The last time we had caught a trace of Zentha, we’d only gotten a single instant that the human eye couldn’t see. Nor could orc or Celmothian eyes. But that was why we had recordings.

  “Alright, let’s go over the plan one more time,” I said as we stood in front of the scrying ‘orb’ Vilhelmiina had created. “We alternate Scrying until we get any image at all, then run out where we can make a portal.” It was so inconvenient that the Power Brigade was warded against extradimensional stuff. The defenses probably weren’t perfect, but trying to fight our way out seemed annoying. There were ways to get exceptions, but it probably wasn’t a good idea to create a portal inside HQ anyway.

  “What about the simultaneous Scrying? That got… something.”

  “Hmm. We can afford to alternate twice each, then try as a pair. It will leave us less personally viable, but we’re not hoping for a battle.”

  Magic resistance for supers tended to be on a type by type basis. The bruiser or invincible types were generally good, unless they were only resistant to physical trauma. Great Girl would have been an excellent choice, but she was busy. Sadly, friendship couldn’t override work, especially when this was technically work. We’d managed to get this personal mission approved, so I really hoped it would pan out.

  Captain Punch would have been a great choice, but getting executives for random missions wasn’t that easy. If we could, Calculator would be great against certain magic. If he got hit with sleep magic he might just accept it, though. Assuming he could sleep. I had no proof of that.

  Shockwave was available and happy to help. They might not be magic resistant, but they could move fast enough to be untargetable. Shockwave wasn’t easily taken out by simple tricks either. With processing and reflexes to match their speed, random patches of Grease thrown on the ground wouldn’t do much. The best reason to have Shockwave, though, was that we didn’t really want to fight.

  If it turned into a real brawl, I had no idea what would happen. Maybe Zentha could destroy an entire building, or read every move ahead of time and set up perfect traps. Or maybe she couldn’t fight. Hopefully she’d at least understand where I was coming from. I needed answers to something.

  For purposes of a potential battle, Antagonist was our best bet. He didn’t look like much, fully zipped up in a mirrored full body suit that covered his head. But that was the point. Antagonist could create a duplicate of someone and replicate their abilities. If Zentha could fight, a mirror of her should be useful. It wouldn’t be a perfect copy, so if she was just way too powerful it wouldn’t matter. But at least we could afford to sacrifice a copy if things got violent.

  Finally, we had Sorority. Splitters were great for creating extra targets that were also real threats, as well as blocking exits. Assuming Zentha didn’t just teleport away, of course. Stopping that was our first plan.

  It was a small team, but we weren’t trying to crush Doctor Doomsday. We were trying to talk to someone who probably didn’t want to talk. Either that, or she was making it way more difficult than it had to be if she did want to.

  There was some chance that Zentha was already gone, but if she didn’t run immediately the first time she should hopefully be there when we arrived this time. Presumably. If not, well, we wasted an afternoon’s worth of mana and took some time to reassess.

  I started things off, calling upon the maximum power of Scrying. All I got was some wasted mana. Not even a flicker of an image resolved in the swirling mists. I could feel resistance, which indicated… very little more than that she probably still existed. I wasn’t a great diviner, I just fell into this by accident.

  Midnight swapped with me. Then me again, and him a second time. I was certain that my Nondetection would be worn down by that point. Maybe it was recast. It wasn’t like she wouldn’t be able to sense anything at all. She should be more attuned to such things, and I could usually tell someone was watching.

  “Alright, I don’t think we’re getting anywhere,” I admitted. “Together?”

  Midnight nodded.

  Rather than together, it was more like ‘at the same time’. We didn’t form the same spell, we merely used the same focus at the same time. It was probably terrible. But, it had worked before. Sort of.

  Now it worked again. The swirling mists broke for just a moment before the spell was torn asunder. “Let’s go!” I said, scooping up Midnight.

  While we couldn’t get Calculator’s time for the mission, we did make sure he was ready to help with this. He could better scan through the information and pick out useful frames, which would be sent to us for purposes of Gate. Once we got to the rest of the squad outside.

  The elevator doors had barely closed before we had a message. I studied the image. It wasn’t from opposite sides this time, but the surroundings were still extremely vague. However, it was good enough to get an idea of the location. Still in Earth #2’s Japan… unless her location was a decoy somehow. We didn’t have time to delve deeper.

  We met Shockwave, Sorority, and Antagonist just outside. “We’re going,” I said, as Midnight and I split the costs of Gate. I paid two-thirds, since I was still far ahead on mana. Not quite that much, but he’d used a lot of his mana on Scrying.

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  Shockwave zipped through the Gate first. Sorority spread a couple of her out to the sides, but remained with the rest of us as we stepped through. We’d be able to tell if Zentha was running-

  Oh, there she was. Not that I should have expected much different. We had exactly one room we could appear in, given the very limited information. I was just surprised she was still there. The elven woman was surprisingly tall.

