Mists slowly spread throughout the scrying orb in front of me, taking their sweet time. At least it didn’t seem to have been a direct failure, though I could not say it wouldn’t still happen. I could feel my target wrestling against me as I tried to gain a clear picture, along with other things.

The image only came into focus briefly. The first thing I saw was the focus of my connection, the sprawling lines upon Handface’s… well, face. It wasn’t covered, and I could see part of his upper body had gained new scars, specifically the type that made it look like his shoulder and arm had melted together. His face was still very unhappy, as it seemed to perpetually be.

I couldn’t maintain the connection for long, however, so I barely got a look at his surroundings- some sort of forest still- before the Scrying began to unravel. Then again, there wasn’t really much else to expect from Scrying across planes.

“At least we know he hasn’t found a way back yet,” I commented to nobody in particular. Calculator wasn’t even around, as he was busy- though the room was still set up to record things from different angles. I would take a look at the recordings but I didn’t expect to find much.

There were still forests on Earth, of course, but I could tell well enough through Scrying that he was on a different plane. Presumably the same one he’d gone through the portal to, but I couldn’t be fully certain of that.

-----

When I arrived on the Power Brigade’s roof and saw a man with a gun, I had to dig through my memory for information. The fact that he was standing around without issue certainly implied he was allowed to be there, but things weren’t always what they appeared. I did manage to remember who it was from what I’d seen in databases, confirmed when he turned to look at me with a single eye. Not that he was missing any… or rather, there were no empty eye sockets or anything.

Mono was actually a member of Great Girl’s team, though we hadn’t been introduced. The timing had never worked out, and he wasn’t helpful to my training so we’d never scheduled anything. Well, actually I could think of ways he could help me with training… but at the moment I didn’t need a sniper shooting at me. Even when Handface was after me, I didn’t need a skilled sniper to tell me whether or not my defenses worked.

“Hi,” I waved. “I’m Mage. Are you working or just… relaxing?”

“Working,” Mono said, looking back away from the tower. I tried to see what he was looking at but… it was basically just New Bay. Guessing what he was looking for was impossible with vast city in that direction.

I moved over to an area away from him to begin my meditation and intake of mana. Mana in New Bay were steadily rising still, though aside from active portals nothing was anything I’d count as high density. In general it was around twenty percent above ‘normal’, and of course towers were still better. As for why… there were many complicated reasons, but it would be easy to say mana liked high places. One might think that being in the sky would be even better, but that didn’t really work the same.

I vaguely continued looking the same direction as Mono until I saw something, or rather someone, who stood above everything else. Technically she was still shorter than the surrounding buildings, but Great Girl was larger than a car and at least taller than semi trucks. She looked to be somewhere around her max size of fifteen feet, though it was hard to know for sure at such a distance. She didn’t look like such a tiny speck as everything else though.

I felt power gathering around Mono’s arms and gun, and then I heard the click of his trigger. I expected the booming sound of a bullet- silenced bullets weren’t exactly quiet either- but there was nothing. I did see a muzzle flash, followed by a few more clicks and more of the same.

If I squinted I could just see some sort of armored dude down the street, a modest eight to ten feet tall but very wide. He staggered backwards from invisible hits until he fell on his back, at which point Great Girl stomped him into the ground. I heard the muffled sound of something coming in on Mono’s headpiece, and he gently took his hands away from his gun.

“So are those some sort of… nonlethal bullets?” I asked.

“No,” Mono said. “I mostly get called out for bruisers. Most of them aren’t dumb enough to stand a block away from a main street, though.”

“From what I’d heard, isn’t that what would be expected?”

“There are a lot of dumb bruisers,” Mono admitted, his one eye focusing on me. “But dumb bruisers who are out on the streets for more than a job or two are rarer.”

“Titas got out pretty quick,” I said, recalling the bruiser who was part of Stargirl’s fan club. “At least the first time.” He was still behind bars, as it was much more difficult to explain an escape and a second attempt. If he was ever out, the Power Brigade would make sure I found out immediately- they did a good job of tracking those with grudges. Kept them from having to get new supers, among other things.

“So what are you doing here?” Mono asked.

“Concentrating on recovering mana,” I replied.

“Should I leave you alone, then?”

“I don’t have to concentrate that hard. The process is normally passive, but I can talk and do this pretty easily.” I paused for a few moments, “The database doesn’t say much about your power. Some sort of… sound manipulation?”

“Yes,” Mono confirmed. “It does quite well for helping conceal my position and maximizing the velocity of my projectiles. And I do have less lethal ammunitions, I just rarely need them with Great Girl and Grasp on the job. They generally handle anyone more easily subdued.”

“And you stay back at optimal range. Makes sense.” My lips brushed against my tusks as I shifted my expression. “You ever go up against Rocker?”

“No,” he said. “I was briefed on his existence in case he turned rogue, but we have not interacted. I would likely be able to negate his defenses.”

“Sounds bad for him,” I said.

