The plans I had for the near future had not included being awoken in the middle of the night with the call to an emergency mission, but that wasn’t exactly unexpected either. Usually, that meant villains were getting up to some midnight shenanigans, but despite the emergency I also wasn’t rushed.
Midnight and I left the Lower Hills Suites where we lived, getting directly into a Power Brigade vehicle. It wasn’t marked, but we recognized the driver and the source of the messages came directly from Calculator. I could tell right away we weren’t headed towards the Brigade, and even with very little traffic we ended up taking half an hour to reach our destination. Some random warehouses down at the docks.
I could feel a few familiar people as we approached. Calculator was expected, though I only recognized his power because of that. He didn’t emit big waves of power, as everything he did was quite internal and subtle. Then there was Swiss Arms, who I’d only interacted with on a single mission before, otherwise merely seeing her in passing. And another figure I was having trouble placing until we stepped inside.
In addition to the two I had figured out, I saw three Martians dressed up in nice suits, standing in an extremely suspicious manner, a dog, and Khithae. Oh, the dog was… Zeb or something? The border collie-like Bunvorixian I had seen before. Khithae… I definitely recognized her ability, but it was weird to find her here.
Oh right, and the Martians were Kendrux and two of her best goons. Olim and Evans. Totally nailed it.
“Great,” Calculator said. “Everyone is here. Apologies for waking the two of you in the middle of the night without warning,” Calculator continued, “But for various reasons we were unable to inform the two of you ahead of time.”
“Because Mage isn’t great at keeping secrets?” Midnight commented.
I shook my head. “Because I’m terrible at keeping secrets,” I corrected him.
Calculator cleared his throat. “Among the various reasons, we were also uncertain when this operation might take place. It required coordination with several busy schedules.”
“What about the two of us?” I gestured to Midnight.
“I know your schedules,” Calculator said.
I nodded, looking around. Something was weird about this place. I had the feeling it wasn’t a random warehouse.
Apparently, Calculator noticed. “Recognize something?”
It wasn’t Kendrux’s warehouse. That one had more holes and weird metal crates. This one had couches and bricks and... “Handface?” I tilted my head.
“One of his earlier hideouts, yes,” Calculator confirmed. “A familiar enough location, and not currently in use. The team will be returning here.”
“Seems kind of… dumpy,” I said. “Why not hang out at HQ?”
Calculator rolled his eyes for some reason. “This is a sensitive mission, so you need to work from here.”
“Me?” I asked. “The team?”
“I’m not taking part,” Calculator said. “I’m just here to coordinate.”
“... When do you sleep?”
“When it’s efficient. Now then, you are going to be performing an infiltration mission.”
“Uh,” I frowned. “I’m really not good at infiltration.”
“The inclusion of yourself and Midnight is to provide transportation and support. The actual infiltration work will be done by others.”
“... so where are we going?” I asked. “Because I can’t drive.”
Calculator pulled out a picture- a printed picture, not just something on his tablet. “Here,” he said.
“... Yeah, I didn’t save points for any sort of Teleport stuff so I don’t know if I can get anyone to this desert.”
“You’ll be using Gate,” Calculator said. “We’ve already verified your ability to arrive at your destination.” He handed over the picture, and another along with it, of our current location. “Keep that second one in Storage, along with your phones.”
“Alright,” I said. “But I still don’t know where we’re going.”
“I thought it was fairly obvious,” Kendrux said.
“That’s not always good enough for him,” Midnight pointed out. She shrugged in return.
“You’ll need to make use of your abilities to Shift Size, bringing up Midnight and Zeb’s size, while reducing yourself, Khithae, and Swiss Arms to about Martian height.”
“I don’t know if we can-” I looked over at Midnight when I felt something.
He shrugged, looking back at me. “Apparently we can? He had me test that. It’s cheap enough for me to Multicast alone.”
“Interesting,” I said. “And then what?”
Calculator continued his explanation. “Then you cast Disguise on everyone to make them look like Martians.”
“... That’ll work for the humanoids,” I said. Midnight and Zeb weren’t going to work out, though. “Also, why is she coming with us?” I pointed to the Bunvorixian. “Wasn’t she in jail?”
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Zeb wagged her tail. Well, her whole backside. “I’m performing a public service!” Zeb said. “If I help then I become a certified good girl!”
“... Malaliel had confirmed her sincerity,” Calculator explained. “She is willing to help with this infiltration mission in exchange for amnesty for her inadvertent association with extraterrestrial war crimes.”
“I just kept the ship from blowing up!” Zeb said.
I frowned. “Why can I understand you?”
Khithae pointed to herself. “I synthesized a translation unit with Zeb’s help, and Celmothian tech..”
“Cool,” I said. “I thought that was going to take longer.”
“It would, without magic,” Calculator said. “Well, it still requires Khithae or someone similar to maintain the charge on the device so the actual project is still underway.”
“So… where are we actually going?” I asked.
“Mars,” Calculator said. “You’re going to Mars.”
I looked at the picture in my hand. “This is Mars?”
“Obviously,” Midnight said.
“I thought Mars looked like… something else,” I said. To be fair, I’d only ever seen the inside of Extra’s transportation destination- and I hadn’t even gotten to look around, just through a Gate.
“There is one final issue to resolve,” Calculator said. “Midnight, Zeb, will you be able to work together?”
The Bunvorixian spoke first. “The nice bird and Kyle said that Midnight is a good boy, so I will.” Her entire body waggled as she looked at Midnight, up on my shoulder.
