Young Writers Society

Dresden dismissed the concern with a wave of his hand.

"I'm sure we could get away with some light," he said. "There's weird lights on all the time. It's Gotham."

He looked around the room for a light switch. The darkness that had fallen in the room made it harder to see one, but Dresden had already revealed that he was a magician. He just had to act the part.

So how was he supposed to act the part? Was he supposed to make up his own rules? He wasn't going to mention the demon summoning here. That would make things awkward. He didn't need someone to judge him for morals he didn't actually have. Maybe he could say something in Latin before using his magic? He knew the language well enough.

Or he could take the DC approach and just say what he was doing backwards. If they ran into an actual magic user here, they wouldn't raise an eyebrow—unless it was too weird to have the exact same kind of magic.

...Better yet, he could do a mix of the two! Backwards Latin. Yeah, that would work well enough.

His fingertips itched at the thought of conjuring a flame. Fire and air always called to him like that.

"Essecra ammalf," Dresden muttered as he held his hand out. Right when he finished speaking, he made the flame appear in his palm. It didn't burn him, but would probably burn anyone else who got too close. He looked up at the others. "Until we find a light switch, we can use this."

"Nice," Mireya commented at the sight of the flame. She'd be able to look for and find that electric power in merely a few seconds, but this held her attention for a few moments. "So, this is what magicians do?"

She wasn't about to start categorizing another world's magic system into that of Aphirah's, but if it belonged to home, this definitely counted as Major Magic. Mireya hadn't seen him pull out the strands of magic that Minor Magic users could control, he'd just summoned the flame on his own. Major Mages were awfully rare and always had been, and if 'magician' was a profession of its own, she guessed that his equivalent wasn't especially common.

The odds Dresden or any of the others were from Aphirah weren't particularly likely if there were more worlds besides this one and hers (would it even surprise her at this point?), so he wouldn't technically be a Major Mage. Still, it interested her that she might be meeting another, in a way.

Bobby's eyes locked on the flame. Every flicker made him flinch. Every moment that passed pushed him closer to running. This wasn't worth it. This was not worth it.

He slid off the hood of the car where he sat and moved closer to the doors, giving the other members of the group a wide berth. He hovered by the opening, which stood cracked open, and watched the group. He would give it another minute. One more minute.

You don't have to trust people, Bobby, Briar had once said, but you can't just run from everyone. Learn to use them.

He hadn't learned to 'use them' yet, but maybe he could work on not running right away.

Vankous

Vankous barely suppressed the urge to criticize that flimsy spell. There was just such a lack of...efficiency.

"Hmm are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Vankous. "Fire is a little...unsafe." He waved his hand. Hopefully the Earth magic restriction applied well enough to gotham. The English word for light blazed above them in a vibrant purple. A eerie purple light illuminated the room.

"Whoops, not the color I was intending," said Vankous, " this place has some very finicky channels to magic. He waved his hand again and it changed to a hot pink. "Well...that's better...I think. I'm not changing this again. Until we find the light switch."

Katherine

"If you're done showing off for no reason whatsoever, that light switch is literally over there," said Kate, pointing. "I can't tell if it will work though."

Mireya smiled, very slightly. Magic could be a competitive thing, and it seemed like this could easily turn into a show-down. She’d seen a lot of people trying to prove their mastery better than someone else, but the results didn’t usually surprise her anymore. Major Magic won in sheer power of a single ability. Minor Magic won in variety of possible spells.

And although she was interested in seeing how that could play out between people with magic that was unfamiliar to her, it was best to keep things moving along. Maybe she could have a little fun with casualness about what she herself could do.

“The lights all work,” Mireya said off-handedly. “Except for that one light panel over there, which is burnt out.” She waved in the direction of one that was ten feet to their collective right. “Go ahead and turn them on.”

Bobby was nearest the switch. He took a shuddering breath. There was tension in the air, maybe awkward, maybe dangerous, from the magical d*ck-measuring, and the urge to run was growing. Bruce was notorious for being compassionate to orphans, and Bobby was close enough. He'd just have to...hide a few things. Bobby didn't have magic, he didn't know how to fight or defend himself. He was lost and scared and...and batman would help him.

He flicked the lights on with a trembling hand. They buzzed to life section by section, one loud thunk after another until almost every panel flickered and hummed above.

The warehouse was large, filled mostly with cars, some covered, some not, of various models, all in middling condition. The edges of the space were filled with wooden crates, some stacks reaching all the way to the lattice of pipes and wires in the rafters.

Through one of the broken windows, the bat signal still shone. If he ran, he'd meet Alfred at the mansion, possibly alone. He'd have to convince him of his story. With no proof.

Boby took a shuddering breath.

Would it be better or worse to admit that he just hadn't been able to find the light? Dresden wanted to seem capable and cool, and couldn't figure out if totally missing the light or wanting to be a showoff would make him seem worse.

"Thanks," he said to Bobby, Mireya, and Katherine. He wanted to keep the flame out longer, but didn't really need it now. He snuffed it out by closing his fingers around the flame.

All for show, of course.

"So that's your superpower?" Dresden said to Mireya, deciding to not even address the light switch. "Being able to get in touch with electricity?"

