[22nd August 2009]

[Curragh Barracks, Kildare]

Whaaam!

I winced as the tank shell slammed home near to the practice dummy, obliterating it and the Protection from Missiles spell that I'd placed around the damned thing. I sighed as I watched the video of the damage caused; result wasn't exactly positive for my survival based on the state of training dummy lying torn on the ground despite the enchanted armour. If it was a person it might be alive still...but that wasn't really what I'd call ideal if it was me as that status might not continue for long. To my side Captain McKenna was marking notes unto a pad alongside side several others from S.H.I.E.L.D at the results of the latest test. I did the same myself after a few moments thought about the matter and what could be done to improve upon the protections as he spoke out to myself, the others and Commandant O'Reilly.

"Small Arms protections worked better than we expected, though sadly we'll have to call that a failure when dealing with heavier ordinance"

I nodded silently as the others discussed amongst themselves. There were ways for me to literally tank certain effects and weapons with active magical effects of course, but buffing up my passives with armour and the like would be my preference on this crapsaccharine death-world. That and production of limited numbers of such armours and weapons by myself would enable any team deployed against such threats as meta-humans and supernatural creatures with a high chance of survival and continued good health.

Of course my other reason behind it was it increased my value to the government be being able to provide such useful items at a cost – while also encouraging our other wayward magic users to start thinking in those terms too. Enchanting was a time and resource consuming, but potentially very profitable, skill to have after all in my experience. Something that had never caught on here for whatever reason; perhaps to do with shady characters, shady magic, demons and general lack of standardised education?

'Possibly excluding Atlantis and Themscyira of course' I reminded myself flicking back through the summary of various tests. Relatively good so far I figured despite the recent failure. Getting Ireland to that stage was going to the work of years and decades most likely, but so far so good in proving my, and magics, practical uses had been going well. The Biaylan trade negotiations back in June for instance had prevented any of the usual failures thanks to the wonders of neutralise poison and blocking telepathy. Sadly though Queen Bee seemed more bemused and confused by said resistance than any hostility; I get the impression she thought it was the ventilation system anyway from the various videos and after mission reports.

I glanced to my left at the angry rumble of engines as the old tank repositioned itself. An ancient British Comet, one that had been a museum piece till a few weeks ago and the wonders of spare parts, maintenance and magical fixing had been applied by myself and the others. Technically the organisation now had two of the things, the one that had been here and the other from Athlone, and the whole sudden restoration was mostly due to it being an unofficial way of increasing firepower without the government spending money.

It made me want to laugh; the whole 'arming S.H.I.E.L.D' was an amusing mixture of decades old equipment being restored after it had been left in maintenance sheds and museums. Of course the small arms and such were all modern, as was the helicopter...but in a way I liked the idea of restoring the Comets and then piling on the enchantments along with the others. Brendan seemed relatively enthusiastic about it as well, though the whole think did feel very Wahammer 40K when the talk of purity seals and magic mystical tanks with machine spirits started churning around the project. Still given time I'm sure I could get these babies to plow through unmagi-ted modern MBT's with ease. Or blow up dangerous meta-humans or super-zombies or demons or a host of other dangerous things possibly lurking out there in the wider world.

"...and Mr. Constantine, whenever you're ready the target has been prepared" the Captain McKenna was saying to John who actually looking interested in the methodology being used today. Honestly both he and Brendan Finn seemed...healthier?...than when I'd first met them from a combination of better living and actual paying employment. Well that and the fact of having access to an organisation to fall back for help tended to make situations...a little...less disastrous as best I could tell. Then again it could just be the fact they were both saved and in non-crumpled and dirt covered clothes that gave the impression of improvement...

"Yeah, yeah, now lets me show ye how a proper mage does it" he muttered back, striding forward to the agreed upon 'firing range' as the Comet repositioned itself for latter testing on an enchanted HE shell - typical army, years worth of old crappy gear sitting in a warehouse unused. I watched as my 'teacher' called upon...well not the weave, it was wilder and untamed here...magic and brought a small orange-red ball of fire into his hand...

Say what you will about John Constantine but he was a very skilled mage, and actually more powerful than I'd expected as he unleashed the fireball across the range at the target and turned it into a mini inferno. Now he wasn't exactly a powerhouse, especially compared to other known magic users on Earth, but still stronger than my mind had told me. Which had been something along the lines of weak but skilled from hazy memories...but the truth was fuzzier than that I'd found. Magic here on earth was...all over the place in terms of learning and study compared to what it had been on Faerun. Simple spells draining more than more complex ones sometimes because of all the silly little extra steps that the mage had self-learned and wasn't sure if they were relevant or not.

Both Constantine and Finn had shown me this 'Fireball' – though in truth it was more miniaturised version of the one I used. Funny thing was as the fire burned on the first target, and a smug looking English mage motioned to Brendan Finn to 'top that', their spells for creating an almost identical effect were very different both in feel and incantation. Or the more honestly the fact Finn had to incant while Constantine's was almost silent casting in nature – but it went beyond that after talking to both and their methodology on it. I'd even go so far to say both were going at from different angles as the manipulated the same energy and produced basically the same results.

Constantine's was faster to create due to no verbal components but compared to Finn's it was basically a leaky faucet in terms of 'drain' upon the user as I'd forced myself to try learn both versions. Sill hadn't managed to pull it off like them, but I was getting there I suppose and there'd been so much else to do till now, all in exchange for easy to use Prestidigitation. On the bright side I had found out that my magical defences like the variants of Globes of Invulnerability could stop these levels of attack cold along with other similarly powered effects. Just as was proved right now; both switching from their currently burning target to the third training dummy - which currently had a temporary fixed spell protection in place around it. I nodded as the flames impacted the half-sphere causing it to flare brightly. Good to know, needed to test it on energy weapons at some stage.

"Nice spell ya got there boyo, seen a few before" Finn hummed at me as my other 'teacher' lobbed another ball of condensed flame at the globe. Something that was going to tire him out if he kept it up based on experience of the past few months with him and training; it was no wonder the man like using more powerful entities to power his rituals and 'higher level' spells. It was probably like trying to fill a swimming pool with a tap from the kitchen sink judging from power requirements. Still I nodded back to Brendan, while I was deliberately holding back my spells the fact was certain ones were going to be vital to my survival...like this one here...so it best get them out in the open...mostly.

"Ahhh...eyup, works great looks like but I've not real idea how it works in its entirety...just in my noggin' and I cast it and...bam shield. Shame it don't stop bullets as well though"

"Ey, we can work on, just sit down and start breakin' the spell down like we did with our own fire spells there now right Brendan? Mr. Kiddie Cheater here and his innate 'just knows' magic is so fuckin' unfair" John interrupted as we watched shield 'tank' the enchanted shell from the Comet...but the 'standard' one penetrating without issue as I'd expected. A weakness there of Faerunian spells comparatively to here; far more efficient but too specialized to stopping certain things that weren't as common here. That and a shield spell here was far less efficient but would end up stopping both mystical and physical assaults in return for the power drain. I shrugged as the still chubby Irish mage chuckled back at Constantine.

"Eh, magic is unfair John so quit yer whinin'- but breakin' down the spells might be useful to figurin' how to duplicate it yerself in case we come up against any demons or elementals in the future"

"Aye might be for the best, and need to work on something to deal with high explosives and such..." I muttered staring at yet another crumpled and broken training dummy. Brute spell casting could overcome it I suppose "...as I'd rather not be squished like Mr. Dummy over there after it stops the fancy magic wielding demon or elemental and then to the..."

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