In the end, after the ambush, we had one captured individual and two daggers that appeared completely non powered and non magical. We didn’t trust that, of course, and brought them to be contained by Vilhelmiina at her lab. Why there, when she was not part of the Power Brigade? Because she was crazy enough to have products of Doctor Doomsday in her lab untested- though not uncontained.

“I have conclusively determined these are not packed with high explosives,” the old woman nodded her head. “Now low explosives.”

“Wait that second thing exists?” I was prepared to say something else but I had questions.

“Oh yes, it’s got very little to do with whether or not it can level a building. Regardless, I am over fifty percent certain that these will not explode.”

I frowned, “That doesn’t sound very certain…”

“With the presence of magic I am reserving my judgment for entire new categories of potential explosions.”

“You should be fine there,” I said. “These aren’t magical. Or rather, they’re probably drained. Because they were certainly magical before.”

Currently the aforementioned daggers were contained in similar zappy cages as the scrying anchor had been. That made them annoying to look at.

“You have already gazed upon these with your wizard eyes, have you not?” Vilhelmiina asked.

I nodded, “I used Arcane Sight, yes. It didn’t reveal much.”

She tapped her fingers dangerously close to buttons on a control panel that probably shouldn’t be touched. “You said these were likely drained. Could they be undrained? Charged?”

“Probably,” I said. “I’d basically just try putting mana in them.”

“Then I will have you do it,” she said, slapping a button on the console. Both daggers fell to the ground as they were no longer contained. I feel like there should probably have been individual buttons.

I walked over to the daggers, picking one up in my hands. It was covered in intricate markings that meant… absolutely nothing to me. Activating Arcane Sight for a handful of mana I was able to pick out extremely faint traces of something. Perhaps I hadn’t looked closely enough after the battle, or it might be recharging. Both options were quite possible.

I intentionally directed a small amount of mana into the dagger. It accepted it readily. A single point brightened the aura of magic around it. “Hmm, I think that’s an abjurative aura around it.”

“Does that mean it is protected from magic?” the mad scientist asked.

“Not necessarily. Based on what I saw, it might be the opposite. Specifically, it seemed to be of the dispelling type- which might indirectly protect it from magic as it removes it. I carefully took the dagger, pressing it at an angle next to my left arm, slicing slowly. I could feel it wearing down on my armor, and then it unraveled with sparkles of light- though the dagger used up the last of the mana within it as it did so. “It seems to happen automatically,” I said, “As long as it has charge.” It seemed quite rude that a single point of mana dispelled a two mana spell. Even if I only spend one and a half on it. Of course, if it usually took more mana to dispel things then people probably wouldn’t bother and would instead just chuck more fireballs.

“And it worked against powers?” Vilhelmiina asked.

“More than a couple of them did, yeah,” I nodded. “I didn’t sense any differences between them so they’re likely the same.”

“It’s also easier to reproduce the same thing,” she said, taking the dagger from my hand and stabbing it into her arm, where it suddenly stopped. “It’s broken,” she said.

“It’s out of charge again. I didn’t put in that much. Also if that had worked you’d have a hole in your arm.”

“Bah, why by hesitance for the sake of science? Charge it up!”

She handed me back the dagger. “You do realize you can stab a barrier on something durable? I feel like it would be hard to science with a dagger in your arm.”

I waited to inject any mana into the dagger while she mulled over that idea. “I see your point. Perhaps I can get someone with super endurance to assist me.”

“Or stab a wall.”

“I do have walls,” she stroked her chin. “And they already have barriers. Very well, we shall go with your suggestion. Now give me the dagger!”

After her agreement I charged it up. I felt the mana flow into it one point at a time until it had a full seven. It seemed it would accept no more after that, and I had no intention of pushing it. “Be careful,” I said. “It’s got more charge now.”

Dagger in hand, she confidently walked up to a wall and stabbed it. I could feel whatever barrier it had rip apart and then there was a clinking of metal on metal. Vilhelmiina held the dagger up for inspection. “This is not a good dagger.”

“I feel like magic dispelling daggers are pretty good, actually…”

“No, look!” she brought it right in front of my eyes. “The tip is bent!”

“I guess. I don’t think daggers are meant to stab metal walls.”

“Aren’t magic weapons supposed to be unbreakable?”

“Have you ever made anything unbreakable?” I asked.

“Yes,” Vilhelmiina said confidently.

“Really?” I asked.

“Absolutely. I once atomized something into cosmic dust. From there, it could not be broken down further.”

“I don’t think breaking things counts as making something unbreakable,” I countered. “Anyway, magic weapons are often broken by better magic weapons. Also I think you have to intentionally make them have those features? This doesn’t seem to have that.”

“Do you now know?” she asked.

“I’ve never made a magic anything, so no. I don’t really know how enchanting works.”

“Don’t wizards do that?”

“First, I’m a mage. Second, it would be like me saying ‘don’t all tech supers make robotic rats powered by cheese reactors’?”

“... Don’t we? I kind of assumed most people just kept theirs hidden.”

