DoT: Busted

"Damn it." Inara Tillock let the spell drop immediately, but given the way the woman had suddenly looked up, the dwarf had clearly been aware of it. It only remained to be seen whether or not she would say anything to her cousin Dan, and whether or not he would believe her. 

She'd been very proud of the arrangement she'd made: a pair of identical pictures, painted by the same artist, on canvas cut from the same sheet and using the same pigments. The painting she'd gifted to her cousin was nothing more than a seascape, a picture of a storm-tossed ship fighting its way on. All the enchantments had been laid on its twin, which sat in her office.

The arrangement was meant to minimize the chance of discovery; it was foul luck indeed that she'd happened to trigger it when someone happened to be actively detecting magic. What were the odds? They had to be minuscule. Dan certainly hadn't noticed, but given that he was usually making deals -- or, on one memorable occasion, one of his clerks -- he was generally pretty distracted when she looked in. 

She'd have to be careful when looking in on him next. If he did become aware of the painting, he might remove it -- or destroy it. He might also decide to stage a scene or two, to throw her off track. On the other hand, she had to consider the possibility that the dwarf simply wouldn't mention it; she might not want to admit that she was using Detect Magic during their meeting, after all, and even if she didn't mind that she might not have figured out what was going on. This might only have been a near-miss. 

It didn't matter too much either way. She already had all the blackmail material she could ever need; if her cousin stepped out of line, she could bring him right back in. Keeping tabs on his deals was satisfying, but ultimately unnecessary. Being caught at it would be nothing more than a minor embarrassment; it wasn't like she used the same trick for every merchant she cared to spy on, after all.

With a small sigh, Inara Tillock went back to work.

StV: A Friendly Sparring Session, part two

"Okay, whenever you're ready." Ms. Brigham's voice rang out over the speakers; she was watching from the control booth that overlooked the testing chamber. 

Emily Hubbard -- Jade, while she was using her powers -- squared off against Cat Montoya, who went by Nightfall. 

It didn't look like an entirely fair match: while each was athletic in her own way, Jade stood at six-foot-two, towering over Nightfall's five feet of height. Nightfall didn't seem bothered, even as Jade let creamy green energies spill forth to form a longsword in her hands and then wrap her in armor. Nightfall settled her weight and extended her hands as well, then said: "Huh. That's interesting. It was working last night." She looked around the brightly-lit room, then glanced at the clock on the wall. "I might need to make it a little dim in here." 

"Go ahead," said Jade. "As long as I can still see..."

The lights seemed to dim, and shadows gathered in the corners. Nightfall nodded to herself as a smoky black tendril extended from her hands and solidified into a matching broadsword. She looked at Jade's armor for a long moment, then more of the smoky darkness flowed out to surround her body. It wasn't solid the way Jade's armor was, but it covered her outline and made her harder to see.

"Okay, first test!" Nightfall called, and slapped the side of her blade against Jade's. 

Jade's blade pulsed with a burst of green light, then settled; the blades were pressing against each other, each solid to the other. Nightfall called, "Contact! And no unexpected reactions!"

"Speak for yourself!" Jade called back, raising her voice for Ms. Brigham's benefit. "I think you surprised my power."

"Oh," said Nightfall. "That's... that can happen?"

"Apparently so," said Jade. "Testing defenses?"

Nightfall nodded, and Jade raised her blade out of the way as Nightfall slapped her in the side with the flat of her shadow-blade. It struck her armor and stopped. "Okay, good," said Nightfall. "So I can't hurt you while we're practicing."

Jade nodded. "I felt the impact, but no damage."

"Okay," said Nightfall, and drew a breath. "Now try me-- gently."

Jade slapped her lightly on the side, and Nightfall grunted, then stopped and held up a hand. "Okay, so apparently I can't manage armor yet."

"No, but that blurring effect is distracting as hell," Jade acknowledged. 

"Well... good. Okay, you ready to try some light sparring? Very light, I just joined the class a couple of months ago."

