It was the earliest memory she had of a time when she’d known what she was going to do with her life. The festival decorating the streets of Baumtown had been a spectacle for all the senses; food carts, barkers, game stalls, and all sorts of other wondrous things had greeted her and her friend. The entire area around Freedom Court was roped off so that pedestrians could walk between the stalls set out on the roads, or around the very home of the Freedom Phalanx.
But what had drawn the two young girls’ attention was not the games of chance, the food, or the various souvenir booths. Not even the area at the heart of the Court where Statesman and other heroes were waiting to take pictures and give autographs had interested them at all. No, both of the girls were more spellbound by a smaller stage off to the side, where a single man in a bargain tuxedo and domino mask was pulling a small rabbit out of his hat.
Both girls were utterly entranced as he proceeded to do other things like levitating a small girl who volunteered from the audience, or merging and then pulling apart a set of rings without breaking them. He pulled cards out of thin air and then made them explode into neon colors and shining lights. And all the while, he explained in simple terms what he was doing. Her friend thought the science of the magic the man explained was the most interesting part, but she was been more fascinated by the spectacle. After the show was through, both waited in line at the end to talk to the magician, and begged as only young girls could for him to teach them as well.
The magician had been younger than he’d seemed to her at the time, now that she looked back at the memory, and though he had not been able to teach them because he was still learning himself, he had not turned them completely aside. He told them that both of them had the same talent for magic as he, and that they should follow it as far as it could go if they truly wanted to learn, because the gift they had was incredibly precious, and what they could learn through magic utterly amazing.
Both swore to learn, that day, as much as they could, so that they could one day become magicians as well.
Time went on, and the girls became young women. Both became students, but shunned crowds for their studies of the arcane. They were alike and yet opposites, for one studied to know, and the other to do.
Eventually, she left her friend to her studies and went out into the world to make a name for herself. But that single memory of the festival in Freedom Court always remained deep in her heart.
***
“The Great and Powerful Tricksy has astounded and amazed you, but she is not finished yet! She senses that there may yet be some nay-sayers in the audience who doubt Tricksy, and invites them to speak their mind!” the magician on the stage declared, even as the lights panned out over the crowd. She knew there had to be at least one out there, and Tricksy had certainly prepared for that with something that would make everyone, mage and mundane alike, gape in awe at her talent.
“Yeah, I think you’re full of it!” one audience member said, standing up as a spotlight worked its way over to him. “Everything here’s simple magic tricks. Everyone knows you have actual magic. You aren’t doing anything anyone with a 101 course in the stuff couldn’t do!”
“Oh really? Perhaps the Doubted and Accused Tricksy should prove herself then! If you will come up onto the stage, you will be able to prove to everyone that Tricksy is a fraud...or Tricksy will prove herself to be as amazing and fantastic as she has claimed.”“Oh, by doing what?” the heckler sneered.
“Why, Tricksy will prove herself by cutting you in half, completely safely,” the magician said, even as one of her assistants brought out a chainsaw, which Tricksy then took and revved, the engine’s roar carrying over the crowd.
“...the h-hell? Are you crazy?!” the heckler said, even as Tricksy’s eyes narrowed over her smile.
“Crazy? Of course not. The Honest and Safety-conscious Tricksy has tested this a hundred times. And after all, you have said that Tricksy is nothing but a few paltry magic tricks with no real talent, so this must be smoke and mirror trickery, in which case you will be completely safe anyway, because Tricksy won’t actually be cutting you in half,” she smirked.
The crowd hushed as people looked at the heckler, waiting to see his response. Tricksy’s own smile grew a touch. She’d just trapped him into either sitting down and admitting he’d been wrong, or coming up on stage to prove her wrong...and these types could never stand to look like they were beaten that easily. She’d cornered him as easily as she might sweep her kitchen free of dust. As her intended victim got into the box, Tricksy turned to the crowd, whirring saw held up to catch the light. “Lest others doubt the Great and Powerful Tricksy’s word, she shall demonstrate that this is no trick saw now!” At a snap of her fingers, two of her stagehands brought out a pile of phonebooks. Tricksy brought the saw down, chewing through the paper documents with ease and sending pieces flying in all directions. Tricksy didn’t quite restrain a smirk as she noticed her dupe paling a little from his position in the box.
As her stagehands moved away the remaining chunks of paper, Tricksy strutted around behind the box and revved the motor again. “Do not worry. Tricksy is almost completely sure this will work,” she grinned, getting a laugh from the crowd as the supposed “victim” began to stutter as Tricksy brought down the saw. At which point the real trick began. Holding two simultaneous portals in place with barely a half inch of space between them was a significantly difficult feat, but she doubted that the man in the box had any idea he’d slipped into one and out the other. Especially given his scream when the chainsaw hit the middle of the box and began shredding its cheap plywood as easily as it had paper. A few seconds later, the box was in two pieces, the splintered bits of it on the stage highlighting the saw’s destructive capability. Tricksy whirled both sides of the box around so as to show both head and foot of her volunteer, walking between both halves as she did. The man in question was making vaguely unintelligible noises of fright at this point, though he seemed to be recovering now that he was convinced he wasn’t, in fact, dead.
Tricksy, for her part, then rolled the boxes back in place, end to end, and opened the box’s opposite ends. Her stagehands helped the man out, completely unharmed, as Tricksy bowed, feeling the applause of the crowd wash over her. This was the moment she lived for. The approval and recognition of her talent washing over her like a physical wave. With a flourish of her hands, she let loose a wave of illusionary doves that flew out over the crowd, sprinkling short lived sparks and the occasional autographed photo. As people reached and pushed to get ahold of the ones that fell near them, Tricksy smiled, knowing she had them all in the palm of her hand.
***
“ONLY THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS?!”
Sandy winced slightly at the sound of her roommate’s voice briefly overpowering the sound-buffering spell that she’d cast around her room for privacy on a given phone call. The amateur mage had known that Tricksy’s spell had been more for her benefit than the stage performer’s privacy, but the fact that whatever discussion was going on had managed to get Tricksy that loudly upset didn’t bode well for her friend’s mood when she got off the phone. Sure enough, after a lot more muffled words that Sandy didn’t understand and probably didn’t want to, Tricksy emerged from her bedroom, visibly fuming.
The sky-haired woman snatched her hat off her head as she stalked into the main living area, angrily throwing it at the couch nearby. Much to Tricksy’s frustration, the relatively light piece of headwear merely drifted gently across to land on a cushion rather than smack violently against it like the magician probably wanted. With a disgusted noise, she plopped down on a different cushion and began glaring into space.
“Bad?” Sandy said as she watched her friend brood. Tricksy didn’t respond immediately, and Sandy caught herself before she started toying with her hair in her usual nervous habit. Her hair was already two separate unnatural colors thanks to her little unconscious casting last week while doing the same thing. The last thing she needed was to end up with hair like Aunt Celly.
“The payoff from the show, after all the fees and such... isn’t going to be that much,” Tricksy said, sighing and leaning back on the couch. “Just a little over $300. Playing at the Galaxy Dome wasn’t the best move I’ve made...”
Sandy looked over at her. “You certainly seemed to have plenty of people there when I got to go,” she said.
“Oh, I’ve got plenty of people lining up to attend, but there’s fees, promotions...one simply doesn’t make people attend your shows with mass subliminal messaging or anything like that,” Tricksy said, before looking at her roommate with laser-like intensity. “You don’t, so don’t start thinking about how you could.”
“I d-don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sandy said, idly sliding one of the books she’d pulled out of her pile back under the rest.
“And that’s why there’s a copy of Heitenpheir’s Guide to Hypnotism in your pile of books on the desk?” Tricksy asked blandly.
“That’s for research!” Sandy said, her dark skin going a shade darker as she hid the offending tome under several more mundane volumes in spite of Tricksy obviously having caught it already. The amateur mage sometimes wondered how it was that Tricksy could be a complete and total slob at home and yet have absolutely no minor detail slip by her when she was paying attention.
“Research for what?” Tricksy said, getting off the couch and leaning over her shoulder to look over her notes. Sandy abruptly felt self-conscious as her friend looked over her notes, perusing them thoroughly. Tricksy was a show-woman first, but while Sandy was fairly certain she had a greater grasp of magical theoretics, Tricksy had always been a quick study when it came to magical principles when she was motivated to pay attention. Unlike Sandy, Tricksy needed a reason to exert herself beyond the sheer pursuit of knowledge, but the sky-haired woman was just as voracious when she had one.
“Well, I was just studying some additional fields...” Sandy started to say, before Tricksy frowned and tugged a piece of paper out from under several of the other books. Catching sight of the seal on the header, she turned to look at Sandy in slight concern.