  “Watchoutfire!” Shockwave had actually gotten all the way around behind her, but Zentha had a Fire Shield active. Or, it became active when they approached.

  There were two explosions to the sides, and Sorority staggered. A literally-dark reflection of the elven woman stepped out of the mirrored surface of Antagonist at the same time as I finished gathering mana for Dimensional Anchor. I shot a greenish ray that never reached Zentha, fizzling in front of her.

  “You know, in some versions of the future you were wise enough not to come here.”

  “Aren’t diviners supposed to be truthful?” I asked. “Don’t just make stuff up.” I could probably dispel Fire Shield. Then Shockwave could perform a takedown. But… if we didn’t need to, it might be better. Midnight was holding some mana ready, but he probably couldn’t do that for long without resolving it into a spell.

  “You are even more audacious than he described.” I could only presume she meant Master Uvithar.

  “Yeah well I’m stronger now. So where is he? You have to know.”

  “It will do you no good to seek him out.”

  “Are you going to tell me why?”

  “Would it make a difference?”

  “It totally would. But I don’t think you’ll explain.”

  “The future bends and twists, but some features remain constant like a boulder in a stream. Only tragedy and danger will befall you if you continue your pursuit of Master Uvithar.”

  “You’re so… unhelpful. You know, if you’re hiding from some people I could get you somewhere with more allies and less random monster attacks. Just help me find something.”

  Talking was good. My companions knew that was the point, so they were helpfully maintaining their positions. Zentha might run if it was just me. If she could perfectly counter us, then it didn’t matter anyway and she’d just say whatever.

  “I see a future full of violence does not dissuade you,” Zentha frowned. “But you must know that harm will befall those you care about if you pursue this.”

  “And if I don’t, they’ll be safe?” If this was a threat, I was going to shoot her. It just seemed more likely to work than magic.

  “The breadth of the future isn’t clear.”

  I sighed. “Izzy found you much more helpful.”

  “That was because her choice for the future was not so problematic.”

  I crossed my arms. I should have had my gun prepared before we came through the portal. I was just thinking about magic too much. Could I reach her with my staff easily? Surely she couldn’t cast anything that would take us all down. There wasn’t that much lingering magic in the area, so her traps were thin.

  “I wouldn’t even know you exist if not for her choice there. Anyway, I have the feeling you have most of the answers I’d want from Master Uvithar. You could make this easy. Why is everyone lying about magic?”

  “For your own safety.”

  “Oh,” I nodded. “So you’re one of them.”

  Midnight certainly felt my spike in emotion. He managed to resolve his mana into a Water Blast the instant after I started moving forward. I figured gathering mana would give Zentha too much notice. My staff struck forward as I prepared to Dispel. Shockwave could grab her once there was no barrier.

  Zentha shook her head. “Typical.”

  She’d better not have been referring to orcs. I felt her begin to gather mana at the same time as Antagonist’s copy. She was faster. Antagonist was a bit slower than myself or Midnight- probably because he didn’t normally use mana- but Zentha was faster. Way faster. In the time I went just a couple steps, she got in a whole Teleport. Not a Dimension Door or something minor. She disappeared from in front of us and could have been thousands of miles away.

  I struck the area she had been in case it was an illusion, but I already knew better. My staff swished through empty air, and the dispelling magic found no purchase. “Did I screw this up?” I turned towards Midnight.

  “She obviously didn’t want to talk,” Midnight shrugged.

  Shockwave contributed as well. “She seemed prepared to be mysterious and annoying. Think I could catch her if I was going really fast?”

  What an insincere attempt to get Hasted. I shook my head. “I’m not paying for broken windows in another world. And the people who could fix that are busy enough.”

  Sorority was carefully moving around the room- a second one of her. There were clear side effects from her previous clones being destroyed. I saw her bend down and look under a side table. Then she pulled something from her pocket. “Might as well bug it,” she explained. “In case she comes back.”

  “Smart,” I said. I was willing to bet Zentha was in a different world by now. And we hadn’t learned anything. I turned to Antagonist. “I don’t suppose you have secrets bouncing around in that magic noggin, do you?”

  Antagonist shook both heads. “Nah, just a vague idea of how powers work. Better if I see them. Also, this woman has a crazy amount of different abilities.”

  “Sounds about right,” I said. I wondered how I could learn to gather mana that fast. I didn’t usually need to spend more mana per period of time, but beating villains to the punch would be useful. And a couple spells faster could actually save me effort in the long run. “Why did she let us catch her if she was just going to leave?”

  “Maybe she didn’t expect we could actually get here,” Midnight said.

  “We’d already been to this world. She should have noticed that.”

  “How much of the future can diviners see?” Midnight asked.

  “Well…” I didn’t actually know. “Maybe not as much as they want people to think.”

  She might not have known anything about the future at all. There being violence in my future was like saying the sun was going to rise in the morning. Though I didn’t really like the sound of tragedy, if she actually wanted to convince me she would have said something concrete. She was probably just making stuff up.