Unfortunately, this strategy did not last long. Around halfway through the trip, Case’s head whipped around and locked onto a building to the right of the convoy. He grabbed the radio and pressed a button three times, which was the signal for a full stop. The convoy braked to a halt as John and Jen swiveled to look the same way Case had been.
Anxiety was clear in Jen’s voice. “Case, what’s wrong? What did you feel?”
There are mages coming our way, fast. I think they’re looking for a fight.”
John nodded, his own senses struggling to detect the mages with so many normal people around them. “We need to get the people to evacuate those buildings, or it’ll be a huge disaster. I can’t heal that many people. Officers, can you use the loudspeakers and instruct everyone to run away?”
Officer Barry radioed back, “Sure can. Where are the other mages?”
John responded, “To the right of the vehicles. There are a lot of people in those buildings, you folks with guns might need to provide cover. There’re three inbound mages, so I guess that makes us evenly matched.”
John looked at the others and gulped before clambering out of the truck. Jen was waving her hands, emerald vines formed from her mana sprouting out of every available surface. Some of them coiled around her and lifted her from the truck. Case was deep in concentration, azure eyes glowing intensely as he created a stack of several new disc weapons next to him. John felt rather put upon, he didn’t have any way to prepare before the other mages arrived.
Their family members and the police officers moved the vehicles farther out of the way and started shouting orders to the people around them. Bystanders began leaving their buildings and away from the three mages in the middle of the street. About a minute after the convoy stopped, the new mages made their appearance.
A sudden detonation assaulted the ears of everyone on the block, then an entire wall of the building apartment disintegrated. A hail of planks, shattered brick, and piping sprayed across the street. Case threw up a quick pane of mana in front of the trio, and the debris pinged off and fell away. Several fleeing civilians were struck, and John was worried about anyone who had been near that blast, but he was too focused on the perpetrators.
A matching trio of mages stood inside the destroyed second-story apartment. Two of them shared tanned skin and had similar facial features, so John assumed they were siblings. One’s eyes smoked, wispy shadows rising from them while shadows twisted and squirmed strangely around him. His sister was simply standing there with no indication of her power set. Finally, the explosion’s likely culprit was front and center, a redhead with a roiling ball of orange mana cupped in one hand. To John, that sphere felt like a barely contained explosion, so he figured the redhead was the responsible party.
Neither side seemed dead set on fighting, but suspicious and hostile glares crossed the street. For a moment nobody spoke, then the redhead broke the silence.
“Where did those cops go? We saw the lights and came here to screw them up, but by the time we get through the building it’s just you three? What gives?”
Clearly, the new group was fixated on Jen, Case, and John, otherwise they would have spotted the cop cars down the block.
Jen took the lead, “Uh, why are you attacking cops?”
“Haven’t you figured it out yet? If you’ve got powers like us, you can just take whatever you want! Nobody can stop us, but the cops have tried, so now we take them down before they make more trouble for us,” the redhead dismissed his orb of mana and fished around in a pocket before he retrieved a slick black rectangle and waved it proudly, “Check it out! We went and got ourselves new phones! Isn’t it great?”
John’s lip curled. He was concerned that this seemed to be such a common mindset. Oliver had immediately used his power to enact revenge on his father for past abuses. That girl who had thought she was in a dream and immediately began shaking down her neighbors for valuables. It seemed that this group had started robbing businesses and clearly had no compunctions about property damage.
Case responded, “Dude, no. You can’t just steal because nobody’s stopped you yet. Also, think about how dangerous you were when you blew through this building! You could have killed someone standing on the other side. Y’all should stop before someone gets hurt.”
The girl shouted back, “Why should we stop? We could never get what we wanted or needed before. Now, I can just take what I want when I want it!”
John spoke up, “What about the people you’re hurting? The wall you just destroyed was part of someone’s home.”
