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32 - The Archmage Vs The Mouse
🕑 Added 2025-02-17 16:17:08 +0000 UTCMax drummed his fingers on the shiny hardwood table, over and over again. As his fingers left behind marks on the sleek brown surface, he wondered briefly what the cleaners used on it to get that sheen. Wax, or Loretta’s oil polish? Max used the latter recently to pretty up his Beretta-Junior and he had to say it was starting to look quite nice. It was still nowhere compared to the beauty that was Beretta-Senior though. He’d painstakingly crafted that gun from just a hunk of metal into a small portable powerhouse, rigged with an IED and a rapid fire mechanism capable of mass destruction.
Even though over the years, he’d arguably fashioned flashier guns than that, Beretta-Senior remained his pride and joy for a long time.
Unfortunately, Senior had sadly met his demise during Max's last dungeon crawl, when he’d flung it into the mouth of a bug-eyed creature and activated the machine gun mechanism to destroy the thing from the inside, before a final explosion that ripped it apart. The creature was instantly riddled with internal bullets and erupted into a spray of exoskeleton, blood and green goo that rained the dungeon sky.
Max had nearly wept, both from relief at being alive and from grief at losing his favorite gun.
That gun had been with him for ten years. It was his best creation and it was hard to say goodbye.
To this day, he couldn't believe it was gone.
But anyway, he was tinkering with Beretta-Junior so it would one day meet the standards set by Senior and maybe even surpass them. One day, Junior would make his father proud.
As Max thought about the new changes he’d make to his gun, he kept drumming, louder and louder until the man sitting opposite him finally cracked.
“Would you stop that?”
Max grinned. “You’re so easy.” It was always nice to annoy his brother. He didn’t usually have time for it anymore, but since his delving break began, he was bored more often than not and this was a nice way to alleviate his lethargy.
Speaking of delving, he hadn’t checked in on his team in months. He needed to call them and remind them not to get lazy on their vacation. Delving season was starting soon.
“Are you going to get me the invite or not?” Max asked Luke after his brother tried to go back to his work-pad.
Luke glanced up to regard Max carefully. They had identical blue eyes and people liked to say they looked alike. But Max didn't think so. Luke was a few inches taller and always had his short hair swept into a classic pompadour (or what Max liked to call, his smarmy politician’s cut). Luke also liked to wear button-downs and long robes that exemplified his princely appearance.
In both looks and character, Luke was softer, smoother, and more put together. The perfect picture of a polite gentleman.
Except Luke had his crazy side too. Of course, no one but Max knew about that.
“I'm not giving it to you until you tell me what you need the invite for,” Luke finally said.
“What else would I need an invite to a fancy party with the hero association for,” Max said. “For the contacts obviously.”
Luke raised his eyebrows doubtfully. “You want to do hero work?”
“No, I’d rather die. But, you know the association gets the first dibs of all the high-value dungeons. I figure if I befriended a few of those bastards, then I would get the call before other dungeon parties.”
Luke narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “So you want to suck up to the association?”
Max executed a perfectly lazy shrug. “Well, if you can’t beat the system, why not let the system work for you? You’re the one who’s always telling me to catch flies with honey or whatever it is you usually say in your lectures. This is just me taking your advice.”
Luke snorted and shook his head. “Yeah, right. I’m not falling for that.”
“Not falling for what?”
“That fake innocent act. You’re up to something.”
“Moi?” Max laid a hand on his chest dramatically, widening his eyes. “What on earth could I be up to at a [Hero] party?”
“I’m not sure but you’re sounding far too reasonable right now, which means you’re probably planning something utterly unhinged.”
“Jeez. So paranoid. I wouldn't mess with the [Heroes], brother, I don't have a death wish.”
When Luke shook his head without a response, Max cursed internally. Frustration sliced at him. Damn you Luke, for being so perceptive. Then again, Max never expected deceiving his brother to be easy.
As Luke remained silently reading his document, Max opened his mouth to play his trump card, reminding his brother of the favor he was owed.
But just then, an alert pinged at the corner of his vision. It was a fully red alert, with multiple exclamation points that blinked rapidly in his personal dungeon detector. The machine was created by a friend and it wasn’t always accurate in that it gave him a lot of false negatives. But it had never given a false positive before.