He glanced over at Cerebro. He could have checked the planes and probably should have, but that magic didn't feel like his. It was a different kind of magic, so Dresden seriously doubted he had gotten it the same way. And Dresden wouldn't have been able to see anything if he had checked, either. He had missed the majority of it, but Dresden knew that part of the reason the revolution had gotten so far was because no one had been able to detect it.

Mireya nodded, and raised a hand above her head. The nearest light panel over her flickered violently as an electric current flashed out from it and leapt to her hands. She held it for a moment, condensing it into what looked like a ball of pure lightning, before sending it back to the light and letting it flow through the wires once more. The panel lit up again, just as brightly as before.

“I can detect it when it’s nearby, transfer it out of a circuit, control its path, or drain it from something and hold the energy for a bit,” she said, flexing her fingers. “I also give off a lot of static shocks, just to warn you.”

It was much more of magic than a “superpower”, like Dresden had described it as, but Mireya understood why it’d appear to him that way. It wasn’t rare for her to hear that.

Tempest Briar’s eyes widened. That was the power of the lightning alis, to hold and control what Mireya had called electricity. But Mireya was certainly no alis. Her features were undoubtedly human. But her power taught her one important thing: lights here were run by lightning rather than gas. “Fascinating.”

Maybe he was overthinking what would happen to him if he revealed his hand. She didn’t have to say everything, but mentioning the powers might be fine. But, then again, she had already committed to the “everyday Englishmen”, and revealing that she was lying wouldn’t go over well.

As long as no one started drawing or decided to throw themselves off of a five-story roof, his powers wouldn’t apply anyways. Hopefully, his team would be careful enough not to have to worry about that sort of thing.

Tempest Briar rolled his shoulders. God and angels above, her backs ached. “Maybe it’s best to stay here for the night. If none of us are from around here, nightfall isn’t the best time to wander around.”

Bobby couldn't disagree with that. Gotham was certainly at it's most dangerous at night. And people in general tended to be more on guard at night. It was easier to hide, sure, but it was also far more likely that someone would call the cops. Bobby didn't like the cops back home, he really didn't want to meet Gotham cops.

He looked around. He wanted to sleep near an exit, with no one between him and his way out. The front door was the obvious choice, but also the most likely place for someone to enter if anyone were to happen across them and get curious.

Maybe he could scale one of the stacks near a busted window and go out the way he came in. He looked around for such a place. There had to be somewhere.

"That's a neat power," Dresden said to Mireya. If Pres was present, he would have been geeking out about it. It would have been so adorable. Dresden probably wouldn't have gotten half of the explanation, but-

He pushed the thought aside.

Thinking too much about Pres right now hurt. He need to focus on surviving the present so he could get back to Minecraft and capture Cassius Jones.

"And I agree with the not wandering around at night," Dresden said in response to Tempest. "Gotham's a pain then. We'll get into less trouble if we walk around in the day."

Especially since Batman and his family usually operated during the night.

Vankous

Vankous smirked at Mireya's display. It was such a Harry thing to do an he'd seen that a million times. Unfortunately Kate was definitely not at a point in her life where she would've gone and fried one of those light panels just to mess with Mireya, she was in the point where apparently Vankous very reasonable and no showing off related use of magic was unwelcome. Well, Harry had certainly started off in his youth being a bit of a Jason.

Doing his best not to get lost in thought now when this important discussion was going on, Vankous spoked up. "This might sound too in theme with the darkness plan, but isn't going about business like the ones we're conducting just far more appropriate for the night. You don't want to sneak around looking for clues in the middle of the day. If its the criminals you're worried about, don't. None of us are Batman obviously, but some of us have dealt with a few criminals in our time...by that I mean me..I am...I suppose you could say something of a superhero. Less of a Batman and more of a...you know what, let's not go down that road. All I'm saying is...wondering around in broad daylight with a crew that stands out as much as we do. Bad idea."

Katherine

Kate listened in silently as the plan unfolded around her. She'd learnt the value of being silent the hard way. However, the moment to throw her weight behind something was fast approaching.

"As much as I can't believe I'm saying this, I agree with the doctor. I highly doubt we want to draw attention by wandering around in broad daylight...you did specify all about your no meta rules and whatnot. The darkness is always a risk, but it gives and it takes. I think its a better option than risking the broad daylight thing. I"m sure we can be careful and not get into too much trouble."

Bobby listened carefully. He didn't think it mattered that much when they were wandering around. There were risks either way, and if something went wrong Bobby would have to vanish no matter how much daylight there was.

Tempest Briar sighed. "So we learn to blend in. Dresden seems to know enough about this world that we might be able to survive here for just a little while.”

After all, that was his speciality. It was impossible to live a peaceful life in London if every man on the street could tell you weren’t like them. A lot harder to get away with things too.

“I this was my home, I’d vote night as well. But if we don’t know the city, all we’re going to do is get lost and alert someone to our presence. And as soon as one person knows, the whole city does too, and soon enough, we’re being hunted after like deer in fall.”

"You're being dramatic," Bobby finally spoke up. "Most people mind their own business, especially here. Just don't get in the way of anyone in a costume and it doesn't matter, day or night."