Guards escorted Linda and her mom towards a building that had a steady stream of people flowing in and out. Her mom had been on nonstop phone calls for the last 30 minutes. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but thought her mom was trying to help coordinate city resources for making safe zones to distribute food. Linda just followed her mom around and kept her bow slung on her shoulder.
As they walked into the building, the guards at the door gave Linda weird looks, but she powered through. Linda’s mom started talking with people that she recognized, and Linda fell by the wayside. She wandered into a side room that smelled like food, and she discovered a spread of sub sandwiches from some commandeered franchise nearby. She grabbed a sandwich and sat down to eat at a nearby table. The adults in the room clearly found Linda out of place but were too busy eating their sandwiches to investigate the situation.
After Linda ate, she went on her phone and explored the situation online. People were reporting that large patches of the country barely had functional internet. She thought her connectivity was a little choppy but managed to get some bandwidth. Videos of mages fighting were all over. There were a couple of “how-to” videos that Linda forwarded to Case and his friends, just in case it could help them out. The other videos she saw scared her, people all over discovered their powers and hurt each other, just like Everett had.
A man walked in while Linda browsed the internet. He immediately stood out in Linda’s peripheral vision and her eyes snapped to him. He was remarkably tall, walked with an inhumanly smooth gait, and exuded an air of quiet confidence. Linda thought he was wearing a US Navy uniform, but she had never paid close attention to stuff like that.
The presumed sailor grabbed a sandwich without checking what toppings it had, then sat down across from Linda. She shifted uncomfortably and put her phone away. With her hand hidden under the table, she made sure she could reach her pocketknife. Case had worked his magic on it before they left their neighborhood, and she figured it was her best option if the man attacked suddenly.
The soldier did nothing but scarf down his sandwich. He didn’t speak, barely breathed in between bites, and stared into the empty space above Linda’s head. It gave her the heebie-jeebies, so she decided to try to get his attention.
“Uhm, hi Mister… Gunn. Can I help you?” Linda greeted the man while waving a hand in front of his eyes.
The soldier shook his head while his eyes refocused on Linda. She thought she saw a purple spark in the depths of his irises but supposed it was a trick of the light.
“Sorry ma’am, we didn’t mean to ignore you. We, or uhm, I’m focused elsewhere right now. Do you need something?”
Linda decided to ignore his poor manners, “My name’s Linda. I was just curious who you were, honestly. It was a little strange to have someone sit down so close and not say hi or anything.”
The man chuckled, “Ha, fair enough. Well, you’re speaking with the Groupmind. We’re a large group of mages who are pooling our consciousnesses to help protect as many people as we can. This body is Corporal Connor Gunn, US Navy. He’s an air mage who flew here from Gloucester, Virginia to liaison with the mages here.”
As a demonstration, Connor waved a hand and a paper cup on the table flew away in a sudden gust. The purple light in his eyes flared, and another wave of wind caught the cup and brought it back to the table.
Linda’s eyes widened, “Wow, you can fly!? That seems like it would be very hard.”
Connor nodded, “You’re right, it’s difficult. Connor here wouldn’t be able to do it alone, but if we work together and use about ten mages worth of brainpower on the problem, we can pull it off until that body’s mana runs out. Calling the process flight is honestly a stretch. We basically just threw Connor here into the upper atmosphere and he paraglided back down.”
“So you’re… talking with a bunch of other mages right now?”
“Yes ma’am! Approximately 45 thousand of them, to be exact.”
“Uh-huh. And why didn’t my brother and his friends join up when you asked them?”
“The man responsible for creating the Groupmind is located far from here. His range was just insufficient to reach them, most likely.”
“Alrighty. And you’re here to what, teach the mages here who can’t connect how to do stuff?”
“You got it!”
“Well, that’s dumb. How far can you manage to fly someone? Three hundred miles? Four?”
Connor wilted, “We were planning on using conventional air travel to move everyone else around, as soon as we commandeered enough planes.”
Linda shook her head, “Look, I’m only 14, but even I can tell this situation is going to rely on y’all helping people get under control as fast as possible.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“What if, instead of y’all scrambling to get everywhere at once, you instead devote some of that brainpower into making YouTube videos and instruction manuals for using magic? YouTube and TikTok exist! Write down everything y’all discover and push it to the internet every hour for independent people to use.”
Connor rocked back in his chair, “By God, we’ve been fools. Thank you, Linda.”
Linda nodded, “Of course, but y’all should’ve thought of that sooner, probably.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Another bureaucrat eating in the breakroom chimed in, “Yeah, y’all need some brainstorming groups, clearly. One precocious teen shouldn’t be revolutionizing your approach.”
Linda glared at the woman but had to admit she was right.
Connor stood up and started demanding equipment. Linda finished her sandwich as he and a pile of coordinators and civic workers filed out of the room on a hunt for a laptop for him to use.
History would remember Linda Kenderson for many great things, but the Groupmind’s annals would credit her with challenging its thinking and likely saving the lives of thousands if not millions.
---
Back at the White House, a heated argument between the key players unfolded. Marissa wanted to go to New York City to subdue the two powerhouses duking it out over the Hudson. President Olderant and the heads of the military wanted to keep her a secret for the time being. The Groupmind, having quelled the chaos in the surrounding area, had sent new representatives to add to the President’s escort. The representatives were arguing in favor of letting the two powerhouses tucker each other out, while the Groupmind elements in the city contained any further damage. Marissa was firmly of the opinion that the Groupmind was playing the field, not wanting to side with either of them.