“It would be.” Mono’s eye shifted around. “I heard you took a sniper bullet to the face.”

“It hit my tusk,” I said, gesturing to what damage remained on the left one. “That was with my good stuff protecting me too.”

“Interesting,” he said. “I would make sure you remember to use that ‘good stuff’, as it will at least serve you against those who do not also have powers. Though many powers don’t interface with ranged weapons well. And those that do are usually restricted.”

“I imagine assassins could make good use of them…”

“And they would not survive long once people found out. Supers would not tolerate their numbers being taken out of commission.”

“Yeah, I don’t imagine they would,” I nodded. I wondered if I should get something longer range to deal with snipers in the future. Defending against them was all well and good if they couldn’t just load another clip… but retaliating at such a range was likely to be inaccurate with most things. That wasn’t a problem if I did not care about the battlefield, of course. There were many spells that could land something in a general area that would explode in a large enough radius to cover small aiming difficulties. Even Fireball was good for that. It was just being selective that was the issue. Then again, with Ice Guy making walls there were few things that could continue to cause trouble from a large distance- though I might wish to conjure some walls of my own eventually.

-----

I looked at Midnight, and he looked back at me nervously. “Well?” I asked. “Are you going to do it?”

“Well…” he said hesitantly, “I’m not sure…”

“That it will work?” I looked at him pointedly. “Because if it doesn’t, it’s only ten mana. That’s even properly within your abilities at your level.” Not by much, but at level sixteen a spell that cost ten mana was under the threshold of half. Slightly further than that, since I’d gotten a natural upgrade through practice.

I could feel Midnight’s hesitation, but I wasn’t going to let him chicken out- and he knew that. “I guess I have to do it.”

I could tell he really wanted it to work while at the same time hoping it might fail. That was… reasonable. People were often contradictions of emotions and thoughts, after all.

“Do you have your message prepared?” I asked. “You don’t want to stutter out something random.”

“Right, uh…” he looked down at the phone in front of him. “I have a message.”

“Then what are you waiting for?”

Midnight’s tail flicked. “What if they’re asleep and I wake them up?”

“Then the response you get will be somewhat less coherent than otherwise- and you’ll have one more chance to get something afterwards.” It was Midnight who had pushed me to do some uncomfortable but important things- I could at least return the favor here.

I could feel him actually preparing to act, so I waited. Then, he gathered mana. “Mom. It’s Midnight. I just want to let you know I am alive and well. I ended up somewhere called ‘Earth’. I am alright but unable to return.” Silence prevailed. Midnight paced around, looking at me. “Did it fail? I screwed it up didn’t I? And I didn’t get to explain the message was magic! Or that she could respond!”

He was starting to panic, so I reached out my large hand and placed it on his head. “It’s alright Midnight. The message will take some time to arrive there, and to return. She will naturally understand that she can respond to some extent. Just wait. Relax.”

My words barely seemed to help- but I thought they at least slowed the buildup of discomfort and worry. My hand was soon dislodged as he paced around the apartment. We could do nothing but wait. I had spoken confidently, but I couldn’t be certain that the gap between planes wasn’t smaller than that between planets within the same plane. I felt the spell take form, but I had no way to guarantee it would actually work until it did. I did my best to shove down those thoughts, however. I didn’t want to make anything worse for my buddy.

Some time later, Midnight came scampering out of the bedroom he’d paced his way into. “I got a response!” he called out excitedly. “From my mom!” He leapt though the air and landed half on me and half on the couch, but not in the intentional way. He picked himself up so he was sitting next to me. “I mean… obviously the response was from her. Because that’s how the spell works. But it worked!” He lowered his head, “... I don’t think she got it though. She was quite confused.”

“You have one more chance right now,” I pointed out. “Just explain a little. Or… just assure her you’re alright? Not everyone cares how things work.” Apparently.

“Right!” Midnight said. He was immediately gathering mana and started another message. “I can’t really explain how this works but I’m really alright. Earth is good except there are Bunvorixians here too. There are a lot of people with crazy dangerous powers but I’m also friends with some of them. Don’t worry about me.”

“... You realize that message probably got cut off halfway?” I said.

Midnight buried his head in my side. “... Can you send another message explaining that I’m an idiot? I don’t know if you have a connection, but…”

“I can try,” I said. “What’s her name?”

“Jet,” he said. Obviously it was translated from Celmothian, but I could still use that. “Jet Deathstalker, obviously. I look a lot like her, but she’d more feminine.”

“I don’t know if I need to know what she looks like or what that means for a Celmothian,” I said. “But I’ll do my best.” I squeezed Midnight comfortingly and gathered some of my own mana. “This is Turlough, Midnight’s friend. Your son is maybe a little dumb but he’s my good buddy and I promise to keep him safe. Don’t worry.” I felt the spell release and go somewhere. “Well, that seems to actually be on track, so it probably worked. Expect a panicked response before I get mine, I guess. You can try again yourself later.”