The boy with the shadow powers responded, “We haven’t been destroying anyone’s personal property! The only stuff we’ve stolen has been from businesses that can afford it,” at this, he waved his own new phone in the air, “It’s not like Apple can’t afford to lose this! This is just us getting back at shitty jobs for not paying our parents enough!”
John was beginning to understand where they were coming from. If he was being honest, he agreed with the broad sentiment, but he had some key concerns.
John tried reasoning, “Ok guys, I can understand that. But instead of threatening everyone and causing so much damage, why not try negotiating?”
The girl responded again, “What do you think happened when we went to try and get help? The cops just tried to throw us in the back of a squad car,” a malicious grin split her lips, “That won’t work on us again. Now, where were those cops?”
With that, the mages opposing John and his friends started looking around. The street was mostly clear, and the press of bodies no longer obstructed the cop cars from view. The mage with the bright orange mana spotted the convoy immediately and pointed at them with a hand that was already glowing orange.
“There they are!”
John shouted as he started running forward, “Case, cover them!”
John looked back quickly and saw that only the officers were still anywhere near the cars. His family had retreated, along with Case’s mom and sister. For now, there was nobody totally powerless in the fight’s immediate vicinity.
Case acted fast, and a pane of his mana blinked into existence in front of the cars. The cyan shape appeared just in time to stop a roiling blast of mana that shot from the lead boy’s fingers. Case winced as cracks appeared in his defense.
The girl’s head turned away from the officers and settled on the trio. “So, you’re with them. I guess we go through you first,” she rolled her neck and cracked her knuckles.
The girl and her sibling moved forward, dropping from the second-floor apartment to the floor. The boy’s fall was cushioned by a shadow that flexed upwards and absorbed his momentum. The girl’s body simply glowed silver for a second before she crouched and absorbed the landing with her legs. John wondered how they’d figured out how to do that so quickly. I wouldn’t want to try and eat that fall.
As they landed, Jen was already acting. Her vines crept forward, reaching for the two siblings as they hit the pavement. Case’s shield mended while the trio shuffled to put themselves in between their opponents and the cop cars and gestured at the officers to not shoot. They had discussed this during the drive, the goal was to trap any opposing mages they ran into, not kill them, unless it became strictly necessary.
John kept an eye on the ginger explosion mage, but most of his attention was focused on the siblings that were slowly approaching. Jen’s vines had arrived, and the girl finally revealed her powers. She waved her hand and a cloud of silver mana poured out. As it moved, it coalesced into several silver arcs that sliced through many vines before dissipating. She kept pushing out the aerosolized blades and Jen clicked her tongue.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“What kind of mana is that? Metal? Sharpness?” Case muttered while he stared at the redhead, tiny shapes of blue mana swirling between his fingers. One of his crystal discs shot forward, just to be cut in half by the girl. Case snarled and abandoned that effort.
A surge of green light surrounded Jen, then the number of vines springing from nearby surfaces doubled. The trees lining the street shifted in place, leaves rustling and branches creaking. The girl with the silver mana increased her output but the siblings’ momentum slowed and eventually halted hallway across the street. Seeing the stalemate, the ginger explosion mage finally acted again. Bolts of orange mana hurtled down towards John and his party.
Case snorted and repeated his previous move. A hexagonal pane flared into existence and intercepted the bolts. This time, Case sectioned out damaged portions of his shield and replaced them quickly. He matched the pace of the bolts coming in.
“John, you have to bring the two on the ground down!” Jen yelled.
John gulped, “Got it, keep the girl from slicing me to bits.”
John didn’t like it, but they were here now. He started pulling on his mana again, pushing it to his muscles as he ran forward. He readied another whip attack, hopefully it would be as efficient as it had been earlier.
The male sibling was readying a move of his own. Black power swirled around his fist before he punched forward in a rough stance. Shit, it looks like he might know how to fight. John barely got an arm in front of his face before two balls of shadow impacted. Immediately, a freezing sensation spread across the afflicted areas, skin greying across his arm, torso, and part of his face. John’s breath hitched but the power in his body kept him moving as his flesh began to regenerate. He slashed his hand through the air and a whip spilled out once more. It lashed the boy’s upper arms and chest, sending him stumbling backwards.
