As it turned out, people who were with you nearly constantly and knew you well were good at explaining things to you. I honestly don’t know why Intern #1 didn’t explain anything because it only took a couple sentences. We met in a private room where he sat on the table and explained things.

  “Alright,” Midnight said. “So here’s the deal. It looks like you can consume focuses.”

  “But they’re-”

  “Designed to remain around, obviously,” Midnight agreed. “But when you were thinking of them as material components, they worked like that. Only more. Also, some people are very concerned about what happens to the components.”

  “They go into the spell. Obviously,” I said.

  Midnight shook his head. “Normally spells are extremely efficient with their usage- or mana is extremely powerful. If the matter was converted to energy, you’re actually kind of losing out on a lot of efficiency there. Also I think Billiop might have been freaked out over you potentially destroying bits of the universe a little at a time.”

  “Who?”

  “Intern #1.”

  “I think there’s some thing that says I’m fine,” I commented. “What was it… energy cannot be created or destroyed? I think matter was included in ‘energy’ there. So it probably all becomes something.”

  Midnight gave his equivalent of a half-hearted grin. “I think the ‘probably’ is what people are afraid of.”

  “It’s not like I could consume more than a few pounds of matter per day,” I pointed out. “There’s so much universe that it wouldn’t mean anything.”

  “You do realize that there’s a whole lot of other people who could do that too, if they knew.”

  “Sure, I guess,” I admitted. “But they don’t. Unless they start experimenting with material components. Probably some people did that already.” I thought for a few moments. “It’s a good thing Jerome has kept his focus away from offensive combat spells. We should probably warn him about this stuff, though.”

  “And he’ll have to share with Haralamb, and we need to tell the Portal Squad. Which leaves seven people we know about. That’s a lot more than one.”

  I did some counting. Midnight and I. Jerome and his friend. Bolster, Bandage, and Boom. “Oh, and Khithae.”

  “Right. We need to do a safety briefing.”

  “Or you can do that. And I can determine if I can consume just part of something.”

  “You’re the official training lead.”

  “... dammit.”

  -----

  “... and that’s why you shouldn’t try to consume big piles of diamonds. Any questions?”

  “Yeah,” Bolster said. “What was it that happened again?”

  I pulled up a couple pictures. “The target area got busted. Apparently this happens if you consume a small instrument. So, emergencies only.” I looked over the group. I wasn’t certain if Khithae even had any ‘offensive’ spells. She was hard into the utility, and had a weird class anyway. “Most of you can take this particular spell, but I think the important point is to generally recognize not to try to consume a lot of anything for any spell where you don’t know the exact consequences of overpowering it.”

  I got a message from Midnight. Then another one from Angelica a few moments later, but I held off on looking at that one since it shouldn’t be relevant to the meeting.

  “Good news. You can use just part of what you have. So you don’t have to worry about your pockets being full of stuff.” I might still want individual baggies for Stoneskin, but maybe I could use a few at a time to get a greater effect? They were cheap, but not that cheap, so I had to think about it carefully. Probably, there was some upper limit that we hadn’t yet determined. “Anyway, since most of you had probably heard about our experiments beginning regarding material components, we thought it important to update you on the risks, in case you had plans to experiment on your own.”

  Bandage started to hold up her hand then just spoke. “Yeah, uh, what happens with beneficial spells? Is it dangerous?”

  “It shouldn’t be… but we’ll test it before going beyond the limits we already have in mind.” Maybe the explosions would be part of everything. We might need a volunteer or maybe figure out if we could target a dummy. I guess I’d Slowed a van, so I could probably Haste inanimate objects too. We’d at least notice extra explosions- which is to say any explosions- even if the other effects were unclear.

  -----

  I was the last one out of the meeting room, and I stumbled into Great Girl outside. Well, she was kind of standing around waiting there, and she made a dramatic call as I walked by. “Uuuugh. Can you believe people?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But I presume that ‘people’ have done something stupid and annoying?”

  “Don’t you read your texts?”

  “I was in a meeting advising people on how not to blow stuff up on accident.” I checked my phone. “I don't have any texts from you.”

  She waved her arm vaguely. “Check Angelica’s.”

  I did. It contained a headline from some tabloid. ‘Great Girl and Mage- Dating?’

  Shown were a series of pictures taken during our shopping excursion. It literally just looked like two people shopping. In super clothing, to be clear. “People are stupid. Can’t they tell we were on duty? Also, I’m not that well versed on the superhero dating scene, but do people normally have three people on dates?”

  Midnight was prominently displayed on my shoulder. Nobody could miss that.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  “They think he’s a pet.”

  “That’s dumb. And racist, I think?”

  “Tabloids are dumb,” Great Girl agreed.

  They sure had a lot of speculation about things nobody had seen or could have known about. It was all phrased in a technically speculative manner that very strongly implied that they ‘knew’ we were dating and had been for months and maybe were even getting very serious? Or something to that effect. It was hard to read. Not because it actually bothered me, but just because it was very poorly written slop. “Is this going to harm your reputation?”

  “I’ve sent it to my publicist to deal with,” Great Girl explained. “How about yours?”

  I blinked. “Do I have a reputation?”

  “Do you-” she blinked. “You don’t have any social media accounts.”

  “Exactly.”

  “... Probably best to stay that way.”

  “I sure thought so. Why would I want to interact with random strangers?” I shook my head. “Anyway, why would it hurt my reputation? You’re the popular one so it would probably drag my image higher, right?”

  “It doesn’t always work like that.”

