“Haaaaah…” Great Girl sighed. “I didn’t actually expect to catch Gloom or anything, but I’m annoyed at how close it was. We actually injured him.”

“Or her,” I said. “I saw a feminine face. Though perhaps that could have been an illusion beneath the mask?” I shook my head. “Either way, it will be significantly easier to scry Gloom now.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Great Girl asked. “Normally people just keep you away, but last time… you had to be taken to the medic.”

“I am also capable of using Mental Freedom now, and my proficiency with Scrying has improved. With a better connection and a powerful focus, I should have some success.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Great Girl said, rapidly growing larger. “Let’s go right now! Gloom is injured!”

“I am out of mana,” I mentioned, “Plus, you are not in the best state yourself, despite your lack of physical injuries.”

“I’m fine.”

“You were being attacked by Gloom for more than a few moments before we arrived, without mental protection. You absolutely can’t be fine,” I emphasized. “Also we still need to save Christmas, I guess.”

“Yeah…” Great Girl hung her head. “I guess we should do that.” Her form returned somewhere close to normal, except she kept her claws and sharp teeth. I couldn’t tell if it was on purpose. She activated her transmitter. “Status report?”

The answer came to all of us who were tapped into the same line. “One of the attacks tore open Santa’s sack and a number of presents were snatched, but the breach was quickly sealed and the villains chased off. Santa himself remains uninjured. Allied forces are converging on the last locations in the local sector.”

Good. ‘Our’ Santa was doing well, then. Somewhere in the city Doctor Doomsday was probably trying to capture another version of him, fighting against… some high-tier hero that wasn’t Stargirl, I guess.

With the heroes and mercs condensed into a smaller area and the villains unwilling or unable to coordinate effectively, there wasn’t much more action. That was good, because all I had left to use was the remainder of my defenses and some conventional weapons- and my Stoneskin had been significantly damaged by Great Girl.

I was so busy looking out for threats I almost didn’t notice the sleigh suddenly hovering over the apartment building we were guarding. Santa hopped down, landing light on his feet despite his own weight and an extremely large sack that must have weighed something even if it did not consider the things stored inside.

I expected him to hop into the building immediately, but instead he approached me. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small present. “Nice,” he said. “This is for you.” I almost reached for it- then I realized it had little pawprints on it, and he was reaching towards my shoulder.

“Oh. Thank you,” Midnight said, somewhat confused. As I looked over, I saw that the package had a little loop on it that hung around Midnight’s neck so he could carry it without hands.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t forget you,” the bushy-bearded man said, reaching into his package and pulling out something else. “Mostly nice, which is sufficient for me to finish this transdimensional delivery.”

“What?” I tilted my head as I took the package. Once I held it in my hands, I could tell it was a large book.

Santa didn’t clarify anything, instead turning to Swarm next to me. “Mostly naughty,” Santa clicked his tongue.

Swarm shrugged, “I didn’t really expect anything anyway.”

“I didn’t say you weren’t getting anything.”

“A lump of coal, then?”

“No,” Santa shook his head as he pulled out a small and flexible package. “Socks.”

“Oh,” Swarm said as he tore open the packaging- which dissolved into nothing. He rubbed the socks between his fingers. “These are… really nice.”

One of Great Girl’s team, Grasp, was on the same roof with us. She looked morose at not being around to help against Gloom- but who could, if they weren’t specifically prepared for it? Getting a pair of gloves didn’t seem to help her mood, even though I saw her try them on.

Great Girl’s present was mostly flat, some sort of thing in one of those annoying plastic packages, I presumed. She didn’t open it, though.

Acid Man got a remote. “Nice,” he grinned, “I was planning to replace mine.”

-----

My gift was ‘Portal Theory: A Treatise on Gates as Well as All Manner of Natural and Artificial Portals’. Taking a quick look at it, it was clearly not for reading. It was still a book, of course, but the dense terminology meant it could only be studied, not casually read. It seemed interesting and I would certainly take the time to go through it, but it was weird to get it from Santa. I was under the impression that he only brought things from this world. Then again…

“It’s a Feline Frolic Mark III!” Midnight said excitedly as he opened the packaging on his present. “It wasn’t even out yet when I… ended up here. Look, look! This is how technology is supposed to be!”

It was an electronic device with a wide screen, but instead of familiar buttons spread out for convenient usage, they were all clumped together in little wells. It seemed weird until Midnight put his paws on it and they fit perfectly. Just by wiggling his individual toes he turned it on.

“It even has pre-installed games! Though I suppose it wouldn’t be much use without,” Midnight admitted. “This…” Midnight didn’t seem to be able to say what he truly felt, and the jumble of emotions pouring over me didn’t make things clearer. Joy and sadness wrapped together, among other less prominent feelings. A bit of loneliness, maybe, though that quickly went away when he looked up at me. “It’s nice to have something I can use properly without magic,” he said.

“I guess there aren’t enough Celmothians here to be a market,” I surmised.

“Not at all,” Midnight shook his head. “We’ve basically only ended up here by accident- and because this place attracts everything. It’s better than teleporting to a random point in space, but we can’t exactly… get back.”

