Maggie the Magneto: Ending up even more annoyed than usual. Maggie stood there, her regulation school shoes scuffed and covered in dust, partially obscured by the shin height dry dead grass. Around her, the ground was mostly flat, with potholes. Some of those holes were still smoking from the violence that had made them. The sort of violence she was about to unleash, yet again. She spoke into the microphone that was attached to her collar. "Ready? I think I'll make this my last for today." "OK. Test range is clear, you may proceed." The voice in her earphones was crisp and clear, he was enunciating the words carefully. In potentially dangerous situations, nobody wanted any accidents because of a misheard word. The grass further away from Maggie was green, in fact the grass a hundred metres away looked positively verdant and healthy. Although there were still the occasional pothole or ragged circle of dead grass. As to be expected in the Number 1 Test Range facility, a one-kilometre radius of dome covered ground a safe distance out from the main city. The dome sat in the middle of a two kilometre radius crater, its steel mesh and high strength transparent polymer cover raising above the brownish crater floor in a smooth semicircular arc. For someone standing on the dome's top and looking to the west, the top of the main dome of Verdant City would be clearly visible, seven kilometres away and sitting in its own crater. And looking to the east one could just see the Dao Vallis outflow channel area. Maggie was not thinking of anything about that. "Proceeding. This time I'm going for as big an explosion as possible." "OK. Take your time and be careful, please." "Right." The range controller was talking from his underground bunker, twenty metres beneath the surface. He was looking out through an array of surveillance cameras. He was fully protected from any possible disturbance or mishap. Not so Maggie. So she concentrated, taking her time and being as careful as possible. Step 1: Raise a shield around herself. The almost non-existent magnetic field from the planet, and the weak field from the sun, was abruptly augmented by a powerful double layered magnetic field that wrapped itself around her. Shaped like an elongated egg, flattened at the bottom where it touched the ground. Totally surrounding her. Holding the energy equivalence of a couple sticks of TNT. The physics of how she could create such a thing she did not know. No one knew. No one knew where the energy came from, either. She just did it, without any regards as to how impossible it all was. The magnetic bottle was barely visible, a slight rippling effect as she looked through it. Step 2: Construct another magnetic bottle, a bigger one, ten metres away from herself. She fed it energy, a lot more that what was in her shield. Step 3: Now squeeze it down to one thousandth of its original volume. It became clearly visible, a glowing red-hot then white-hot fire ball, suspended one metre above the ground. Step 4: Release her control on it, while adjusting her shielding bottle to compensate. From the safe viewpoint of the underground operator, Maggie disappeared in a flash of flame and a deafening blast. The shockwave from the blast swept out, burning the grass within a twenty-metre radius, throwing up clods of earth which rained down throughout the entire inside area of the dome. The dome itself rattled and shook, the guy wires cross bracing the domes shape alternatively straining in tension and then slackening as they struggled to maintain the its shape. The air was filled with dust, reducing visibility to an opaque brownish haze. From Maggie's viewpoint, her shield gave a sharp bang and the lighting went dim. She waited. Slowly, as the bigger particles of dust and dirt fell down, the fog cleared. A new pothole, two metres wide and half a metre deep, was in front of her. With black smoke drifting up from it, and the occasional reddish glowing ember visible in it. "Not bad, even if I do say so myself." "Agreed. If you keep increasing the yield at this rate, you will end up endangering the dome's integrity. You'll have to put on a space suit and practice out on the dust plain." "Yeah. A bit of a pain, but still." Feeling pleased with herself, she turned and, with careful synchronisation of the location of her shield to make it follow her, she walked over to the underground access hatch. From experience, she knew not to turn off her shield quite yet. Not if she wanted to avoid coughing madly for the next half hour because of the dust. She stepped through the blast door, into the underground control room. She absent-mindedly brushed her school skirt before realising it had some dust on it. "Oops, I got some dust on the floor; I never seem to be able to totally control the shield to prevent dust from getting in." "Never mind." said a woman sitting at one of the terminals. "Can I book a session after school again tomorrow?" "Done." said the woman. She also printed off a small card. "Here, based on your latest efforts, I've recalculated your latest ranking. You're now up to level 785." "Ta. Hmm, Shane the Shield is still above me, isn't he?" "Yes, he has recently upgraded to level 890. He's actually moving up a bit faster than you are." "Well, he doesn't go to school, so I suppose he can practise a lot more than I can." said Maggie. "Course, I don't really care about his scores, anyway." she added. To avoid seeing what the control personnel thought about that last statement, she had already picked up her school bag and