“Sam, no!” The sister yelled as she tried to turn on John, but Jen had her number and the vines converged. Only a hurried and stumbling leap backwards kept the girl from becoming entangled.
John arrived in reach of Sam and blasted out an empowered punch. His mana-filled muscles twitched supernaturally fast, driving his fist into Sam’s sternum. The shorter opponent was knocked onto his back and John pounced on top. What followed was an ugly exchange of shadow mana, elbows, knees, and tumbling until finally John was able to place Sam into a headlock. John sent his senses looking for his opponent’s bloodstream and found it quickly. Like he’d done with Officer Mike, John tried to knock him out by drastically increasing the blood pressure in the brain.
A problem cropped up immediately, though it differed from when John had connected to Oliver. Instead of a painful electric retaliation, there was an increased pressure John had to push through. He grit his teeth and settled in for a struggle. John’s awareness of the world around him grew muffled, as though he were underwater. He continuously pounded his will and mana against Sam’s. Eventually, the fog of shadow retreated like a kicked dog. Sam’s circulatory system became clearly visible, and John repeated the trick he used on Officer Mike. An intense spike in cranial blood pressure, and Sam was out.
John began disentangling himself from Sam’s system. The fog around his normal senses cleared and he surveyed the situation quickly. Jen had managed to wrap the girl up and was in the process of dragging her towards a tree. Case was splitting his attention between the shield and a trashcan that floated towards John.
“John, I need you to move!” Case’s voice broke as he yelled and almost disrupted his concentration.
Seeing what Case had planned, John released Sam’s limp body and scrambled out from under him. The trashcan dove and metal deformed, rapidly encasing Sam in a layer of metal. Garbage compressed by the maneuver squished out the sides and John’s disgust warred with awe at the trick.
"All right Case, nice job!” John whooped as he scrambled to his feet.
The explosion mage had yet to descend from the building above and was instead hurling mana bolts. Case failed to keep up with the damage to his increasingly haggard shield. John saw where this was going and started running across the street. He swept the hole in the apartment building with two more whips, barely missing the redhead. Panting, John realized his mana was starting to bottom out. Shit, beating through those internal defenses must take more energy than I thought.
As he arrived at the base of the apartment, John shrugged the shotgun out of the sling across his shoulder. The ginger was focused on him, and Case let the old shield collapse.
“You’re approaching me? Ready to give yourself up?” the explosion mage scoffed, both hands glowing brightly.
John had hoped the barrage would exhaust his opponent’s reserves, but seeing the renewed assault, he swore and shouldered his gun, aiming at the ginger. The gun was loaded with a riot beanbag - intended to stun and disrupt but not kill. Hopefully, the other mage didn’t know that. His mana was certainly lethal.
John and the other mage stared at each other over the shotgun’s barrel. The light kept building around the ginger’s hands, and John gulped. He slowly pushed the dregs of his mana through his body to brace for impact. Then, he pulled the trigger.
The kid’s response was fast. His accumulated mana released in an atmosphere-pummeling hemisphere. Thankfully, Case was prepared, and a shield sprang into being in front of John. It shattered almost immediately but dispersed most of the force. A few eddies of mana seared sections of John’s skin, but they started regenerating immediately. The wash of mana split open the beanbag and scattered the lead shot within.
One piece of shot glanced the explosion mage and lacerated his cheek. H yelped and jumped back, even as mana swirled in the wound. For the first time, his expression wavered. John smirked and pumped his weapon again and made eye contact.
“That’s right. More where that’s from. You want to try that again?” John demanded.
The ginger’s expression wavered before he turned and fled back into the apartment building. John stepped forward, then shook his head. How would I chase him? I can’t scale that wall … yet. I’ll just hope he doesn’t cause much trouble until then.