Jade considered that. "Let's start with a couple of drills before we try sparring, then."

StV: A Friendly Sparring Session, part one

"Emily?" Catarina Montoya set her books down on the opposite side of the table, glancing around the library to make sure nobody else was close enough to easily listen in. With the variety of powers at the school, there was no guarantee of complete privacy... but this was pretty close, and the combination of looking like a casual meeting and basic courtesy on the part of most other students meant their odds were pretty good. 

Emily Hubbard looked up, nodded, and then smiled. "Cat," she said warmly. "I wasn't expecting a visit from our conquerors."

Cat smiled uncomfortably. "It was just one match," she said, "and it's not like you didn't hit back."

"You still pretty well flattened us," Em said, though she didn't seem bothered by it -- or at least, she didn't seem hostile about it. 

"Thanks, I guess?" Cat looked for a way to change the subject gracefully, then blurted out: "I need a favor."

"Sure," Emily replied immediately. "What sort of favor?"

"I want to try sparring against your power with my darkness."

Emily frowned. "If I can't see, I won't be able to pull my swings. I could injure you badly if I managed to make contact."

"This won't be in the dark," Cat reassured her quickly. "I've been working on some new tricks, and you'll be the first -- or maybe the second -- to see them."

"All right," said Em. "I'm in."

Music: The Misfit's Swing

Diabulus in Musica:

StV: Accelerated Transformation

Ms. Campbell was frowning. "Have you been doing anything different lately, Abby? Working out more? Pushing yourself?"

"No, not really." Abigail Johnson was puzzled. "Why?"

"You're changing faster, I think. It's hard to say for sure, but I think we should move your next appointment up. Can you come by in two weeks?"

"Sure," said Abby. "I, um, I have been learning sorcery. From Sophia."

"You've been what?" asked Ms. Campbell. 

"Learning sorcery," Abby told her. "Apparently I have a talent for it."

Ms. Campbell looked thoughtful. "When you say 'sorcery', do you mean..."

"Like this," Abby told her, and went through the words-and-gesture that Sophia had first taught her. Ms. Campbell flinched back as the gust of wind touched her face and ruffled her tightly-curled hair. 

She stopped, took a deep breath, and held up a hand. "I know we call what Sophia does 'sorcery', but that's just a way of saying that her power as an Anomaly allows her to--"

Abby shook her head. "Her power as an Anomaly is just a sensitivity to certain kinds of energy. Learning to shape and use those energies... that's sorcery."

"Huh. You sound very certain of that." 

Abby shrugged. "That's how it feels to me, too. And that's how Sophia explained it. Lyceus, too, now that I think about it."

Ms. Campbell blinked several times in rapid succession. Then she paced away, stopped at the door, and paced back to the cot where Abby was sitting. "And you started learning this when?"

"...Three weeks ago."

"Abigail..." Ms. Campbell sighed. "I suggest you put a pause on your studies. Whatever you may be learning, it seems it's also accelerating your transformation into... well, whatever you're transforming into."

Abby considered that for a long moment. Then she said, "No." 

"No?"

"I'm transforming anyway. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. I can't avoid it, so there's no reason not to lean in if that will let me learn sorcery."

Ms. Campbell's face went through about four different expressions in less than a minute. Finally it went completely smooth, and then she nodded. "All right. Next checkup's in two weeks. Let's see where this is going."

StV: Amulets

"There you are," said Cedric, as Sophia stepped out onto the front porch of the school. He'd been sitting at one of the wrought-iron tables with Abby, who was working on her Algebra and occasionally asking him questions about it. 

Neither of them had meant to become friends with the younger girl. In fact, they'd both been a bit suspicious of her motives when she'd wound up going out to see Casablanca with them as a semi-accidental date for Sophia's brother. But then Abby had turned out to have an impressive knack for sorcery, and Sophia was the only one at the school -- possible in the whole country -- who could teach her. 

Sophia sat down beside him, shifting her chair with a metallic scrape so that she was close enough to lean over and kiss his cheek. "Sorry," she said. "It took longer that I expected."

