Within the Apple, Chapter 6D

AN : The AI did not want to cover MM's face here, so just imagine the scarf is pulled up for her meeting with X.

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Xander slumped into one of the waiting room seats, not wanting to run off before the cops had time to talk to him. He doubted that the courts would consider second hand reports from some unknown super powered vigilante to be convincing evidence after all.

That and he was both worried about the girl… and very, very, curious.

Was that accidental magic? It felt… close, but…

Xander didn’t know, and that was bugging the hell out of him.

The emotional content of the burst of magic had felt right. That kind of despair? That would drive a magical child to any number of outburst, not one of them good. However… he hadn’t seen any evidence of that. If she’d experienced a burst of accidental magic, why wasn’t the locker fucking obliterated? Or turned into butterflies, or soap bubbles, or fucking anything other than a locker that could still hold her?

Hell, why not just apparate out if she’s magical?

Accidental apparition was hardly unusual, though it did require a decent level of power potential… but given the blast he’d taken when whatever it was happened, she should have the power to spare and then some.

It all added up to a bunch of questions that Xander really wanted the answers to, so he had more than one reason to be hanging around and waiting.

“Tough night?”

Xander looked up at the voice and nodded amiably as Glory Girl joined him.

“Other than the smell? Not especially,” He told her. “I’ve seen worse things, trust me… hell, I’ve seen worse things from the Good Guys once in a while.”

She grimaced, “Yeah. I’ve not been at this for long, but some of the stuff people do… best not to think about it too much, I guess. At least you got rid of the smell, god I don’t understand how it could smell that bad out in the open air from dozens of feet apart.”

“Scourgify works miracle for getting rid of filth,” Xander nodded, “but yeah it was pretty bad. I probably would have lost my lunch if I hadn’t earlier… and if I’d not put a bubble head up right quick.”

She looked at him, blinking, “Scourgify? Bubble Head?”

“Cleaning charm and kind of exactly what it sounds like, a bubble of clean air that surrounds your head,” Xander shrugged.

“You have the weirdest damn powers…” She shook her head.

He laughed, “You ain’t seen…”

He trailed off, his focus shifting as he saw a uniformed officer approaching alongside a woman in a costume.

The American Flag bandana over her lower face is a nice touch.

“Alexander Magus?” The woman asked, smiling under the bandana. “I’m Miss Militia.”

“I’m sure you are,” Xander nodded politely to her before turning his focus to the officer, “Ready to take my statement?”

He nodded, “Yes sir. Magus, is it?”

“Alexander Magus, if you want the full effect,” Xander grinned, “Not my real name, but honestly you wouldn’t find that anywhere in your records anyway, so it hardly matters.”

“We never ask a Cape their real name,” Miss Militia offered.

Xander looked quizzically at her for a moment before Glory Girl spoke up.

“Miss Militia is the second in command of the local Protectorate Office,” the cheerleader clad heroine offered, amused.

“Oh, the local super cops, right,” Xander nodded to the woman. “Sorry, while I have looked into some of the locals, I’ve focused mostly on the likely threats. As for asking my real name, well I do understand the whole secret identity deal, but it’s not a concern for me honestly. I only use the nom-de-plume because I’ve gotten used to it. These days it’s as much my real name as my birth one.”

“I see,” She said slowly, despite clearly not really understanding.

“If I could get your statement,” The Officer said, “then you’ll be free to get back to the Cape talk without interruptions.”

Xander chuckled, “Sorry to waste any of your time, officer. Honestly I don’t have a lot to add to what you know. I was flying over that section of town when something caught my attention… really, I couldn’t exactly tell you what it was either.”

He wasn’t lying about that, the initial tug on his magic and the results that followed were completely beyond his experience. Enough so that Xander wasn’t comfortable passing it on until he understood more for himself.

“A thinker power?” Miss Militia asked.

“Not… as such,” Xander shook his head. “More of a hunch, though it may have been linked to my powers. Just… a bad feeling.”

“I think we’ve all had those,” The Officer said wryly. “Don’t to be able to shoot lasers from my eyeballs for that.”

“Exactly,” Xander nodded. “Whatever it was, I’ve learned to pay attention to it when I feel that way. So I checked the area with my powers and found one person in the school. At this time of night, that was suspicious.”

