I looked at laws once and man, never again.”
“Calculator pointed me to it,” I said.
“You think he…?” Acid Man began.
“I assume he’s either spying on our conversation right now, or will listen to all the recordings later,” I said. “I mean, we are inside HQ. But everything is legit so I’m not worried.” That was true, in one manner of speaking. I wasn’t worried about that part. I was worried about Shockfire’s health for a week, and whether or not the cloned organ would actually function, and whether the surgery would go alright, and Handface maybe hurting more people I cared about. But I wasn’t worried about the legal or illegal nature of stuff.
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“So what do we do until then?” Rocker asked.
“Well, maybe we could get presents for when he wakes up?” Midnight suggested.
“We could bring Handface’s head,” I suggested. Everyone looked at me. “What? I’m joking. I’d just take a picture of the body.”
“... You really want to hunt him down?” Ice Guy asked.
“Obviously. I know the rest of you would as well. It’s just whether we can. And that…” I shrugged, “I don’t know. So I’m going to ask Calculator to figure out the worst possible sleep schedule and force him onto it while bombarding him with Scrying spells.” I looked to Midnight, “It would really help if you were part of that plan.”
“Can we manage that?” Midnight asked. “Won’t we run out of mana?”
“Mana recovery is up again,” I said. “Maybe one point three times ‘normal’?” I shrugged. “So even at full power, either of us would only be down about three points of mana per hour. That means you can cover about six hours without me involved, which is a decent enough night’s rest. And the rest of the day we can alternate and still recover mana, except during whenever you sleep, but I have a larger mana pool so I can cover more time if necessary.”
“Sounds alright to me. As long as you think it will actually help, and if we can get the execs to sign on.”
“And what about the rest of us,” Ice Guy asked. “We just wait?”
“Depends on how safe you and your squads feel. You could go out on patrol. If we find anything about location, we’d share it. Though uh… it can’t be too far unless it was a massive coincidence that he showed up during that incident. He might pop around, but I’m sure he’ll be somewhere near our prominent districts. Because that guy can’t get over… whatever it was that made him hate me. Maybe losing that fancy thingamajig at the party?”
“I think it was for maiming his face,” Rocker said helpfully.
“... He should have robbed a bank and paid for cosmetic surgery,” I said. Now that I thought about it, hadn’t this come up before? Eh, the reason wasn’t that important, but maybe I should remember it. It could come up again.
-----
It didn’t take long for Calculator to be convinced that Midnight and I should focus on finding Handface instead of assisting with other patrols- though he did caution us that if possible we should keep a reserve of mana for emergencies.
“I do like the idea of disrupting his sleep schedule once again,” Calculator said. “And as you’re able to overcome issues with potential scrying anchors, this magic resistance is the main concern. Do you think it will help resist other powers?”
“Oh.” I hadn’t particularly considered that. “It might.” I frowned. “Most of the former Elemental Magic Squad will likely be less effective. But it shouldn’t do much about snapping his neck. If we could get Great Girl…”
“While I have no doubt she would be effective,” Calculator said. “She might not be the right choice. Her public image issues are already enough without her turning someone into paste.”
I hadn’t considered that part. “You’re right. I don’t want to make thing hard on her.” Thinking of the people I knew… “What about Mono? Mono’s powers won’t be directly acting on Handface. Give him a taste of his own medicine. Preferably right through his head.”
“Or Shockwave,” Midnight pointed out. “Except for the issue with poison gas clouds, they should be… more than capable of killing someone. If… that’s not an issue for them.”
“Mono would be your best bet,” Calculator said. “Again, public image stuff.”
“I mean, if I get the chance I’ll do it,” I said. “But he’s really slippery and too far away most of the time. And I don’t care about my public image. What’s going to happen, people attacking me on the streets?”
“Doesn’t that already happen?” Midnight asked.
“My point exactly. Actually, I’ve been strangely fine since we returned. Even though Darkstargirl is out and about with her roaming bands of thugs.”
“There’s an easy answer for that,” Calculator said. “All of her insane fanatics- especially those who got powers- officially joined her evil organization. And they’re not actually roaming about too often, since they seem nearly incapable of going incognito.” He shrugged. “Or at least all of those who were swept up in the initial burst of activity.”
I frowned. “It would be problematic if she knew I was back as well.”
“Managing nemeses is an important part of any super’s day to day,” Calculator said. “I’d definitely try not to act too publicly until you deal with Deimos. Anyway, I’ll help you set up something to distract him at random times. And if we manage to catch recordings of him sleeping, I might try to modify it to disrupt REM.” Calculator nodded, already thinking of the possibilities.
“Great. So we just have to get good enough to actually… see things. It’s not a problem of Scrying levels, I hope,” I said. “Because if that’s the case we’ll never manage.” I could really use some guidance from that fancy diviner Izzy met. Too bad she was all up and disappeared.
Ugh, and I still hadn’t found any permanent portals for Sir Kalman. It hadn’t been that long, really, but that was another use of Scrying that had to be worked on. We’d have to see if we could slip that in between other stuff, if we had enough mana.
Was it too much to ask to be able to punch someone through a Scrying spell? I didn’t need a magical punch or to be allowed to smack someone with my staff. Just a regular punch would do.
“I suppose we’d better get started,” Midnight said.
“Perhaps,” Calculator said. “We don’t know when he’ll be sleeping, so if he has other villainous activities planned… and there are other options I should bring up. For example, spying on any former associates to see if they have hooked back up.”
“Boyan and his minions are still locked up, right?” I asked. “Sirine and Swarm are… still free. Ugh, is it possible he’s working with Rodentia again?”
“I’d hope she’s smarter than that,” Midnight said. “But it could be why he showed up.”
“I guess it’s easy enough to test. If one of them has scrying anchors and the other doesn’t, then they’re at least not at the same location.”
Calculator nodded, “That would be valuable information indeed. The other two you mentioned seem to be work for hire types, so there’s no reason they couldn’t work with him again. But there was no loyalty for either Sirine or Swarm.”
“And neither of them keep trying to kill me,” I said. “So they’re a lot more reasonable.”
But money made people do stupid things. Like fighting alongside that guy.
We’d track Handface down again. This time, however, we weren’t going to accept him getting away.