Our mission for the Crimson Angels was completed with only two incidents. The heroes hadn't been anticipated, but were a random consequence of doing anything in this city. The Neon Void were more anticipated, but it appeared they mainly intended to go up against the Crimson Angels themselves. Otherwise they would have brought some sort of epidermis protection. Or cold shields. I knew that real tech had trouble with Blizzard, but super tech could probably defend against it.

Though I was making some assumptions. It was possible they didn't have the ability to innovate. I wasn't aware of who was making their super tech, though it seemed unique to the Neon Void and their customers. Power hiding tech seemed pretty custom at first, but a lot of people would probably want it.

-----

"How do you always cause so much trouble even when following the rules?" Calculator complained. But by his own admittance, there was nothing for him to complain about. "Couldn't you have gone a bit easier on them?"

"Doubtful," I said. "Because of Parrot's-"

"Yes, I understand his part of the responsibility," Calculator waved me off. "I would have preferred you start with fixing the mental interference rather than attacking."

"I don't think I could have," I shrugged.

Midnight backed me up, and he was almost entirely sincere. "The mental manipulation was extremely subtle before spiking. There was no time for us to react to it before… well, acting. Just the secondary feedback threw me off."

Sorority grunted. "That kid better get probation. Mental manipulation by heroes has to be well controlled. I don't know how he was on the streets with his level of training." One of her was pacing around, while the other stood stoic and cross armed. I doubted she would display any of her feelings in public, though. "And now I've ended up with troublesome enemies."

I shrugged, "I dunno, only Dull seemed even slightly relevant. The rest were mediocre. I could easily handle Parrot again."

"Mockingbird isn't the issue," Sorority said. "None of them are. I'm worried about Castle."

"... The bruiser lady?" I asked. "Why? She seemed like a reasonable lady."

"Didn't you hear Rook? He's her protege."

"He shouldn't be. He's not very good at things."

"It's unlikely she'll give up on him over one incident. And even if he's at fault, she might take it as a personal insult that you didn't handle it more smoothly, as the stronger party."

"Pretty sure he could have bench pressed me," I pointed out.

She rolled her eyes. "You know what I meant. You practically took four people out with one spell. Whether that's because they're weak or because you're strong, you're clearly above them."

"So… do I need to prepare to fight Castle now?" I asked.

Midnight made a face, "Please don't."

"Actually," Calculator was the one who came to my rescue. "That might be appropriate."

"Really?" Sorority turned both of her current bodies towards Calculator, giving him the same look.

"If an incident happens, we want Mage to be prepared," Calculator explained. "So that he can react appropriately."

-----

I was pulling on a single ankle with all of my might, but my target refused to go down.

"Seriously?" Captain Punch asked.

"It worked on Tower!" I complained. "He just toppled over!"

"Yeah, well, I'm not Pisa," the executive said. He smacked his fist against the one emblazoned on his chest. "I'm Captain Punch. And I know how to balance."

"I do know your name," I pointed out. "How much do you weigh?"

"Two hundred pounds."

"No way," I said. "Absolutely not. Otherwise, I could drag you around." But… after pulling out my mass goggles and converting, he was pretty accurate. So he didn't manipulate his mass, but it was still harder to affect him. Maybe enhanced inertia? "Oh right, I was missing one component. Give me a moment."

With Grease, I managed to drag Captain Punch. But he still didn't fall. In fact, his stance was so solid that I couldn't even cause him to tip slightly. But it appeared that he couldn't create friction. It was still difficult to get him moving, and he didn't keep momentum like he should have. If it was inertia, it was consciously controlled. Maybe. Or just a useful automatic reaction.

"You're supposed to be learning to deal with Castle," he pointed out.

"But you're not really dense," I said. "So I'm not sure if this is useful."

"Don't you have anything hard hitting?" he asked.

"I've got lightning and stuff. Are you… resistant?"

His smirk told me plenty. The worst part was that I probably wouldn't even get decent experience for this because I'd have to do something. Maybe if he was fighting me with reduced power I could snag a few points, but if he didn't fight back and I couldn't hurt him it was basically nothing happening.

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Chain Lightning was meant for area, arcing from one target to another. I had the brilliant idea to hit him with it multiple times, bouncing off of nearby targets. The problem? I couldn't get it to go through him. Around him, over his skin? Certainly. But nothing that would cause the slightest damage.

"Well that's no good. How about that uh…" he flicked his wrist and got a holographic display… of probably his phone. "Fire Shield?"

"It only works defensively," I pointed out.

He grinned and cracked his knuckles. "Let's see it, then."

I was pretty sure I got experience for him completely decimating my Stoneskin. But Fire Shield needed sustained contact to matter, and his one punch threw me across the room. "Shouldn't that have gone through my chest?" I asked. Even with Stoneskin, it seemed sufficient. I'd also seen him punch through some demons.

"I'm better than that, obviously," he said. "Don't underestimate Francois' work either. You should have felt some of that all the way down to your toes."

I nodded. The force of a punch being distributed across the torso made sense. It couldn't feasibly get much further even if it had been entirely rigid. But it did, because super tech.