was heading for the exit door. After a rapid underground and overground maglev trip, she was back in Verdant City. A dome city, seven kilometres wide, with the top of the dome three kilometres up. The base of the dome rested on the flat floor of a crater, neatly filling it from edge to edge. Seen from the vantage point of the apex of the dome, the city was a multicoloured splash of paint; there were blue splashes from the artificial lakes and canals, many shades of green from the swaths of trees and gardens and ovals, and a rainbow of coloured patches, which was what the buildings appeared as from that height. A city that Maggie was now calling home, a city that was home to about a quarter of a million people. Although only a small number lived on the surface, the city extended downwards with many underground areas. Most noticeably, all of the vehicular traffic routes were underground, only delivery vehicles appeared on the pedestrian streets on the surface. Which is why, when looking down from the top, there were no roads visible. Not quite the biggest city on Mars, but, like all cities on Mars, this one had a speciality. Verdant City had only a fraction of the population of Mars, but it had half of the primary schools, three quarters of the high schools, and all of the universities. If you wanted an education, you eventually ended up in Verdant. And if you wanted to develop your esp powers in any way, then the only place to do it was Verdant. Which is why Maggie had relocated from her father's house, in a small isolated dome 6000km away, to here. She had been here for a year. As far as the training of her esp powers were concerned, she was satisfied. Unfortunately, in his weekly talk with Maggie, her father kept on asking if she had made any nice friends yet. Or even met a nice boy. She hated those questions, because she was extremely unsatisfied with her friendship status. Of course, she also had no boyfriend, but who wanted one of those? At least not yet. Brooding about this, and the fact that she never seemed to be able to catch up with Shane, she stepped out of the maglev cabin and started walking. Her apartment was ten stories underground, like most other accommodation in Verdant. The fastest way to it would have been to take the maglev to the closest station. But, according to the health monitor on her wrist, she had not done enough walking today. What a pain, but slacking off on one's exercise is never an option on Mars. There were plenty of routes she could take, and did take. This evening, she had decided to walk around on the surface. So she mentally plotted a circuitous route, circling through the shopping district and an industrial district, and when her health monitor was satisfied, she would go to the nearest maglev station and ride home. If I go through the public areas, I will have to look at all of those school kids with their groups of friends... Let's just go through the back streets. It's not as if there is anything of any danger to me. Walking at a brisk pace, she watched the shadows on the path ahead and the building's walls as they lengthened. She listened to the noises of factories, rumbles from the underground heavy-duty transport tunnels, and the occasional mummer of voices as she passed side passages. With her magnetic senses, she was aware of the steel and metals in the surrounding vehicles, the underground pipes that crisscrossed the ground beneath her, and the ripples in the magnetic lines due to any high power electricity transformers she happened to be passing. But mostly, she was obsessively going over the latest debacle in her friendship life. Damn that girl! She thinks, they all think, that I just get my ability from out of thin air! I can't just drop my practice and go to a coffee shop just like that! And then, when I tried to explain, clearly explain, my situation, the whole thing just blew up. Geez, it's not as if anyone was hurt or in danger! Just a few bits of metal flying around. Totally under my control! I need someone to be a bit more accommodating to my needs, you know. And, like, perhaps, less intimidated by my power - I mean, I don't go around hurting anyone - Ah, there is definitely no need for anyone to be frightened of me! Oh, this is all too hard. Using impossible physics to demonstrate impossible magnetic super powers is waaaaaay easier. "Why, if it isn't a little school girl, all by herself!" Again? Maggie took notice of her surroundings. She was deep in the industrial area, half way down a long alleyway between two buildings. Because the sun was close to the horizon, the alley way was dark, in stark contrast to a still lit up sky. And in front of her were two youths, male of course, wearing carefully selected clothes to give off vibes of macho toughness. And two more had just stepped past her and were behind her. Right. Again. This is such a nuisance. Doesn't the word get around the local gangs about me? She looked up, and sure enough, there was a security camera not ten metres away, pointing in her direction. And the authorities never, ever, seem to be on time. What's the point of all of those cameras and computerized monitoring systems, then? Sigh. Still, I can try to warn them. "I'm not just any little school girl, you know. I'm Maggie the Magneto." "Oh, Maggie the Magneto, is that so?" The leader loomed over her, clearly unaware of who she was. He pointed a finger at her face. "You high ability users, laughing at us level tens, at us with no usable abilities. While you strut around, with your easily gained