“This is a FBSA application,” she said. “You’re going to apply for a hero license?” she said, frowning.
“I did the research,” Sandy said, her voice a little too quick on the rebuttal for comfort. “Doing hero work qualifies me for several grants to assist heroes that don’t have the time to hold down a full-time job, there’s salvage laws regarding the re-sale of seized contraband, there’s a small stipend for housing that’d cover a lot of our bills...”
“That’s not what worries me,” Tricksy said. “That sort of work isn’t a game, Sandy. It’s dangerous. You could get hurt...or worse!”
“There’s the mediport system,” Sandy started, but Tricksy cut her off with an abrupt shake of her head.
“No, if you’ve done the research, you know that’s not always reliable. Heroes still die when that system isn’t available in time to save them, Sandy. And those are trained heroes who have experience. You’ve never thrown a punch in your life, let alone got into a fight. How do you expect to deal with hardened criminals? Befriend them over a nice intellectual debate?” Tricksy said, exasperated.
“No. I don’t expect that,” Sandy said quietly, and something in her tone caused Tricksy’s next objection to stop in her mouth. Sandy looked back at Tricksy directly for the first time and Tricksy was surprised at the resolve she saw in the violet haired mage’s eyes. “But I have to. You’ve always been supporting me, Tricksy. You and Aunt Celly helped me get into Paragon U for the magic studies courses when my parents disapproved. You cosigned on my loans when I couldn’t get them myself. If you weren’t still supporting me right now, I’m pretty sure the money you got from the show would be more than enough for just you. I’m the one that balanced our budget, remember? I know how little I contribute,” she said, smiling faintly. “And...I need to do something with the magic I’ve been studying. I can’t just hide away in my hole, making discoveries and publishing them and contributing nothing else. Aunt Celly always said magic was for helping people, and this will help people. Including you,” she said.
Tricksy blinked, before she shook her head. “How long have you been preparing that speech?”
“About a week now,” Sandy admitted sheepishly, getting a laugh from the magician. Sitting back on the couch, the sky-haired woman considered the ceiling for a moment, contemplating something while Sandy waited for her reaction.
“Alright. I’ll allow it, but you are involving me in this,” Tricksy said finally. “If you’re going to be a superhero, you need to study presentation, pizazz, and all that. You need a snappy name and such to inspire citizens and frighten villains. You can’t just go out and say ‘I’m Sandhya Amarilla! Beware!’ and expect to be taken seriously,” Tricksy said. “What kind of motif are you going for?”
“Well, I was considering Twilight something,” Sandy said, only to blink at Tricksy giving her a flat stare. “What? It’s mysterious and mystical!”
“Please tell me you weren’t going to go with Twilight Sparkle,” Tricksy said flatly.
“...well, I’d kind of conside-” Sandy said before Tricksy started talking over her again.
“No. I’m vetoing that one right off. No way, no how.”“What’s wrong with it?” Sandy protested. “You can’t just say it’s bad without an empirical reasoning behind it. Even I know that much about showmanship.”
“Think about it, Sandy,” Tricksy said slowly. “Twilight....Sparkle. You’re a book head. Use that overflowing fount of obscure literary knowledge of yours and try to piece together why this would be a bad idea?”
Sandy sat back, slowly digesting that. Tricksy was never one to do something without reason, so there had to be some sort of logic behind it. She’d chosen the name because twilight because it was when the stars just became visible, even though they were always there. But why react so badly to “sparkle”? What connection did they have to each other? Literary knowledge? The only thing she could think of with regards to Twilig-
“Annnnnnd that’s why,” Tricksy said at the dawning look of horror on Sandy’s face. The magician leaned forward, interlacing her fingers in front of her face so as to conceal the smirk she couldn’t quite repress. “So, shall we try for something better?”
“Right. Yes. Let’s never speak of that idea again,” Sandy agreed with a somewhat frantic nod.
“Still, Twilight does have a ring to it,” Tricksy said, tapping her forefingers together in thought. “Maybe we can manage something...”
As the two of them bent their heads to it, Sandy found herself smiling despite the recent embarrassment. If her oldest friend thought she could do it, then who could possibly stand in the way of that?
***
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t let you past. This area is restricted due to the current emergency,” the officer at the entrance said, looking rather uncomfortable.
Tricksy scowled back at him, drawing herself up as much as she could given the nearly head of height difference between them. “Tricksy heard you the first time, officer. However, Tricksy has someone who she has no intention of abandoning in there.”
“I can understand your situation,” the officer said, sounding like he’d heard this story far too much lately, as the words had the air of long standing repetition. “But at present, the only people authorized inside the impact zones are Vanguard and their recognized auxiliar-”
The words were cut off as another meteor streaked out of the sky. This one’s trajectory was slightly off compared to the unnatural precision of the earlier strikes. Slamming into the forcefields of the War Wall, the giant hunk of extraterrestrial matter was too large to be blocked entirely, superheated chunks of it penetrating the field to smash into parked cars at the base of the wall before the rest shattered against the War Wall’s unyielding resistance. The officer swore even as the crowd outside the barricade scattered due to the impact’s aftershocks shaking the ground for blocks. Leaning against the wire fence nearby to keep his balance, he started calling in the impact site to the central dispatch to be checked, just in case some of the Shivans had survived their molten ride’s transition through the War Wall, before he glanced over and saw that the purple hat wearing magician he’d been talking to wasn’t there anymore. After another inarticulate curse, he glanced back into the burning hellhole that Galaxy had become in the last few hours.
“...good luck, kid. You’ll need it.”
***
The newly minted “Twilight’s Shimmer” had been in Freedom Court getting the last of her hero license paperwork printed when the first shockwave had hit. While Paragon was known for its unusual cave systems, Twilight had known that the tremors weren’t consistent with an earthquake. Naturally, the universe had seen fit to confirm her theory by putting a meteor dead center through the central foyer of the building, Shivans oozing out of it to attack anyone nearby.
Twilight had immediately jumped to the defense of the staff, regardless of whether or not the ink on her registration forms was even dry yet, and before long, Back Alley Brawler had put what heroes he’d been able to find into small groups heading for major population areas of Galaxy. It had been a logical, ordered plan. And it had fallen apart entirely as the meteors continued falling.
Galaxy had never been the most populous with regards to heroes, overshadowed for the most part by Atlas Park and City Hall. More meteors got through than there were heroes to try to stop them, and those that were stopped tended to explode into a swarm of inhuman shapes upon being denied their planned ballistic descents, dragging their would-be interceptors into the tangle of buildings and fire with them. Twilight had been on the ranged squad assigned to try to shoot the meteors down before they impacted, but eventually the sheer number of targets had overwhelmed them. After the first meteor the size of a small skyscraper hit, any sense of a coherent organized defense crumbled in the shockwave.
Now, Twilight was mostly just trying to find anyone in the blasted rubble that the unopposed meteors had turned the former urban center into. The analytical part of her mind was already running the numbers on what the given response would be. There was no jamming, so it was entirely likely that a distress call had gotten out. Typical rapid response would be hampered by the destruction wrecking large sections of the teleport grid, so Twilight estimated that it’d take at least twenty minutes for the first responders to arrive, probably half an hour for Longbow and PPD backup, and forty before Vanguard’s inter-dimensional incursion forces would drop in, given their ongoing deployments against Praetorian forces lately. Which meant that, between the initial impact and the time Twilight had spent defending against incoming meteors, Twilight had at least another ten minutes before she could expect any backup.
Looking at another group of Shivans oozing out of a meteor, Twilight chewed her lip slightly. She could probably just hide long enough to be rescued, but something about that plan just didn’t agree with her. She hadn’t got her hero license just to stand back and wait for someone to save her. She wanted to help save other people. The only problem was that, so far as Twilight could see, she couldn’t find anyone who needed saving.
A shotgun blast caught her attention as the newly spawned Shivans turned to face the source of the sound. Twilight blinked, looking that way herself just as a plainclothes detective burst out of a side street and disappeared down an alleyway. A good dozen of the Shivans were already lurching along after him, and Twilight knew that there was no way he’d have the firepower to take them down. Before she knew it, Twilight was on her feet and running towards the same alley. There was a shotgun blast as the mage caught up, spinning around and into the alley with magic building around her hands.
