Everyone spends the first hour just getting used to flying. Yes, it rocks, even if we can't keep up with a car. We do leave the doll behind.

When the novelty wears off, James asks me a reasonable question: "Do we really want to look like ourselves when doing this?"

Hmm. "Well… depends: Do we expect blowback for what we're going to do, be that from the media, the mob, the general public, or your bosses… and do we want to prevent it?"

James furrows his brow, "Why wouldn't we want to prevent it?"

Jessica picks up on what I'm hinting, "Because if we don't get the blame, we also don't get the credit. And we can't use our badges if we don't keep our faces. Which would mean no arrests, and we'd have to let folks go."

James takes a breath, "Right… hmm. And if we don't disguise ourselves, instant celebrities when we're caught on camera. For good or for ill. Well… I risk that every day on the job. Guess I'm going as me. Although… call the chief, leave him a message saying we're trying a field test for some new tech toys?"

Jessica laughs out loud, "Not too far off the mark. Might be handy if our flying makes the news. Go for it."

I give my two cents, "Well… I plan on making magic widespread sooner or later … sure, go for it."

James dials his chief's voicemail directly so it doesn't even ring his line: "Hey chief, this is James Jones, I'm out and about with Jessica and we found a guy who has us trying out some tech we can maybe use, so we're doing a patrol with his toys. Give you the deets later."

Official tracking done, James and Jessica grab ther police handheld radios from their cars, check their service revolvers, and away we go.

Flying helps catch folks.  Turns out, nobody looks up.

Our first catch of the day is a drug dealer. I spot a guy hanging out on a street corner, and watch a furtive looking man approach him. Jessica zooms in on her phone, and gets a video of both money and drugs changing hands… then we drop down, Jessica and her "police dog" Lady Kitten on one side of the alley, James on the other. I turn invisible, drop down in the middle, and spook them (Ghost sound for police sirens).  And no matter which way they run, there's a detective with both gun and badge drawn and waiting. Jessica and James make the arrests and call for a pickup.  With the video, and the drugs from the exchange locked up in evidence, Jessica tells me a conviction will be a snap.

The technique works well, so we repeat it. By the end of the day, we've bagged three drug dealers, four members of the world's oldest profession (and their "Johns"), as well as two pimps and one would-be rapist. I barely manage not to kill that last one.

There is way more crime in this town than I thought. Less now, though.

I also bag every rat I see. Which works out to several dozen. My Perception modifier is a dozen points over the average rat's Stealth, and thanks to Divine Providence, I only roll twenties. So I can usually spot them from outside Magic Missile range, and Divine Providence means one spell, one kill.

More to the point, however, the time spent hunting nets us enough experience for all three of us to level up. I'm looking forward to level five: Adding Invisible Spell into the mix will let me use all the buffs I want. Which is nearly all of them. Of course, the real gems of spells come in at level six, when I can nab 4th level spells. I'll get slower boosts after that, but they never really stop adding nice things until after I run out of spells to add in.

At about four John speaks up, "This is too much fun… but I'm going to need to do the paperwork on all these people tomorrow. Won't do to be exhausted."

Jessica sighs, "Yeah, you're right. And we'll still need to do our actual jobs. The uniforms are supposed to handle patrols. Say, Chris, how do you feel about taking some of the uni's out?"

I consider, "Oh… I could fashion some fancy looking harnesses, tell them they need to be activated and calibrated, lay the spells in while calibrating, and remove them as they return them. Maybe use Conditional Favor to set a timer. Could work. But I need to take my time to level up, so definitely not today.  And I should probably also file a few thousand patent applications."

"Patent applications?" Jessica seems confused.

"At the moment, I'm the only one who can make magic items. So I'm going to file patents for the process and every item I know about. If anyone industrializes magic, I want a slice."

James sighs, "You'll need to form a corporation. Individually held patents are only good for a few years. Corporate ones are good for a few decades. Big companies have a lot of money, and lobby to make laws to protect their interests. The little guys can't do that."