powers, when we have to struggle." "I never laugh at -" "You never laugh? Good! Good! How about coming with us, then?" Looking up at the leader's face, Maggie had no problem in deducing that he and she would have extreme relationship problems. In fact, the extreme problems for her could start very soon. Oh well, looks like I will have to give them the extreme problems instead. "So, high ability user, what are you going to do?" This. All four of them were close. Ideal. What she was about to do did not work more than two metres away. She had already been concentrating. She had already mapped out, with her magnetic sense, the minute magnetic patterns of the five brains closest to her. Her own, plus their four. Ignoring her own, she carefully orientated onto the visual cortex area of each of the others. When she was confident she had it correctly, she released a brief magnetic pulse. Strong enough to scramble all of the electrical activity in that part of the brain, but not strong enough to permanently damage anything. At the same time, she also raised a magnetic field to surround her, and then stretched it out to anchor onto the steel reinforcing rods of the concrete wall next to her. She shot up into the air and stuck to the side of the building, four metres above them. They, all four of them, suddenly went blind. There was much yelling, shouting, and confusion. Maggie calmly scooted along, skittering her magnetic lines of support along the reinforcing mesh, a safe four metres above the ground. She came down to Mars at the end of the alleyway, just in time to meet a couple of police and a neighbour watch officer coming up. "Hi there" she said, "they're just down the alley. They are currently blind, but it should wear off in a few minutes." "Fine, fine." said the watch officer, a woman. The two men kept going, the lady stopped for a moment. "You're Maggie, right?" "Yeah. Don't worry; I'll put in my report tomorrow." "Ok." and the lady was off to help the other two take in the luckless four. I hope they spend the night in a cellblock. And I really hope they tell their friends all about me. Humph! Saying I have easily gained powers! It took me and a couple of researchers at the Esp Developmental Centre six months of hard work to develop that particular usage. She briefly recalled the long and detailed investigation phase, working out if she could detect the brain's magnetic patterns, if she could detect the precise area she needed, if she could zap it with just the right field strength, if she could do all that without killing anyone in the progress. The researchers had produced a three hundred-page manual, distilling all the information she required. She had had to then study the bloody thing, and sit an actual exam, for god's sake! Then there was constant practice on dummy test machines. And, after all that, when they were satisfied, she was allowed to do her first live run. On herself. Esp powers were high stakes. They could kill. The Esp Developmental Centre did not believe in molly coddling its students. As they pointed out, if the whole idea was to blind someone without any lasting damage, and to do so reliably and repeatedly, then who was the best subject than herself? Putting it like that, she had no disagreements. So don't tell me it's easy, you morons! She idly thought about the fact that the authorities were prepared to expend so much effort and resources in helping her develop her powers, but spend so little in running an adequate citywide security system. They were always late to these little 'conflicts', and they never seemed to be bothered to clean out the gangs once and for all. Whatever. She continued home. Clocking up the required number of daily steps. And with an extremely annoyed look on her face. Teylon: Is saved by a teenage girl As Sarawatch had explained "The authorities on high do impose a training schedule on us intrepid neighbourhood watchers, but it's pretty lackadaisical. The training comes in lots of small packets, most of which are easy, and you can do them at your leisure. But, I'm much more demanding." She slapped down a stack of pamphlets. "Each of these is one small course, which is completed by a simple on-line test. I expect you to do all of these by the end of this shift. OK?" Teylon, recognising a certain amount of authority in her voice, decided it was better that he agreed. At the end of the shift she looked through his results via her computer terminal. "Good, you passed. Not that it's saying much. Tomorrow I take you out on a trial patrol." The next day, Sarawatch gave Teylon a gentle introduction to the subject of going on patrols. "The number one thing you must keep in mind is the fact that you are not a police officer. So no heroics! No getting into things beyond your depth! If you feel the situation calls for a police presence, then call them up, either by using your mobile, or pressing the emergency button." This button was literally a button, which was issued by the neighbour watch office. He clipped his to his lapel. "Also remember, you don't have the power to arrest anyone. Well, actually you do, but it’s only a citizen's arrest. You're expected to get in contact with the police as soon as possible, and if you get it wrong you can be sued for wrongful arrest, just like any other citizen." "Right. As a neighbourhood watch person, I have zero powers, and if I do anything wrong, it's all my fault." "You're getting the idea." "So, exactly what is it that we do?" "Glad you asked! Most of the neighbourhood watch branches don't