The Shivans ignored her until the first of their number exploded like a punctured soap bubble as Twilight’s blast ripped through it. Warbling growls answered her as the aliens began to turn, before a second glowed for a second and then slammed into a wall, shrapnel puncturing through it before it was swung back into another alien, a bizarre mix between a crunch and a splash coming from the disintegrating monsters. One Shivan lashed out, a stream of burning energy emerging from the glowing meteor in its chest, but Twilight was already moving. A quick mental incantation and she was five feet to the left, the beam boiling stone where she’d been standing. The Shivan twisted to the side, tracking her, only to rock to the side as the detective unloaded another shotgun blast into its side, drawing its attention and that of all the rest of the creatures long enough for Twilight to take careful aim. A few blasts of mystical energy hit the wall above the Shivans before Twilight gave it a telekinetic yank. Two tons of concrete gave way with a groan of tortured rebar and landed on top of the remaining Shivans, transparent mucous squirting out from under it.
Twilight turned to the detective, teleporting over to him as the man sank back against the dead end of the alley he’d been chased into. Worried, she began looking over him for obvious injuries in case he was going into shock. “Are you all right, sir?”The detective’s eyes snapped open again as she spoke up, locking onto her as he seemed to come back to attention. “Uh, yeah, sure. I’m fine, kid. And it’s Ghaly. Jon Ghaly, though you can call me whatever the hell you feel like after that stunt,” he said with a weak grin. “Don’t recognize you, but that was some solid work.”
“Well, I’m really kind of new to this whole thing, but the group I was with from the registrar got separated and then I saw you and knew I couldn’t let you get killed by those things,” Twilight began, the words tumbling out as the adrenaline stopped flowing.
Detective Ghaly gave her a sympathetic look before putting a hand on her shoulder. “Easy, kid. We need to get out of here first, then you can tell me your life story, okay?”Twilight swallowed briefly, before nodding. “Right. Back Alley Brawler said the old arena would be the place they’d set up a rally point once people found out what was going on.”“Then it sounds like we have somewhere to be going then, kid,” Ghaly said. “What’s your name, by the way?”“Sa-er, Twilight. Twilight’s Shimmer,” she said, getting a smile from the detective at her tripping over her heroic identity.
“Well then, Twilight, I suspect we’ve got a ways to go before we sleep, hmm?” he said. “The arena was off to the west, so let’s get going. Hopefully we can outrun these things,” he said.
“I can help with that!” Twilight said. “Hold onto my hand.”Ghaly looked at her skeptically, before taking the smaller girl’s hand. A second later, there was a spark of purple light and the two had vanished.
***
The police officer hadn’t been wrong, Tricksy had to admit to herself.
The remains of what had been Galaxy City ages ago were now somewhere between a blasted wasteland and a war zone. Her magic had been sufficient to keep herself undetected for the most part, but Tricksy was too honest with herself to think that was due to anything other than the fact that the Shivans were dumber than the rocks they grew out of. A sound in the right direction or the sight of something human running away was a simple illusion, and it had kept the alien invaders from noticing her under the invisibility spell that she hadn’t quite perfected yet. When she was finished with it, Tricksy was fairly certain it would have deceived these stupid things easily, but for the moment she had to use her wits to make sure they didn’t notice the movements in the air and the sound of her footsteps.
Of course, the general problem was that, now that she’d visited what had been Freedom Court, Tricksy had absolutely no idea where to look. Interrogating the Shivans that had overrun the former home of the Freedom Corps didn’t seem like a viable option, so Tricksy had left a single glowing ball of light hovering above the location, using it as a center point to coordinate her slow but steady spiral outward from the crater. That the strange ball of light also distracted the Shivans, causing them to head back into deserted areas that Tricksy wasn’t, was a bonus. Still, this was likely to take a lot longer than Tricksy cared to contemplate.
Or, Tricksy thought as the ground itself buckled under her, an inhuman roar echoed off the surrounding wreckage, and the largest Shivan she’d seen yet pushed its way into the sky, I could just go towards that and assume that she’s dumb or well meaning enough to go towards the giant monster.
The magician considered her options for a moment before sighing as she came to the conclusion that, yes, Twilight would do that. With another flicker of power, Tricksy cloaked herself again and began sprinting towards the disturbance. Just so you know, Twilight, if you’re dead, Tricksy is going to make necromancy her next field of study just to properly bitch you out over this one...
***
“Got through!” Ghaly said as he shot a glance over the boulder he was using for cover. “Vanguard’s redirecting some of their jets for a strafing run! We need to hold out for four minutes!”
Twilight took a deep gulp of air as she teleported again, a gigantic meteor slamming into the ground where she’d been a second ago. Magic flickered to her hands as she sent another blast towards the giant Shivan that had cut them off. In theory, Twilight knew she could cut around it. It was still mostly in the crater, and her teleport would easily let them jump around it faster than it could track. But the problem was that it would likely follow them as they ran, and the last thing that Twilight wanted to do was drag a skyscraper sized Shivan back towards dozens of exhausted or injured heroes likely being seen to at the rally point.
A tentacle reached out of the crater the meteor had just gouged out of the ground, and Twilight blasted the newly hatched Shivan before it could fully form, before turning her fire back at the larger monster. So far, aside from sending meteors at them somehow and occasionally trying to reach forward and swipe at Twilight when she got too close, the giant Shivan hadn’t used the radiation blasts the others had, a fact that she was very grateful for. Just going by body size, if the power generation capability of the meteor chunk embedded in a Shivan’s body determined how powerful its radiation blasts were, the giant here could probably atomize her and Ghaly both in the process of sterilizing most of two city blocks if it wanted to.
Still, four minutes. Twilight could do that. Even in spite of the fact that every breath she was choking down burned in her lungs and that she’d been running non-stop on her magic since the meteors hit...was it two hours ago? Three? Twilight couldn’t really tell at this point. Any sense of day, night, noon, or morning had been burned away by the constant burning semi-gloom that Galaxy’s wreckage put off from a dozen fires. Still, the alternative was sitting down and letting the Shivan finish her and Detective Ghaly without putting up a fight, and Twilight sure as hell wasn’t going to do that.
Her skin tingled with the feeling she’d begun to attribute to the oncoming re-entry of another meteor attack. As she looked up to gauge where it was going to land, however, Twilight blinked as she saw it was way off course if it had been aimed at her. Glancing at the target point, she stared for a moment as she saw the meteor slam directly into what had looked just like her. Another roar from the Shivan, perhaps of triumph, was cut off as the other Twilight emerged, apparently unharmed, from behind the meteor and promptly blew a raspberry at the giant monster. The Shivan bellowed in anger before summoning another meteor, while Twilight was abruptly interrupted in her thought processes about the apparent correlation between Shivan size and intelligence by a hand on her shoulder yanking her behind cover.
“Will you keep your head down before you ruin all of Tricksy’s hard work?” a familiar voice said as Twilight looked over at the familiar silver-blue haired face that she’d not seen right beside her until just now.
“Tricksy?! You came in here? Why did you do that? It’s restricted to licensed heroes only!” Twilight said in surprise.
“Of course Tricksy came in here. Did you think Tricksy was going to leave you to die in this crater?” Tricksy grumbled with her eyes closed in a way that suggested she was concentrating. A second later, there was a flare of light and Detective Ghaly was beside them in their hiding spot, looking slightly perplexed.
“Friend of yours?” he asked, looking at Twilight.
“The best one I have,” Twilight said with a faint smile. “Even if she’s not supposed to be in here.”“The Benevolent and Concerned Tricksy felt you needed an injection of common sense, possibly by a few blows to the head if necessary,” Tricksy grumbled, even as more illusions appeared out on the field of herself and Ghaly.
The Shivan made a growl of confusion, before roaring louder than before, even as Twilight’s skin tingled again. “Uh, Tricksy...not to criticize, but maybe you shouldn’t have done that...”
“Why? It will keep the monster occupied until the planes Tricksy saw patrolling the air can get around to the giant building sized monster they can’t hope to miss,” Tricksy said.
“Because I think you pissed it off,” Ghaly said, even as several burning arcs began falling towards them.”
“...oh,” Tricksy said, before ducking behind the rock again along with Tricksy and Ghaly as the meteors hit. The ground shook beneath them, dropping them to the ground even as more Shivans began to crawl out of the ground around the impact sites. Tricksy briefly peeked out, before hopping back into cover. “...that was not Tricksy’s plan.”
“I’d figured that,” Twilight responded dryly.
Detective Ghaly was about to say something when his radio squawked on his belt. “Detective Ghaly, this is Vanguard Flight Echo-Zero-Niner. We are inbound. Take cover and get away from the target. This is gonna get really loud, really quick.”
The trio ducked as far into cover as they hadn’t already as the ripping sounds of jet engines approached. A second later, the giant Shivan shuddered as a missile penetrated its outer membrane, then explodes, blowing huge chunks of slime all over the surrounding area. Several more missiles struck home, blowing further chunks out of the immense monster, even as staccato ripples of gunfire shredded the smaller Shivans that had crawled out of the newer meteors. A final missile launch hit the giant Shivan in the torso, blasting a chunk out of the meteor that had formed its core. With a roar of pain, the monster collapsed back into the pit.