"So I have a lot of paperwork to file, then?"

"Oh yeah. You'll need to talk to a patent attorney.  Here, I still have one's card…" James pulls out his wallet, extracts a business card, and hands it to me,"I interviewed him for the Cortelli case a few years ago."

Jessica shudders, "Don't remind me. That guy was a creep."

James sighs, "Yeah, he couldn't take his eyes off your shirt. But for whatever reason he's the only patent attorney in like a hundred miles."

"The nearest alternative is one hundred eighty seven miles from the station by road. I'm the one who checked, remember? Jessica looks straight at me, "If you do see that skeeve, and have the opportunity to quietly take over his mind, please do."

James very pointedly looks elsewhere. They really, really don’t like that guy. Good to know.

"Thanks. I think. Anyway, I'm going to need to cancel a few of those spells…"

"Do you have to?" James tries puppy dog eyes.  It really doesn't work on his face.

"What do you think will happen if you trip and save yourself by flying in the station? Or if your coach at the gym notices you're lifting nearly double your prior record? And you know that nice buzz you get from beer? Delay Poison prevents that."

James pauses at that last one, "OK, yeah, hit me."

"When we get back."

We fly back to James's apartment, and head inside through his balcony. Once inside, I cancel most of the buffs… although I do leave Delay Disease and the purely mental buffs up. I figure those won't hurt.

James sighs as he feels himself get weaker, "Who feels like hitting the bar for a beer?"

I shake my head, "Don't bother. Got a pitcher?"

James goes to his cabinet and pulls one out, "Yeah, here."

I start to fill it from the faucet, then change my mind and use Create Water - it's faster than the faucet - and cast Enhance Water on it to turn it into mead. I then set it on James's kitchen table, "Have some mead, on me. I can also do ale, beer, and wine. Middling quality, but…"

James gets down three glasses, pours, and hits them all with Ray of Frost to chill them.

We all grab one, and say "Cheers," clinking them together and drinking.

Jessica considers, "Not bad. Not the best, but perfectly drinkable. Say, can you…"

"I can't teach you the spell, no, but there's an item or two that can do something similar."

"You looking at the Tengu Drinking Jug?" James pipes up.

"I'm actually thinking about the Drinking Horn of Bottomless Valor. The basic alcohol function is at will if you don't run it out on the charged functions."

Jessica scoots up a bit closer and slides her arm around me, whispering in my ear, "I can make it worth your while… maybe invite James to play together again, you really enjoyed him, right…?" She's caressing my leg and working her way towards my inner thigh under the table and under my waistband. It's heavenly.

So tempting. So tempting.  But… "Ah, you might have a problem, Beautiful."

"Hmmm… like an empty glass?" Her hand reaches my slit, and plunges in. She really knows how to work her fingers. I'm glad I'm already sitting down.

So, so tempting. But I have seen what this stuff can do to a person… "Like alcoholism. I think you might be addicted."

She stiffens, her hand freezing in place, then continues, "Oh, I don't have a problem…" She finds my nub. I bite my lip to keep from screaming.

James manages to cough out, "Yes you do." He's still able to pay attention to the conversation with the show in front of him? Sure, we're not showing anything, but still, James has some amazing presence of mind.

"Then you won't mind my returning one little buff spell I gave you earlier?" I roll a Bluff. I haven't leveled up yet, but I still have a +27, and always roll 20, so….

"Not a problem sweetness, you can buff me anytime." That one makes James choke on his mead.

So I drop Delay Poison on Jessica again. And this time? I skip Fleeting Spell. A Wish or Miracle could get rid of it; Nothing short of that, thanks to Technological Wonders. There's no dispelling it, and even an Antimagic Field or Mage's Disjunction will be useless. And just to spare her the withdrawal, I also tag her with Remove Disease.

"All right then, Beautiful, if you don't have a problem… drink as much as you want, now."

She keeps fingering me under the table. I really hope she doesn't figure out what I just did any time soon. Because she really knows how to use her….

I don't manage to bite my lip this time.