The Heroes' Guild

Wisteria watched everyone. They’d gone as far as exchanging names, or at least civilian ones. Something told her their chimera-battling boat-master went by something more intimidating than Brendan in his pursuits.

“She’s found it,” Johnny told the rest of the boat.

Their captain stopped it faster than should be possible. Wisteria felt a tinge of embarrassment that she lurched when the professor’s daughter didn’t.

“Can you point us to the specific location?” Prof. Hunter asked.

Scuro moved her form, concentrating near the middle of the abandoned thoroughfare.

“Now,” the professor looked to Brendan, “Can you clear the way?”

He extended a hand, and the waters parted to reveal what looked like a ring of black lettering in what had to be the Mage script.

“Val, I need you take the lead and tell me where the text seems to be more like a block.”

“I wondered why I got invited,” Val said, grabbing the side of the boat. Jon Hunter kept the little girl from joining.

“Why her specifically?” Wisteria asked, “Assuming this is Magek, I’m not a mage.”

“It’s not exactly Magek,” Val said, removing her sunglasses to reveal slitted pupils, “And people can’t be cursed twice.”

She jumped into the center of the circle, walked around a minute, then moved toward the edge to point her toe at a specific part.

The professor moved along the boat, then jumped, falling slowly, right next to Val.

She nudged Val aside and slashed the section with a sword that hadn’t been there before she swung.

The circle disappeared, and Val grabbed the professor before jumping back on.

The professor looked back at her husband.

“When Mandie calls, tell her it worked.”

Catherine pulled Jet and Rex away as the central art piece was destroyed. The Elementals seemed to calling in backup and acting as a distraction to the monster.

“What the fuck is that?” Rex asked.

Catherine watched the skylight, then watched the crowd, which was mostly escaping, including Victoria and Ignotus.

“You see anyone?” Rex asked.

Jet and Catherine shook their heads.

“Showtime.” Rex took off his jacket and put on a mask, running into the crowd.

“Do you think that’s actually going to hide anything?” Jet asked.

“He looks like any man who attended the event,” Catherine noted, “And he’s there to guard the crowd, not actually start a fight. What are you going to do?”

Blaster was better suited to crowd control than Xer was, but if they were dealing with a monster in an enclosed space…

“I’ll help our new friends,” he said, taking off his clothes to reveal he was hiding the suit underneath, “What are you doing?”

Catherine monitored cameras, watching every angle until she saw a humanoid figure near the skylight.

“I’m going to occupy our new enemy until Tetra comes back.”

Blaster left her alone as she grabbed a nanotech disc and a wig from her jacket pocket. She put the wig on after placing the disc on her chest so the nanites inside could replace her clothes with a replica of the Tesla Coil costume. It didn’t come with much gear, but she had what she needed.

As the final touches finished, a grappling hook shot through the skylight, then pulled a man through.

“Who was that?” Blaster asked.

Tesla Coil sent what she’d seen to Camera. She wasn’t sure if it would provide any data, but it would give her something to check later.

She took her one hoverdisc up to roof, rushing to grab grappling guy before he could fall to his death.

“It’s you,” he said in awe.

She set him down the moment they reached the roof.

“Get back inside as soon as possible,” she ordered him.

She turned to the Dark Mage, who caught her in something the moment they made eye contact, making sure her hands in particular couldn’t move.

“I would think you knew better than to get in my way,” he said.

Blaster did his best to hold the monster in place.

“Have you saved the blight?” Tetra asked as she appeared from the shadows.

“We don’t have anyone to transport it back,” Black Dragon revealed.

“I’ll handle that if it comes to it.”

“Alright.”

The Ember Phoenix extend her hands, but the fire seemed to come out of her whole body. Blaster had to take a few steps beck.

“Where’s Tesla Coil?” Tetra asked quietly as the Ember Phoenix still burned.

Blaster pointed up.

“With our perp.”

“He’s here?”

“And a new friend too.”

Tetra looked above them, then at the “blight” as she called it.

“She shouldn’t be up there alone,” Tetra muttered.

“The moment I can let go, I’ll join her,” Blaster promised, “You stay to get this thing out of here.”

The fire increased in intensity, then suddenly stopped, showing a charred corpse.

“I shouldn’t have waited,” the Ember Phoenix chided.

Tetra disappeared, probably heading for the roof. Blaster kept his eyes on the corpse, wishing he had a camera.

“We shouldn’t have come,” the Ember Phoenix said.

“You think they could have handled it alone?” The Black Dragon gestured at Blaster as the only representative of the Abnormals.

“You should leave if you can’t handle an actual dark mage,” Blaster finally said, taking himself to the roof.

Coil was trapped in shadow, and Tetra’s hands were similarly locked.

“Next time, you’ll lose something more precious,” the dark mage warned.

Tesla Coil’s hands broke free, before quickly being locked up again.

Blaster caught the dark mage in a forcefield, including an invisible gag around his mouth.

“You sure there’s going to be a next time, Everett?”

He just had to hold him until Tesla Coil or Tetra could free themselves. Even if the dark mage caught Blaster, the forcefield would remain. Blaster tightened it in memory of his last dark mage encounter.

The dark mage disappeared as grappling hook man ran to kick him. Blaster felt the forcefield impact, but the guy didn’t seem too hurt.

“Pleasure working with—”

“What the fuck did you think you were doing?” Tesla Coil asked, stalking toward the man, “What work do you think you did?”

