Doyce
Doyce explains being a gun mage:
So what’s a gun mage? I didn’t know the answer either a few years ago, but they didn’t exist a few years ago. Not many exist now. When the world went mental and the fantasy realm, or whatever it’s called, breached ours with as much subtlety as a drunken NFL quarterback, magic was just one more thing thrust into reality.
After the initial fighting, the running in terror and teaching one particular dragon that tried to destroy Billings, Montana that tomahawk missiles trump flaming breath, things began to settle. Little Ellis Islands of the weird started to open near the portals and we tried to accept the dwarves, elves, goblins, orcs and what have you into our society. Some of them, particularly the orcs and larger folk, we tagged like wild animals. We didn’t tell them this, of course, but our “inoculations” included tiny transmitters that would imbed into the skin. With all of the portals and chaos, not everyone got tagged. There were even humans in the bunch.
Those that chose to adapt to our society also taught us things. We taught them our language, they taught us their ways. At first they tried to teach us how to apply magic to bows. They had archery and rangers, taught special tricks for how to hold the arrow aloft longer, spells to make the arrows curve in unnatural ways, and all manner of tricks. But outside of a few bow hunters, no one had interest in archery. So instead we taught the elves and rangers how to use firearms. Some kept their bows of course but the rest adapted the spells to work on bullets rather than arrows. That changes things up quite a bit. Speed up an arrow and it’ll pierce a man. Speed up a bullet and it will send him flying. Also makes sniping into a whole new thing.
Most gun magic has to be done before hand. It involves enchanting the bullets, the clips or the guns themselves. Magic it turns out, is mostly linguistics and science. I shouldn’t say science, but that’s what it reminds me of. You need two parts of one thing, three parts of another. Maybe it’s more like bartending. The language of magic belongs to the dragons, the most ancient of all sentient species… according to our new arrivals.
I’m nothing special. I have no special cosmic power within me, I was not born to greatness and I am no one’s chosen one. I was born to a police officer and a nurse, who were nothing special themselves. They were just two regular people who had a sense of duty to the community. Like everyone else on the planet, magic was not in my blood. But I’m bright enough and in this case, eager enough to learn. So when the FBI started a program for gun mages, I joined up.
Half my time I spend learning new enchantments and the other half I spend practicing them. I can enchant a clip to refill itself with bullets assuming one is left. That’s why I always carry an empty enchanted clip. Pop in any pre-enchanted bullet, use the reload spell and the clip fills itself with identical rounds. If I fire a weapon with an enchanted clip I can leave one round and refill the clip with the rest. Once I thought I would be clever and put a dud as the last round so that I never accidentally fired my last round. As you can imagine, the reload spell just filled with clip with identical duds. Sometimes “inspiration” doesn’t slow down for common sense. Like when my partner, Clayton, cast a spell to assume aspects of the next animal sample he wanted to absorb. He was trying to gain the speed of a cheetah, but instead he swatted a lightning bug and his butt lit up like Miller Park for a night game. He has yet to live that one down. So maybe magic is a little more like science than bartending. Screw up a martini and it might be too dry. Screw up a spell and you’ve got glowing hind parts.
I can enchant the bullets themselves to do a number of things: explode, freeze, poison, electrocute and even hurt only “evil” targets. I also usually carry blessed rounds because you never know. If I have a sample of what I’m shooting at, I can make a homing bullet. There are other things as well. One of my favorites expands the bullet into a wide disk. The archers used arrows like that to knock horsemen off of their mounts. I use the cannon-bullets to breach doors, and the occasional wall.
There are tricks I can use “on the fly” too. I can mark a target with a magical glow, making the target easier to see. Not only does it highlight the target but it projects an image to me of where the target will be based on current speed and direction. It’s great for “leading the target.” If I screw up the spell, the target can see the glow too and knows to move erratically. I can cause bullets to split in midair to strike at multiple targets or a single target multiple times. With the proper whisper I can make the bullet go at extraordinary speeds.
Of course some spells work great for arrows but are lousy for bullets. I once cast an eye spell on a bullet. It lets me see what the bullet would see. Do that on an arrow arching slowly over a battlefield and you get a hawk’s view. Do it on a bullet and you’ll be vomiting into your Doc Martins.
Now one might think these abilities make me a beast on the battlefield. Sure, against your average crack dealer I’m like that 12-year-old kid in Idaho that kills everyone in Modern Combat like he was born into the net. Against a dragon, mage, or even a giant and it’s a different story. Never bring a gun to a magic fight is our new saying. My partner, the warlock, is required to carry a gun but he rarely uses it. Why draw a pistol when you can shoot lightning from your hands or drain the life essence from someone? I’m not really sure he can do that second part, but I’ve heard rumors of such things. It’s probably against regulations to drain life from someone, but regulations don’t matter much when it’s life or death.
Oh I also carry a .44 magnum in my glove compartment. It’s never enchanted, it’s just a .44 magnum. I find the “big giant hole” spell still very effective.