“You’re sure it was a Bunvorixian?” I asked. “Not a dog?”

Annoyance. But it was Midnight’s, and not mine. “Yes. I do know what dogs are. Now. He spoke. Threatened to kill me, even.”

“Wow. That seems… extreme. I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Of course I am. Unless one of them has a power or proper weaponry I would not be injured.”

“What’s proper weaponry?” I asked, tilting my head.

“Guns,” Midnight said. “Obviously human guns aren’t any good, but we both have technology that fits our forms. Just not here. It’s rather strange any of us ended up here at all.” Midnight pawed his phone on the table in front of him.

“Why is that?” I asked. “I mean, this place is apparently very… active?” I tilted my head. “With spatial problems.”

“I suppose,” Midnight admitted. “It’s also possible there’s a problem with our teleporter technology.”

“I feel like that could be useful…” I frowned, “But I suppose you weren’t an engineer, right?”

“I was not,” Midnight said. “I knew how to use them and who to call if something didn’t work.” His paw continued to swipe at his phone.

“What’s that you’re doing?” I asked. “Research?”

“I suppose you could call it that,” Midnight said. “Scouting out opponents.”

I recognized the visuals of something there. “Stargirl?”

“... yes,” Midnight said. I could feel the amusement, though I wasn’t completely sure why. “Stargirl.”

“Is that the social media thing? Should I get it?”

“No!” Midnight said hastily. “I mean, it is, but you don’t need to. I have this handled.”

“Alright,” I nodded. “Tell me if you need anything. Like a picture of me? That’s something, right?”

“That won’t be necessary for now,” Midnight said. “Now then, about this Ceira…”

“Did she seem bad?” I asked. “Calculator said something her. Though I think he was just checking if she was a class power.”

“Portal power,” Midnight said. “That’s what they’re calling them.”

“But that’s incorrect.”

“Nobody knows that,” Midnight pointed out. “And it doesn’t necessarily help if people know the right word for it. Or that you know how it works.”

“Vaguely,” I reminded him. “Because the only combat classes I was around were mages. My studies covered a lot of things, but they were less detailed on others.”

-----

We’d found enough clues for Calculator to piece together where Handface and his gang were. Down in the former subway tunnels was actually a good location for us, since it didn’t have large open areas for someone to snipe people. Now we were heading to a special aquatic training room. Ice Guy was detailing the plan. “So in the next corridor, we swim through- Turlough, you have a question?”

“Uhh, I can’t swim.”

“That’s… an oversight on our part,” Ice Guy frowned. “Now when you say you can’t swim, what do you mean? You don’t seem to be vulnerable to water based on training.”

“I just mean I don’t know how.”

“Right,” he nodded. “I don’t suppose there’s magic that could help?”

“None that I have access to at the moment,” I answered. “How far do we have to swim?”

“It’s not far but… we’ll have to fully submerge. Why didn’t this come up when we were working at the docks?”

“Because I didn’t fall in the water?” I shrugged. “It didn’t seem important.”

“Fair enough,” he admitted. “We made assumptions on our end as well. You aren’t afraid of the water, are you?”

“I don’t think so,” I said, looking at Midnight.

“What?” Midnight asked. “I can swim.”

That wasn’t the information I wanted, but it was good enough.

“Ok now I really should have asked about that,” Ice Guy admitted. “Well then, we’re going to have to put off this exercise for later and teach you how to swim.”

“Okay,” I nodded.

We ended up back down on B7, where the gym was. I hadn’t really paid attention, but there was a pool. A big one, too. Probably. I hadn’t really seen a lot of them, but it sure looked big. Bigger than what the manor had, at least- though it was more rigid, with a rectangular design and some sort of lanes. Like cars drove in.

“Normally you’d be set up with some swim trunks,” Ice Guy said, “But since we’ll be doing the mission in our proper outfits, it’s best to practice this way. They’re hydrophobic anyway, so they won’t gather water and weigh you down.”

Midnight also had a costume- though it hadn’t seen much field use. Apparently it was not too uncomfortable, and the potential defensive benefits were worthwhile. It was little more than cloth wrapped around Midnight’s body, leaving his arms and legs free- but it did have a hood he could flip up to cover his head when necessary. It was the same blue as mine, so we matched.

“We should start in the shallow end of the pool. Actually…” Ice Guy held up a finger, “I should go get someone who knows how to instruct on these things. Stay out of the pool until I’m back.”

“... Are pools that dangerous?” I asked Maks and Rasmus- Shockfire and Acid Man.

“If you can’t swim, they kind of are, yeah,” Maks nodded. “We could definitely get you out, but you wouldn’t have any fun.”

Soon enough Captain Senan returned. “Meztli will be here in a few minutes,” he said. “She’s finishing up another training session. Since everyone else can handle themselves, might as well do a few laps. I’ll help Mage get adjusted to the water.”

He climbed down a short ladder, and I followed after him. Getting into the water was weird. “Oh, the water’s… surprisingly not cold.”

“It will be, in the tunnels,” Captain Senan remarked, “But the pool here is set up for comfort. Just not too much comfort.”

The water came up to just below my chest, which wasn’t exactly shallow, but left my head well above water. I tried to walk over towards him, but found it strangely difficult.

“Water has a lot more resistance than you’re used to,” he pointed out. “Swimming needs to deal with that, and sometimes use it to your advantage.”