do much of anything at all. They are totally passive. But our glorious watch office is different! We go out of our way to help people! For example, we guide little old ladies across the street, we find lost dogs and cats for little children, we look for lost purses and wallets for our honest citizens, we tell lost immies how to get home. So, be proud, we provide a valuable service to our community!" "Right. I'm getting the message. That you're bitter and twisted about what happened." "Shut up." said Sarawatch, a harsh edge to her voice. She relented, and added, "Sorry, but you must admit I have my reasons." "Yeah, yeah, I understand." For the next four days, Sarawatch made Teylon tag along as she took him on various patrols. He was introduced to dozens of shop operators, walked at least a hundred different streets, and learnt how to use his phone to keep in contact with the office. On Monday of the second week, Sarawatch had waved him into her office. "Right, you know enough, now go out and do your own patrol. I'm staying in the office and catching up with my paperwork." Teylon saw that the only thing she had on her computer screen was an open page of some web novel. But he refrained from making any comment. Sarawatch saw his glance. "It's all make work anyway. They don't care, as long as I stay quiet. Now get lost." He did get lost. Literally. Let's see, this is definitely the industrial area, All of these factories are a big hint. But I don't quite know how I ended in this dark and interminably long alley, I thought I was following a main road. Well, I suppose I could always call up a map on my wrist screen. But he was stubborn about such things. He felt that if he relied on modern technology for everything then his skills would start to atrophy. Let's explore to the end of this lane, and then if I still can't recognise my location, I'll break out the Mars GPS. "Hello, old man." Out of the shadows had stepped what could only be one of the local thugs. Crap. He brushed his hand along his lapel, felt the emergency button clicking. Now what do I do? "Ooh, look, he's a member of the local neighbourhood watch!" said another. He came to the unfortunate conclusion that he was surrounded at close quarters by four young men. They did not appear to want any help at finding their lost puppy dogs, or even directions on how to go home, either. "And, he's much too old to have any weird esp powers. Like say blinding us." said a third, snickering as he spoke. At this point, somebody wrapped their arms around his torso, just under his arms, and yanked him upwards. Just in time, too, since the four thugs suddenly went out of control, thrashing around and bashing into each other and the nearby walls. "Golly, old man, you are certainly heavy!" He looked down, only to see his feet dangling a metre and a half above the heads of the completely disorientated thugs. They did not look much of a menace now. "Where the hell is that voice coming from? And who's calling me an old man?" "I'm right behind you. How do you think you are being held here, up in the air? And you are old." He managed to twist his neck around, to see the upside down face of a teenage girl. He could not see much detail, mainly because it was dark in the laneway and her skin colour was almost black. He looked upwards, to see her feet dangling, pointing straight up towards the sky. Strangely enough, her skirt was also hanging towards the sky. "Erk, ah, good question, how are you holding me up?" By now, they were moving horizontally down the lane, leaving the victims behind. "I'm Maggie the Magneto, of course. I'm using my magnetic ability to hold onto the embedded steel in the concrete walls." "Ah, if you can perhaps set me down and let me gather my composure, I will be able to thank you properly." So she set him down, just in time for two police officers to run up to them. "Hi, there! They are down the lane, just the usual." "Thanks, Maggie." said one. They continued. Maggie released Teylon and backed away, hair hanging vertically down from her head. She casually flipped over, and landed on her feet. Teylon’s Soul Reading of: Maggie What a nuisance. Now those thugs are attacking other people. Teylon: I get it. She's important to my task, also. "Thanks, Maggie the - Magnet - was it?" "Maggie the Magneto. Honestly, you're a neighbourhood watch person, and you don't know about the most powerful espers in the city?" Her face radiated disdain and contempt. "Oh, I get it, you're an immie, fresh from Earth." Teylon was no longer wearing his training helmet, but he had been moving around enough, showing off his clumsy coordination in the low gravity, for Maggie to draw the correct inferences. "Yeah, that's right. Just my luck to run into a rare group of thugs on my first patrol by myself." Maggie snorted in derision. "Rare, like hell. They're all over the place. Neither the police nor the authorities on high puts in any serious effort to curtail them." "Huh? But this is a closed environment, security cameras everywhere. Why don't they?" "Beats me. I've given up on worrying about it. Fortunately I can take it, but obviously you should stick to the well lit and less disreputable parts of the town." I, a middle-aged man, am being lectured on safety habits by a teenage girl. A cross looking teenage girl. What bloody cheek - err, maybe she has a point. Teylon sighed. "OK, OK, I'll try to look after myself better. Actually I didn't deliberately go wandering down back alleys, I just got lost. Could you perhaps lead me out of this maze