John turned around to survey what was going on with the two mages they’d captured. Jen was busy trying to weave the other girl into a tree, but she had figured out how to discharge mana from random spots of her skin and was managing to cut through the wood as Jen grew it. Chase firmly had his captive encased in steel and the shadowy mana had stopped. The officers were approaching, guns out.
Officer Kenderson called out, “Case, how can we help?”
“Come put some handcuffs on this guy and give him his rights, I guess. I need to help Jen.”
John was already striding back across the street; he and Case drew level to Jen at the same time. She was sweating and running dry on mana. The girl with the sharp silver mana was no different, but John didn’t want to take any bets.
He leveled the shotgun for the second time that morning, lining it up with the struggling girl’s face. “Stop. We have your brother, he surrendered with no fuss.”
The girl’s mana petered out and she drooped. Jen’s vines squeezed her tighter against the tree, eliciting a grunt.
Case motioned for Jen to relax, “Don’t hurt her anymore, we need to handle this with due process if we’re going to work with the government.”
The girl made eye contact with Case, “The government? What’s going to happen to Sam and I?”
By this time, Officer Kenderson had made his way to the group. The other officers and John’s parents were treating bystander’s minor wounds, inflicted by debris and stray mana.
Officer Kenderson addressed the girl, “What happens to you depends on what you and your brother did. What are your names, by the way?”
"I’ll tell you when this asshole gets the gun out of my face,” she jerked her head at John.
“You’re not going to try and break free again?” Jen asked as her vines twisted around the girl, ready to constrict her again.
“At this point, what good would it do us? You’d just shoot me, and then Sam will be on his own. Nah, better to go along with y’all,” her voice was matter of fact.
John frowned and lowered the shotgun; Officer Kenderson’s grip relaxed on his handgun.
The girl gave John a small smile. “Thanks. My name’s Lucy. Sam’s my younger brother. What’s going to happen to us?”
This was Officer Kenderson’s wheelhouse, so he took over, “Well Lucy, that depends. Did you guys hurt anyone or were you just looting?”
She shook her head. “We didn’t, I swear. We just popped a cop car’s tires so we could get away. I don’t know what the other guy did before he found us, though.”
Officer Kenderson continued, “What was that ginger kid’s name?”
Lucy’s brows furrowed, “Um, I don’t know if he ever told us. We ran into each other before we hit the phone store, he said he’d been watching us for a little while. After the phone store, we ran straight here when we noticed the lights. He wanted to hit another set of cops. Sam and I were trying to calm him down, but it was like he’d gone crazy or something.”
“Ok Lucy, you and Sam are going to come with us to the police headquarters, ok? In the grand scheme of what’s going on you haven’t really done much, but we have to take you in.” Officer Kenderson nodded at the trio before walking back to the other officers.
Case took the initiative and dragged Sam over. Case’s eyes glowed blue and the cage unfolded to reveal a filthy and bedraggled Sam.
Case winced, “Sorry little man, did what I had to.”
Sam scowled at Case, “So we’re coming with y’all?”
Jen nodded, “Yeah, we’re heading to the legislative buildings. That’s where the cops and military are setting up headquarters to start handling this mess. Are you guys going to be civil on the car ride there?”
Lucy glared at her brother before nodding, “We’ll behave, don’t worry. I’m starting to come around on the idea that we shouldn’t run around stealing just because we have powers now.”
Sam got the memo, “Yeah, we won’t cause any trouble.”
John smiled, “Ok, good. You’ll ride in the back of the pickup with us, ok?”
With Sam and Lucy in handcuffs, the crew mounted up and departed for the capitol. The rest of the trip was blessedly uneventful, and they arrived at the capitol complex with no trouble. They saw signs of plenty of trouble on their way, burning buildings and bizarre damage from magic, but nobody came after them. Many of the other mages they felt maintained a respectful distance. John guessed it was because the feeling of five auras moving in apparent harmony was a potent warning sign.