Patchwork Magisters Supernatural enforcement for a superhuman world.

Kryptonite, Part Four

“Okay, serious brainstorming time,” Roland said, looking around the table. “We have a crisis on our hands. Thanks, Tim.”

Tim mumbled something under his breath and stared down at the table. He and Agent Cinderstorm had joined the Magisters to discuss the team’s sudden discovery. Once they’d realized that Catherine’s flute was really gone, Yousef had excused himself to put together a pseuodechnological device. Once he’d determined that his own powers remained intact, he’d rejoined the others to discuss what to do next.

“It’s not a crisis yet, Roland,” Catherine pointed out. “The flute’s been missing for less than fifteen minuets. For all we know, there’s just a time delay and it’ll be back any time now.”

“Yeah, that would be lovely,” Roland said. “But shouldn’t we still be, I don’t know, working on this?”

“Of course,” Catherine said. “Just putting it in perspective.”

“It’s New York all over again,” Roland muttered. “Alright, first point. Who here thinks we are in a crisis?” Blossom raised her hand. “And who is worried about the fact that the only two people who think that we are in a crisis are also, conveniently, the only two people who haven’t been reflected by the mirror?”

There was a short pause, as the others looked at each other. “Huh,” Catherine said slowly. “You’re right, that’s not a good sign.”

“Thank you!”

“Alright,” Catherine said. “Let’s hash out options. So far, I’m the only one who’s been obviously affected, although Roland brings up a good point about subtle effects. First possibility – Blossom was right. The mirror only targets people with magical powers.”

“Hate to scorch that one, but I’m going to,” Chad said with a shake of his head. “My powers are magical, and I’ve still got them.”

Blossom looked over at him. “Your powers are magical?” she asked. “I didn’t know that.”

“Sure,” Chad nodded. “My mother was caught in an elemental vortex when she was pregnant. The power bled into me or something, I never quite understood how it worked. Anyway, the important thing is that I would have lost my powers if the mirror did that, and I’m fine.”

“Alright, so maybe not,” Yousef said, scratching his chin. “So, either Cinderstorm’s powers are internal and can’t be taken, or that’s not the answer. Other options include the possibility that we’ve all been replaced by our own reflections, and don’t know it, or that the mirror has generated an illusion to keep Catherine from seeing her flute for some reason, or that the mirror actually has the ability to steal artifacts and is holding the flute somewhere. Oh, or maybe the flute was destroyed.”

“Huh,” Roland said thoughtfully. “Okay, next question. This being an evil magic mirror, can we just break it?”

“Why do you think that the mirror’s evil, just because it’s magic?” Yousef asked.

“Pattern recognition,” Roland said. “Can we break it?”

“Maybe,” Yousef said uncertainly. “In some cases, that breaks any enchantment the mirror has. In others, it makes the enchantment permanent, and in some others it doesn’t do anything.”

“So we’ll call that Plan B, then,” Catherine said wryly.

Yousef nodded uncertainly. “Uh, Jason’s looking up all of the magic mirrors we have on file. He says there are hundreds, and a lot of them went missing or were assumed to have been destroyed, so it could be a while.”

“Well, that’s great,” Roland muttered. “Any other ideas?”

“We could ask Sunder where he got it from,” Tim suggested.

There was a long pause, while Roland took a deep breath. “You haven’t done that yet?” he said slowly.

“It didn’t seem important,” Chad said apologetically. He paused, frowning. “Which, now that you mention it, seems like a pretty major oversight.”

“You think?” Roland said. He rubbed his forehead. “Catherine, is this what I do to you? Because if so, I am so sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” Catherine said, leaning back in her chair.

“Could you maybe help?”

“I don’t know, I’m having a lot of fun watching you,” Catherine said with a grin. “But okay. I think it’s increasingly likely that this mirror has affected the minds of the people it reflected, which means that my judgement is compromised. On the other hand, we notice compromised judgement when it’s pointed out to us – so far – so we’re probably still okay to remain on the mission. Given that you and Blossom are the only ones that we can say for sure aren’t contaminated by… well, by whatever, we’re going to have to keep one of you around the rest of us all the time to rein us in, and to take us off the case if things get worse. Sound good?”

“No,” Roland said, “that sounds awful. But yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Good,” Catherine said. “So, we’ll split into two groups for information gathering. Blossom and I will go and meet with Sunderstorm, and see if we can’t find out what actually happened with the mirror. Roland, you and Yousef head over to Turbine and Shatterdrive, and see if there’s anything strange going on with them that they haven’t bothered to mention. Chad, you might as well tag along with them – if you have a good relationship with Turbine, it could be helpful. Tim, stay here and try not to show anyone dangerous artifacts again, okay?”

“I’m sorry!” Tim said again. “I wasn’t thinking!”

“Clearly,” Catherine said. “I have a sneaking suspicion that the mirror might be responsible for that, too.”

“Really?” Tim said, brightening. “That would be good.” Roland raised an eyebrow, and he added, “I mean, no offense, but being mind controlled is not nearly as big a deal as having made that kind of mistake on my own.”

“Good point,” Roland said with a nod. “Alright, Catherine, your plan sounds good. You sure you don’t want us to trade off, though? I don’t mind being around to point out all of your mistakes.”

“No, I think I’m happy with Blossom.”

“Maybe that’s the mirror talking,” Roland said slyly.

“Don’t push it, Roland.”

“Fine,” Roland sighed. “Come on, Yousef. Let’s go see if your brain melted or something.”