I learned a lot of things that day. First putting my face in the water to get used to not breathing, floating, and a little bit of swimming. Since I needed to learn the most, I would be focusing on that training for the next couple of days instead of other things. Not spending time sparring did give me a chance to build up some more mana crystals, though actually using them would have to wait for the okay from the doctor. I was pretty sure I’d need them on the mission to be maximally effective.

-----

Jerome was getting good at… everything really. But math was one of the most clear- specifically how he stopped trying to count on his fingers. I didn’t really stop him from doing that, but besides making vague hand movements when he was thinking about numbers he stopped involving them. And he got faster at everything.

“You’re doing great,” I said. “You’re reading’s much faster and your calculations are too.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I feel like… I was so far behind, you know?”

“It’s hard, not knowing things.” At this rate, he wouldn’t need me soon. Though I could still help with magic. On that topic, I was trying to write notes to help him but that involved either a very long time scribing by hand- which wasn’t terribly common here- or l had to learn to type. Keyboards seemed like a very inefficient way to write at first, but I realized that once I knew where a letter was it only took a fraction of a second to make an entire letter appear. The Power Brigade didn’t have any official lessons for typing, but I’d been learning with the librarian, Saveliy. He was really good at typing, especially considering he couldn’t even see his fingers or the keyboard beneath them with all that hair.

“How are you boys doing?” Jerome’s mother, Tylissa, said after knocking on the open door.

“He’s very smart,” I said. “I imagine he could do well in school without my assistance from now on.” I wanted to see if he could make mana crystals, but until Doctor Martinez confirmed how the buildup inside me had worked, I didn’t want the risk. Jerome was being cautious with flashy, dangerous magic but even I hadn’t realized there could be danger from that.

“I’m level two now!” he said with pride. “I’m pretty sure. And I’ve got telekinesis!” He cast Mage’s Reach, carrying a pencil around the room.

“Technically Telekinesis is a different spell,” I said. “This is part of the Hand series.”

“I see,” Tylissa nodded. She was looking down at her own hand in concentration. “So, you’ve heard about the ‘Portal Powers’ right? That’s what Jerome has?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Those portals were to my world or something like it, but I can’t say why this happened, and this way. But it’s clear it works similarly.”

“I see. And you know… something about the other types of portal powers?”

“To some extent, yeah. Why?”

“Well, I was just curious,” she said.

“Did you…” Jerome walked next to his mom, “Did you get a power too?”

Oh! That made sense, with the questions. “Did you?” I asked.

“Well, I, uh…” she frowned, “Maybe? Sometimes I move faster than normal, but I don’t really know. I can’t seem to do magic or anything, so it might just be my imagination.”

“Can you show me?”

“Maybe outside. How about the basketball court? There’s room there, and right now there probably isn’t anyone…”

“Okay.”

It was only a short walk, and then she looked around to make sure nobody was watching. Then she ran… pretty fast. Honestly, I could have probably beat her in a race. But I felt it, the expenditure of mana. “Yep,” I nodded. “That’s it.”

“Really?” she looked both relieved and worried. “What do I- what is it?”

“Well,” I thought for a few moments, “It could still be a few things. Have you lately been particularly angry?”

“Not really,” she said.

“No sudden bursts of strength or durability? Alright then, I guess uh… punch me?”

“... why?” Tylissa narrowed her eyes.

“To see if you’re a monk,” I said.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Actually,” I said, “Maybe not. You might hurt yourself.”

“I’ve punched someone before,” she said, her face firming. She took a stance, fists clenched. “I can handle it.”

“Okay but I have magical armor surrounding me,” I said. “So maybe take it slow for the sake of your fists.” I lowered myself into a defensive stance. Jerome had followed us out and looked a bit worried. “Don’t worry, we’re not actually fighting. But if she has a power I need to protect my vitals. You can start whenever, I’ll just block.”

Right away I could tell she knew what she was doing… but I could also tell that she had learned it properly. There was no mana involved yet, and whenever she glanced against my Force Armor I could tell she felt it.

“I’m not sure if this is revealing anything,” I said honestly.

“I have one more thing I can try,” Tylissa said. “If you don’t mind?”

“Sure,” I said. “Go ahead.”

That time, I felt it. If I hadn’t been used to fighting supers, I wouldn’t have been able to react at all. Sure, I wasn’t taking it seriously… but as she spun past me and elbowed my ribs, I felt my Force Armor crack. It didn’t break, but Tylissa was already two steps away from me by the time I spun to face her. “That… was different, wasn’t it?”

“It was,” I said. “I know what class you got, now. Unfortunately…”

“Unfortunately what?”

“I don’t know how to train you.”

“Oh,” she lowered her head. “I thought maybe I could…” she shook her head. “I don’t know. Everyone dreams of getting a lucky break. Win the lottery, get a power…”

“Hey now,” I said. “Look, I don’t know how to train you, but I do know… another scout,” I bit my lip. “Pretty sure that’s the category you’d fall under. I could… introduce you.”

“Oh yeah?” her face brightened. “Who is it?”

“She’s that halfling you saw with the swords. The short woman. We were friends.”

“Oh, that’s great!” Tylissa beamed.

“Yeah,” I said. “Real great.” Maybe I could get Midnight to introduce these two? I doubted Izzy was in the mood to do favors for me. “Just give me… some time to set up a meeting.”