Everyone was outside the Brisal house, considering which cars to take to the police headquarters in center city. The neighbors were down the street retrieving their stolen belongings from the pyromancer’s bag. John hoped nothing was too melted. Everett and the girl were silent, Case having molded the stone to form gags. John thought it was a little cruel, but the relative quiet was nice. There was still a cacophony coming from the city, lots of odd electric discharges and gunfire, but this little corner of the suburbs was quiet. The flames from the building that exploded had died out, so John figured that situation was under control.
Jen gestured at John’s truck, “This is the obvious choice! We’ll sit in the bed and provide cover, and the two patrol cars will go in front and behind!”
Mr. and Mrs. Brisal glanced over, then went back to talking with Mrs. Kenderson about what to pack out of the houses. John was facing the city center, trying to pick out the feelings of any other mages. He felt brief impressions of mages, but mostly he felt the healthy heat from normal people, obscuring any details.
John turned back to Jen and Case arguing. Case thought they should take his family’s Jeep and the two squad cars so they would have an option for uneven terrain. John rolled his eyes at that. They were on city roads, why would they bother with a Jeep?
John listened as the argument devolved to shouting then interjected, “Guys, stop, we’ll take the truck. The Jeep won’t fit anyone we pick up on the way. And Jen’s right, we can sit on the back and cover the other cars. With Case’s shield and Jen’s vines, we should be fine.”
Jen smirked and walked away, leaving John to finish negotiations with Case. John privately suspected that Case did not want to leave his beloved car behind. But John wouldn’t put his friend on that, it would be needlessly mean. Best to convince him logically.
Case was visibly upset. “What if there’s a mage that’s torn up the roads? Made craters or something?”
John kept his face level before responding, “The Jeep won’t handle craters, same as the truck. We’ll just have to go around. Or you could try and make a bridge over, that could be a neat trick.”
Case brightened at that and nodded. “You’re right! I can go try that with Jen, have her dig up the sidewalk before I put it back.
John balked at that, “I’m gonna shut you down there, ok? Let’s try not to cause any more civil damages.”
Case smiled. “I guess you’re right, yeah. Ok, I’ll help load.”
John thanked Case and pivoted towards his truck, where Jen was looking at the cars and squinting her eyes.
“What’re you thinking about, Jen?”
“I’m thinking about how far my vines can reach. I was able to smack the ice guy’s attacks down, but that was close to me. I don’t know if I could reach both cars.”
“In that video you sent, it looked like you could. I don’t think it’ll be a problem. Will you be ready to go in like 20 minutes? They’re almost done packing stuff out of the houses.”
Jen turned around. Her face had fallen, and she had tears welling in her eyes. “Probably. Are we going to be ok? I’m realizing how insane and dangerous this whole thing is.”
That threw John for a loop. He hadn’t expected Jen to worry like that, but when he thought about it, she had probably been riding the same adrenaline high he had been for the past hour and a half. Shit, this is insane. Jen’s right. But we have to try and help.
John sighed, “Jen, I don’t know. But I’m going to go out and try to help. The whole situation is scary, but at least we have powers. Think about the folks who don’t. How are they going to stay safe?”
John didn’t have much hope that argument would help, but it was all he had to offer. He wasn’t sure of anything he was doing, but he’d carry on. He needed to contact Cameron, make sure his other friends were safe, and get his parents somewhere he wouldn’t need to worry about them constantly.
Jen looked up and met John’s eyes, “You’re right. I don’t like it, but I guess we are obligated to help people,” her tone wavered, and her usual confidence was gone.
“Jen, it’s ok. We can re-evaluate once we meet up with your parents. I’m scared too, but we’re well prepared. We’ve got 3 mages, the officers all have guns, Linda has her bow, though I don’t want her fighting. We’ll be ok. I do not want to fight people, but people are determined to fight us,” John smiled at her, “Don’t worry. There can’t be that many mages running around.”
Jen nodded, “Let’s get going before more people wake up with powers and decide to go crazy.”
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The duo started walking towards the adults and the rest of the vehicles. Case was in the bed of John’s truck, messing around and making panes of mana large enough to shield the whole vehicle.
John chuckled, “I’d be stunned if someone managed to sleep through all this noise, but you’re right. By the way, how did you have such good control over your mana in that video? Mine has been a struggle to move.”
Jen raised her hand and squinted for a moment. Three small green vines sprouted from her palm and danced around before braiding themselves together and vanishing.
“I don’t know, it seems like the vines naturally follow my intentions. Maybe it has to do with the types of mana we have? Something like your blood mana doesn’t want to leave your body, but my plant mana tries to grow like crazy.”
“Huh, that makes sense. Good call. We’ll need to experiment once we’re safe and have some downtime.”
