Without a word, Jess motioned her wand to the bus door and flicked her wrist leftwards causing it to tear open violently. She sunk down a few feet while letting out a mad cackle. Her constant practice had really paid off. "Hehehehhehe! Come out with your arms in the air and cash in hand and I might let ya walk away unharmed."

The tourists looked nervous but before the mood had a chance to escalate the Wizard stood up. "Don't worry, friends. T'is our job to protect you and we shall do so valiantly. This will be over before you even have time to blink. Come on, Scare. The two of us are enough to deal with this wee lass."

Good. Scarescholar was always part of the action, primarily for his quick thinking and planning skills. I had also been reasonably sure that Witchling wouldn't register as enough of a threat for all 5 to storm out at once, but I had not been sure which of the other 4 would try their luck first. With a nod, I got up and followed him outside.

"Ahhhh, it seems our new enemy is a fellow magician." the Wizard said once he got a good look at her. With practiced ease, he removed his own wand from his belt. Unlike Jess', which was long, thin, and pointy, his was thick and black up until its emerald tip. He bowed deeply. "How do you do, little lady? I am the one and only, the magnificent, the mighty, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz! I'm sure you must've heard of me." His face was sporting his signature smirk. "What's your name, lass?"

Jess cackled again. The nearby civilians had already exited the perimeter, watching from a safe distance from the sidelines. Loud cheers erupted after the Wizard introduced himself. I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

I had always felt that our job as heroes would be significantly easier if the average person had the good sense to just flee the area when a villain and a hero clashed. Sure, they sometimes did. Back when Leotigris did his thing most civvies were long gone when Angelica arrived. They returned quickly once the threat had been dealt with, but they did run away at first. They did that because good ol' Leo had made it crystal clear from the beginning that his main motivation was to harm anyone he came across.

Yes, when a villain's sole purpose is to hurt them specifically they have the good sense to make a run for it. But that isn't commendable. That is the absolute bare minimum of common sense one should be able to expect from people. In every other situation, however, gawking seemed to take priority over personal safety.

Oh, they did run for cover. They vacated the immediate area. But they always kept within spectating distance. I was sure that at least a part of them realized that stray attacks and collateral damage were a decently common phenomenon, even when both the heroes and villains wanted to keep the harm to a minimum. That's just how it is. But their need for spectacle and their inherent entitlement prevented them from making the lives of the heroes they were allegedly such big fans of any easier.

"I may be little, but I'm sure as shit not a lady, old man." Jess retorted. "I haven't really thought about picking a name since unlike all ya heroes I'm not driven purely by vain egoism." She looked at the sky and tapped her chin with her wand. "Hmmmm, if ya insist tho, let me think. Seeing as I'm a fledgling witch I guess ya can call me Witchling. That work for ya?"

The Wizard chuckled. "What a sweet moniker. But what you call egoism I call self-respect, my dear. You got to know what you're worth and you have to flaunt it. My magic is lightyears ahead of yours. Allow me to demonstrate!"

Despite his pompous demeanor, he stood perfectly still and did nothing. If you didn't know about his powers you'd be forgiven for thinking he was just bluffing, but I knew the truth.

Seemingly without cause, Witchling began to swerve in the air, as if dodging invisible projectiles of some kind. The Wizard smiled smugly, already assured of his victory.

The big problem with his Power, from a business perspective, was its lack of flashiness. His illusions were targeted, meaning anyone not under his influence could not see them. As a tradeoff, there was almost no limit to what he could make them see.

This made him very effective if he got serious, but just not exciting to watch. Additionally, at least gleaning from captured villain testimonies, he never got too crazy with his mirages, mostly just using them to make it difficult for the enemy to discern which of his attacks came from an actual weapon or were just imaginary.

This was presumably both to not leave lasting trauma and because minor misdirection was enough to get the job done most of the time. From what I could discern from my research his battle strategy had remained pretty much unchanged over the years.

He had a number of non-lethal magician-themed weapons on him that he would make his illusory self use. By only making his enemy see the weapons he actually wielded the villain would never be able to tell which projectiles were just imaginary and which, if any, were real.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Nice try, gramps. But let me show you what real magic can do." Jessica said while still dodging nothing. I found it a bit ironic how both of them claimed to be masters of real magic when neither of them were actual mages.

She opened my nifty bag and threw out a heavy weight, which she confidently caught it in mid-air by pointing her wand at it. With a big swing of her arm, the weight made a wide arc and crashed into the ground a few feet away from the Wizard.

"Great disappearing act, Houdini. I'm real impressed." she spat with a frown.