“Detective Ghaly, this is Echo-Zero-Niner. Confirm the field is clear?” Ghaly’s radio squawked again.
“Confirm, Echo-Zero-Niner,” Ghaly said, pulling the radio up. “Dunno if the big one’s dead or not, but it’s definitely going to be licking its wounds for a while, and the small ones are all paste.”
“Good to hear, Detective Ghaly. Eyes in the sky puts you clear until the evac zone a few blocks up. I’d advise you head out forthwith. We’ll keep an eye on the crater in case the big nasty comes back.”
“Roger that, Echo-Zero-Niner,” Ghaly said. “We’ll try not to let the scenic views distract us.”
“Good luck on that, Detective Ghaly. Echo-Zero-Niner out.”
***
Tricksy was somewhat peeved at the moment. By all rights, she should be back at home, showering before a long, leisurely and well deserved nap after rescuing Twilight from the consequences of her own overactive sense of civic duty.
Instead, Twilight was outside in the waiting room, while Tricksy got to sit in...well, it was most likely an interrogation cell. She’d seen enough people looking through the presumably two way mirror she wasn’t supposed to be able to see through to assume she was under observation, but Tricksy’s skillset had never included lip-reading, so she had no idea what they were discussing. After a long while, a PPD officer stepped in, sitting down on the far side of the table from her and folding his hands in front of him. “So, Miss...” he glanced at her for a moment and then chuckled. “So, Miss Tricksy, I hope you understand the situation that you’ve put us in.”
“Successfully carrying out search and rescue operations that your department was busy elsewhere with? The bored and mildly perturbed Tricksy is wondering why you do not simply pin a medal on her and then let Tricksy go home to stay out of your way as you no doubt want her to,” Tricksy said. “Unless perhaps it has become a crime to rescue people. In Paragon City,” she said, raising an eyebrow.
“Not at all,” the officer said. “The problem is that you snuck into a disaster zone against the express orders of the securing personnel. This could have endangered yourself and others, and certainly we had no idea you were in there, which would’ve made rescue even more problematic.”
Tricksy grumbled. “Then fine Tricksy and be done with it.”
“Well, that’s the problem,” the officer said. “While your intentions were good, and you did help rescue both your friend and a police officer, the best we can do is put you on probation for a few weeks. And while that would be a less than problematic situation for most people, a few of the officers around the station were looking forward to attending your next show.”
Tricksy’s next quip was cut off as she realized the implications of what the officer was saying. Certainly, to any performer, being in jail would be negative publicity, sure, but something they could survive. However, Tricksy had been paying for her next show with practically all of the funding from the previous one for a while. Making your name in the show circuit in a glutted market like Paragon was hard. Missing a show and defaulting on the fee... Tricksy ran the numbers in her head and felt a sinking feeling in her stomach.
“However, there’s another option,” the officer said, leaning forward. “We don’t want to punish you, and you don’t want to miss your show date. I think we have an option that could prevent both of those.”Tricksy looked up, her eyes narrowing. “And what, praytell, would Tricksy have to do in order to qualify for such unique treatment, officer?”
“Well, simply fill out some paperwork.” He shrugged. “We had a lot of people that weren’t properly heroes yet in Galaxy when the meteors hit. More than a few of them should’ve been evacuated rather than staying behind to help fight back the Shivans. Between that and Freedom Court getting pretty much blown sky high, and any forms you signed in your intent to become a registered hero are probably so much ash. However, with a few quick signatures, we could get your paperwork in order. Clearly since you were so eager to help out that you went into a dangerous disaster zone without waiting for proper paperwork to reach you, we shouldn’t hold your willingness to help the public good against you.”
Tricksy looked at him, eyes narrowing. “So, rather than lose financial gain, you want me to throw myself into a highly dangerous and volatile profession for which I have no prior training or interest?”
The officer shook his head. “Not like that, no. We’re willing to provide training, but after getting your license, it simply authorizes you to act within the statues of the Citizen Crime Fighting Act. You’re under no obligation to actively seek out crime. It just allows any evidence about a crime you come across to be usable in court if you actively stopped a crime without calling for the police. In general, it’s a safety net for people with abilities like yours. It also prevents misunderstandings like the one that led to this,” he said.
Tricksy considered for a moment, before sighing in defeat. It really wasn’t as if she had any other options, and she’d seen plenty of people who got hero licenses and didn’t go out every day to fight crime. And... it would make good publicity for her...
“Very well. What do you need me to sign?”
***
If there had been one thing that went right about this absolutely awful day, Tricksy had to admit, it was seeing Twilight waiting for her outside of the station, looking much better than the dirty, grimy, exhausted friend Tricksy’d stepped in to rescue hours before. Still, there was still the fact of Tricksy’s earlier interrogator accompanying her out as well that prevented it from being a perfect reunion. At least until Twilight turned and noticed him.
“Bert! What are you doing here?” she asked, running up to hug the officer with a familiarity that made Tricksy abruptly suspicious.
“Bert? Who is ‘Bert’?” Tricksy wondered, looking at her friend.
“Bert is my older brother,” Twilight clarified. “I told you about him, didn’t I? He joined the PPD back when we were in middle-school.”
“No, you didn’t,” Tricksy said, massaging the bridge of her nose. “However, Tricksy is well aware of the fact you are a scatterbrain with important details like this. Unless this was all an elaborate sting operation to make Tricksy sign paperwork to be a registered hero as well.”Bert blinked. “Wait, you’re Sandy’s friend from middle-school? Be-”“Tricksy is Tricksy, if that’s quite fine with you!” Tricksy said sharply cutting him off and getting an amused headshake from Twilight.
“Sorry, Bert, she’s a bit...sensitive about that sort of thing. Some kind of stage presence self-promotion thing that she’s pretty much stuck with.”Twilight’s brother nodded, looking over at her. “Well, it’s working, I guess. I never figured you for Sandy’s old school-pal, though admittedly, we didn’t really get a chance to meet given Mom and Dad’s aversion to you two studying ‘such an impractical career choice’ or whatever.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, before looking back at the magician. “Incidentally, if your name’s...what it is...why didn’t you shorten it to Trixie with an X? Wouldn’t that be closer?”Tricksy grimaced, even as Twilight giggled. “It’s already copyrighted. The Great and Powerful Tricksy has no affiliation, personal or professional, with the registered hero by the name of Trixie, because Tricksy is not a nymphomaniacal exhibitionist Pocket D catgirl.”
“...oh, that Trixie,” Bert said. “Yeah, I suppose I can see why you’d want to make sure your gigs weren’t confused with hers.” He started to say something more before another voice spoke up inside the precinct.
“Hey, Bertrand! Get in here! We’ve got a Code 13 in the Row!” someone shouted.
“Well, duty calls,” Bert said, giving his sister a quick hug. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Tricksy, and hopefully we were able to help out with your problem. I look forward to seeing your show this weekend.”
With that, he jogged back into the station, leaving the two girls alone, as Tricksy turned narrowed eyes at Twilight. “Did you do that on purpose?”“Do what on purpose?” Twilight said, faking innocence as badly as she ever had. Tricksy was going to have to give her some lessons on that if she was going to be a superhero. Twilight couldn’t bluff worth a damn.
“Set it up that I got your older brother as the officer handling my case,” Tricksy said.
“I.... maaaaaay have mentioned that the Great and Powerful Tricksy, who Bert happens to be a fan of, had helped me out of a jam in Galaxy even if she got in trouble for it,” Twilight said.
Tricksy stared at her friend for a few moments longer, before sighing and walking down the steps. “Fine. But don’t think this gets you off the hook for doing the dishes tonight. They’ve been piling up, and I don’t have some convenient dishwashing spell.”“Works for me. Incidentally, I got a paycheck for some of the salvaged junk they got from those Shivans we blew up, so I think dinner’s on me,” Twilight beamed.
“...that sounds good,” Tricksy said, letting the stress from the rest of the day slough off. One little thing was still niggling at the back of her mind, though.
“....Twilight?” she asked, as the darker skinned magician turned around.
“Yeah?”
“When your brother was talking about what I’d done wrong, he mentioned that I’d saved ‘my friend’ and the detective. But you said that you’d just told him that I’d helped you out of a jam...” Tricksy said, suspicion mounting.
“Oh, that,” Twilight said, kicking a foot nervously. “Um....there may have been some...other words exchange-oh look at the time! We better beat it if we’re gonna hit the Flying Saucer before they close!” she said, vanishing into a flash of light and reappearing several dozen feet away.