The officer nodded, but Miss Militia cocked her head slightly.

“How did you check with your powers?” She asked, sounding rather curious.

“Huh? Oh, here,” Xander flicked his wand into his hand and switched it casually at the nearest wall, “Hominum Revelio.”

They all turned and slowly gaped as they could see ghostly images of people walking around and working on the other side of the wall.

“That’s… handy,” The officer said with a shake of his head.

“It can be, yes,” Xander canceled the spell. “Seeing the person inside, I decided to check things out. When I got close, I found her in the locker covered in… well…”

“Yeah,” The officer nodded, taking notes. “We bagged her clothes, and the responding officers called in their report from the school. Rotting used tampons were among the recognizable bits from what I understand. We’re running blood, but it looks like someone just dumped some bins from the bathrooms in there, complete with used toilet paper and other unmentionables.”

“Lovely.” Xander just shook his head, disgusted by it all.

“When blood samples come back we could be looking at bioterrorism charges, among other things,” Miss Militia said wearily. “This town… sometimes…”

“Yeah,” The officer said. “Alright, after that?”

“Got her out of there, called you guys. You know the rest.”

The officer closed the notebook, “Alright. Thanks for the statement, this will help. I wish all capes waited around to tell us what they saw.”

Xander rolled his eyes, “I know the kinds. Well meaning, sometimes, but ignorant. Here…”

He flipped through his phone and opened it up to show the contact number, “You can call me on this, at least until I invest in a better phone… but I’ll try to keep the number. Otherwise, I’ve got an account on PHO you can send messages to.”

The officer nodded and quickly jotted the number down, “Would you be willing to testify in court?”

“If you need it, yes.”

“That will help a lot,” The officer promised. “Just the fact that you’ve offered will give the DA a hell of a hammer to bring down on any suspects we pull in.”

“I’ll be around for a while longer,” Xander said, “so contact me if you need anything.”

“Will do, thank you, sir.”

Xander nodded as the officer left, then looked back to the costumed heroine.

“Did you need something?”

“No, it’s just policy to have PRT or Protectorate present when the police are talking to unaffiliated or unknown parahumans,” She told him with a smile that crinkled her eyes. “Primarily for the security of the police.”

Xander nodded, “Fair, I suppose.”

He looked down the hall, in the direction the girl he’d rescued had been taken, “What about her?”

“We identified her, her father called in a missing persons earlier.” Militia answered. “So we have a squad car picking him up. Panacea has done her bit, with his permission over the phone, so she should be fine now. Just sleeping off the shock of it all, I think.”

“Panacea’s that good?”

“My sister is the best,” Glory Girl said proudly.

Miss Militia smiled again, “As much as that might seem like bragging, she’s not wrong. Generally, if you’re breathing when Panacea reaches you… and sometimes even if you’re not… you’ll be up and moving in nothing short of miraculous time.”

“healing powers,” Xander shook his head. “rare indeed.”

And he wasn’t exaggerating. Few were the healers in any world he’d encountered in his travels.

“Oh, a power you don’t have?” Glory Girl smirked at him.

“Oh, I can heal,” Xander countered. “I just never trained much beyond battlefield medicine.”

“What? Seriously?” She pouted at him. “It’s not fair.”

Xander just rolled his eyes as Miss Militia chuckled at the teenager.

“Evaluate the situation, stop the bleeding, stabilize the patient… then get them to someone who knows what the hell they’re doing,” Xander said. “That’s the extent of my healing abilities. I can patch someone up decently if the injury is straightforward, or outright heal minor things like abrasions, but mostly it’s just keep them alive until a real doc can see them. Everyone in this kind of lifestyle needs that training, Glory.”

She just rolled her eyes, “Bah. I bet you could just tinker up some thing to do it for you.”

“You’re a Tinker?”

“I would call myself more of an Artificer, to be honest,” Xander shrugged. “Making a healing device isn’t… impossible…”

“Ha, I knew it.”

He sighed, “BUT, it’s generally too much trouble to be worth the effort. Potions are more effective, cheaper, and easier to make by far.”

“Potions.”

Both of the women said the word at the same time, one scoffing and the other somewhat… flat toned.

“I told you, Glory, I’m a Wizard,” Xander grinned. “We are a tricksy bunch.”

“You’re impossible.”

“No, merely improbable.”

*****