SCAU WORM : Within the Apple Ch4A

Chapter 4

Vicky glared at the other Parahuman, irritated by the question, “I’m perfectly fine, thank you very much.”

Honestly, she was a little chilled at the moment. Her powers didn’t come with a built in heater exactly, though her shield did happen to provide a decent amount of insulation. She wasn’t about to give an unknown like this Magus that information, however.

“What brings you to Brockton Bay,” She asked, tilted her head, “or are you a new Trigger?”

“Trigger?” He looked at her, almost bemusedly. “Can’t say I am, exactly. I developed my abilities starting when I was eleven.”

Vicky breathed out, shocked by that statement.

“Sorry to hear that,” She said sincerely. “Children… well, they shouldn’t have to deal with a trigger.”

He waved off her apology, “I didn’t trigger as you would think of things. My people just come into their power young and begin formal education at eleven.”

That made her blink.

“Y… your people?”

“I’m not from around here,” He said. “Born in California.”

“That’s not thatfar away, and it doesn’t explain the ‘your people’ comment,” She said, glaring through narrowed eyes.

“I know,” He grinned at her.

Vicky blew out an annoyed breath, puffing her hair out of her face. “Fine, have it your way. What’s with the feather duster?”

“It’s… traditional to have a pet, you might say,” Magus told her simply. “Kripky and I go back a ways, there are memories attached.”

“Cryptic,” Vicky said, sighing, but she relaxed marginally since there didn’t seem to be any sign of violence from the other man.

Taking a moment, she evaluated him. He wasn’t much older than her, Vicky decided, maybe in his early twenties at most, but he looked more like late teens… just, there was something in the eyes. She’d seen it before, always in more experienced Capes.

It wasn’t confidence, practically every cape had that by some measure, whether real of falsified. It was deeper than that, like he’d reached a point where he didn’t need to worry about whether he was confident, if that made any sense to anyone other than her.

“Don’t tell anyone,” He mock whispered, “but being cryptic is how we wizards get our kicks.”

That brought an involuntary laugh to her after which she ruefully shook her head, “Wizard, huh? Brockton Bay always gets the crazy ones. Let me guess, big fan of Myrddin? Wrong city.”

“Well, I have been known to swear by Merlin’s name, oddly I know a lot of people who do,” Magus just grinned, “but I’m afraid I don’t know anyone named Myrddin exactly. A Cape with a penchant for both the classics and the dramatics, I would guess?”

“That would be one way of putting things,” She said, rolling her eyes. “I… oh, hell. One second…”

The chirp of her communicator insistently beeping in her ear caused Vicky to break off and put a finger up to her ear.

“Glory Girl here, yeah I’m good. The bird seems to belong to the new Cape in town, Magus. We’re just talking. No, no threat. Bravo Twelve Niner, Mako Sierra. Cool, thanks Vista.”

*****

Interesting. She’s young to be that comfortable using panic codes… not that she sounds panicky. Xander thought as he listened in to Glory Girl’s side of the conversation.

During the war, both of them, they’d needed to use codes like that for fear of the Imperius. It was tricky, since they had to be designed such that they couldn’t be given while under a spell. It made things irritating, much of the time, but would really save your ass when it counted.

For a young heroine type to be casually dropping that kind of code had some implications that he didn’t like the sound of.

For the moment, though, Xander just filed it away for later. He had more important things to comment on, after all.

“Glory Girl? Seriously?” he asked dryly, his lips playing at a smile. “Was Wonder Wench taken?”

Oh, that got him a look.

“watch it buster,” She scowled, though he could see a bit of humor dancing in her eyes.

Whatever else, she can take a joke. Lord knows, Buffy couldn’t at first.

She sighed, “I suppose I should ask you, since the PRT is going to ask me, so what brings you to the Bay?”

Xander just shrugged, “Passing through, honestly. Probably head on out in a few days, once I get some things together.”

“Almost sorry to hear that, after your debut last night I wanted to see what happened when you ran into the Empire capes,” Glory Girl chuckled.

Xander scowled, turning his head slightly to scan the city around them.

“Tempting,” He admitted. “The idea of stomping a bunch of Super Nazies into the dirt is more tempting than I think you can imagine…”

“So sure that you’d be doing the stomping?” She asked him archly. “The Empire has been a thorn in the Bay’s side since before I was born.”

Xander shrugged again, “What can I say? I’m a confident boy.”

“Well, you’re certainly that. That was good work last night, by the way,” She complimented him. “I checked the police report as well as the post on PHO, they censored the video but I was able to tell that you did that take down clean. I don’t know if you even looked. Combat Thinker?”

“Didn’t have to look, and… Combat what now?”

“Thinker. You know, a Parahuman with enhanced mental abilities?” She seemed confused.

“I’ve been accused of a lot of things before, but never that. I have been called Mental though, does that count?”

Glory Girl barelyheld back a giggle, and glared at him like it was his fault that she had to do so. Xander just winked at her and grinned.

“Fine, keep your secrets,” She huffed. “I just wanted to figure out what was up with the big bird flying around the city anyway. Fair warning, though, the Protectorate will be a little more insistent in their questions than I am.”

“They can insist all they want,” Xander simply laughed. “I’ll tell them what I want to, and not one bit more. Say, as a local, think you could point me to a few things?”

“Such as?”

“Shopping, for one, I need to find a few things before I move on.”

“What kind of things?”

“Spices, exotic ones,” He said, “odds and ends, that sort of thing.”

“Sure,” She said, “Why not? I’ll let the PRT know not to send any heroes charging in to save the day, though, nothing worse than a shopping trip getting busted up because someone saw a parahuman they didn’t recognize and called the PRT. Don’t ask me how I know.”

*****