The office of Doctor Patenaude was designed to make me- or anyone else visiting- as comfortable as possible. Physically it did its job, but mentally I think everyone still knew this was a place they came to deal with uncomfortable things they did not yet understand.

“Aside from Gloom, who’s very power seems to be making people unhappy, I don’t know why the second thing is so… unimportant,” I explained. “I know normal people are supposed to be concerned about physical danger and death and stuff. I definitely want to keep living. But I can’t stop thinking about moving stuff from one place to another and I don’t know why it bothers me,” I admitted.

Doctor Patenaude nodded, the sensory stalks around his head undulating oddly as he did so. “It is good to recognize where your woes come from. It is not strange that you are concerned about moving to a different apartment, even if the actual process is not difficult. It is a sign of change, and there are more than a few things changing for you at the moment. You have acquired a new enemy, one that can directly harm your psyche. It is reasonable to be concerned about that. And the change of your living situation comes along with changes in work, stepping away from the comfortable familiarity of your squad, even if only for a while.”

“I like the other people I’ve worked with too, though,” I said.

‘It is good that you get along with your co-workers, but that won’t instantly make you comfortable. Changing the most stable factors of your presence in this world all at once will be a cause of concern for anyone. Was there also something else?”

Sometimes, Doctor Patenaude asked questions because he didn’t know something. Other times, it was because I didn’t know something. Or at least hadn’t properly talked about it. Was there anything else? The answer might be no. But I had something more. “I’m worried about Midnight living on his own.” And also I will miss him. It took me some effort to say that part out loud. But I did eventually, and followed it up with more. “We won’t even be far, but it will be strange.”

Sometimes Doctor Patenaude had advice for me. Sometimes, I just needed to say things. This was more of the latter, but he still had practical things to say. “Just remember that change will pass, and you can rely on your friends for support. Especially the ones going through similar changes.”

-----

Lower Hills Suites did not come from a personal recommendation from anyone I knew, but it was a well rated and reasonably located mixed size apartment complex. Perhaps I was being a bit silly with my concerns about Midnight when he would only be living across the hall, but controlling one’s own thoughts was something that nobody could completely do. Even so, when I thought about Midnight alone I couldn’t help but recall the first image I had seen of him, hungry and unkempt in an alleyway.

But at this point he was fully capable, a functioning adult that might even be better adjusted than myself. He did need magic to speak English well because of his vocal chords, but Translation was cheap enough and lasted long enough to not be a point of concern. He just had trouble dealing with doors in most places, not because of manual dexterity issues- he could twist a knob with his paws- but simply as a matter of reach.

That was one thing Lower Hills Suites offered, rooms built with smaller individuals in mind- of which Midnight was still on the lower end- as well as rooms with various adjustable features. Normal rooms could be turned into twice as many with the addition of loft features, or there were smaller and cheaper rooms that only catered to small individuals, stacked on top of each other. Midnight was in one of the small-only rooms, right across the hall from me on the lower level.

It was cheaper and easier for a building to cater to only one size of individuals, either by building or by individual floors, but Lower Hills Suites was clear on its intention that everyone should be able to mix. For that sake, the larger adjustable rooms had floor-to-ceiling doors that could accommodate the rare particularly large individuals, up to approximately ten feet tall- and thus what a building without special reinforcements could manage. Not that there were many individuals that surpassed such a size. I’d seen only a handful throughout New Bay- and they were easy to spot. Usually, it involved a power of some sort. Sometimes, that power couldn’t be turned off. Quite inconvenient.

Moving into my apartment was quite simple. Even the bed, one of the few pieces of furniture I actually owned. I simply took it up the industrial sized elevator, opened the double doors leading through my apartment and placed it right in the bedroom without any awkward fussing about. The closest I came to having trouble was turning the mattress right outside the room, because I was almost directly across from one of the supports for the walkway dividing the level of the smaller rooms.

That convenience came with a price. No, it wasn’t living next to a minotaur- the family of minotaurs next to me was quite nice and brought me a pie. It was simply more expensive to live in the building. I had more room than I needed because I was a single individual living in rooms meant to potentially accommodate someone significantly larger than human, and I had to pay for that and the flexibility of the rooms.

But I’d been working for the Brigade for a while and despite buying quite a bit of industrial diamond dust, my minimal other expenses meant I had sufficient savings to not worry. Super mercenaries got paid well, even at the rookie level- and my paychecks had quickly gone up. Plus the occasional work for Extra when they needed a translator. That wasn’t often because I was only good at the part where I made words into other words, not actually talking to people.

I ducked down to knock on Midnight’s door. He actually had a good five feet of height, so at least I didn’t have to crawl on my hands and knees, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable. However, the door was wide enough that I could fit inside, if there was anything I actually needed to do.

