Doctor Martinez was very experienced. He had even figured out how to see weird magical stuff going on with me, so there was no doubt in my mind he would work better within his specialty area of super based biology.

"Hmm. I see," He nodded. "Mage, could you use your power negation technique again?"

Dispel was easier to say, but I suppose it would be weirder if everyone knew the proper name. "Anywhere specific?"

"As dispersed as possible, actually," Doctor Martinez explained.

The patient looked sick. It was probably only partially physical. I could already tell that she hated the thought of this whole thing, but at this point she was without any real options but to cooperate. For one thing, she couldn't even operate the elevators. Technically the stairs had to work but she wouldn't be able to outrun even the least fit member of the Brigade.

I gathered mana for Dispel, empowering it to the standard limit. I wasn't trying to do anything crazy with a greater tier, but instead the middling mana cost was appropriate.

There were barely any lingering traces of power within the mayor's niece, but they winked out of existence as my magic flowed through her. I wondered if she could feel it. She certainly imagined that she could, given the look on her face. A mix between anger and depression.

I started thinking about ways to fix that while Doctor Martinez looked her over again. "I'll prescribe you some anti-nausea medicine. As a doctor my job is to treat you, so make you listen to my words well. I don't care that this 'Juice' is illegal, I care that if you take it again your kidneys will shut down in a way that possibly can't be healed even by powers."

"What?" Thiziri looked shocked. "But I- some people are already on their third dose and they're totally fine!"

Doctor Martinez narrowed his eyes. "Are they? I seriously doubt it, unless they are particularly lucky. Now then, I believe you have to talk to this fine fellow about that," he gestured to me.

-----

This woman was glaring daggers at me, as if it was my fault she gambled on the objectively wrong way to get powers. Everyone knew full immersion was more reliable than injections. That was why all those vats of glowing chemicals were strictly regulated. … Also the injections, actually. But they missed something.

"Why is it you?" she asked. "And the cat."

"I'm not a cat," Midnight commented.

"Obviously," she crossed her arms. "Are you some sort of interrogation specialists?"

"Nope," I said. I wasn't sure why Calculator wasn't here. Midnight was also confused. It was also strange that I was supposed to give a verbal report. I guess that was so that we could cover up stuff because she was related to the mayor. Just a little bit of corruption and stuff. She hadn't really done anything to hurt anyone but herself. Maybe if she'd actually stood a chance of hurting Midnight I would have had a different opinion. "Where'd you get the stuff?"

"Like I'd tell you."

"That is the point of this," I said. "And you promised to cooperate."

"What's the benefit for me?"

"Not causing a scandal for your uncle and staying out of jail," I said. "Isn't that enough?"

She just glared. "No."

I had to pause a moment to take a response from Momo, who I'd contacted with Sending earlier. Her words were, "What a strange request. I suppose I will inquire, but I find it unlikely to bear fruit." Well, that was how things translated.

I figured as much. But I did have to ask.

Now, how to deal with Thiziri? "You do know that nobody tested this stuff on humans, right?"

"So?" she shrugged. "Mice are close, right? That's why they test on them."

"They test on mice to get an impression of whether it might work on humans. Then they test on people to see if it actually does what they want." Well, that probably wasn't even entirely true. There was probably some super tech that could run simulations, which seemed more reasonable. Super Labs had no idea what they were doing, did they?

"Look, I feel fi-" Thiziri couldn't finish her sentence without wincing. "I'm fine, okay?"

"If Doctor Martinez says that your kidneys will fail, he's right," I said. "It's not worth it for crappy powers."

"I liked those powers!" Thiziri said.

"They're nowhere near as good as the original." I'd only actually seen a few videos of Mystrome, but I knew this was true from our general information.

Midnight didn't understand what I was doing, but I couldn't exactly explain it in front of Thiziri. That would give away most of our leverage. "Even if you aren't worried about the consequences for yourself, others are getting hurt. Multiple ways. Not everyone has been so… conservative with their powers."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

It was nice to know that Midnight could also gloss over someone attacking us. I didn't expect him to become comfortable with people trying to kill us, though. I should probably be a little bit less okay with that when it happened. Even I had limits, though.

"... I can get you where you need to go," Thiziri said after some thinking. "You just need to follow my plan."

I wasn't sure why she suddenly changed her tune. "And you're expecting we'll just give you what you want?"

"Obviously."

-----

Personally, I thought there were a lot of flaws in the plan. However, with sufficient preparation it probably didn't matter. And by preparation I meant friends with good powers.

I was wearing a particularly lumpy coat. That was suspicious, because even if people didn't know my personal style it wasn't even the right season. Francois would be livid if he saw it, but I wasn't exactly in uniform. No, I was. In this case, my official Power Brigade stuff was comfortably tucked beneath the rest. Seriously, that was more special than the fact that my suit was bullet resistant.