They arrived where all the adults were conversing. They had pulled the first aid supplies and the hunting rifles for John and Case’s dads to use. Usually, John thought his parents’ habits were strange, but he was glad they had all this equipment ready to go.
Officer Mike addressed them as they approached, “Are y’all ready to go? We’ve got all the gear we want from the houses and dispatch is asking us to get moving.”
John was staring off into the distance, so Jen replied first, “I am, but the severity of this whole mess hit while John and I were talking,” the adults fixed concerned gazes on Jen, and she poked John to deflect, “what about you, John? You ready to roll out?”
John shook his head and focused back on the group, “Sorry, yeah. I was sensing the warmth of folks in the neighborhood. I think I can tell how healthy folks are. Mr. Sudeiki felt cold and dim, like an old, banked fire, before I fixed him up earlier.”
Mrs. Brisal was interested and paid close attention, “Fascinating. How are the neighbors doing?”
“I don’t feel anyone in bad condition. What are they supposed to do right now?”
Mr. Kenderson answered John, “Currently, we’re sticking with shelter in place. Important folks, primarily mages and infrastructure specialists, are being asked to report to the capital complex that’s getting built in city center. The same goes for any active members of the military that are currently in the city.”
The mention of military personnel reminded John and he regarded his parents, “Have either of you heard from Cameron?”
His dad winced and his mom sniffed before his mom replied, “We haven’t. We’re hoping they’ll know more up at the capitol complex.”
John shook his head, “I hope he’s ok. Maybe we can go get him once the city calms down. In the meantime, let’s get moving.”
Everyone nodded, and the gear was loaded into the vehicles. The miniature convoy assembled in the street as planned, with the truck sandwiched in between the two patrol vehicles. The Kendersons, except for Case, loaded into Mr. Kenderson’s vehicle. The Brisals were in the cab of John’s truck. The mages were all in the bed of the truck. Case had his disk of rock in his hands, practicing his powers. John and Jen were scanning the horizon, feeling for mages. John was wearing one of the extra riot shotguns on his back. Jen opted to stick with her knife as she did not spend time shooting like John or Case. If John was being honest, Jen’s vines were probably much more dangerous at range than he or Case.
As the group loaded into the cars and the convoy departed, the trio of mages started talking about their magical senses and powers. Jen revealed that mages felt like flowers with strange coloring. Case reported that mages felt like different crystalline structures compared to normal people. John recounted his impressions of Case and Jen as opposed to normal folk. Case had the clever idea to compare notes and use the information to triangulate mages and confirm they were not misinterpreting their new senses.
John drew a drop of mana into his hands and played with it while he talked, “My mana feels like a really heavy gas while it’s inside my body, but once I get it out it’s easy to move around like this. It behaves like a liquid and steams off into nothing when I let go of it.”
John released the droplet to demonstrate. It splattered on the truck bed and disappeared.
Case was next, and he spoke with enthusiasm, “Mine feels really interesting. It moves through my body along angular pathways. I don’t have a hard time moving it like John does. Right now, I can only make it into shapes when it leaves my body.”
Jen manifested tiny vines that wrapped and danced around her arm. “My mana feels like a twisted ball of vines hanging out around my navel. It moves super easily, but I’ll be damned if I can make it into anything other than vines. Controlling the plants was really easy, but I bet there’s some sort of downside that I haven’t found yet.”
John and Case murmured their agreement before the walkie talkie crackled to life. “You three ready to roll out?” Officer Kenderson asked from the lead patrol car.
Case replied to his father, “All ready to go, Dad. Let’s get moving.”
As the convoy started rolling, the only new mages they could clearly sense were in the opposite direction from their destination. John would have sworn that one of them was somehow asleep, and the other was remaining still and not using any mana, so John figured they were fine. Neither of them had an obviously identifiable impression, so they radioed the officers in the cars to report the mages and continued.
As they left the sheltered recesses of the neighborhoods and ventured deeper into Raleigh, evidence of unrest grew rapidly. Automobile traffic was sparse, but there were many more pedestrians wandering around than there should have been at this time of day. Several groups ducked into alleys or side streets when they noticed the red and blue lights of the lead cop car approaching. One individual was bold enough to throw a brick at the truck, but one of Jen’s vines snapped out and destroyed it.
Upon seeing the mana, the rest of the crowd on that street fled. Case noticed several craters and structural damage on buildings that could have come from mages fighting. So far, they had navigated around the mages they felt easily. When there were two mages fighting, the cloud cover was lit up by the mana being thrown around, and the trio in the truck bed didn’t even need to radio the drivers to let them know.
Other times it would be more difficult, one of them detecting someone in a building and the convoy would have to wind around or even backtrack to go down a different street. They had decided to avoid any confrontation, when possible, aiming to minimize collateral damage.