Marissa glared at the President, “Sir, look. Every minute that goes by, those morons rip apart another ship or inundate another neighborhood as they tear at each other. They’ve already caused billions in damage, and they won’t move from where they are right now. Let me go and subdue them, they’re clearly flagging.”
President Olderant shook his head, “As an asset, you’re too important to reveal. We’d be tipping our hand to anyone watching.”
Marissa snarled, “That’s bullshit, and you know it. Anyone with a spy satellite over this city knows about the projections I’m making. It’s not like the Kremlin matters any more, the damn ice princess is busy ripping them to fucking pieces.”
Behind her, a video feed from a scrambled spy plane showed the situation in Moscow. The glacial golems were trapping any mages who tried to run wild in the streets, while their master zipped around to various government buildings, seemingly at random. The city was littered with frozen wrecks of various military forces who’d tried to kill her as the day rolled on.
One of the Groupmind representatives, who claimed to be an information mage, spoke up, “We’ve managed to hack the New York EMS dispatch system, and it isn’t going well. Even with the Groupmind supporting them, the damage done in the early stages of their battle has imperiled tens of thousands. There is widespread flooding and the local polities are already overwhelmed. Our nodes are unable to express enough power to intervene in the fight. It is now our recommendation to send Ms. Marissa to relieve the city.”
“Thank you! Now, Mr. President, will you let me go help those people?” Marissa railed at having to ask permission.
She knew with that she could rip this entire bunker out of the ground and crush it into a sphere the size of a basketball instead of taking orders. She also knew many of the functionaries in the bunker, some as close family friends. It would break her heart to have to work against the government, her father, and all the people around her. So, for now, she would play by the rules, until she could carve a place for herself that fit her desires.
President Olderant looked between the two powerhouses that kept him safe, his advisors, and the videos of the devastation playing on the screen. Marissa could see him making grim calculations and weighing his options. She believed the man would make the right choice.
After a tense handful of seconds, President Olderant sighed, then screwed up his face and spoke, “Marissa, go with all haste to relieve the citizens of New York City. Groupmind, you are going to stay here and help the military to maintain the integrity and security of the United States Government.”
The advisors standing behind him cried out and began to spew blustering complaints, but Marissa was already on the way outside. Across the city, the silvery projections of her power handed their prisoners off to other jailers before dissolving and flowing back to her. Marissa had figured out what type of mage she was – she was a force mage. By the time she’d arrived at ground level, she was wearing silvery armor that she estimated could withstand a battleship’s bombardment. She stepped out a side door of the White House, nodded to the military personnel guarding the entrance, and jumped.
Marissa’s flatfooted jump carried her about five hundred feet straight up, aided by her magic. She used her phone to orient towards New York and shot off. She broke the sound barrier near-instantly, with just enough altitude to avoid breaking any windows or eardrums. She’d asked her father’s personnel to record her speed, but she was aiming for about Mach Three. She’d arrive in New York in mere minutes.
In the bunker, a new argument had broken out. The Groupmind had announced its plan to make and publish how-to videos to teach people about magic, and the military leaders were furious. Marissa giggled in her helmet. She had left a humanoid projection behind, and her construct relayed all the dialogue. After her initial mirth, Marissa tuned the discussion out. She had a fight to prepare for.
As clouds parted around her hypersonic form, Marissa considered the best method to “pacify the belligerents,” as her father would say. She knew one fought with metal and the other with water, and not much past that. A couple of secret surveillance systems had managed to ID the metal-wielding mage as the son of a European industrialist magnate. The young man was younger than her, so she would avoid doing anything that would instantly kill him. They had no idea who the water mage was, but she assumed he was a youth like her. A plan formed in her head as she passed Philadelphia. She would separate them and send each in a direction as far from their preferred weapon as possible.
As Marissa grew closer to New York, she felt the two fighters’ auras. The spiritual weight the two imparted on her senses was impressive. Normal mages felt like light pushes on her senses, but these two felt like steel weights trying to pin her consciousness in place. She shrugged the feeling off handily and prepared to boot the European out to sea.
Marissa saw the roiling mass of water and buzzing metal over the Hudson bay as she came in on a screaming hot approach. Her heightened magical senses pinpointed the metallic aura, and she readied her kick.
In under a second, Marissa passed through the murky mass of river water and metallic debris. She’d planted her heel squarely on the European’s chest, blasting him out over the Atlantic. She estimated he’d go about eighty miles before he slowed himself down, which was fine for her purposes. The shockwave from her kick had blasted apart the swirling mass of water.
She was left facing a man dressed in highly exaggerated streetwear. He looked like a cartoon gang leader. He seemed dazed and bobbed unsteadily in the air, which gave Marissa time to dial in her next move perfectly. She needed to send him far away from major bodies of water, which meant she couldn’t kick him all the way to the Great Lakes. She’d settle for the middle of the Appalachian Range in Pennsylvania. A massive jet of mana shot out of her boot as she performed an exaggerated roundhouse kick. Her opponent sailed away, and she prepared a thruster to pursue him.
A bundle of force mana modified to transmit her voice accompanied the European while he sailed out over the ocean. Marissa hoped he would retreat to his homeland and escape trial at the hands of the federal government. In the meantime, Marrisa would get to know her fellow American. An argument was brewing back in the bunker. They were debating whether or not to release magical information to the public. Marrisa shoved the audio feed from the golem to the back of her head and cracked her neck.