His stomach sank as he opened up the message and swore loudly. "Oh, for the love of demonic little nutsacks, can I catch a break?"
His brother looked up. “You’re that upset about not going to a party?”
“No. I'm even more upset that a level seven unstable dungeon is about to spawn in Hovelton.”
His brother’s jaw dropped open and the two of them stared at each other for several seconds.
"Shit," Luke said.
***
The wind slapped at her face, as Lexie tried to orient herself to her surroundings and her situation.
She was currently flying down the sidewalk of a busy street, slipping through light poles and narrowly avoiding bodies that were running in the opposite direction to a bomb shelter.
It was actually an interesting experience. She would be having fun if not for the circumstances.
Circumstances being that she wasn't actually flying.
Instead, she was tucked securely underneath an armpit that was covered in a cream, wooly coat that looked kinda like poodle hair, her head facing the street behind him.
Who wears a coat like that when it's so warm out? Lexie wondered and she craned her neck to try to see the man’s face. From what she could tell at this angle, he was a chubby, sweaty mess, with bushy brown hair that broke out in patches over the side and bottom of his chin. His hair was another curly mass around his face, although the hair on top of his head didn’t quite blend into his sideburns that well.
It only took a few seconds before she realized that it was a wig.
It must have been glued on pretty well, because it was withstanding the wind nicely.
But also, why was this sweaty abominable snowman with a bad wig kidnapping her?
“Do I know you?” she asked him, having to scream over the wind and chaos.
He glanced down at her midrun and, once she met his eyes, recognition flashed through her. “Wait, I do.”
He was the guy who had bumped into her and Aiden that other day, the one who’d run away like he’d seen a ghost.
He didn’t respond to her words and he turned the corner at the end of the street, continuing to book it. Lexie had to admit, he was much faster than he looked. He was a little on the shorter, rounder side, so she didn’t expect him to bolt quite as speedily as this. But maybe that was a side effect of his powers, giving him a speed boost.
The same powers he’d used to yank her off her feet and have her attached to him as securely as if he were a magnet.
Lexie didn't need long to figure out that he was some kind of criminal or [Villain]. He fit the type and he was technically kidnapping her which seemed like a very [Villain] to do. She also had a good clue as to why he took her. What she hadn't figured out yet was exactly how his powers worked.
Once she could, maybe she could figure out how to make him let go of her.
"Lexie!"
She glanced in the direction of the voice and got a glimpse of Aiden.
He was way behind, but not from lack of effort.
In fact, his face was redder than the kidnapper's, steam coming off him in waves. His arms pumped to drive himself forward, and one of his legs limped a little like he’d pulled a muscle. But he kept going, yelling her name every few steps. His eyes gleamed with desperation, his chest heaved with the exertion and his teeth gritted with pain as he pushed his body much beyond what it could take. He was failing to run faster.
He was trying to catch up and hoping beyond hope that he would somehow make it.
But he was failing anyway.
Even with his effort, the distance between them stretched and stretched.
His one leg lagged behind the other, distress was in every step, every cry echoing farther and farther away until she could barely hear him anymore. “Lexie!”
Her heart clenched for him. She wasn’t necessarily panicked about her current situation, for whatever reason, but she was worried that Aiden would hurt himself by pushing too hard.
“I’m okay,” she yelled back just to put his mind at ease a little. In truth, she wasn’t sure if she was okay or not. Her body still hurt with all the jostling the kidnapper was doing and she wasn’t entirely healed up from the bomb.
But she didn't want Aiden to worry.
She kept her eyes on him and tried to tell him she was okay again but she didn't know if he heard her. Bodies moved between them and she lost sight of her dad.
And with that loss, fear pulsed through her veins but she swallowed it down. Now wasn't the time to be afraid. She had to be level-headed and figure out this mess.
She turned her attention back to her captor and mentally opened up her inventory, considering the various cards in there. What would be the best move here? Maybe she should cause a scene and yell that she was being kidnapped? Use <Can I Have Your Attention> for that. But everyone was in panic mode already and she doubted anyone would pay attention to her over the fray.
Well, she guessed she had a card that could make him let her go.
Keeping it out of view, she secretly materialized the <Getting Out of Hand> card and she activated it. She didn't use her new method to save time, but she did try to prevent as much mana waste as possible while pushing more mana into the pathway to speed up the process.