Tricksy sighed, but couldn’t quite be angry with her friend. After all, Tricksy mused as a smile tugged at her face, she could appreciate proper use of misdirection.
She was a magician, after all.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
But what had drawn the two young girls’ attention was not the games of chance, the food, or the various souvenir booths. Not even the area at the heart of the Court where Statesman and other heroes were waiting to take pictures and give autographs had interested them at all. No, both of the girls were more spellbound by a smaller stage off to the side, where a single man in a bargain tuxedo and domino mask was pulling a small rabbit out of his hat.
Both girls were utterly entranced as he proceeded to do other things like levitating a small girl who volunteered from the audience, or merging and then pulling apart a set of rings without breaking them. He pulled cards out of thin air and then made them explode into neon colors and shining lights. And all the while, he explained in simple terms what he was doing. Her friend thought the science of the magic the man explained was the most interesting part, but she was been more fascinated by the spectacle. After the show was through, both waited in line at the end to talk to the magician, and begged as only young girls could for him to teach them as well.
The magician had been younger than he’d seemed to her at the time, now that she looked back at the memory, and though he had not been able to teach them because he was still learning himself, he had not turned them completely aside. He told them that both of them had the same talent for magic as he, and that they should follow it as far as it could go if they truly wanted to learn, because the gift they had was incredibly precious, and what they could learn through magic utterly amazing.
Both swore to learn, that day, as much as they could, so that they could one day become magicians as well.
Time went on, and the girls became young women. Both became students, but shunned crowds for their studies of the arcane. They were alike and yet opposites, for one studied to know, and the other to do.
Eventually, she left her friend to her studies and went out into the world to make a name for herself. But that single memory of the festival in Freedom Court always remained deep in her heart.
***
“The Great and Powerful Tricksy has astounded and amazed you, but she is not finished yet! She senses that there may yet be some nay-sayers in the audience who doubt Tricksy, and invites them to speak their mind!” the magician on the stage declared, even as the lights panned out over the crowd. She knew there had to be at least one out there, and Tricksy had certainly prepared for that with something that would make everyone, mage and mundane alike, gape in awe at her talent.
“Yeah, I think you’re full of it!” one audience member said, standing up as a spotlight worked its way over to him. “Everything here’s simple magic tricks. Everyone knows you have actual magic. You aren’t doing anything anyone with a 101 course in the stuff couldn’t do!”
“Oh really? Perhaps the Doubted and Accused Tricksy should prove herself then! If you will come up onto the stage, you will be able to prove to everyone that Tricksy is a fraud...or Tricksy will prove herself to be as amazing and fantastic as she has claimed.”“Oh, by doing what?” the heckler sneered.
“Why, Tricksy will prove herself by cutting you in half, completely safely,” the magician said, even as one of her assistants brought out a chainsaw, which Tricksy then took and revved, the engine’s roar carrying over the crowd.
“...the h-hell? Are you crazy?!” the heckler said, even as Tricksy’s eyes narrowed over her smile.
“Crazy? Of course not. The Honest and Safety-conscious Tricksy has tested this a hundred times. And after all, you have said that Tricksy is nothing but a few paltry magic tricks with no real talent, so this must be smoke and mirror trickery, in which case you will be completely safe anyway, because Tricksy won’t actually be cutting you in half,” she smirked.
The crowd hushed as people looked at the heckler, waiting to see his response. Tricksy’s own smile grew a touch. She’d just trapped him into either sitting down and admitting he’d been wrong, or coming up on stage to prove her wrong...and these types could never stand to look like they were beaten that easily. She’d cornered him as easily as she might sweep her kitchen free of dust. As her intended victim got into the box, Tricksy turned to the crowd, whirring saw held up to catch the light. “Lest others doubt the Great and Powerful Tricksy’s word, she shall demonstrate that this is no trick saw now!” At a snap of her fingers, two of her stagehands brought out a pile of phonebooks. Tricksy brought the saw down, chewing through the paper documents with ease and sending pieces flying in all directions. Tricksy didn’t quite restrain a smirk as she noticed her dupe paling a little from his position in the box.
As her stagehands moved away the remaining chunks of paper, Tricksy strutted around behind the box and revved the motor again. “Do not worry. Tricksy is almost completely sure this will work,” she grinned, getting a laugh from the crowd as the supposed “victim” began to stutter as Tricksy brought down the saw. At which point the real trick began. Holding two simultaneous portals in place with barely a half inch of space between them was a significantly difficult feat, but she doubted that the man in the box had any idea he’d slipped into one and out the other. Especially given his scream when the chainsaw hit the middle of the box and began shredding its cheap plywood as easily as it had paper. A few seconds later, the box was in two pieces, the splintered bits of it on the stage highlighting the saw’s destructive capability. Tricksy whirled both sides of the box around so as to show both head and foot of her volunteer, walking between both halves as she did. The man in question was making vaguely unintelligible noises of fright at this point, though he seemed to be recovering now that he was convinced he wasn’t, in fact, dead.
Tricksy, for her part, then rolled the boxes back in place, end to end, and opened the box’s opposite ends. Her stagehands helped the man out, completely unharmed, as Tricksy bowed, feeling the applause of the crowd wash over her. This was the moment she lived for. The approval and recognition of her talent washing over her like a physical wave. With a flourish of her hands, she let loose a wave of illusionary doves that flew out over the crowd, sprinkling short lived sparks and the occasional autographed photo. As people reached and pushed to get ahold of the ones that fell near them, Tricksy smiled, knowing she had them all in the palm of her hand.
***
“ONLY THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS?!”
Sandy winced slightly at the sound of her roommate’s voice briefly overpowering the sound-buffering spell that she’d cast around her room for privacy on a given phone call. The amateur mage had known that Tricksy’s spell had been more for her benefit than the stage performer’s privacy, but the fact that whatever discussion was going on had managed to get Tricksy that loudly upset didn’t bode well for her friend’s mood when she got off the phone. Sure enough, after a lot more muffled words that Sandy didn’t understand and probably didn’t want to, Tricksy emerged from her bedroom, visibly fuming.
The sky-haired woman snatched her hat off her head as she stalked into the main living area, angrily throwing it at the couch nearby. Much to Tricksy’s frustration, the relatively light piece of headwear merely drifted gently across to land on a cushion rather than smack violently against it like the magician probably wanted. With a disgusted noise, she plopped down on a different cushion and began glaring into space.
“Bad?” Sandy said as she watched her friend brood. Tricksy didn’t respond immediately, and Sandy caught herself before she started toying with her hair in her usual nervous habit. Her hair was already two separate unnatural colors thanks to her little unconscious casting last week while doing the same thing. The last thing she needed was to end up with hair like Aunt Celly.
“The payoff from the show, after all the fees and such... isn’t going to be that much,” Tricksy said, sighing and leaning back on the couch. “Just a little over $300. Playing at the Galaxy Dome wasn’t the best move I’ve made...”
Sandy looked over at her. “You certainly seemed to have plenty of people there when I got to go,” she said.
“Oh, I’ve got plenty of people lining up to attend, but there’s fees, promotions...one simply doesn’t make people attend your shows with mass subliminal messaging or anything like that,” Tricksy said, before looking at her roommate with laser-like intensity. “You don’t, so don’t start thinking about how you could.”
“I d-don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sandy said, idly sliding one of the books she’d pulled out of her pile back under the rest.
“And that’s why there’s a copy of Heitenpheir’s Guide to Hypnotism in your pile of books on the desk?” Tricksy asked blandly.
“That’s for research!” Sandy said, her dark skin going a shade darker as she hid the offending tome under several more mundane volumes in spite of Tricksy obviously having caught it already. The amateur mage sometimes wondered how it was that Tricksy could be a complete and total slob at home and yet have absolutely no minor detail slip by her when she was paying attention.
“Research for what?” Tricksy said, getting off the couch and leaning over her shoulder to look over her notes. Sandy abruptly felt self-conscious as her friend looked over her notes, perusing them thoroughly. Tricksy was a show-woman first, but while Sandy was fairly certain she had a greater grasp of magical theoretics, Tricksy had always been a quick study when it came to magical principles when she was motivated to pay attention. Unlike Sandy, Tricksy needed a reason to exert herself beyond the sheer pursuit of knowledge, but the sky-haired woman was just as voracious when she had one.
“Well, I was just studying some additional fields...” Sandy started to say, before Tricksy frowned and tugged a piece of paper out from under several of the other books. Catching sight of the seal on the header, she turned to look at Sandy in slight concern.
“This is a FBSA application,” she said. “You’re going to apply for a hero license?” she said, frowning.
