Everything was fine. The super mouse was loosely in hand as we approached the exit of the park. The damage had been restrained to a few sections of broken bricks and one ice cream stand. We'd be putting in witness statements so that they could get their insurance money.

A super powered problem solved on our day off without any trouble.

That was how it was supposed to be. But of course, she was there. The woman who had the same power as the mouse. Or maybe it was the mouse that had the same power as the woman, but it didn't really matter. What did matter was that as soon as they got close to each other something happened.

I was just going to walk past her, again. She barely even glanced at us. But then the unconscious mouse suddenly became very not unconscious as something started flowing into it. I couldn't precisely say what, but it was clearly related to their powers and it involved some swirling ghosts, as well as more power not visible to the naked eye.

Izzy stepped back, her instincts warning her of something even if she didn't know what. Maks probably recalled me mentioning the woman before, so he'd already been on guard. Jo… put on an entirely unconcerned face that I was certain took reasonable effort to maintain for a prolonged duration- which everything likely felt like.

The mouse flew into the air, transparent forms of vaguely humanoid spirits swirling about as it rose. Power was once more building up. Far more than it had previously, and it was gaining more and more every moment. I gathered mana for a bigger Sleep spell, overcharging it while trying to make sure I was quick enough. I got perhaps 8 points of mana, multiplying its power by nearly sevenfold. I didn't have time for exact math, though.

I threw up my arms to cover my face, and indeed the anticipated explosion took place- the only problem was that it didn't happen because the mouse went unconscious again, even with that much power behind the sleep spell. Instead, that was the peak of what it could build up in that moment.

"Dammit!" I heard the woman swear. She was probably one of the closest to the blast as most of us had moved away. "I thought I felt something strange back here…"

My arms tingled, though at least that meant they were still there. I was sure they would hurt in a moment once my mind caught up with things. Relatedly, I had slid backwards probably ten feet from the impact, but I managed to keep my feet.

Izzy was fine, landing in some nearby grass. Even without any real protection, she was nearly unharmed. Jo looked like they hadn't moved at all- except of course they had, and were a significant distance from a moment before. Not even a gust of wind though, which I found impressive.

Maks was cursing which meant he was mostly alright. "Remind me to never try that again!"

He was shaking his hands. Had he tried to absorb the energy? It certainly wasn't fire or lightning, and while he had some flexibility with his powers it probably didn't extend to ghosts.

Anyway, the woman was there and swirling with ghost powers. I gathered mana. Either I was going to throw lightning through her and the mouse or… something else. It would depend on what she did.

Her hair began to become insubstantial, strands floating on unseen currents of power. "Ancient spirits, bind this creature!"

Her words helped me decide, though I wasn't one hundred percent sure she wasn't referring to me. Some people were like that. But rather than attacking, I decided to trust in the people around me and throw down some nice multicast Disguise. I had many ideas in mind… but what I got was a sort of average of everyone. Or a random mess, really. Strips of blue and yellow hair were mixed in among a range of humany hair colors- light to dark. Skin pigmentation was random patches of orc green, tanned skin, and some amount of caucasian whiteness. This applied to everyone- including the random super in front of us.

I thought it was good enough. As long as nobody had started recording in the few seconds it took. I was pretty sure most of the people recording were still occupied at the incident site.

Anyway, light blue chains wrapped around the mouse. I presumed they could probably wrap it up just fine, except for one thing. It had the same type of power and its first instinct was to bite at things. Somehow, its fangs sank into the spectral chains and tore away power. It was building up again.

Jo and Maks were looking out for civilians. Izzy was a civilian, so she was keeping her distance- though I was sure she would pull out some adorable switchblades if she had a proper target to stab. Flying mouse and woman of unknown intent weren't good enough yet though.

I kept a constant flow of mana between spells. This time, I tried an Energy Ward. If I tried to tune it to what I felt, I wasn't quite sure whether I could, but I did my best while also focusing on the downward direction. The chains had already fallen apart, and the unknown woman was gearing up for something else… but the next explosion came.

The mouse went rocketing off into the sky. I could barely even track where. The good news was that the explosion of ghostly energy was at least mostly redirected upwards, which didn't seem to hurt the thing. And if I remembered correctly, a mouse would probably survive a fall from any height.

"Helpmecatchit!" Jo prompted, failing to keep their words separate. Fortunately, they provided a clear prompt a moment later. "Freedom!"

Right. Nobody at the Brigade would complain about me minimizing collateral damage in that regard. "Good luck," I said as I cast Physical Freedom on them. After that, it barely even mattered that they had a disguise spell going- any frames of Shockwave that people caught would be blurred, except for very special cameras. If anyone could catch that mouse before it hit the ground, that would be Shockwave. Likewise, if necessary… Shockwave could kill it. They had a small blade for a reason- with enough speed anything sharp was sufficient.

I was so glad I didn't have any speedsters as enemies. Even if Shockwave probably only slit throats as good as a random civilian, the fact that I wouldn't always be able to react was relevant.

Maks had his mask on. I supposed I should make myself visible as well.

"Do you have any idea what was happening there?" I asked the woman, drawing her attention back from the sprinting trail of Shockwave. "Who are you?"

She looked suspiciously towards me, but saw my Power Brigade badge. The hasty Disguise was screwing with the visuals of my suit, but she could at least see that part. She looked down at her hands. "What did you do?"