“How is it?” I asked as Midnight opened the door.

“Good!” he said. “Everything’s nice and convenient to reach, so I don’t have to use magic, mostly. Still made for people with hands, but that’s kind of hard to get around.”

“Nothing too high up, either,” I nodded, looking inside. “Seems alright. You could even cook.”

“Hah!” Midnight laughed, “Unlikely.”

Neither of us were much in the way of cooks. I technically could- I was capable of following instructions and I had hands- but I preferred to have others do it for me. And with the money to make that feasible, I saw no reason not to avail myself of the services of others, just like for everything else I didn’t have the skills for myself. That was the reason people even had cities. More or less.

-----

Working with Great Girl was going well. My magic was quite effective, Haste on its own and on the few occasions it was actually necessary Enlarge pushed Great Girl over the limits of being a match for most enemies to being basically undefeatable by anything with a physical form. Villains’ only real opportunities were simply to not be anywhere we would show up. With Mono watching from a distance, enemies might be taken out before we arrived, and if not the problem was always dealt with swiftly.

When Great Girl couldn’t handle everything herself, Grasp and I supported her up close. Map coordinated everything from afar, guiding us to further incidents- though most of the time we wouldn’t go directly from one to another. New Bay wasn’t that chaotic. Though I supposed it did need a constantly patrolling combination of superheroes and mercenaries to keep things in line. Most of the trouble with supers were those who just got powers- like Rocker- and were relishing their new abilities without thinking of the consequences. Some were career supervillains, but they usually focused on completing an objective and fleeing before opposing supers arrived.

“Incident spotted,” Map said, relaying information to us. “Five blocks away, a high threat portal unleashing alien monstrosities. Immediate response required.”

That meant casting Haste on Great Girl. She didn’t have to ask, I simply did it and she went speeding off at highway speeds. Or that was what people called it anyway- I didn’t have much connection to highways, aside from occasionally seeing the massive beasts lumbering over parts of the city. Trains were faster, shuttling people between a few points.

An underground network of subway tunnels had been planned and partly constructed, but various factors meant that it never really worked in New Bay. Factors like the only underground tunnels I knew of being flooded, and how tunnels did not mix well with super combat, inside it or above ground. Perhaps there would be advancements in material strength engineering that would make that better eventually. That wasn’t my area of expertise.

Not having Midnight with me meant I only had my pool of mana to count on for recovery, so I couldn’t have him Haste the two of us or another individual. However, with the distance of five blocks I would only be able to catch up to Great Girl after Haste faded away if I simply ran, so I also had to expend the mana for myself. At my current mana levels, it was not too much to include Grasp. Each cast was only four mana, now, and I didn’t think the benefits of overcharging it would come into play.

I rounded the corner not far behind Great Girl and saw the destruction happening, but it only seemed bad on the scale of it being a single portal. A few destroyed cars, but civilians were trained to optimally flee the scene and the traffic lights were set up to prioritize that while minimizing accidents. It seemed there were a few injuries- possibly worse- but getting Great Girl there quickly meant that most of the carnage was dealt to what had come through the portal.

Weird creatures with large, bladelike claws that couldn’t possibly make sense with their body size. They were all insectoid, with exoskeletons, but there was some variety regarding other details. Some were only dog sized, some taller than myself with spiny tails whipping about, and there was one the size of an elephant just pushing its way through the portal.

One of the dog sized ones was immediately stomped on by Great Girl. Her power provided not only size but proportional increases in strength and durability. She was currently somewhere around ten feet tall, a typical combat size. It provided enough power while still being reasonably sustainable. For example, she was able to grab the whipping tail of one of the mid-sized ones and crack that one against another, dropping them both out of the battle.

Protocols for dealing with alien creatures- even ones that looked like this- were much the same as anything else. However, given the fallen civilians we didn’t really have to worry about them being innocent.

I gathered a little bit of mana and launched a Firebolt at one of the small ones trying to sneak past Great Girl’s reach. The thing clearly did not like fire, raising its overly wide claw to try to block. The flames seemed to damage its exoskeleton, but it didn’t die. It did stagger it enough for Grasp to yank it back and toss it blade-first into one of its compatriots.

Those weren’t the biggest concern, as the elephant sized creature- with two curved blades probably as long as I was tall stretching out- was now fully through the portal. I was prepared to move towards Great Girl and cast Enlarge, but she waved me off. “Take care of the others!” she said, then snarled, her face stretching and growing teeth, while claws poked out of her modified gloves.

I still hadn’t gotten something for groups. Maybe now was the time. I had points, after all.