"What did?" asked Cedric, grinning. He couldn't even pretend to be irritated -- he was still entirely too thrilled that she was going out with him. 

"These," said Sophia, and laid a bundle of cloth on the table. She unfolded it carefully to display four pieces of silver jewelry, each set with a stone. "I had to shape the silver myself, then set the matrix for the container, and then hold it in place while I stabilized the whole thing. It wasn't the hardest thing I've ever done, but I'm out of practice and it took some work."

Cedric narrowed his eyes. "Like your amulet?" he asked, making the connection immediately. 

Sophia grinned and nodded immediately. "Exactly. Abby, the two with the moonstones are for you. Each one of them can hold a single spell, keeping it charged and ready until you use it."

Abby looked puzzled. "So I could save an extra energy blast?"

"You could," Sophia affirmed, "but if we keep practicing you'll be able to do those by reflex whenever you need. As you study more and expand your vocabulary, you'll find yourself using some spells very regularly, but you'll still be able to pull together other spells if you need them. This lets you pull them together in advance, so you don't have to think them through in an emergency."

"Oh," said Abby. "Oh. So, if I don't focus on combat spells -- I still don't really want to be on one of the Teams, remember? -- I could learn to, say, do illusions or healing or repairs but still keep one good attack and one good escape ready in the jewelry?" 

"Exactly," Sophia repeated. "When I go out with the Team, I have my go-to spells and we all know what to expect from them. But if I think I might need something else, I can prepare it in advance and keep it in my amulet. It gives me some extra flexibility and the ability to prepare for particular situations."

Abby nodded. "Thank you," she said. "That's... this is... Thank you."

Sophia smiled. "You're very welcome. We can start looking at how to fix a spell in there next week; it's not too different from just casting it normally. Eventually, I can show you how to make your own, but... one thing at a time, okay?"

Abby nodded eagerly, pulling the moonstone amulet over her head and slipping the ring onto one finger, then another until she found a good fit. 

"What about the other two?" asked Cedric.

"Bloodstone," Sophia said evenly. "They're for my brother. Kind of an apology, but also just... trying to help."

"Ah," said Cedric. Then, "Y'know what? Good. You're brother's a good guy. He thinks he's a bad guy, but... he's a good guy."

Villain: Lord Mechanus

Name: Anton Barton Rosemeade
Alias: Lord Mechanus
Age: 66
Appearance: 5'6" with gray eyes and neatly-trimmed silver hair and beard, nicely dressed or wearing powered armor,
Job: Inventor, Corporate Espionage

Anton was the inventor of one of the very first suits of powered armor, and spent a lot of his early career figuring out how to steal money and materials for improvements to his designs. He tangled with police and a number of would-be heroes, and developed a reputation as a villain with a code of honor: he refused to kill under any circumstances. He held to his code even when it saw his suit wrecked and himself sent to jail by a cop who happened to be an anomaly as well; court records suggest that it also contributed to his relatively light sentencing. 

While serving his time, Anton began to reconsider the direction of his chosen career, a line of thinking which was strongly reinforced when, shortly after his release, he was approached by no less than three major manufacturers with offers to license and produce his designs. While he ultimately decided to keep his designs to himself, he also prepared a counter-offer: he would use his technological and criminal prowess to acquire things on behalf of these corporations. After two months of preparation and a week-long demonstration for the first of his clients, he entered the lucrative world of corporate espionage. 

Officially, he works as a consultant and has put his criminal past behind him. Behind the scenes, he uses a combination of social engineering, high-tech devices, and software hacks to steal information from million-dollar corporations for other corporations to take advantage of. He is not averse to keeping information that he deems relevant for himself -- research, designs, and blueprints are a particular interest. This more subtle approach has kept him off the radar of law enforcement, and provided him with a more-than-comfortable lifestyle. His mechanical designs are much smaller and far subtler these days, but he keeps a redesigned power suit behind a false wall in his garage, just in case he ever needs it.