of jungle tracks?" Teylon’s Soul Reading of: Maggie No problems, old man! Teylon: "I suppose so", she said as she flicked her hair to one side in seeming irritation, "Just try not to get lost next time, OK?" This soul reading is almost cheating! I can safely ignore her spoken words and go by her internal words. "Thank you very much. You know, I've met a couple of other girls your own age recently, how about I introduce you to them at the Chocolate Frenzy. There might be a possibility that you could all become friends. And, for first introductions, I always pay." Teylon’s Soul Reading of: Maggie Really, I might meet some potential friends?... Sigh, it'll probably go bad just like all of my previous attempts. But, still, I can try. And having someone buy me ice cream sounds nice. Not that I need to save money, mind you, but still. It's nice to have my special skills appreciated. Teylon: Still looking annoyed, she said "You don't have to treat me, you know, I'm only doing my civic duty." "No, no, I insist." She allowed herself to be persuaded, without too much difficulty. Teylon: At the Frenzy with three teenage girls Consequently, two days later he met with three teenage girls at the Frenzy. Middle-aged man, this time with three innocent teenage girls - I hope Grandma Frenzy doesn't call the police on me. But Grandma accepted his presence with perfect equanimity, and happily let Teylon pay for them all. Both Sarsaparilla and Adalace had done their research. Sarsaparilla got in first "I'm so pleased to meet you, Maggie. One of the top ten espers on Mars, and second or third in Verdant!" "Ah, thank you." "And you must have worked so hard to get to that point. Do you practice every day?" continued Sarsaparilla. "Why, yes. At least an hour per day, and sometimes, like now when I'm refining a new application for my ability, I spend extra time studying. You know, not many people seem to appreciate how much work is required to get to my level." "Oh, but I do. Especially since I have tried so hard to develop my own power. But without the slightest success. I'm still a pathetically lousy level seven." "Level seven? That's... almost amazing in its own right." Sarsaparilla groaned, as if the ice cream she had been scoffing had suddenly gone bad. "Yeah, ain't it. At least I'm better than him, he's a perfect level zero!" She jerked her thumb in Teylon’s direction, who dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Well, I've worked hard at my power too," said Adalace, "It can definitely upset the people around one when they can't get your time whenever they want." Maggie looked as if she was appreciating the compliments. She nodded her head. "Yes, yes, I know." "By the way, what new application are you developing now?" asked Adalace. "Teylon has seen my technique for blinding opponents. It can be very useful in confrontational situations, although it only works up to a range of two or three metres. So, I thought, why not develop a similar technique for silencing someone. Pulse the tiny part of the brain that is directly involved in the production of their speech. Considering the arguments that are always occurring, I thought this could be a good idea." Sarsaparilla and Adalace looked at each other. Yeah, girls. I see potential problems here, also. "So, you get into yelling arguments on a regular basis?" said Teylon. "Well, it's not my fault! They never understand my point of view!" Phew, touched a nerve there. Let's change the subject, shall we? "Fine, fine. Developing any technique like that must take a considerable amount of practice and skill, and must increase your over all powers." "Ah, yes." "Does it cost a lot?" said Sarsaparilla, "Since the practice lessons I have been to, they always charge for." "They do? Mine are all free. For the brain pulsing techniques I had the assistance of a developmental laboratory with a chief researcher and two assistants." "Oh, geez, why can't I at least get my lessons for free?" said Sarsaparilla. Adalace chimed in with something that just occurred to her. "How do you test this? Grab some experimental volunteers off the streets?" "Oh, no. In this case, where the idea is to be non-damaging, it is agreed that the first test experimental subject is always myself." "Really? The authorities allow that?" said Teylon. "Sure. Why shouldn't they?" Wow, they are certainly gung-ho in their approach to developing extreme esper powers. "And, what's more, the researcher and the two assistants were my next experimental subjects." continued Maggie. "Now, that's a gutsy move on their part. Of course, the same applies to you for being your own first subject." said Teylon. "Err, I don't see anything unusual about that..." said Maggie. "Yeah," said Adalace, "It's generally sink or swim around here." Sarsaparilla nodded her head. I'm starting to think they take the principle of laissez-faire a bit too far. Furthermore, they actually allowed her to develop this latest use of her ability without the slightest quibble? After some more chitchat, Teylon looked at his watch. That is, his health monitor, which was also very handy for displaying the time. "Well, it's time for me to go..." He was hoping that the girls would stay on for a while after he left, but they all got up also. Well, it's early days. Give it a few more times and they will be confident about asking each other for outings without me. Maggie smiled at the others without a trace of her habitual disgruntled expression. The others returned the smile, everybody said their goodbyes, and they left.