#Out-updating Prequel baybee!

[thewebcomicsreview]

Lets start simple. Inventory. What other assets do you have to kill a super-wizard with?

Kaila was yelling at Luka, which he was used to. She always complained when there was work. He tuned her out to focus on the mission. Kaila, always smug about her own magical talents, tended to over-state the dangers of wizards, but this was still going to be far more challenging than any hit they’d ever done.

It would help if they had better gear and equipment. He only really had one gun, a Whitefeather 53 rifle that was good for sniping but only shot bullets. Kaila’s magic, like Kaila herself, was flashy and confusing and usually useless. She could dazzle, and force people out of cover sometimes, but nothing she could do magically was worth mentioning against a full-bore wizard. Her Cyberkatana didn’t do it’s previous owner any good, and neither of them really knew how to use it anyway. Luka had tried cutting watermelons with it and all it did was set him up with a trial account on Date/Stay Night, and neither the app nor the blade had gotten him any melons. Really his rifle was the only thing he could count on.

Well, that and time. The advance was enough to live off for the mission and have a little left over for new equipment. Luka tried to figure out what equipment would be useful against a wizard. Bombs, maybe? Kill the wizard in one attack before he could fireball or teleport or some other bullshit.

“He’s going to turn our souls inside-out”, said Kaila. Luka didn’t even know what that meant, so he ignored it. They could also hire some help. A professional would want a full share of the bounty, but they could maybe find a moron. Most people underrated morons, but they could be a powerful weapon used properly, and they usually got themselves killed before payroll. Maybe you could strap a bomb to a moron? Hm. That’d be a difficult sell, and a little ethically dubious. Maybe they could strap a bomb to a dog?

“You’re not even listening to me, are you?” said Kaila. It was a fair accusation. Luka turned to her and smiled his most assuring smile. “Have a little faith. Unus gradus, deinde ad astra”

Jesus Christ he was doing Latin. This was worse than she thought. Kaila buried her face in her hands, but her argument was cut off by the arrival of the Silver Line SuperTransit Hovertrolley, more colloquially known as the bus. When the big transit upgrade happened, all the budget was spent up in Watertown, and all that was left for Branson was the new signs. The busses down here didn't even hover, and were notorious for randomly catching fire, which to be fair was as much the mages' fault as it was the city's.

Kaila grabbed one of the few empty seats, put her backpack on the seat next to her, and her feet up on the seat in front of her. She knew Luka was going to stand either way, but was important to demonstrate petty rebellion here.

"Skcsshzshhxokcshhsh", said the bus intercom. Several passengers groaned at the news. An ad came on the screens above the seats, but immediately crashed before anyone could even tell what it was an ad for. Wasted money for the corporation. Kaila was a little jealous she wasn’t as punk anti-capitalist as underfunded mass transit adware, and distracted herself from her thoughts by casting little lightning bolts back and forth between her hands. Magic was illegal on public transit, but cops were too rich to ride a bus, so they were the safest place to practice. She tried to get the little bolt to go around her finger, but she just zapped the tip. Ow. Again. Ow. Again. Focus.

Kaila wasn’t really a mage, she couldn’t pass the exams, but her magic was still the only tool they had. Luka’s rifle, like Luka himself, was reliable but one-dimensional. He couldn’t shoot someone hiding behind cover. It was usually up to Kaila to smoke them out. Simple grade-school hexes like bugs and spiders worked surprisingly well at scaring dumb adrenaline-pumped gangsters into walking in front of Luka’s gun, but a real wizard wasn’t going to fall for cheap mind tricks like that. She had a few months to study on spells, find the right trick to let her get within cyberkatana distance. Easier said than done.

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