It was amazing how many things I got out of touch with just by being in a different world for a couple months. I had so many things to catch up on, and I was reminded of another when I saw Tylissa at the Power Brigade. I think her official moniker was ‘Wolf’, which was troublesome for any number of reasons. Not least of which was that she wasn’t the only werewolf in the Power Brigade, since there was at least Great Girl as well. But that was how names ended up.

“Finally we run into each other,” she said as I approached.

I nodded. “I’ve been in and out of HQ since I returned. I haven’t been spending much time around here.”

“Well, I know you’re probably quite busy still… but Jerome would appreciate seeing you in person. You should come see us some evening.”

“Of course,” I said. Even if half of my contacts had been with me in the other world, I wasn’t going to suddenly forget the rest when I came back. At this point it was basically only Rositsa that was not associated with the Brigade, but either way everyone had been kept up to date by them. “When are you free?”

“Any evening I’m not working,” Tylissa said. “Though Jerome will be there regardless, so you can drop by any time.”

“You moved, right?” I asked to make sure.

“Of course. I wouldn’t have worked this job for a few months and not taken us to a better place. Then there was the risk with Doctor Doomsday…” she shook her head. “But either way, the pay of a tracker is fantastic.”

Combat pay was more. But I wasn’t going to push her towards that. “That’s great to hear,” I said. “I should be free this evening. The last couple of days have been a lot of work with Extra so…”

Tylissa held up a hand, “We understand. You made sure to inform us immediately when you came back. And we knew you were alive through the Brigade. But he’d love to see you in person. This evening works for me as well, and I’d like to hear what’s been going on. Whatever you can say.”

“I don’t think anything’s secret,” I shrugged. “I’ll see the two of you this evening, then.”

-----

After a short exercise and training session, I set out to find Khithae. I was planning to have a quick lunch before heading over to the next part of my day which was supposed to be going back to Mossley to keep in contact. Official work and all that.

According to her message, she wasn’t working on repairs on any of the rooms but down in one of the labs. I didn’t have a reason to go there most of the time, obviously. My access allowed me onto the floor or the elevator wouldn’t have even stopped in B4. I was still careful in how I approached, though.

Inside room 17, I found Khithae looking at a pile of junk on top of a big workbench, gesturing to the man next to her, an old guy with poofy white hair. “See, this could be repaired if you just had a sixth order regulator…” Khithae frowned as she spoke, English words taking effort for her no matter how proficient she became. “I don’t know the right words to explain it.” She looked over to see me. “Oh! Mage, perhaps you can help? Translation might provide the words I need.”

“I can certainly try,” I nodded, casting the spell on her with only a small effort. “There you go.”

“Let me see then,” Khithae spoke more comfortably. “The part I need is a special wire that goes by the name…” unfortunately, we didn’t get any useful words. “Ah, a shame,” she shook her head. “Does it not exist here?” she tilted her head.

“It means nobody around here has the mental concept for it,” I explained.

“Well,” Khithae shrugged. Then I felt a flow of mana from her, concentrated around part of the machine. “It can still be magically repaired.”

“Thanks,” said the old man. Then he looked to me. “Mage, right? I’m Old Shock. And just to be clear, I’m not actually old.” He pointed to his hair. “This is from the low tech powers. And my face is only a little wrinkly, okay? I’m not even thirty yet!”

“... okay?” I replied. “Nice to meet you then. Are low tech powers-”

“They’re not cool things with radios and CRTs,” he shook his head. “It’s a nice way to say weak tech powers. I can make some things like this,” he held up the small motor with wires sticking out of it, “But I can’t reliably produce individual components or bridge the gap between modern technology.”

“Sounds frustrating,” I admitted.

“It is!” he agreed. “But also, having any powers is still like winning the lottery. Well, it’s not quite that rare in New Bay but it’s still a smaller fraction of people that have a job reliant on powers in any way. Counting villains.”

“Lots of Portal Powers now, I’d imagine,” I pointed out.

“Yeah I guess. Things have been kind of quiet on that front the past couple months though. Maybe Doomsday got all of the things he wanted from portals?” Old Shock shrugged.

“More likely they were distractions so he could set up permanent ones in his secret lairs,” I surmised. I looked back at Khithae. “Anyway, you understand this stuff? Even though it’s tech power based?”

“A lot of things from tech powers should be possible,” Khithae said. “It’s just the power surpasses the production and other intermediate steps required to achieve it. All of them end up missing something and thus don’t function without powers to sustain them. But in my alternate reality, I worked with some of these things. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a massive database of schematics on me when I came here.”

“How hard are those to get?” I asked.

“When they’re in another dimension? Quite difficult.”

“Yeah but if you were there.”