I squinted at Vilhelmiina, but having actually seen Rodentia I was able to confirm they weren’t the same person. Probably. Both were mad scientists and all, but with quite different styles.

“It’s just a logical first step.” Vilhelmiina explained, “And from there you make a death ray.”

“Or a cheese ray.”

“Don’t be silly,” Vilhelmiina shook her head. “That’s completely unnecessary.”

“I think we have learned what we can about these,” Vilhelmiina said. “Unless you have other ideas?”

“I can’t say that I do,” I admitted.

“Then you should return to your other business.”

-----

Rasmus looked down at his side. “I’m not sure if I’ve ever had an injury like this.”

“Really?” asked Rocker- though in civilian garb he was just ‘Joe’. “Never got in any knife fights?”

“No,” Rasmus said. “No fights at all before I had my powers.”

“...Weird,” said our wild haired compatriot.

Today we had a day off. Rasmus could go on patrol with his injuries, but it was better to wait for them to recover. With access to Doctor Mishra he’d be recovered quickly, but forcing things to be fully healed was exhausting for both the healer and patient. Speeding things up to a few days was less troublesome.

Walking around as a group was slightly risky for our civilian identities- and including myself and Midnight even more so- but with Handface out of the picture we weren’t at significant risk. For the sake of security Midnight and I did look different, but we were still an orc and a Celmothian. Would it have been more effective if I looked like a human? Absolutely. But I was still me, even if I didn’t always like that.

The nature of today was a semi-official group bonding exercise. Since we weren’t actually performing any super activities, however, it was not quite official. The whole squad was around, though- Maks and the captain too. We had discussed possible activities for some time before coming to a general consensus.

“I don’t know why we’re not just going to a bar,” Joe said. “I know some with excellent music.”

“Where most of us would be unable to hear each other,” said Senan. “And it would take this from being vaguely work related to not. And thus it would no longer count against your remaining service requirements.”

“Alright, I get it,” he waved off the captain. “Not sure if the action of a movie will be exciting when we’ve been in the action, though.”

“Don’t worry,” our captain said. “You’ll likely find it quite interesting still.”

Personally, I had not seen… many movies. And none in a proper theater. I found them to be enjoyable diversions- much better than dry stories, though I had learned that the arts of storytelling were quite developed in all mediums in this world. Where I was from there had been some apparently impressive performances involving magic- but they catered to those with money, which had not been magely apprentices.

When Midnight ordered the tickets for us, the person behind the counter did a remarkably good job not exclaiming about the talking cat until we were away- and though I doubted they knew about Celmothians, they were at least knowledgeable enough to realize that anything that could speak was a person, and thus to be allowed inside.

Apparently there were several levels of experience. Cheapest but still apparently quite interesting were projections on a flat screen. I couldn’t really say how that was better than viewing at home on a television except I heard that the sound quality and overall ‘theater experience’ was better.

Speaking of that experience, we acquired popcorn- which I presumed was some sort of fancy name for something but was explained to me to be actual popped corn kernels- as well as various drinks and candies. Not the sort of things those trying to maintain fitness should indulge in regularly, but it was also the case that additional calories didn’t suddenly remove muscle. They just contributed to the overall intake which could result in undesirable amounts of body fat.

As we walked into our theater we were handed fancy sunglasses- we were quite able to afford something beyond the ‘typical’ experience. Thus it was that we found ourselves in large seats that were more than just chairs. The fact that they came with seat belts indicated they wouldn’t just be remaining stationary. Midnight looked at the seats, then at me. “I don’t think this will work for me.”

“Unfortunately,” Captain Senan agreed. “The chair will be off as you’re below weight and size requirements.”

Midnight did not remove himself from my shoulder. “Maybe I’ll stay here.”

“If you fall off I don’t want to hear any complaints,” I said. “But otherwise feel free.”

“I am sufficiently protected to not hurt myself,” he said.

With that, everyone settled in. I had to admit, the experience was impressive. Sights, sounds, motion, and even smells- though they were quite sparing with the latter only providing tiny hints of scents.

By the end, even ‘Rocker’ agreed that it was a different type of excitement than actual battle as we were carried on a wild adventure- while still remaining actually safe. That was even the case for Midnight, though my shirt was less safe. I should probably learn a Mending spell, or just sparingly involve myself in intense situations where he was almost flung off my shoulder and had to dig his claws in.

The experience was something most people could not quite have, a galaxy spanning sci-fi adventure. While there were aliens on Earth- and even some amount of interplanetary travel- interstellar technology was rare. People like Celmothians and Bunvorixians had it to some extent, but ending up all the way on Earth was usually some byproduct of something strange happening. Nobody knew why Earth and especially certain regions like New Bay received so much special traffic, or if it was the only such nexus. If there were others, they simply weren’t in contact.

After finishing the movie, I found the entire experience quite pleasant… but decided I might prefer to bring in food via magic so that I would not have to skip out on the next month’s rent. The prices on consumables within the theater were shockingly high.