“At least you’re in contact with your family,” I tried to console him. I presumed a couple dozen words at once was insufficient to really do what he wanted there, but at least they knew he was safe. Safeish.

-----

It wasn’t until the next afternoon- after everyone went home and good a good sleep- that I showed up in what was now the scrying room. Calculator was already there when I arrived, followed quickly by Mono, Great Girl, and Grasp. Then Doctor Martinez, which didn’t say much for Calculator’s confidence in my success.

Not that he was shy about that. “I know I won’t be able to stop you if you’re determined,” Calculator said. “But do try to recall what happened last time.”

“I’m better this time,” I said. “In many ways.” I looked towards Great Girl. “Listen, I don’t want to get your hopes up too much. Even if we see something, it might not help.”

“I know. But… if this works, you can do it again, right?”

“Probably,” I said. “Though they’ll be on guard, then.”

First I cast Mental Freedom, covering myself and Midnight. That was an important step that I couldn’t afford to forget.

Then I held out my palm, using Storage to retrieve Gloom’s mask. The secondary layer of defense, for when the hood didn’t hide everything. Sure, Gloom was a spook with the power to create shadows that really made it impossible to see- but no supervillain kept their identity secret with just casual effort. They relied on layers.

I focused on the mask, and Gloom’s face- whether it had been real or not- as well as the feeling they gave off. Silvery mists swirled… and grew dark. I kept pushing, and I felt the true Gloom. Clawed hands reached out to pull me into the darkness of the hood… and I mentally shoved them aside. I could feel them reaching after me, but I could at least get something before I was dragged away.

I saw the back of a head, seeing neck-length light hair and a very distinct lack of spooky hooded cloak. I tried to turn the view to see Gloom’s face, but even as I did Gloom’s arms came up, and darkness swirled inside the image.

Then a surge of enmity rushed towards me, pushing me away. That power shattered my defenses as the Scrying fell apart.

“... I don’t think Gloom likes me,” I said, blood dripping down over my lips. Given that I was still conscious and I didn’t hate everything, I could say this went many times better than the previous attempt. “Sorry I got the wrong view though.”

“I almost saw it,” Great Girl frowned.

“Ahem,” Calculator interrupted. “Might I remind you the benefits of this extremely oversized diamond scrying device? It doesn’t just get one angle. And we recorded all of them.” He turned to look at me. “Doctor Martinez, if you could?”

The scanner focused on my head, quickly returning with a diagnosis. “Minimal actual damage. Just momentary psychic shock, I think. Don’t think it’s safe to try again, though. Think of it like a concussion. If it happens again before you fully recover, the damage will gradually build.”

“... Nothing in our databases,” Calculator said, pulling up the front view and that feminine face I had briefly seen some of on a screen. “Anyone?”

The color that was normally in Great Girl’s face was missing as she stared in shock. “... Avery?”

“Someone you know?” Calculator asked.

“Knew,” Great Girl said through clenched teeth. “Avery is dead.”

I could see in Calculator’s eyes that he had a quippy comment but chose not to make use of it. “Can you think of anything that would help us track down Gloom?”

Great Girl shook her head. “No, I- I need to go think about this.” She briefly stopped, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Thanks for doing this for me. When you’re… better… I hope you can try again.”

“Of course,” I nodded.

“... Thanks,” she said as she slowly made her way out of the room.

-----

New Year’s day came after someone dropped an expensive glass thing and broke it on purpose. Patrols were minimal during that time- crime didn’t take time off for the holidays, but the Brigade made sure everyone had a chance to rest.

I hadn’t seen Great Girl at HQ since then, and she’d only answered my texts of concern with ‘later’. That seemed reasonable. A former acquaintance- perhaps a friend or enemy- that was presumed dead and now was not. That could certainly affect someone, especially when it involved a nemesis. I supposed it was possible the individual in question was actually dead, because I could think of a number of ways for the body to be moving around between magic, super tech, and weird powers. That was all without it actually coming back to life, which could theoretically happen.

“I guess we just have to keep waiting,” I said to Midnight.

“Not too long, hopefully,” Midnight replied. The slight clacking of buttons let me know he was using his new pawheld game console. He really liked that.

“I wish I knew what to do about problems I couldn’t punch,” I shook my head. Maybe… maybe I’d never know. I was technically an orc, after all.

Perhaps, sensing something, Midnight stopped what he was doing and came to nuzzle up next to me. “Hey, don’t think whatever you’re thinking. Lots of people have problems they can’t solve. All sorts of things. And you’ve managed quite a few not-punching solutions. Khithae has a better job, Tylissa and Jerome are about as good as they can expect to be, and Izzy… at least you guys talk.”

“When she’s around,” I said. “When she’s not on a, uh… what do you call it?”

“Vacation.”

“When she’s not vacating her apartment to go somewhere else,” I said. “Though I am also curious at what other parts of the world look like. I hear most are quite different from New Bay. Except the other centers of the supernatural, I suppose.”

“Seems rather silly to visit any of them,” Midnight said. “You’d just get in trouble and not even get paid for it.”

“Eh, I think the Brigade has deals with some places,” I shrugged. “But I have plenty to do here.” And a whole tome to dig through. For something that was a simple concept of putting places next to each other, portals sure were complicated.