“What do you mean you’re dropping out of school?” I crossed my arms, looking down sternly at Jerome.
He waved his hands wildly to deflect my accusation. “I’m not dropping out! I’m just not… going to school anymore.”
“How is that different?” I asked.
“I’m still learning! From you, and online. Just not in a classroom.”
“Hmm…” I frowned. There was probably some reason that was still a problem, but I couldn’t think of it. If he still learned what he needed to, did it matter? What else did school accomplish? I really didn’t know. “I think that’s a decision that should not be made lightly.” There, that was vague enough that I didn’t have to have my reason right now.
“I’m not going to learn anything in my current math class anyway,” Jerome pointed out, “I passed that up a while ago. And once I put my mind to it, I learned everything else quickly as well! I haven’t actually stopped going yet. There’s a test I need to take or something,” Jerome shrugged. “But after that… I’ll have the rest of the school year off to think about choices.”
“And study,” I nodded.
“And practice magic,” Jerome added.
“Well, as long as you’ve thought about it and discussed it with your mother, it’s your choice. Though is it so simple to pass up an entire year of schooling?”
“Well…” Jerome frowned, “It kinda is when you were so far behind like me. I’m mostly aiming for something like normal placement, except for math.”
“Okay,” I nodded. “But it’s only, what, October? Are you sure you’ll be ready for some test?”
“Absolutely,” Jerome nodded. “What about you? Going to be ready for Halloween?”
“... what’s that?” I asked.
-----
Given that we did not have an abundance of time to prepare costumes- and worked exclusively with people who spent most of their life in costume- Midnight and I used magic to create our alternate looks. Midnight appeared to have a tall hat, as well as a dangling white beard. He also seemed to have a sort of robe dotted with sparkling stars. Outfits for one with his body shape were entirely impractical, and to achieve the right look it had to be magic. Sometimes the image slipped through his tail, but it was better that than trying to replicate Francois’ work without his expertise. Apparently the outfit he made for Midnight was actually quite comfortable. In addition, Midnight could put it on or take it off directly by using Storage. That was a fascinating usage I hadn’t thought about.
I return, I had cat ears upon my head, and feline features. Midnight helped me refine the look until it wasn’t too weird, apparently fitting feline aesthetics enough. I appeared to have fur covering my body, though anyone who got close might still brush up against my sleeves. Likewise, my face still had tusks if people were to get close.
Of course, it would be a huge mess if people were to intentionally not look like themselves within a secure facility, so the day began with people out of costume. But as we were making our way to the streets, I saw the costumes of many others.
I only knew of one woman who could be nine feet tall in the Power Brigade, so the one with the mask that made it look like she only had one eye and the large club must have been Great Girl.
For some reason Jim was in a perfectly normal business suit and tie. I had to admit there was some humor to it, but I seemed to be missing some sort of context that others had, as they found it significantly more amusing. Then again, business suits were still new to me so they hardly felt like ‘normal’ clothing.
Ice Guy seemed to be going for some sort of irony, as he had dyed his hair orange and was dressed in flame patterns. I didn’t manage to pick out Shockfire, but Acid Man was dressed up as a ‘cowboy’. I found that extremely odd, as he didn’t have any cow related pieces of his costume.
Shockwave was… potentially any of those with the same slight build. I didn’t know what their face looked like, now that I thought of it, nor did their hair particularly stand out. Especially not with so many people in wigs.
Calculator showed up with two sheets of cardboard hanging from him, front and back. The back looked like nothing, it was just painted a black-gray, but the front had all sorts of buttons on it, or at least low quality illustrations of them. Numbers, operators, and some weird things I didn’t quite understand.
There were others going past as well, and once outside I caught sight of many others as well. It was difficult to tell who might have been supers, whether hero, mercenary, or villain. A logistical nightmare, but there was a reason for such madness. Unbeknownst to me, it was a time of great potential trouble. It was unclear if the collective belief caused supernatural events to happen on that particular day, if it was coincidence, or some other factor… but everyone was out patrolling New Bay, generally in small groups to cover more ground.
Many civilians were out on the streets as well. During Halloween, most of the city shut down, except those parts that supported the event. Some people were going to various festivals, while others were seeking opportunities to meet supers. Something about the costumes apparently helped settle things down, which was why the Power Brigade and others accepted the potential confusion. It had to be people with powers too, because…?
I shrugged. It couldn’t be magic that caused whatever this was, or not just magic. The mana levels were perhaps slightly higher, but nothing sufficient to cause a wide scale event. The phenomenon wasn’t unique to New Bay, either, but also other locations with higher concentrations of the supernatural.
For the sake of having some sensibility to the whole thing, heroes and mercenaries wore special badges for civilians to identify them. That way when something inevitably occurred the people yelling for help would have someone to look for, and individuals could respond faster than reports would come through official channels.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Excuse me mister,” a kid dressed like a vampire said as he held up a blank sheet of paper. “Are you a superhero?” His mother stood behind him, smiling.
I was about to speak, but Midnight beat me to it. “Something like that,” he said.
Some playful part of me decided to speak in Celmothian. “We’re technically mercenaries.” Of course, it just sounded like a cat meowing. It got the kid to laugh hysterically though, so it accomplished its mission.
“Can I get an autograph, mister… umm…?”
“I am the Great Mage Cosmos!” Midnight improvised fantastically.