Midnight’s emotions were difficult to read. Maybe even he didn’t know what they added up to. “As long as I can remember, my people have been fighting the Bunvorixians. I’m not sure if I can trust the word of one, even with Malaliel’s confirmation of Zeb’s own declaration.”
“Understandable,” Calculator said. “You may remain behind. It is my understanding that Mage is more than capable of using Gate alone now.”
That response seemed to bother Midnight more. “And leave him alone, subject to possible treachery from a Bunvorixian? I don’t know if I could do that.”
“I wouldn’t do a treachery,” Zeb said, her mouth hanging open and tongue dangling.
“Not on my watch you won’t,” Midnight declared. He turned towards Calculator. “I would like to participate. I will remain vigilant for trouble, both internal and external.”
Calculator pondered for a few moments. “As long as you don’t start any trouble,” he said. “Now then, to explain the premise of the mission for you two… you’re not just infiltrating Mars in general, but specifically Extra.”
“Um,” I raised my hand. “Isn’t that kind of problematic? Most of us here had to go through Extra.” I looked over at Swiss Arms. She was probably an Earth-human, but she could be extradimensional.
Swiss Arms answered my question. “That has been taken into account. However, we determined this was the optimal team composition. And the request is from Extra themselves. Or rather, the local branch of individuals we trust.”
“Sounds complicated,” I said.
“... I knew there was something suspicious about how easily Spot got out,” Midnight said.
Calculator nodded at Midnight. “That is, indeed, the matter at hand. There is concern that certain Martian individuals are compromised, and while it is presumed that the level of corruption is limited… internal investigations have been stymied. And this is not a time where we can wait for the gears of bureaucracy to turn. Doctor Doomsday got his hands on a ship that shouldn’t have even made it to Earth’s atmosphere.”
“So,” I said. “What happens if we get caught?”
“Don’t.” The single word was clear enough. “Should it prove necessary, Gate somewhere secure in your own world, or to Celmoth.”
“Kind of a risky mission for Khithae…” I frowned. “Unless you’ve undergone secret training?”
“Khithae is needed for her technological expertise,” Calculator said. “And she will be staying out of combat. Or rather, if there are any signs of combat your team is to retreat immediately. Your job is to keep an image of a potential destination in mind at all times. Only return to this location if you achieve your goals and exfiltrate without issue. Also be aware that Gate might fail within the facility. Though from the inside you have a chance of making it out.”
“... So no fighting?” I said. “This seems pretty risky.”
“You will be rewarded appropriately,” Calculator said. “Including with sparring opportunities. And I do believe the mission is of some personal interest for you.”
“Alright,” I said. “So we go now?”
“That’s right,” Calculator said. “As long as you are ready. You’ll work with Midnight to at least approximate the right size, then use Disguise.”
“Well, since you’ve done it before,” I said to Midnight. “You lead that part.”
“It’s not that hard,” he explained. “Don’t think about people getting bigger or smaller. Just think about them being a certain size.”
Well, we had three examples. Quiet ones, in the form of our Martian gangster friends. Kendrux had said all of a single sentence. You know, some people might not have trusted this group to work with them for such an important task. They would have been pretty silly, though, because these guys were quite reliable.
“Oh right, one last piece of information. Try not to use much magic inside the facility,” Calculator said. “The point was to pick people who would be effective without obvious signs, but there’s only so much we can do.”
Well, if we weren’t fighting I didn’t have a reason to use anything we wouldn’t already have active. So I supposed it didn’t matter much whether they could detect it. “What about the already active magic?”
“Extra doesn’t exactly have the resources to update all facilities against every possible intrusion type. They have general sensors,” Calculator explained. “But they should be weakest against your sort of magic. The New Bay branch, however, is quite differently prepared.”
I’d hope so. Otherwise some random people Doomsday brought would be able to dismantle them, and they seemed kind of important… when they were working right.
The time came to actually do stuff, so I focused on everyone being the right size. Somewhere around Olim. We had just the right number of people for this, which was probably part of the plan. Calculator excepted, of course, but he wasn’t coming. Too bad. But I also supposed being away from New Bay for a while would significantly impact the Brigade, since he coordinated so much.
Midnight and Zeb were never going to make convincing Martians, and when we Multicast Disguise over the five of us who needed it the results were clear. They were like disfigured Martians who had legs down to normal Martian knees, waddling around with their hands on the ground.
“That’ll have to do,” Calculator said. “Seeing Bunvorixians and Celmothians would be even worse.”
Midnight and I split everything at a ratio of sixty percent to forty percent. That was where our relative mana pools ended up. There were some reasons to split evenly for regeneration, but ultimately we wanted to each have a good portion of mana remaining. It was good practice, if nothing else.
Gate took more mana than the other two spells combined- even casting them at triple cost for ‘four’ targets. I was holding the image out for Midnight and I to look at, since he was no longer on my shoulder given our similar sizes. I briefly wondered if a similar trick to what had been done with Shift Size would work with Alter Time Flow.
Then the Gate opened up, into a red and rocky desert. Already being prepared, everyone else trudged through ahead of the two of us, Midnight and I stepping through last as tradition dictated.
I was prepared for a long trek through the desert, seeking out some buried facility… but then I turned and literally saw walls on the horizon. Well, that would explain why we picked this location to pop up. They likely couldn’t make us out, but our destination was clear. Presumably. Kendrux and Swiss Arms set out that way, confirming that. As we got a bit closer, I noticed a hole in the wall- and some crumbling architecture. This might be the direct location of the prison break. What sort of evidence could we find?
I really didn’t know. Investigation wasn’t my area of expertise.