"Alright, I guess you'll have to pull out the big stuff. Let's see… it says you can create meteors?"

"We might actually need to be careful with those. Also, they're not very good for inside." I might have enough room for them to descend, but not enough to be out of the explosion.

"To the quarry, then!"

-----

"Can you Teleport into the air?" Captain Punch asked. "Or the water. You could drop her into the bay, then pop back. It would take her at least a few minutes."

"Assuming she's not just holding onto my ankle."

"You should just pop back without her," he shrugged.

I was pretty sure it didn't look like that. But… why? "Can Movebrain do that?"

"It's well known enough that he can control who goes and who doesn't," Captain Punch confirmed. "Now hit me with a meteor."

"How will I compare this to Castle?" I asked. "Also, you don't want to see it first?"

"I trust Calculator's assessment."

Good enough. I wasn't going to overcap it though. That was risky for a few reasons. My control wavered at that point, and things grew to concerningly powerful levels sometimes. I might hurt myself with them. And I'd shut off Tower's heart like that, which was fine but could have been not fine.

When I threw a meteor at Captain Punch, I didn't know what I expected. Maybe taking it in the chest. But I should have expected him to punch it. It exploded and created a U shaped crater around him.

"Eh, I've seen bigger," he said. "What happens if you make it higher up?"

"My accuracy goes down," I said. "Most of the acceleration is magical and not gravity."

"Well, that's fine. My assessment… don't use that on Castle. It's pointless. Also, I should probably warn you about the collateral damage."

"Right. So you're saying I've got nothing that can hurt her?"

"Maybe. She might have a weakness." Something told me that Captain Punch knew her weakness. "But just because your biggest spells don't work doesn't mean you've got nothing. You don't have to hurt her. Just make her bad."

-----

Maybe it was because the main bruiser I trained with was Great Girl, but I had kind of forgotten how good Reduce was at making people bad. Right now, I had a very tiny, slow bruiser chasing after me. It was like tag, but if I got grabbed my arm would be crushed.

Or at least that was Captain Punch's official tagline. I had the feeling he was neither as small nor as slow as he should have been, but both spells worked. Grease was proportionately a larger area for no extra cost. If he jumped, it was in slow motion. And with Haste, I could definitely run fast enough to leave him in the dust. I wouldn't be able to protect an objective, but I could at least leave. And presumably with any companions of mine, which would be necessary.

I wondered if any of these tactics would work against Doctor Doomsday. He wasn't a bruiser, but he was someone I shouldn't fight. Maybe just Slow… but also inverted Energy Ward if I could determine how he was attacking.

"Now do it again!" Captain Punch said. "But make yourself bigger and kick me in the chest!"

"Should I be as strong as possible?" I asked.

"Sure thing," he said. "I'd like to see you as a bruiser."

Being smaller should make him lighter. Which maybe didn't matter, but it might. With that, Enlarge, and Enhance Physical it made me look like a giant bully kicking a baby in the chest. And the results?

My foot hurt. But, he did slide back a few feet, even without Grease.

"A damn good hit for a squishy sort," he said as he spun my around by my outstretched leg. "But I can still toss you."

I wasn't really ready to defend myself, but I cast Fly before I could actually be tossed. That meant I was immediately able to alter my trajectory, flying up and over the sides of the quarry instead of into the wall.

"Haha! Excellent!" he yelled tinily from below. "A perfect response! Would that work if you were a bit denser?"

"Uh, it should," I said as I floated down to an area above him. Out of grabbing height unless he jumped. "Can she do that? When she's not touching me?"

"Hmm, can she?" he raised an eyebrow.

This time I couldn't tell if he was speculating, thought I knew something, or did know the answer. "I haven't seen anything that would indicate that. But if she threw me, maybe it would take a moment for me to normalize?"

If she could mix and match the durability her density added, she could send me flying with a lot of momentum to hit a hard wall. Or just slam me into the ground while I was low density and presumably fragile.

I really didn't think she would. But maybe someone else might try. Perhaps even a barbarian or knight of some sort.

"Your big spells suck," Captain Punch said. "I like these other ones better. You should practice them more."

"I already have," I pointed out. "That's why they're so good. Other ones take longer and are more expensive. And I've had them less long."

Actually, proper training wasn't that much longer for high ranking spells. At least, if that rule still stuck. Maybe breaking magic would have shifted things further from the points spending side of things. Relatedly, I had masteries and combined spells of lower things, but only Divination magic happened to have gotten an Advanced version. It was just luck- and maybe having the perfect challenge.

I needed to at least get Advanced Spatial Magic soon. It could theoretically happen at any time. I might need more total upgrades, but that clearly wasn't a strict requirement. Maybe another spell? Was there anything good that fit in the range I was looking for? If it was spatial magic then I could summon more things or… learn Banishment.

Too bad I didn't have the points or targets to improvise on. Except… I probably could. I had a number of extradimensional friends who I really shouldn't shove back to their home planes… but what if I brought some here and sent them back? It would be a bit troublesome if they ended up somewhere weird, though. Maybe I could try when there was another portal incident, but that seemed too unreliable. I kind of wanted to achieve growth now.

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