I was cuffed, with power suppressors. Midnight had one cuff around his neck and the other around one of my wrists, making me walk awkwardly with my hands at chest level. It was still better than him being ground level and me having to crouch down.

"Left here," Animal ordered. With her mask back on, that was what we should call her, right? Eh, it was better to minimize chatter as she guided the three of us through random alleys. I wondered if there was a point to the path. Maybe she didn't know a better one, but at least a few led out onto major streets and we could have just entered from there. "Stop here," she said, looking around. "It shouldn't take long."

I only sensed the incoming woman shortly before she said something. "Didn't expect to find you back here." The super who had 'captured' us jumped. "I heard about that scuffle and assumed you had been taken in."

There was one of the flaws. There had to be video out there of us winning.

"Don't be crazy," said our captor. "Of course I'd win. Did you bring the stuff?"

"After we confirm the bounty." The woman's voice echoed, though I didn't think it would for most people. It just so happened she was using a translator device, and Midnight and I already had Translation magic active. If it was just the device, we would have tuned out the words we didn't understand but instead we got double from this blue alien. A member of the Neon Void. One of the Venzu, who seemed to hold most or all of the leadership positions. She pulled out some sort of scanner, passing it over us. "I'm impressed you actually managed. These two have a reputation."

"We have thwarted a few of your heists," I prodded.

"Come on," Animal said. "Give it to me. I got them. You promised five."

"About that…" the woman commented. "Bounty's as promised, but the price went up. Three vials and five grand is how it comes out."

Thiziri nearly snapped. But just like her name, she was a regular person- what could she do? "Just give it."

The woman waved the power sensor at her. "Already drained, huh? Figures. I don't have it here. Come."

She took us to a normal seeming door… but she sprayed something over it and it began to glow. A short duration portal. That might throw off some plans.

As I was shoved through, I did my best to stabilize it to last longer. I wasn't familiar with that sort of super tech- who ever thought of spray-on portals?- but I still had experience and instincts to work with. Instead of a minute, I could maybe swing two or three. But as we were herded further into some completely unrelated indoor area, I soon lost contact. So for the moment, it was just the five of us.

It wasn't quite clear if this was their lair, though. They certainly had some traps, but there might be another portal or something. The Neon Void had done well not to give away their lairs so far. There could always be another level to things.

And there was. We walked right through a wall. It was good enough I didn't even realize until I was shoved through it rudely. Midnight almost fell off. "Watch it, lady."

"What are you going to do, huh? Strangle me with your cuffs?"

I could already feel a lot more super tech sitting around, plus I could see some other gang members guarding the place.

"Yeah," I responded.

But my words were a clever ploy. Instead, I kicked her in the stomach.

Midnight was prepared for my rising aggression, and he used Storage to immediately remove the hindrance around his neck. What about the power suppressors?

Obviously they weren't suppressing our power. They were just hiding someone. That someone should probably have gotten my hint. Either way, I removed my cuffs and took of the jacket, dangling it towards a nearby couch.

Contingency created an Energy Ward tuned to the Neon Void's favorite flavor of beam weapon. They could probably have other random super tech stuff, but we only knew so much.

For some reason, Animal started cussing and ran back through the wall. Barely anyone had shot at us, though. And she was warded too! So ungrateful.

The woman glared at me. "You!" She threw a punch, for some reason. I only had to tilt my head slightly for her to hit a tusk. They didn't stick out all that much, but they were still quite hard and she had the misfortune of catching the sharp bit on the top, tearing a line along her forearm.

I used the momentum provided by her punch to spin around and kick her again. Hopefully backup would arrive soon, but if it was just the three of us I thought we could take a full hideout. Midnight had already scrambled down and was darting around at ground level, his Celmothian battle suit expanding from its compressed location around the cuff.

Then the couch tossed itself across the room. At least, it looked like that from my angle. Obviously I knew what was really happening, because I could feel my Reduce spell unravelling at the intention of its bearer. Great Girl threw the couch before she finished growing to her 'full' height. She'd been about half a foot tall when she was being smuggled in the hood of my fluffy coat, due to a combination of amplified magic and her own size changing abilities.

Great Girl caught three people with the couch. Nobody had been ready for that… though they also hadn't been terribly alert about the people they could see. After all, we'd been checked out by their own stuff.

But there was something true about super tech that was also true about most things. You could have a lot of it, or you could have it be good. They did have some good stuff, but that was mostly relegated to hiding their base and vault heists. Scanners given to random drug dealers were mid tier at best. Though I still thought we could have been caught.

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