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"You're disguised. Sloppily, but you shouldn't look like you. Lady."

"Everlass," she said.

"That's an unusual name," I commented.

"Superhero."

"Oh. Right. I'm Mage. So… that mouse."

"Would you believe me if I said I didn't know?" she was looking around, judging the situation. Maks didn't have a full uniform ready, but he was focusing on keeping civilians at a safe distance.

"Probably," I shrugged.

"Oh. Well, I really don't."

"Ever had any dealings with Super Labs?" I asked.

She tilted her head. "Which ones?"

"Ugh. Who even let them pick that name…" I shook my head. "We can talk as we try to chase down that mouse."

I saw Izzy slipping into the crowd that was gathering. She waved goodbye for the moment. If we needed her for some reason we always knew how to contact her. Better for her to avoid the fuss.

Everlady and I began jogging in the direction the mouse had taken an improvised rocket ride into the sky.

"Do you know why a mouse has my powers?" she asked.

"Some stupid lab got their hands on super dna. They threw it in a bunch of mice, and then Rodentia let them all out."

"What about their security?"

"She was on the other side of the campus and nobody told her anything."

"And the rest?" Everlady asked.

"There was one woman," I said.

"That's…"

"Dumb as hell? Absolutely. Also a violation of a million ordinances." I paused for a moment. "So it ate your ghost chains."

"That's… never been a thing before."

"It also keeps exploding. Do you explode?"

"I can," she said. "Do you not know that?"

"... Are you famous or something?"

She just raised an eyebrow. So, maybe. "It shouldn't have my chains. Or other abilities. But the type of power is the same, and it seems to be able to absorb that. I wasn't expecting that kind of resistance, but I should be able to restrain it properly next time."

"Good. Because it won't go back to sleep."

It took a bit before we ran across Shockwave- but really they ran across us. "Lost the trail. Checked everywhere. Got any sense?"

"Nope," I said, pulling out my phone. I gathered mana for some improvised divination. Mostly Scrying, I supposed. Maybe just a little compass. Unfortunately… "Weird."

"What?"

"It's gone."

"I said that."

I shook my head. "Not registering at all. At least not with this."

Everlady looked frustrated. "Is there an impact site?"

Shockwave dragged us over towards a spot behind a nearby tree, leaving us to figure out our balance when we suddenly stopped moving. "Here, I think. But I ran circles around this place and saw nothing. No little holes or anything." They looked around. "Could be in someone's pockets?"

"I should be able to sense it," I said.

"Same here," Everlady commented, displaying a bit of her matching power.

"Oh, Everlass! That's who you were. I've never seen the powers up close before and I didn't recognize you without your outfit."

"And I kind of wish you wouldn't," she said. "But I suppose we're all trained to keep such secrets."

"You'll have no trouble from me," Shockwave said.

For some reason the two of them were looking at me. "What? I was the one who cast Disguise. I know people care about that."

"How long does this last?" Everlady asked.

"An hour? Or until I make it go away. Though you could probably do something with other powers."

"Great. Well, I suppose we can look around for a little bit longer but then I should head out to distance myself from… this."

-----

The Power Brigade knew how to get in contact with heroes, if we needed Everlady more. Mostly, a few of us mercenaries ended up in HQ on our day off to give a report.

"I don't know why the mouse didn't do the chains," I said. "Maybe it just didn't know?"

"I believe I have an understanding of why," Calculator said. "But it wouldn't be appropriate to mention it."

Non public power stuff. Maybe. "Nothing in our records?"

Calculator nodded. "She also has empathic abilities. If a mouse had them, I imagine it would be overwhelmed. So that could be it."

Shockwave frowned. "That's not what you were thinking, though."

"No."

It was easier to just think of Maks as Maks. These two shouldn't be on a team- or we should get someone better at naming supers. Anyway, he gave his own opinion on things. "It seemed to have been a random coincidence. Maybe they were drawn together by sharing powers, but… there are also hundreds of those mice throughout the city, right?"

"Indeed," Calculator said. "It was bound to happen, I suppose. And of course Mage would be there."

"We were walking around a park. I didn't even follow anyone with strange powers into dark alleys."

"Do you do that often?" Calculator asked.

"Not when I'm off duty." Maybe once or twice total. Assuming we didn't count that time I made people follow me into a shady alley to help out Izzy.

"We sent some trackers," Calculator said. "Visual trails and scents both disappeared. Unless this mouse has powers we haven't even anticipated, there should have been some sort of outside interference."

"But I didn't see anyone," Shockwave said. "I mean, anyone suspicious. There were people in that vague section of park, I suppose."

"Someone who knows what they're doing, then," Calculator commented. "And concerningly well placed. How long did they have?"

"Well, I lost visuals on the mouse when it got far," Shockwave said. "But I found the estimated landing site within a minute."

"Unfortunately, there are a lot of heavy prints around there. A great many."

"So we just look for- oh. Right."

Calculator nodded. "Most will be yours. Others, random civilians. But ultimately, the incident happened without any civilian harm. It was still well resolved, within reason. And Everlass's bindings failing and possibly empowering this mouse is not a scar on our own reputation."

"Great," I said. "Can we get back to our day off?"

"You'd better," Calculator said. "Or HR will get mad at all of us."

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