Activation was around fifteen seconds but she didn't have time to celebrate. She immediately pointed at her captor and felt the magic leave her fingertips.
But it didn't work. It was too difficult to disrupt his pathways as they were guarded. Damn.
Thankfully, the cool-off period was only ten seconds after which she tried again, deciding to risk burnout.
This time, she pointed at someone in his path coming in the opposite direction.
She targeted the man when he was close enough, but not too close, and activated the card. Sixteen seconds. Her timing was off by a second and the man bumped into someone in front of the kidnapper who then lightly brushed against them.
The kidnapper barely felt it and continued running as the two strangers tangled on the floor.
Sorry, Lexie said silently.
She waited another ten seconds and tried again.
This time, it worked. A stranger barrelled into the kidnapper, knocking him off-kilter into a wall.
Lexie's head hit the wall and she cried out.
“Watch where you’re going!” she heard the stranger say.
“You watch you’re going, asshole!’ the kidnapper responded.
The exchange took three seconds and then he was on his way again.
Shoot, it hadn't been enough. She needed to put more force in. She needed to slow him down even more so Aiden could catch up.
Lexie started physically struggling while waiting for the cool-down time to elapse. She reached out to grab poles and staircase railings, and people. Anything she could to slow his progress.
This all led him to say in a nasally, high-pitched voice, “Settle down. My beef isn’t with you.”
“Well, obviously," she replied in a surprisingly steady tone. "I’m a kid. It would be pretty pathetic if your nemesis was a ten-year-old. Let me guess. You have a problem with my dad.”
“That’s correct. Unfortunately for you, your father owes me a pretty large debt.” The distaste shone through when he spoke about Aiden, offering no doubt of his animosity for the other man. “And he’s going to pay up today.”
“You might be disappointed. We’re kind of poor now.” Lexie was pretty sure that Aiden got paid very little each month and all he had to his name was his house and a handful of books and gadgets. How he paid for Everstone Elementary was a wonder because it certainly wasn't a cheap school.
Maybe I'm on a scholarship? Lexie thought. Do I have to keep my grades above a certain point or else I lose my scholarship and have to drop out? Dad had never told me that.
Even though she didn't want to go to school in the first place, the thought of dropping out was almost as shiver-inducing as the kidnapping.
The man finally responded to her question with a grunt and a look. “It's not that kind of debt.”
“What kind is it?” she asked, hoping to keep him talking. Maybe if he spoke enough, she would figure out what he wanted from Aiden. Or maybe talking might slow him down even more. She attempted to grab a pole but her hands slid off it weakly as she asked, “An honor debt?”
“No,” he gritted out. But to her disappointment, he didn't continue.
“There’s so many kinds of debts someone can owe you,” she said. “Especially outside of earth. For example, the Fae have something called a body debt. It's super fascinating. So basically how it works is that if Person A does hard labor for Person B, to the point where Person A suffers grave personal injury from it, they can demand any part of Person B's body as recompense. So say, one person got into a fight on behalf of their friend and lost a tooth, just like that, then they could ask for the friend's kidney in return. Or maybe I’m misunderstanding but that’s what I thought it meant. Is that what you want? My dad’s kidney?”
“Do you ever shut up?”
"Only when you ask nicely.” She’d already activated the card as she spoke and this time she targeted right. A six-foot tall man with a large suitcase right in front of them tripped suddenly and his suitcase flew out of his hand and struck her captor in the face.
“Oof!” This force was enough to send him toppling to the ground and his hold on Lexie' slackened. Lexie rolled out of his hands, adrenaline driving her to her feet but her shaky legs were too weak to carry her more than a few steps. Luckily, on the heels of the first activation, she'd also activated <Hustle and Shuffle> which kicked in right after she fell. She immediately got up and dashed back in the direction of her dad, but she kept falling over due to how weak she was.
She cleared some distance, and was able to see a hint of the top of Aiden's head again.
But then she fell.
And she felt her body being dragged once more like a magnet until she was in the man’s hold again.
“What the fuck is with all the clutzes today?” he muttered and she glared at him.
“Language,” she said and he rolled his eyes.
“Shut the fuck up, kid. I don't know why people today don't know how to walk."
“Um...because there's an emergency? I don’t know if you heard but there was a bomb in the city. People are trying to get to the bomb shelter and you’re going the opposite way.”