  “I see. Well, I don’t think this will be a problem. I don’t currently have any nemeses that don’t already hate you more. If anyone was stupid enough to come after you to bother me…” I shrugged. “I can’t imagine they’d have much success.” I took a good look at her face. “Does this bother you?”

  Even with a mask, her face was honest enough. “I don’t like people messing with me and my friends just for clicks.”

  “Don’t they get paid?” I asked.

  She chuckled. “That’s what I meant. Anyway, I’d just prefer that they not mess around with people like that. So that you don’t have to explain to any future girlfriend.”

  I frowned slightly. “I don’t think I would date anyone that would be fooled by such obvious nonsense. And they’d know Midnight.”

  “I guess that’s true,” Great Girl admitted. “Though if you were trying to date outside the cowl…”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think I know a single person who doesn’t know my ‘secret’ identity. I doubt my social circles will change anytime soon. Though I guess there are a few more orcs around now.”

  Those orcs were ones that either weren’t working for Doctor Doomsday or at least hadn’t been caught. There were also some small populations that had been around before me. Other type-F worlds existed and all that- they just weren’t that common. There being a few dozen orcs out of a vast city of more than ten million greatly limited the anonymity of green people with tusks. And I didn’t want to use Disguise all the time. That was for missions.

  “Anyway,” I concluded. “I don’t think this has much impact on my activities. Though maybe we shouldn’t hang out in uniform without a more obvious squad with us?”

  “That sounds about right,” Great Girl acknowledged.

  -----

  More conservative material component testing revealed that it was a real pain to use them. I only had so many pockets, so unless things came in very small quantities or I started lugging around a big, obvious bag then I couldn’t really cover many different spells.

  I could have a lot of stuff in storage, of course, so if I had some time to plan out my uses I could pull out things for about half my spells. The others we just hadn’t figured out any material components that were appropriate just yet. Focuses- which was anything not consumed- were even bulkier. Contingency worked great because none of the shuffling stuff around was supposed to happen within hours of actual trouble.

  But if I wanted to enhance Firebolt, Grease, and then Fly I would need a fistful of tinder, a few ounces of oil, and then a big feather. Any properly sized feathers wouldn’t fit in my pockets, though I might be able to stuff a handful of down in one of my pockets. Packets of oil weren’t convenient, and for something like Firebolt I would usually want to use it several times. That meant being conservative with my tinder, which made it less effective.

  For offensive spells, a focus might be better. I only had a few of such spells, and I could vaguely categorize them into single target or area. Carrying around ice for Blizzard was impractical, but I had a sapphire on order. It might be a good enough focus to do something without taking up much area. Though having to be conscious of the existence of everything might be the biggest limitation.

  Carrying material components in my hand wasn’t required, but if I didn’t know where they were they didn’t work. We tested by putting things in different pockets. Lower intensity spells, of course. That meant I’d have to keep things in consistent pockets, which wasn’t that big of an issue but further limited my options.

  War wizards probably had two or three things for their big blasty spells, if they knew about extra components like this at all. We didn’t have a way to test if this worked with only the system and no ability to gain natural upgrades, so I couldn’t even be certain how hidden this was.

  Midnight got the shortest end of the stick with his near-complete lack of pockets. His transforming suit could hold a few things in awkward lumps, and that was it. Oh, and we figured out what was up with the representation of Shocking Grasp.

  The ‘focus’ it needed was a surface to hang out on. It appeared that necessary ‘focus’ made it more powerful, instead of just because it was limited in range. In short, I learned to zap people less effectively at a distance… which was just worse than creating a low power Chain Lightning for the most part. When I could get it to work, anyway. Some spells just didn’t exist below a certain threshold.

  I was keeping notes on different actual and potential focuses and material components. One more thing to think about, but like everything else I would pick out the good ones… eventually.

  -----

  “Psst. Mage.” I turned to see Shockwave standing in a dark hallway- which was odd, because the Brigade usually didn’t let so many lights burn out. “I heard a certain rumor…”

  “I’m not dating Great Girl.”

  The blue speedster stood up straight. “What? No, I don’t care about that tabloid crap. Someone told me you could make spells better.”

  I thought for a moment. “Was it me? I’ve mentioned that before. But that’s not new.”

  “I mean… more better,” Shockwave said. “Like you could, theoretically, overcharge a Haste spell to-”

  I shook my head. “I’m not allowed to Haste you arbitrarily. We can schedule a training session, though.”

  They sighed. “Nobody will let me. They say it’s ‘not necessary’ and that I ‘only want to run faster than before’.”

  “Well, yeah,” I said. “That’s obvious.”

  They put a hand over their heart. “You wound me! I just want to make sure your new abilities won’t hurt anyone. I heard there was an explosion! Here I am, bravely volunteering my body and nobody will even hear me out.”

  I shrugged. “I’m not going against Brigade rules. If you need it for a mission, I can Haste you. I’ll carry a clock in Storage, I guess. Though maybe an hourglass would be better…” I pondered.

  “How about a grandfather clock?” they suggested. “Bigger is better!”

  “I can’t carry one of those.” Yet. Well, not for a long time probably. And one wouldn’t fit in a bag, so I couldn’t enhance my capacity with a focus. “But if we happen to need to Haste you and there’s one nearby…” I shrugged.

  “Got it. I’ll look into missions involving old mansions right away.” Shockwave saluted, then scurried off.

  I hadn’t really agreed, but I wasn’t against going on missions in general, and Shockwave was a very effective teammate. During the course of a Haste spell, if they couldn’t solve all of our issues… we were probably way over our heads to begin with.