“Okay,” the kid nodded, holding up the paper along with a clipboard and pen. “Could you autograph for me?”
“Of course,” Midnight nodded his head, “What about my familiar here?”
The kid nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! And your kitty! Whatever his name is.”
“It’s, umm…” I frowned. “Greentusk?”
Midnight spoke back in Celmothian, “That name is garbage.”
“Sorry!” I shrugged, “I didn’t know we were coming up with names!”
“How about greenfur?” he asked.
“But I made my fur black, like yours. I guess I could change it.”
“Good idea,” Midnight said. “Ahem. Tiny vampire man, my familiar is actually in disguise. His true form is… Greenfur!” He timed it almost perfectly for my use of the Disguise spell, and my fur turned a nice medium green. Too dark would look weird, even if darker would be closer to my actual skin tone. “Could you set me down?”
I set Midnight down and let him begin to autograph the thing. While he did that, I asked the mother, “Do you want us to put our original names there too?”
“I don’t know if he’d care now,” she shrugged, “But maybe later he’d want to know. I’d appreciate it.”
I looked at Midnight, and saw that he heard it. He used Mage’s Reach to grab the pen and sign Great Mage Cosmos (Midnight), and I signed Greenfur (Mage). My official name was considerably less impressive, but quite accurate. Calling myself a great mage would be kind of embarrassing if anyone from my world found out about it… and at least one person could.
After the autographs, we continued to walk along, looking for trouble. I was vaguely heading for a local park, but along the way I spotted an alley covered over by a massive cobweb. “Excuse me,” I called out towards it, “Anyone in there? Your web is kind of blocking entrance to this place.” Force Armor was already up, so I had at least basic defenses if there was trouble. “If you’re some sort of alien or whatever, just say anything.” No sound. “I’m going to get rid of this web, then.”
As I slowly reached out for it… nothing happened. I touched it, and began to pull it away. I was glad to be wearing gloves, but the mass was quite sticky so I had to rub it off on itself. After a few moments, I suddenly noticed black creeping along the white webs. When I leaned in for a better look, hundreds of tiny spiders jumped on me.
I am glad to say that my panic was the more productive of the various options. I could have shot a firebolt, possibly catching the web and myself and maybe other things nearby on fire… but I managed the spell that was more useful against things touching me.
Shocking Grasp still set the web on fire, but only part of it. I quickly tore it down and stomped on it in the alleyway below, along with the charred corpses of spiders. I wasn’t afraid of spiders in the normal sense, but that was too many. Same with that swarm of rats. Just in case, I felt around for abnormal mana quantities, but this seemed to be either normal for New Bay, or for Halloween.
It was nearly dark by the time I got to the park. I was one of those on the night shift, specifically because I could function better at such a time with my ability to see in the dark to a certain extent. Despite the traditional associations of darkness and trouble, it seemed that whatever caused Halloween’s effects kind of went all day with vaguely even distribution.
Though traffic in the area was reduced at this time, there were plenty of nocturnal people or those who simply wanted to stay out a bit later for the event. Some parks closed at night, but this one was specifically open for the sake of nocturnal citizens. Not that anyone would physically stop people from going to a ‘closed’ park.
The park had a nice lake as well as a river running through it. Well, it was really a canal rather than a river- there was nothing natural about its concrete sides. It was a nice change in scenery, though. Some greenery in an otherwise lacking city- though they did throw in planters and the like wherever they could.
I felt a twinge of mana nearby, just a hint of someone attempting to use it. Then a bush monster came running down the path towards me. “Watch out!” it yelled. “Tree monster!”
“You mean you?” I asked. Meowing was fun and all, but practically I had to speak sometimes.
“What? No! The one running behind me! And it’s totally not my fault!”
I had the feeling that the protestation was a bit early, considering I hadn’t said anything on the matter. It seemed like the sort of thing someone would say if they were at fault.
The approaching bush became more apparent as someone in a poorly thought out plant costume, with actual branches sticking around at awkward angles and covering the vision of the woman inside. She almost tripped on the path as she ran, and I had to avoid her charge.
She ran past, then turned. “Why aren’t you running?”
“This is our job,” Midnight said. Then he raised a paw, shooting a Firebolt at a tree lumbering out onto the road. The fire splashed against it, leaving behind a small scorch mark. “Hey, buddy… why didn’t that work?”
“Living trees are wet,” I said simply. “Didn’t we go over this?”
“Oh. So Shocking Grasp then?”
“Against something that size?” The tree was at least twenty feet tall, a foot thick- and crouching forward with branches waggling about at person height. “No way.” A burst of mana to form a Sonic Lance, and the middle of the tree exploded in a shower of splinters. I waited a moment to make sure the separated parts weren’t moving independently. “There we go.”
“Nice, you got it!” said the woman, “Oh hey, aren’t you Midnight?”
Midnight turned to the bush-woman. “Oh. Ceira! How are you? Did you cause that?”
“I swear I didn’t!” she held up her hands. “It’s never worked like that before.”
“So… maybe, then.”
“Uh, maybe,” Ceira hung her head.
That about wrapped things up, but then there was a scream from up ahead. I couldn’t quite make out the words, but it didn’t seem to be just casual trouble. I tore apart a mana crystal. Didn’t want to run out of mana when I needed it most.