“I got to the guy first.”

“And got thrown off of the building. My altruism was the only thing between you and a hard concrete death.”

“Thank you, it was an honor—”

“You clearly don’t know what you’re doing, and you prevented proper communication because we don’t know who you are.”

“I know what I’m—”

“I’m sure you’ve seen footage and thought you could do the same thing, but all of us here are either incredibly trained or incredibly powerful, usually both.”

“I am incredibly trained,” the man insisted, “Not all of us had the privilege of being born with power.”

Tesla Coil paused long enough for the man to take his cue to leave.

“He doesn’t have powers,” Tesla Coil realized, smacking herself in the forehead.

“Explains why he had no sense the forcefield was there,” Blaster noted.

“You give him too much credit,” Tesla Coil said, “Any of my coworkers at the institute could recognize forcefield use when they saw it. This man is just ignorant, which is dangerous.”

“As if we didn’t have any dangerous things to worry about,” Tetra complained.

“Yeah,” Coil said, “Like the fact our mage friend knew who you were.”

“Or he just knew Elementals were on the guest list,” Blaster offered.

“No, he knew our history, and he started the threat as the Elementals were leaving, it was for us.”

“Dark Magek saw my face,” Tetra said.

“Bingo,” Coil said, “Which means he probably knew I would be here too.”

“Would he know anyone else?” Blaster asked.

“If you can strengthen any guards on my house, I’d appreciate it.” Coil told Tetra, “Ward anyone else's homes if you can.”

“I’ll find what I can on Leone,” Blaster said, “See if there’s a reason he’d think to threaten us here without information.”

“And I’ll deal with the body,” Tetra said.

“Make sure Xer knows what happened. I’ll tell Nightingale.”

“And I’ll get a story out.”

This was getting too public.

A test case, they called it. There’d been a big superhero hullabaloo, and Ali’s team was in charge of making sure a crime hadn’t actually been committed.

“Why are we bringing the scam artist?” Kinter asked.

Juliet curtsied, pulling her poncho to either side in lieu of a skirt, then returned to looking around. Ali wouldn’t have much excuse to bring her in if she was taken off a crime unit.

“It was an Elementals problem apparently,” Larue explained, checking the floor of the gallery show, “Big eyeless pterosaur.”

“What was the exhibit?”

“Victoria Loch and Ignotus Hathaway,” Someone answered from the other side of the tape. He turned out to be a Black man a little younger than Ali.

Jet Bessar wouldn’t be a bad friend to make if she had to keep tabs on superheroes.

“Elementals aren’t usually your beat, are they, Bessar?”

“Xer was here dealing with crowds, stands to reason some of the other Abnormals might be here too, detective…”

Ali offered a hand.

“Chase. Any more suspicions you want to share?”

“Do you check heroic theorist forums?” Bessar asked.

An item to add to her checklist.

“Why do you ask?”

“They have insight into things like this sometimes. I have a friend who’s active on some of them, and he feeds me any valuable info.”

“And how do you know about the exhibit?”

“Because, Detective Chase, I was here when it happened.”

“Art isn’t usually your beat either.”

“No,” Bessar admitted, “I wasn’t here for work. I’m Ignotus Hathaway’s roommate and default plus-one. He usually defaults.”

“Is that why you’re so sure more Abnormals were around?”

“I left with the crowd,” Bessar admitted, “But I saw Xer, which usually means Tetra’s around.”

It finally clicked.

“Wait, by Xer do you mean Elemaster?”

He flinched.

“Right, yeah. He prefers Xer.”

“How do you know that?”

“I talk to these people sometimes, and the people who’ve worked with him always correct you when you call him Elemaster. I guess I forgot that was technically insider info.”

Bessar would be a great asset if Ali could gain his trust.

“Do you think this was more than an incidental incursion?” she asked, “If someone had a vendetta against either of the artists or someone in attendance?”

“Check out those forums, detective. You’ll be surprised what you find.”

With that, the reporter walked off.

“Albrecht,” Ali ordered, “Check heroic theorist forums, see if they have something to say about this or similar incidents, and Kinter, see if you can find the pterosaur. It was supposed to be huge.”

“Caveblight,” Juliet corrected, “It was a caveblight. They’re usually in packs, so this had to be deliberate.”

“Why would it have to—”

“One alone is enough chaos to fuck up an event like this. Whoever brought it here wanted to freak out the crowd, but have any mages stick around.”

Ali didn’t love where this was going.

“Why did they want that?”

“I’ve checked footage on the forums,” Juliet said, “Blights don’t usually reach that size, and most of them aren’t a shade that dark.”

“Care to elaborate, Emery?” Kinter pushed.

“If I say it out loud, you’ll be taken off the case.”

“Why?”

“Because the only people authorized to handle whoever did this are the Masters.”

Ali had spent enough of her life around Juliet to know what she meant, but that didn’t help the rest of the team.

“Kinter, look for any signs of a body,” Ali ordered.

“She didn’t explain it.”

“She did for those with ears to hear,” she assured.

“The forums say,” Albrecht waited a bit for everyone to turn to her, “This was a Dark Mage.”

Now it would have to go on the report.

“We’re going to gather all the info we have, and bring it to the Hero Watch department to send to Tetra if possible.”

“Since when do have a Hero Watch department?”

“Since right now.”