He sighed. “You’re very annoying. You know that?”
Lexie shrugged unapologetically. “What did you expect? You kidnapped a middle schooler.”
As he restarted his run, Lexie glanced behind her again. Relief washed through her as she saw Aiden wobbling behind them, but it turned into despair when she saw his limp had worsened. Shit. If he kept going he might dislocate his knee or break something.
He seemed to glance behind him too, and swore when he saw Aiden. He picked up speed and then went into an empty alley between two brick buildings, littered with metal garbage cans and the like. The man ran for a long stretch of what seemed to lead to a dead end. It got darker and darker as they went. Lexie was starting to get scared.
“Stop!” Aiden’s voice echoed behind her. “Mouse, stop.”
The man froze and then spun around to glare at Aiden. “So you do remember me.”
“Yeah. Watching you fall over jogged my memory. You're Mouse, aren’t you?” Aiden finally slowed into a walk as he got closer, and it was clear Mouse wasn’t going to run anymore. “You can’t blame me for forgetting. You look different. Bigger.”
Mouse flushed. “Yeah. Ironic isn’t it? I gained weight in prison. Got taller too.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe you didn't remember me. Didn’t remember how you ruined my life.”
“You ruined your life.” Aiden’s chest was still moving like a locomotive as he spoke, trying to catch his breath. “I gave you two chances to turn things around. You chose wrong each time.”
Mouse’s jaw worked. “I was just trying to feed my family.”
“By working with a group that destroyed other families.”
“You don’t get it.” Mouse gave a short laugh and shoved his hand roughly through his wig. It still didn't fall off. “Being a villain...I thought you would understand now. But you still don’t get it. What other option did I have?”
A slight struggle appeared in Aiden’s expression, and then he sighed. There was almost something like an apology in his gaze, but not quite. “I understand now. Believe me, I do. But at the time, I took an oath to capture evil-doers.”
“I wasn’t evil!”
“We say 'differently-moraled' now Dad.” Lexie's brain threw that out for whatever reason, maybe because of her concussion or maybe to break the tension or add some levity to the situation. Her statement did neither. Both men ignored her.
“My daughter has nothing to do with this," Aiden said to Mouse. "Let her go. And then we’ll settle this, the two of us. I’ll take whatever punishment you think is fitting for my crime.”
“You don’t get to dictate things anymore, Archmage,” Mouse responded coldly and a slightly maniacal smile crossed his lips. Lexie felt a distinct shift in the atmosphere. While at first, it was charged and angry, now it was getting frostier, and deadly. “They told me that you’d lost all your powers. You're worse than mundane now. And I…” He opened his one arm wide and said, “I’ve learned more than a few things while being locked up.”
The rattling and clanking of metal resounded all around the alley. Things began to float up into the air. Medieval-looking weapons–spiked clubs, a mace, wooden and metal shields, flails with a heavy metal ball, a freaking war hammer.
Lexie's heart stopped beating for a second as about a half-dozen painful-looking instruments rose higher and higher circling each other in the air.
These aren't stuff you leave lying around, Lexie thought as she stared up at them. He must have hidden them here ahead of time.
Which meant that Aiden had been lured into a trap.
He plans to use those on him.
As the danger level suddenly elevated, Lexie’s fear spiked through the roof and she began struggling in earnest.
But Mouse barely noticed. She felt so powerless. She couldn't trip him or use the cards for another few seconds, lest she risk burnout. Damn it!
“By the way, I go by Magnet now,” Mouse continued in a dreadfully casual tone. “For obvious reasons.”
Aiden regarded the various weapons in the air and then refocused on Mouse. Oddly enough, there was no fear in his eyes. Only a glint of determination.
“Let her go,” he said, his voice was carefully steady.
“I don’t think so.”
And then Aiden did the strangest thing. He smiled.
“Mouse, you do remember who I am, right?” He straightened, his brows shifting lower, his tone a curious mix of friendly and threatening. “Believe me when I tell you that it’s in your best interest to release my daughter this instant.”
Mouse chuckled. “Oh now, you’re trying to play tough guy? Too late. I already know that you can’t use your powers.”
