Chapter 11 (Patreon)

“You’d be surprised,” I said with a mischievous tilt of my lips. “Besides, who said food magic is the only thing I can do?”

Raising a hand, I formed a mana bolt and kept it hovering over my palm.

All members of the Teen Team stared at the ball for a long moment.

“Alright,” Rex said, “you’ve got me curious. Let’s hit the gym.”

Rex walked toward the elevator, and Eve followed behind him quickly, while I trailed along, a touch slower.

“What about the rest of the team?” I asked.

“Dupli-Kate always has a half-dozen clones down there, practicing,” Eve explained, “and Robot has a drone in every room.”

The metal doors to the elevator clicked open and then carried us down several floors, and then some. We passed the entire length of the bridge hideout was supposed to be built into, and stopped somewhere deep underground.

The door slid open, revealing an open-floor gym, the size of a football field.

Benches, machines, bands, and all manner of equipment for bodybuilding, futuristic treadmills, and an obstacle course that looked like it was from hell. A combat stage sat at the center of it all, where four Dupli-Kates fought each other. They chained together feints, throws, kicks, and grapples and flowed through stances from multiple martial art styles. It was a dizzying performance, resembling more of a delicate dance or performance than a life-and-death struggle.

My eyes followed them as we walked up.

Observe

Name: Kate “DupliKate” Cha (Clone)

Occupation: Teen Team Member

Level: ????

?????Mood: ???

“You’re staring,” Eve said, bumping me at my side.

“How can I not be?” I said, almost forgetting to breathe. “Even MMA fighters don’t move that well.”

“Yup, that’s Kate for you,” Rex said. “She probably has more time in the ring than anybody alive thanks to her clones.”

My mouth opened in amazement.

That kind of…tracked.

Clones plus linked memories and bodies equaled centuries of muscle memory, skill accumulation, precision, and confidence. Holy shit. She could be much more than a master of master art. My evaluation of her shot up several notches.

I had a feeling this version of the Teen Team would kick the asses of the ones I’ve seen in the shows and comic books. They’d also probably be freakishly strong, likely accustomed to putting hellish pressure on their muscles and bones.

Just beyond the stage, I spotted an area sealed off with a blast door. The chamber it was attached to was long, and that gave me a clue as to what it could be.

“Is that—is that an in-house firing range?” I asked, looking from Rex to Eve.

“We thought it best to have a facility in-house for some lower-level testing. We have alternate locations to test our harder-hitting attacks. But here works fine on most days," Eve explained.

The entire thing was obscene. The underground gym, the tech, all of it. It was only conceivable when you considered Eve.

“How much of this did you build?” I asked.

She smiled. “A lot more than you think, and a lot less than you’d expect. Besides, I can’t take all of the credit. Robot pitched in a lot.”

“I thought superheroes were supposed to be…you know, broke?”

“It helps being a silent partner in several tech start-ups.”

Another one of Robot’s bodies approached. He looked different from the standard model. He was taller and thicker, with two visible arm-mounted cannons.

“And what do non-geniuses do for money?” I asked.

“They hope they get a GDA sponsorship,” Rex said with a wave as he walked past Robot and circled the massive sparring ring. “I mean, it’s not bad if you’re desperate. Comes with a great allowance, health plan, dental, costume and weapon maintenance, and even vacation days.”

“That sounds amazing,” I said, a little bit surprised. Superheroes got vacation days? Of course they did. The GDA wasn’t totally heartless.

The members of the Teen Team didn’t share my excitement, though.

“What am I missing?”

“The sponsorship comes with a lot of rules. Monthly physicals, power tests, and blood samples. There’s even a morality clause and a quota for collateral damage and civilian saves per month.”

“That sounds intense.”

“It is,” Rex said. “All I’m saying is keep it in mind when they come calling. And you can bet my sweet ass that they will.”

“O…kay?”

“Rex isn’t a fan, if you can’t tell,” Eve said, somewhat cheekily.

“Oh, don’t give me that, Babe,” Rex scoffed. “You hate it as much as I do. That’s why there is a Teen Team.”

There it was.

“So…you two are together?” I asked slowly, feigning a touch of disappointment.

I didn’t feel anything about Eve one way or the other. I really didn’t know that, but they didn’t know that either. And it worked wonders for my deception skills.

Deception has reached lv 4

“It’s new,” Eve said, blushing slightly.

“I know at least three boys in our year that’ll be disappointed,” I smiled at her.

“So, mister, ‘I can do more than food magic,’ where do you want to start?” Rex called out to me.

My eyes drifted over to the arena, where one Kate had mounted another and was driving hammer fists into her face. The one below was turtling up.

“The target range,” I said uneasily.

--

The firing range was shorter than most standard ones, with paper targets at the end and reinforced walls likely built to resist energy weapon discharges.

I took my place by a station with Eve, Rex, and Robot watching.

“Whenever you’re ready,” he called out, and I let it rip, firing a trio of bolts downrange.

They struck with the speed of pitched baseballs, burning holes through the targets and impacting the wall with a dull metallic screech.

I’d aimed for center mass, but one clipped the arm, the other went wide, and the third hit head-on exactly, just below the heart.

You’ve learned Marksmanship

Rarity: Common

Type: Passive

Through repetition, you’ve learned to use a ranged weapon with commendable accuracy.

Effects

+4% accuracy of projectiles per level.

+2% stabilization while in motion per level

+3% atmospheric resistance

"Not bad at all," Rex observed.

"I'm not done," I said.

An involuntary breath escaped me as I started to charge up a spinning mana shot.

A bolt the size of my thumb appeared between my palms, and it started to rotate as I fed it more energy. 30 MP drained out of my mana pool

The air around my hands distorted in a bluish spiral, and I could hear a slight whine just before the bolt shot forward, pushing me back a single step.

It snapped into what was left of the target at the speed of a bullet and impacted the far wall with a loud slap.

“Hot damn,” Rex said in a low voice. “Not just a cook after all.”

I huffed slightly, a familiar exhaustion filling my chest. It happened when I burned through mana too quickly.

I caught Eve staring at me with a mix of surprise and respect.

No fear, I think.

That’s good.

“Your energy signature,” Robot said, turning to me. “It’s nothing I’ve ever seen. You’ve implied it’s magic. Is that an attempt at humor, or is it informed by some information?”

“Both,” I said with a shrug. “I can’t tell you definitively, of course. But call it intuition. I knew it was magic the second I used it.”