“I did the research,” Sandy said, her voice a little too quick on the rebuttal for comfort. “Doing hero work qualifies me for several grants to assist heroes that don’t have the time to hold down a full-time job, there’s salvage laws regarding the re-sale of seized contraband, there’s a small stipend for housing that’d cover a lot of our bills...”
“That’s not what worries me,” Tricksy said. “That sort of work isn’t a game, Sandy. It’s dangerous. You could get hurt...or worse!”
“There’s the mediport system,” Sandy started, but Tricksy cut her off with an abrupt shake of her head.
“No, if you’ve done the research, you know that’s not always reliable. Heroes still die when that system isn’t available in time to save them, Sandy. And those are trained heroes who have experience. You’ve never thrown a punch in your life, let alone got into a fight. How do you expect to deal with hardened criminals? Befriend them over a nice intellectual debate?” Tricksy said, exasperated.
“No. I don’t expect that,” Sandy said quietly, and something in her tone caused Tricksy’s next objection to stop in her mouth. Sandy looked back at Tricksy directly for the first time and Tricksy was surprised at the resolve she saw in the violet haired mage’s eyes. “But I have to. You’ve always been supporting me, Tricksy. You and Aunt Celly helped me get into Paragon U for the magic studies courses when my parents disapproved. You cosigned on my loans when I couldn’t get them myself. If you weren’t still supporting me right now, I’m pretty sure the money you got from the show would be more than enough for just you. I’m the one that balanced our budget, remember? I know how little I contribute,” she said, smiling faintly. “And...I need to do something with the magic I’ve been studying. I can’t just hide away in my hole, making discoveries and publishing them and contributing nothing else. Aunt Celly always said magic was for helping people, and this will help people. Including you,” she said.
Tricksy blinked, before she shook her head. “How long have you been preparing that speech?”
“About a week now,” Sandy admitted sheepishly, getting a laugh from the magician. Sitting back on the couch, the sky-haired woman considered the ceiling for a moment, contemplating something while Sandy waited for her reaction.
“Alright. I’ll allow it, but you are involving me in this,” Tricksy said finally. “If you’re going to be a superhero, you need to study presentation, pizazz, and all that. You need a snappy name and such to inspire citizens and frighten villains. You can’t just go out and say ‘I’m Sandhya Amarilla! Beware!’ and expect to be taken seriously,” Tricksy said. “What kind of motif are you going for?”
“Well, I was considering Twilight something,” Sandy said, only to blink at Tricksy giving her a flat stare. “What? It’s mysterious and mystical!”
“Please tell me you weren’t going to go with Twilight Sparkle,” Tricksy said flatly.
“...well, I’d kind of conside-” Sandy said before Tricksy started talking over her again.
“No. I’m vetoing that one right off. No way, no how.”“What’s wrong with it?” Sandy protested. “You can’t just say it’s bad without an empirical reasoning behind it. Even I know that much about showmanship.”
“Think about it, Sandy,” Tricksy said slowly. “Twilight....Sparkle. You’re a book head. Use that overflowing fount of obscure literary knowledge of yours and try to piece together why this would be a bad idea?”
Sandy sat back, slowly digesting that. Tricksy was never one to do something without reason, so there had to be some sort of logic behind it. She’d chosen the name because twilight because it was when the stars just became visible, even though they were always there. But why react so badly to “sparkle”? What connection did they have to each other? Literary knowledge? The only thing she could think of with regards to Twilig-
“Annnnnnd that’s why,” Tricksy said at the dawning look of horror on Sandy’s face. The magician leaned forward, interlacing her fingers in front of her face so as to conceal the smirk she couldn’t quite repress. “So, shall we try for something better?”
“Right. Yes. Let’s never speak of that idea again,” Sandy agreed with a somewhat frantic nod.
“Still, Twilight does have a ring to it,” Tricksy said, tapping her forefingers together in thought. “Maybe we can manage something...”
As the two of them bent their heads to it, Sandy found herself smiling despite the recent embarrassment. If her oldest friend thought she could do it, then who could possibly stand in the way of that?
***
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t let you past. This area is restricted due to the current emergency,” the officer at the entrance said, looking rather uncomfortable.
Tricksy scowled back at him, drawing herself up as much as she could given the nearly head of height difference between them. “Tricksy heard you the first time, officer. However, Tricksy has someone who she has no intention of abandoning in there.”
“I can understand your situation,” the officer said, sounding like he’d heard this story far too much lately, as the words had the air of long standing repetition. “But at present, the only people authorized inside the impact zones are Vanguard and their recognized auxiliar-”
The words were cut off as another meteor streaked out of the sky. This one’s trajectory was slightly off compared to the unnatural precision of the earlier strikes. Slamming into the forcefields of the War Wall, the giant hunk of extraterrestrial matter was too large to be blocked entirely, superheated chunks of it penetrating the field to smash into parked cars at the base of the wall before the rest shattered against the War Wall’s unyielding resistance. The officer swore even as the crowd outside the barricade scattered due to the impact’s aftershocks shaking the ground for blocks. Leaning against the wire fence nearby to keep his balance, he started calling in the impact site to the central dispatch to be checked, just in case some of the Shivans had survived their molten ride’s transition through the War Wall, before he glanced over and saw that the purple hat wearing magician he’d been talking to wasn’t there anymore. After another inarticulate curse, he glanced back into the burning hellhole that Galaxy had become in the last few hours.
“...good luck, kid. You’ll need it.”
***
The newly minted “Twilight’s Shimmer” had been in Freedom Court getting the last of her hero license paperwork printed when the first shockwave had hit. While Paragon was known for its unusual cave systems, Twilight had known that the tremors weren’t consistent with an earthquake. Naturally, the universe had seen fit to confirm her theory by putting a meteor dead center through the central foyer of the building, Shivans oozing out of it to attack anyone nearby.
Twilight had immediately jumped to the defense of the staff, regardless of whether or not the ink on her registration forms was even dry yet, and before long, Back Alley Brawler had put what heroes he’d been able to find into small groups heading for major population areas of Galaxy. It had been a logical, ordered plan. And it had fallen apart entirely as the meteors continued falling.
Galaxy had never been the most populous with regards to heroes, overshadowed for the most part by Atlas Park and City Hall. More meteors got through than there were heroes to try to stop them, and those that were stopped tended to explode into a swarm of inhuman shapes upon being denied their planned ballistic descents, dragging their would-be interceptors into the tangle of buildings and fire with them. Twilight had been on the ranged squad assigned to try to shoot the meteors down before they impacted, but eventually the sheer number of targets had overwhelmed them. After the first meteor the size of a small skyscraper hit, any sense of a coherent organized defense crumbled in the shockwave.
Now, Twilight was mostly just trying to find anyone in the blasted rubble that the unopposed meteors had turned the former urban center into. The analytical part of her mind was already running the numbers on what the given response would be. There was no jamming, so it was entirely likely that a distress call had gotten out. Typical rapid response would be hampered by the destruction wrecking large sections of the teleport grid, so Twilight estimated that it’d take at least twenty minutes for the first responders to arrive, probably half an hour for Longbow and PPD backup, and forty before Vanguard’s inter-dimensional incursion forces would drop in, given their ongoing deployments against Praetorian forces lately. Which meant that, between the initial impact and the time Twilight had spent defending against incoming meteors, Twilight had at least another ten minutes before she could expect any backup.
Looking at another group of Shivans oozing out of a meteor, Twilight chewed her lip slightly. She could probably just hide long enough to be rescued, but something about that plan just didn’t agree with her. She hadn’t got her hero license just to stand back and wait for someone to save her. She wanted to help save other people. The only problem was that, so far as Twilight could see, she couldn’t find anyone who needed saving.
A shotgun blast caught her attention as the newly spawned Shivans turned to face the source of the sound. Twilight blinked, looking that way herself just as a plainclothes detective burst out of a side street and disappeared down an alleyway. A good dozen of the Shivans were already lurching along after him, and Twilight knew that there was no way he’d have the firepower to take them down. Before she knew it, Twilight was on her feet and running towards the same alley. There was a shotgun blast as the mage caught up, spinning around and into the alley with magic building around her hands.
The Shivans ignored her until the first of their number exploded like a punctured soap bubble as Twilight’s blast ripped through it. Warbling growls answered her as the aliens began to turn, before a second glowed for a second and then slammed into a wall, shrapnel puncturing through it before it was swung back into another alien, a bizarre mix between a crunch and a splash coming from the disintegrating monsters. One Shivan lashed out, a stream of burning energy emerging from the glowing meteor in its chest, but Twilight was already moving. A quick mental incantation and she was five feet to the left, the beam boiling stone where she’d been standing. The Shivan twisted to the side, tracking her, only to rock to the side as the detective unloaded another shotgun blast into its side, drawing its attention and that of all the rest of the creatures long enough for Twilight to take careful aim. A few blasts of mystical energy hit the wall above the Shivans before Twilight gave it a telekinetic yank. Two tons of concrete gave way with a groan of tortured rebar and landed on top of the remaining Shivans, transparent mucous squirting out from under it.