“If I had money or access to my old stuff,” she shrugged. “Not too difficult.”

“Interesting,” I said. I would suggest just going there, but there were some sort of laws about future tech that I should probably look into. Maybe the Brigade could get permission? I wondered what would happen to Old Shock’s powers if the base level of technology advanced. Would it just mean he could make semi-functional stuff by hand, or would he learn things another step advanced? I almost asked, but I could see how that might sound rude. Better to ask someone who was more than a step or two removed.

-----

After gathering Midnight- extradimensional excursions still required his presence- we headed to Extra for official business. Though mostly it was going to be me going through a portal and asking around Mossley about what had been happening in the last couple of days. And checking that the portal stayed closed. I didn’t actually know if the supers in Yew-Kay had managed to shut down the Grey Gunners hideout or anything. Accusations being thrown back and forth might not be enough to resolve that sort of thing in just a couple days.

As we were going around one of the last corners to our destination, something bumped into me. I stepped back, taking a ready stance. Something clattered to the ground as I saw a woman fall on her butt. She was bundled up, covered almost from head to toe. The only thing that was visible were her eyes. I looked into them and I felt… something. But it only lasted for a moment before she scooped up her sunglasses.

I reached out my hand, intending to help her to her feet, but she just picked herself up and pushed past me.

“What was that?” Midnight asked.

“I dunno, some weird woman,” I said.

“Something happened to you,” Midnight said.

I did feel weird, my pulse heightened. But I was still able to think well enough to cast Mental Freedom. Whether due to that or it just being a normal burst of adrenaline from something unexpected, the feeling slowly faded. “I don’t know,” I shrugged. “But I don’t have the feeling it was on purpose. Did you look at her eyes?”

“I was trying not to look down,” Midnight admitted. “It’s a long drop.”

Well, if she was a gorgon or something and wearing sunglasses to not petrify people, all I could suggest was that she get a better fitting pair that wouldn’t fall off so easily. Or perhaps she should avoid bumping into people. Though to be fair, I should have been ready for someone coming around the corner.

-----

Inside Extra, Midnight and I made our way to the officially approved portal and teleportation room. We made sure to let people know we had come, but nobody needed to oversee us. We were the only ones who would be going through today, since I was a native of the world and Midnight was my familiar- and required.

I made sure to go to a location outside of Mossley again, since I didn’t know anywhere in the city that I could guarantee was safe to pop through a portal. When we approached the city gates, I saw a pair of guards in shiny armor. That was quite different than normal. Also different was that they stopped me.

“You there in the strange garb! State your business!”

My clothes weren’t that weird. I was trying out the camouflage ability of my new outfit, and underneath I had ordinary street wear. I didn’t think the style was that different from the norm of this world, but then again I wasn’t the right person to ask about such things. “I am Turlough, a former resident of Mossley,” I declared. “I came to check up on the results of recent troubles.” I was prepared to cast something, but these felt like normal people. Which is to say, I could tell they had class levels and a faint aura of magic around them, but no weird powers.

Who were these guards? Certainly not residents of Mossley. I swear, if another group of weirdos took over my hometown in two days I would be quite put off. But I saw the brazen insignia on their gear, the head of a lion. The particular color pattern told me they were part of the Order of the Lion. A big paladin group from the capital, which was the limit of my understanding.

“The mage Turlough?” One of them lowered his weapon. “Sir Kalman will wish to see you.”

“That sounds like something I should do,” I agreed. “Where is he?”

They directed me towards the center of town- though of course, that was where most things ended up.

There were a lot more people out and about compared to last time- which is to say, last time there had not been anyone at all.

“Oh, Turlough!” Carl waved to me as I passed his store. “You ran off so quick to that other plane or whatever, we didn’t get a proper explanation. At least not enough to satisfy the king. You said you’d be back to check on us, but I thought it might be longer.”

“I can’t say how regular I will be,” I began. “But it is an achievable journey, at least. I’m on my way to see a Sir Kalman.”

“Ah, that one…” Carl nodded. “He’s a bit rough, but has a good heart from what people have said. Hopefully you can sort things out together.”

“Thank you,” I nodded. “Now, I must be off.” He ducked back as I swiped at him, the tiniest bit of a shock on my fingertip. I clicked my tongue.

“You’ll not get any of us that easily, kid!” he called after me.

-----

I made it to the right area easily enough. Now I just had to find the particular building. But before I could, someone called out to me.

“Halt, fiend! Your true garb conceals more than it reveals!” I turned to see a short man in shining armor, his fists raised. “Prepare to make an accounting!”

By instinct, I almost punched him in the face. But my training was better than that. The guy was wearing a helmet, after all. Diving in for a grapple was going to be much more effective.