“Do you think I lost all my powers?” Even with his leg injured, Aiden somehow seemed taller, and more intimidating. Maybe it was the coolness, the calculated look in his eyes, or the sneer that touched his lip. Either way, he no longer looked like the gentle soul she'd always known. With every word, he was starting to look and sound more and more like the [Villain] they called him.
“I was an Archmage, Mouse," he said. "The Archmage. You’ve seen what I can do. Do you really think there’s anything in this universe strong enough to contain me?” He took another step, the effect nearly ruined by the slight limp he still had. “Do you want to bet your life on that?”
The good thing was that it gave Mouse pause. Lexie felt him audibly swallow, felt the tension and fear vibrating in his muscles. His hold on her tightened, his expression no longer as sure.
And Aiden didn't stop there. His fingers clenched into fists and the silver at his neck began to glow just a little bit. It wasn’t enough to be really noticeable, just enough to know that he was doing something.
But Lexie knew what happened when he used magic and her stomach clenched as she imagined what he was going through. She bit her tongue to keep from telling him to stop, not wanting to ruin his bluff.
Aiden's face didn’t show a hint of the pain that was probably ripping through him as he faced down Mouse.
“Let her go, Mouse,” he said again. “Walk away.”
But Mouse might be braver than he seemed because he lifted one hand in the air and sent one of the weapons rushing at Aiden.
“Dad!”
Aiden jumped out of the way at the last second, nearly taking a mace to the head.
Mouse laughed uproariously. “Ha. I knew it! I knew you were bluffing.”
Aiden got to his feet, as the weapon circled him swinging at his head again. He ducked in time and then grabbed the cover of a trash can beside him, using it to shield himself against the mace that attempted to slam into his face.
It still managed to knock him back a few feet, making him land on his bad leg.
He grunted in pain.
“Dad!” Panic was flying through Lexie as she fought Mouse like a wild cat, kicking, biting, scratching his face. "Let him go!"
“Damn it!” Mouse swore and flung her to the ground but that moment of distraction was enough for Aiden to wrench the mace out of the air by its handle. Mouse attempted to take it back but Aiden held on and charged at Mouse, attempting to swing at his head.
Mouse jumped back and swore, releasing his magnetic hold of the mace and sending the other weapons after Aiden.
One by one, Aiden knocked them away with the mace. A shield got him in the back sending him to his knees but he blocked against the baton that went for his knee. But that distracted him from seeing what looked like a hexagonal torture device that drove one of its spikes into his arm.
Aiden bit out a scream as it ripped out of his skin, and Lexie echoed the scream as blood streamed down his arm. The warhammer dove from above, but Aiden leaped out of the way. Another weapon slammed into his back and he fell over, struggling to get back to a kneeling position, as the weapons waited to knock him down again.
Mouse laughed. “Now I see why people do this shit. It is very fun picking on the little guy.” He used both hands to make the weapons dance around Aiden, attacking him one by one, his eyes sparking with vindictive humor. “I bet you never thought you would be the little guy, Aiden Sparrowfoot. You never thought you would be on your knees, at the mercy of a two-bit thief named Mouse.”
“Dad!” Lexie stood shakily to her feet and was about to attack Mouse again when she noticed something. Aiden’s silver was glowing even brighter. So bright that she could see the skin around it reddening. Aiden was pushing more energy into it, his veins popping in his temple, his eyes nearly glowing with menace.
He’s doing something. Lexie’s breath caught. He’s trying to break the Tilling bands. Can he?
He was certainly trying but struggling at the same time. From what she’d read about the bands, Lexie thought it would be damn near impossible to break or unpower them. The hero association weren’t idiots. They wouldn’t let Aiden go free into the world unless they were absolutely certain those things could restrict his powers.
And unfortunately, they probably knew enough about his capacity to know how to hold him back.
Or did they?
And then she noticed something in the air.
Almost like a fireball leaping off one of the building roofs.
But as it descended she saw it wasn’t a fireball.
It was a young man, in a red spandex suit with boots, descending from the sky on a cloud of fire.
As he landed on the floor, facing Mouse, recognition struck her at the sight of a familiar redheaded hero. Theo Firebringer. He looked a little different from what she’d seen on the NET. There were visible signs of weariness drawn on his face, heavy eye bags under his eyes, and his curly hair was not as lustrous. But it was undoubtedly him.
He faced Mouse with a grim expression.
“I thought I smelled a rat,” he said.