The Wizard of course had not moved at all. From the looks of it, he made her believe he had changed position and now his illusory double had vanished on impact with the weight, leaving him invisible to her eyes. A common strategy of his.

He looked back at me, insufferably pleased with himself. But this was good. Getting the Yellowbricks to underestimate Jess was an important part of the plan. "Prepare the Scrambler, Scarescholar." He then turned towards the civilians both on the bus and watching from the sides. "Another easy win for the champions of Oz." Cheering, again. Eugh.

"Sure thing, boss." I said and looked down at my puppet's body.

The Scrambler was a very very exorbitantly expensive and rare magitech tool designed to counter people who require concentration for their powers. After throwing it, it locks onto the next person you point your finger at and takes up pursuit until it finally catches them. Once it latches on to someone, it will disrupt all of their active thought processes and prevent them from forming new ones more complex than basic movement.

This gadget proved highly ineffective against Brutes and people with easy-to-use yet highly destructive powers as they still had enough brain power to cause major collateral damage.

Against mages, thinkers, and people who need concentration or set up for their abilities, however, it was a godsend. Its biggest drawback was its ridiculously titanic price point and the fact that once an enemy had sufficient experience with it it was rather easy to deflect.

I grabbed the small, silver square from Scarescholar's belt and pushed the red button on top. Four transparent insectoid wings unfolded out of the box and began slowly flapping in my hand.

I glanced up at Jess who was pretending to still look for the Wizard. We had gone through most possible permutations of this run in prep, and this situation was one of the expected possible outcomes. When our eyes met I gave her a small, subtle nod and she grinned. With an exaggerated swing, she raised her wand upwards. "Well, if the geezer won't come out to play, maybe the strawbrain can entertain me instead."

At the precise moment she finished her sentence I threw the scrambler. Its wings rapidly increased their flapping speed and it began hovering in the air, waiting for me to designate a target.

In almost perfect synch I moved my arm as if I was about to gesture towards Jess and she pointed her wand at me. I stopped in place immediately despite her doing nothing. The Wizard looked at me, confused and with a hint of worry.

"I...I can't move..."

So far this had been a game of managing expectations. I could still move, of course. Witchling could make people float, but she was unable to paralyze them or restrict their movements.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was widely known, as was his powerset. So if a villain was able to paralyze or control their enemies this quickly by just pointing at them they surely would've incapacitated him before he had the chance to target them with his illusions.

Even and especially younger, newer villains liked to make sure to prove their capability by trying to render their most dangerous adversaries useless as soon as possible. This was what we had been banking on. The initial illusory projectiles the Wizard had made Jess see had more than likely been nothing more than bait. If she was capable of easily restraining him, that would've been the perfect opportunity. But by doing nothing she had made him let his guard down. Rightly so, but he didn't know that.

As far as the Yellowbricks were concerned, they had been tricked. And while that was indeed the case, the true nature of how they were tricked still escaped them. Now we had managed to make Jess look both more cunning and powerful than she really was while also giving me a valid excuse not to help my "teammates".

"Oh no, strawbrain, you're wrong about that. Ya can move. Let me show ya how." she giggled and flicked her wrist. Without a moment's hesitation, I pointed at the Wizard. Since we stood fairly close to each other it only took about half a second for the Scrambler to reach and attach itself to its new target.

"Sca....!" was all he could get out before his brain was forcibly rewired. He just stood there for a minute before falling over, eyes twitching and pupils moving rapidly in different directions. The quiet from the now-silent crowd of onlookers was deafening

A part of me wanted to feel bad about this, but then I remembered that this was an instrument that was frequently used by heroes on villains and my conscience ebbed away again. You reap what you sow.

".....damn you, witch! Release me from your wicked Hex!" I yelled and Jess let out another cackle, much louder this time. I smiled behind the straw mask. She was really in her element. But.....

"Boss!"

I turned my head around to face the bus, being careful to move the rest of my body as little as possible. Guardlion had broken through the bus' front window and made a mad dash towards us.

With a bright flash, Dame Dorothy appeared behind the Wizard, arms crossed and cape flowing. She bent down, touched her boss, and with a click of her heels and another bright flash, she was next to the bus again, her leader in tow.

A flood of thick, dense, silvery liquid ran down the bus steps and onto the ground at an alarming speed. The puddle quickly began moving towards the scene, reforming into Tin Triumph next to her feline teammate.

"I am u-under enemy control. A-Assitance is required." I stammered, still acting as if held in place.

One down. Three to go.