Twilight turned to the detective, teleporting over to him as the man sank back against the dead end of the alley he’d been chased into. Worried, she began looking over him for obvious injuries in case he was going into shock. “Are you all right, sir?”The detective’s eyes snapped open again as she spoke up, locking onto her as he seemed to come back to attention. “Uh, yeah, sure. I’m fine, kid. And it’s Ghaly. Jon Ghaly, though you can call me whatever the hell you feel like after that stunt,” he said with a weak grin. “Don’t recognize you, but that was some solid work.”
“Well, I’m really kind of new to this whole thing, but the group I was with from the registrar got separated and then I saw you and knew I couldn’t let you get killed by those things,” Twilight began, the words tumbling out as the adrenaline stopped flowing.
Detective Ghaly gave her a sympathetic look before putting a hand on her shoulder. “Easy, kid. We need to get out of here first, then you can tell me your life story, okay?”Twilight swallowed briefly, before nodding. “Right. Back Alley Brawler said the old arena would be the place they’d set up a rally point once people found out what was going on.”“Then it sounds like we have somewhere to be going then, kid,” Ghaly said. “What’s your name, by the way?”“Sa-er, Twilight. Twilight’s Shimmer,” she said, getting a smile from the detective at her tripping over her heroic identity.
“Well then, Twilight, I suspect we’ve got a ways to go before we sleep, hmm?” he said. “The arena was off to the west, so let’s get going. Hopefully we can outrun these things,” he said.
“I can help with that!” Twilight said. “Hold onto my hand.”Ghaly looked at her skeptically, before taking the smaller girl’s hand. A second later, there was a spark of purple light and the two had vanished.
***
The police officer hadn’t been wrong, Tricksy had to admit to herself.
The remains of what had been Galaxy City ages ago were now somewhere between a blasted wasteland and a war zone. Her magic had been sufficient to keep herself undetected for the most part, but Tricksy was too honest with herself to think that was due to anything other than the fact that the Shivans were dumber than the rocks they grew out of. A sound in the right direction or the sight of something human running away was a simple illusion, and it had kept the alien invaders from noticing her under the invisibility spell that she hadn’t quite perfected yet. When she was finished with it, Tricksy was fairly certain it would have deceived these stupid things easily, but for the moment she had to use her wits to make sure they didn’t notice the movements in the air and the sound of her footsteps.
Of course, the general problem was that, now that she’d visited what had been Freedom Court, Tricksy had absolutely no idea where to look. Interrogating the Shivans that had overrun the former home of the Freedom Corps didn’t seem like a viable option, so Tricksy had left a single glowing ball of light hovering above the location, using it as a center point to coordinate her slow but steady spiral outward from the crater. That the strange ball of light also distracted the Shivans, causing them to head back into deserted areas that Tricksy wasn’t, was a bonus. Still, this was likely to take a lot longer than Tricksy cared to contemplate.
Or, Tricksy thought as the ground itself buckled under her, an inhuman roar echoed off the surrounding wreckage, and the largest Shivan she’d seen yet pushed its way into the sky, I could just go towards that and assume that she’s dumb or well meaning enough to go towards the giant monster.
The magician considered her options for a moment before sighing as she came to the conclusion that, yes, Twilight would do that. With another flicker of power, Tricksy cloaked herself again and began sprinting towards the disturbance. Just so you know, Twilight, if you’re dead, Tricksy is going to make necromancy her next field of study just to properly bitch you out over this one...
***
“Got through!” Ghaly said as he shot a glance over the boulder he was using for cover. “Vanguard’s redirecting some of their jets for a strafing run! We need to hold out for four minutes!”
Twilight took a deep gulp of air as she teleported again, a gigantic meteor slamming into the ground where she’d been a second ago. Magic flickered to her hands as she sent another blast towards the giant Shivan that had cut them off. In theory, Twilight knew she could cut around it. It was still mostly in the crater, and her teleport would easily let them jump around it faster than it could track. But the problem was that it would likely follow them as they ran, and the last thing that Twilight wanted to do was drag a skyscraper sized Shivan back towards dozens of exhausted or injured heroes likely being seen to at the rally point.
A tentacle reached out of the crater the meteor had just gouged out of the ground, and Twilight blasted the newly hatched Shivan before it could fully form, before turning her fire back at the larger monster. So far, aside from sending meteors at them somehow and occasionally trying to reach forward and swipe at Twilight when she got too close, the giant Shivan hadn’t used the radiation blasts the others had, a fact that she was very grateful for. Just going by body size, if the power generation capability of the meteor chunk embedded in a Shivan’s body determined how powerful its radiation blasts were, the giant here could probably atomize her and Ghaly both in the process of sterilizing most of two city blocks if it wanted to.
Still, four minutes. Twilight could do that. Even in spite of the fact that every breath she was choking down burned in her lungs and that she’d been running non-stop on her magic since the meteors hit...was it two hours ago? Three? Twilight couldn’t really tell at this point. Any sense of day, night, noon, or morning had been burned away by the constant burning semi-gloom that Galaxy’s wreckage put off from a dozen fires. Still, the alternative was sitting down and letting the Shivan finish her and Detective Ghaly without putting up a fight, and Twilight sure as hell wasn’t going to do that.
Her skin tingled with the feeling she’d begun to attribute to the oncoming re-entry of another meteor attack. As she looked up to gauge where it was going to land, however, Twilight blinked as she saw it was way off course if it had been aimed at her. Glancing at the target point, she stared for a moment as she saw the meteor slam directly into what had looked just like her. Another roar from the Shivan, perhaps of triumph, was cut off as the other Twilight emerged, apparently unharmed, from behind the meteor and promptly blew a raspberry at the giant monster. The Shivan bellowed in anger before summoning another meteor, while Twilight was abruptly interrupted in her thought processes about the apparent correlation between Shivan size and intelligence by a hand on her shoulder yanking her behind cover.
“Will you keep your head down before you ruin all of Tricksy’s hard work?” a familiar voice said as Twilight looked over at the familiar silver-blue haired face that she’d not seen right beside her until just now.
“Tricksy?! You came in here? Why did you do that? It’s restricted to licensed heroes only!” Twilight said in surprise.
“Of course Tricksy came in here. Did you think Tricksy was going to leave you to die in this crater?” Tricksy grumbled with her eyes closed in a way that suggested she was concentrating. A second later, there was a flare of light and Detective Ghaly was beside them in their hiding spot, looking slightly perplexed.
“Friend of yours?” he asked, looking at Twilight.
“The best one I have,” Twilight said with a faint smile. “Even if she’s not supposed to be in here.”“The Benevolent and Concerned Tricksy felt you needed an injection of common sense, possibly by a few blows to the head if necessary,” Tricksy grumbled, even as more illusions appeared out on the field of herself and Ghaly.
The Shivan made a growl of confusion, before roaring louder than before, even as Twilight’s skin tingled again. “Uh, Tricksy...not to criticize, but maybe you shouldn’t have done that...”
“Why? It will keep the monster occupied until the planes Tricksy saw patrolling the air can get around to the giant building sized monster they can’t hope to miss,” Tricksy said.
“Because I think you pissed it off,” Ghaly said, even as several burning arcs began falling towards them.”
“...oh,” Tricksy said, before ducking behind the rock again along with Tricksy and Ghaly as the meteors hit. The ground shook beneath them, dropping them to the ground even as more Shivans began to crawl out of the ground around the impact sites. Tricksy briefly peeked out, before hopping back into cover. “...that was not Tricksy’s plan.”
“I’d figured that,” Twilight responded dryly.
Detective Ghaly was about to say something when his radio squawked on his belt. “Detective Ghaly, this is Vanguard Flight Echo-Zero-Niner. We are inbound. Take cover and get away from the target. This is gonna get really loud, really quick.”
The trio ducked as far into cover as they hadn’t already as the ripping sounds of jet engines approached. A second later, the giant Shivan shuddered as a missile penetrated its outer membrane, then explodes, blowing huge chunks of slime all over the surrounding area. Several more missiles struck home, blowing further chunks out of the immense monster, even as staccato ripples of gunfire shredded the smaller Shivans that had crawled out of the newer meteors. A final missile launch hit the giant Shivan in the torso, blasting a chunk out of the meteor that had formed its core. With a roar of pain, the monster collapsed back into the pit.
