Mage Among Superheroes

Being away from Turlough wasn't normally a problem for Midnight, but in this peculiar situation he didn't feel good about it. He went with Swiss Arms to a different room, where she began asking all sorts of questions… and occasionally staring off into space. Obviously they were suspicious of something, but he couldn't quite figure out what.

Eventually, he had enough. "What's the point here?" Midnight asked. "Do you think we're… not us?"

Swiss Arms sighed. "Well, something like that. Calculator is trying to prove things one way or another with Mage."

"Would it help for me to say that it's really him?" Midnight asked.

"Not really. Since your identity is in question as well. Unless you can prove it somehow. Calculator's trying to be all complicated about it… but I don't have the skills for this," she shrugged. "So? Got anything?"

"I suppose my identification doesn't matter. How about showing you magic?"

"Could be an illusion."

"Telling you about when we met?"

"Could have been interrogated. Or had your memory read."

Midnight's tail flicked back and forth. "That does make this difficult. If that's possible, anyone could be replaced."

"Ugh, never say that in front of Calculator. He'll go mad. I'm willing to accept something tangible that others might not think is important."

Midnight pondered for a moment. "I have tuna," he said. He cast Storage to pull out a few cans of tuna."

"I mean…" Swiss Arms shrugged. "That's something I guess." She paused for a moment. "Do you have… more?"

"Turlough told me to stop worrying and carry less. So I only have… 15 cans," Midnight said, piling them in front of him in batches. "Does this help?"

"It does," Swiss Arms said. "Though I'll have to inspect it."

Midnight stared at her soulfully.

"You can afford to buy more cans of tuna. Or someone will pay you back, if it really matters. But I have to take a look at these elsewhere."

"Alright," Midnight said. Then he was left to wait for… either a long time or just a few minutes.

-----

I nodded, "Hmm, that makes sense. It's something only you would carry around in quantity, and if an impostor could perfectly replicate all of our abilities, it would be a problem. Plus, there would have to be a range limit or similar on illusions, so having something they could take away was quite valuable. Either that or they would be facing someone of such power that they couldn't possibly see through the illusions and we shouldn't have even been suspected in the first place."

"Something like that," Midnight said. "I would suggest we don't come to HQ with Nondetection on anymore."

"Ugh. I suppose we should be fine inside HQ, but that means expending more mana when we go out. Which is just another thing to factor into our mana costs."

"We might be able to cast it after we arrive," Midnight said. "Though we'd want to consult Calculator."

"And probably be subject to tests," I agreed. "Well, they learned it's possible to break Nondetection with power… and Calculator is a bit less worried since there's no proof that any security measures failed. Because even us not registering anything had safeguards in place to warn them."

-----

Before we got into any more trouble, Midnight and I had a discussion on how I was spending my points. Since it affected him, I had to at least consult him, even if I didn't agree. There was one thing we debated on for a while, but I ultimately had to give in.