“Detective Ghaly, this is Echo-Zero-Niner. Confirm the field is clear?” Ghaly’s radio squawked again.
“Confirm, Echo-Zero-Niner,” Ghaly said, pulling the radio up. “Dunno if the big one’s dead or not, but it’s definitely going to be licking its wounds for a while, and the small ones are all paste.”
“Good to hear, Detective Ghaly. Eyes in the sky puts you clear until the evac zone a few blocks up. I’d advise you head out forthwith. We’ll keep an eye on the crater in case the big nasty comes back.”
“Roger that, Echo-Zero-Niner,” Ghaly said. “We’ll try not to let the scenic views distract us.”
“Good luck on that, Detective Ghaly. Echo-Zero-Niner out.”
***
Tricksy was somewhat peeved at the moment. By all rights, she should be back at home, showering before a long, leisurely and well deserved nap after rescuing Twilight from the consequences of her own overactive sense of civic duty.
Instead, Twilight was outside in the waiting room, while Tricksy got to sit in...well, it was most likely an interrogation cell. She’d seen enough people looking through the presumably two way mirror she wasn’t supposed to be able to see through to assume she was under observation, but Tricksy’s skillset had never included lip-reading, so she had no idea what they were discussing. After a long while, a PPD officer stepped in, sitting down on the far side of the table from her and folding his hands in front of him. “So, Miss...” he glanced at her for a moment and then chuckled. “So, Miss Tricksy, I hope you understand the situation that you’ve put us in.”
“Successfully carrying out search and rescue operations that your department was busy elsewhere with? The bored and mildly perturbed Tricksy is wondering why you do not simply pin a medal on her and then let Tricksy go home to stay out of your way as you no doubt want her to,” Tricksy said. “Unless perhaps it has become a crime to rescue people. In Paragon City,” she said, raising an eyebrow.
“Not at all,” the officer said. “The problem is that you snuck into a disaster zone against the express orders of the securing personnel. This could have endangered yourself and others, and certainly we had no idea you were in there, which would’ve made rescue even more problematic.”
Tricksy grumbled. “Then fine Tricksy and be done with it.”
“Well, that’s the problem,” the officer said. “While your intentions were good, and you did help rescue both your friend and a police officer, the best we can do is put you on probation for a few weeks. And while that would be a less than problematic situation for most people, a few of the officers around the station were looking forward to attending your next show.”
Tricksy’s next quip was cut off as she realized the implications of what the officer was saying. Certainly, to any performer, being in jail would be negative publicity, sure, but something they could survive. However, Tricksy had been paying for her next show with practically all of the funding from the previous one for a while. Making your name in the show circuit in a glutted market like Paragon was hard. Missing a show and defaulting on the fee... Tricksy ran the numbers in her head and felt a sinking feeling in her stomach.
“However, there’s another option,” the officer said, leaning forward. “We don’t want to punish you, and you don’t want to miss your show date. I think we have an option that could prevent both of those.”Tricksy looked up, her eyes narrowing. “And what, praytell, would Tricksy have to do in order to qualify for such unique treatment, officer?”
“Well, simply fill out some paperwork.” He shrugged. “We had a lot of people that weren’t properly heroes yet in Galaxy when the meteors hit. More than a few of them should’ve been evacuated rather than staying behind to help fight back the Shivans. Between that and Freedom Court getting pretty much blown sky high, and any forms you signed in your intent to become a registered hero are probably so much ash. However, with a few quick signatures, we could get your paperwork in order. Clearly since you were so eager to help out that you went into a dangerous disaster zone without waiting for proper paperwork to reach you, we shouldn’t hold your willingness to help the public good against you.”
Tricksy looked at him, eyes narrowing. “So, rather than lose financial gain, you want me to throw myself into a highly dangerous and volatile profession for which I have no prior training or interest?”
The officer shook his head. “Not like that, no. We’re willing to provide training, but after getting your license, it simply authorizes you to act within the statues of the Citizen Crime Fighting Act. You’re under no obligation to actively seek out crime. It just allows any evidence about a crime you come across to be usable in court if you actively stopped a crime without calling for the police. In general, it’s a safety net for people with abilities like yours. It also prevents misunderstandings like the one that led to this,” he said.
Tricksy considered for a moment, before sighing in defeat. It really wasn’t as if she had any other options, and she’d seen plenty of people who got hero licenses and didn’t go out every day to fight crime. And... it would make good publicity for her...
“Very well. What do you need me to sign?”
***
If there had been one thing that went right about this absolutely awful day, Tricksy had to admit, it was seeing Twilight waiting for her outside of the station, looking much better than the dirty, grimy, exhausted friend Tricksy’d stepped in to rescue hours before. Still, there was still the fact of Tricksy’s earlier interrogator accompanying her out as well that prevented it from being a perfect reunion. At least until Twilight turned and noticed him.
“Bert! What are you doing here?” she asked, running up to hug the officer with a familiarity that made Tricksy abruptly suspicious.
“Bert? Who is ‘Bert’?” Tricksy wondered, looking at her friend.
“Bert is my older brother,” Twilight clarified. “I told you about him, didn’t I? He joined the PPD back when we were in middle-school.”
“No, you didn’t,” Tricksy said, massaging the bridge of her nose. “However, Tricksy is well aware of the fact you are a scatterbrain with important details like this. Unless this was all an elaborate sting operation to make Tricksy sign paperwork to be a registered hero as well.”Bert blinked. “Wait, you’re Sandy’s friend from middle-school? Be-”“Tricksy is Tricksy, if that’s quite fine with you!” Tricksy said sharply cutting him off and getting an amused headshake from Twilight.
“Sorry, Bert, she’s a bit...sensitive about that sort of thing. Some kind of stage presence self-promotion thing that she’s pretty much stuck with.”Twilight’s brother nodded, looking over at her. “Well, it’s working, I guess. I never figured you for Sandy’s old school-pal, though admittedly, we didn’t really get a chance to meet given Mom and Dad’s aversion to you two studying ‘such an impractical career choice’ or whatever.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, before looking back at the magician. “Incidentally, if your name’s...what it is...why didn’t you shorten it to Trixie with an X? Wouldn’t that be closer?”Tricksy grimaced, even as Twilight giggled. “It’s already copyrighted. The Great and Powerful Tricksy has no affiliation, personal or professional, with the registered hero by the name of Trixie, because Tricksy is not a nymphomaniacal exhibitionist Pocket D catgirl.”
“...oh, that Trixie,” Bert said. “Yeah, I suppose I can see why you’d want to make sure your gigs weren’t confused with hers.” He started to say something more before another voice spoke up inside the precinct.
“Hey, Bertrand! Get in here! We’ve got a Code 13 in the Row!” someone shouted.
“Well, duty calls,” Bert said, giving his sister a quick hug. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Tricksy, and hopefully we were able to help out with your problem. I look forward to seeing your show this weekend.”
With that, he jogged back into the station, leaving the two girls alone, as Tricksy turned narrowed eyes at Twilight. “Did you do that on purpose?”“Do what on purpose?” Twilight said, faking innocence as badly as she ever had. Tricksy was going to have to give her some lessons on that if she was going to be a superhero. Twilight couldn’t bluff worth a damn.
“Set it up that I got your older brother as the officer handling my case,” Tricksy said.
“I.... maaaaaay have mentioned that the Great and Powerful Tricksy, who Bert happens to be a fan of, had helped me out of a jam in Galaxy even if she got in trouble for it,” Twilight said.
Tricksy stared at her friend for a few moments longer, before sighing and walking down the steps. “Fine. But don’t think this gets you off the hook for doing the dishes tonight. They’ve been piling up, and I don’t have some convenient dishwashing spell.”“Works for me. Incidentally, I got a paycheck for some of the salvaged junk they got from those Shivans we blew up, so I think dinner’s on me,” Twilight beamed.
“...that sounds good,” Tricksy said, letting the stress from the rest of the day slough off. One little thing was still niggling at the back of her mind, though.
“....Twilight?” she asked, as the darker skinned magician turned around.
“Yeah?”
“When your brother was talking about what I’d done wrong, he mentioned that I’d saved ‘my friend’ and the detective. But you said that you’d just told him that I’d helped you out of a jam...” Tricksy said, suspicion mounting.
“Oh, that,” Twilight said, kicking a foot nervously. “Um....there may have been some...other words exchange-oh look at the time! We better beat it if we’re gonna hit the Flying Saucer before they close!” she said, vanishing into a flash of light and reappearing several dozen feet away.
Tricksy sighed, but couldn’t quite be angry with her friend. After all, Tricksy mused as a smile tugged at her face, she could appreciate proper use of misdirection.
She was a magician, after all.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
