Within the Apple 17 Complete

Chapter 17

Brockton Bay

The evening sun had set a short time earlier, leaving the city blanketed in the cold of the spring night as Xander and Taylor sat on the edge of one of the taller buildings in the city, looking down over it all.

Brockton Bay was a city well into its decline, the sort of thing that Xander had seen before during his travels, through various causes. In its own way it felt like a grittier and darker version of Gotham, but somehow without even the hope that the Batman brought. The local heroes were holding on to the status quo by their fingernails, sheer determination, and little else.

“I don’t get it,” Taylor sighed, “We could do so much more…”

“We could,” Xander confirmed. “But just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should.”

She glared at him, “How can you say that? There are people here being hurt every single day!”

“There are people being hurt everywhere, every day,” Xander said mildly. “Should we try to save everyone?”

Taylor faltered, “No… I mean, yes… if we can, we absolutely should, but I know we can’t save everyone, I’m not a child.”

Xander chuckled, “We’re both children by the standards of many, but that’s not what I was getting at.”

He got up, standing on the edge of the building, casually walking along the forty story drop like it meant nothing to him. Taylor struggled to her feet, following along from a safer distance since her broom wasn’t in her hand at the moment.

The lights from the ‘Medhall’ sign backlit them as they strolled and looked out over the city.

“Tell me,” Xander said mildly, “what would you like to do?”

Taylor was silent for a moment, considering it before responding, “Eliminate the gangs?”

“Was that a question?”

“Eliminate the gangs,” She repeated, firmly this time.

“Alright, let’s forget about the collateral damage we’d cause fighting,” Xander said easily. “and say we won. There are no more gangs in Brockton. What then?”

Taylor looked confused, “What do you mean?”

“I mean what then,” Xander said. “There are no gangs, but nothing else has changed. How long before new gangs show up or form?”

“We take them out too.”

“Oh? When does it stop? When the fighting has destroyed the city?” He asked her. “How many people die while you’re fighting the gangs?”

Taylor frowned, head dropping as she tried to parse that.

“So… that’s it? There’s no point in fighting?”

“Fighting never solves anything,” Xander shrugged. “All it does is push the problems around the board a little. The better part of a hundred million people died in the fighting around World War 2… and we’re in a town with a Nazi gang trying to start it all over again.”

“So we should just… what? Do nothing?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Xander said firmly. “What I’m saying is that you need to have a plan to actually fix the problems. Fighting doesn’t do that… but, sometimes you have to fight to buy yourself a little time. There’s no point in fighting, though, if you aren’t going to fix the problems as well… You’re just going to waste lives and then piss on their sacrifice.”

Taylor considered that for a long moment, “So… what? Social programs?”

“Maybe. Those can work,” He said, “but there are other options too. Just improving the economy would cripple the gangs, force them to change how they operate.”

“Really?”

“Oh yes,” Xander smiled. “Most of the members of these gangs you have aren’t true believers. They’re desperate, looking to protect themselves, their families… the Asians flee the Nazis, sheltering behind Lung, white people run to the Nazis… The Merchants gathers up anyone those two groups find unsavory. Improve the local economy and you bleed that desperation off, people feel like they don’t need protection, stealing recruits from the gangs.”

“It can’t be that easy.”

Xander snorted, “Have you ever tried to fix an economy? There’s a reason why people prefer to go to war, economies are hard and they do not follow any common sense rules you’d recognize. Anyone who claims they understand how an economy works is lying to you.”

She slumped, “So it’s hopeless.”

Xander sighed, drawing his wand, “Nothing is hopeless, Taylor… but being an adult means knowing that you don’t have all the answers and doing the job anyway.”

He let the wand spin casually in his hand, thinking his next words out carefully.

“We can’t solve a problem like this alone,” He said, “No one can. Come, I have something to show you.”

“What?” taylor looked confused, but quickly scrambled to get her broomstick as he lifted off the rooftop and slowly floated out into the night air.

In moment she was along beside him, and Xander sped up.

“Where are we going?” She asked, breathless as the cold air whipped past them.

“To a teachable moment,” He said, glancing at the wand in his hand and adjusting his flight to follow where it was pointing.

*****

Gunfire echoed through the street as they descended, and Taylor stared with wide eyes as she saw members of the ABB in a shootout with the police. She started to rush forward, intent on helping, but was pulled sharply back by Xander’s hand on her shoulder.

“We have to help,” She turned on him.

“You don’t have to do anything,” He corrected her. “You’re a student on a field trip, and those are professionals dealing with a task they’re well capable of handling.”

“We have powers!”

“So?” he asked, looking bemused.

She blinked, “What do you mean, so? We have to help, we have powers.”

Xander shook his head, but idly flipped his wand over in his hand before casually snapping it down and showering the ABB soldiers with a series of orange blasts that left them thrown all over the ground they’d been holding, unconscious.

“Ok. Now what?” He asked her.

Taylor stared, first down at the street, then back at him. “What do you mean? The fight’s over.”

“This one, maybe, so you want to fly on to another fight somewhere?”

“Is there one?”

Xander shook his head, “There’s always another fight. But look down.”

She did so, and was surprised to find that the police hadn’t approached the ABB members. If anything they were even more defensive now, looking around nervously.

“What are they doing?” She asked.

“They’re wondering if they just got saved by the Nazis or someone just as bad,” Xander said. “So now they’re getting ready to withdraw while calling for PRT backup.”

“But… the gang members are right there!”

“And they don’t know if there isn’t a Super villain waiting to take them out too.”

Taylor sighed, “Right. So we have to go down?”

“We have to go down,” Xander nodded, flipping his wand briefly to his throat before he called out in an amplified voice, “Ahoy to the police! Capes coming down, we’re friendly!”

*****

Taylor suppressed an urge to sigh as she listened to Magus tell the cops what they’d done, for the third time, albeit in slightly different ways. She hadn’t seen the point of it all, the bad guys were down, the police were there, job should be done…

Apparently not.

The police had been all too happy to explain, in great detail, how easy it was for gang members to get off when they were collared by a Parahuman... especially after Magus had explained to them why he wanted her to know.

Apparently the police were just pleased as punch to have the chance to properly educate a young hero in the all the details needed to properly put criminals away.

How can it possibly be this complicated?

Worse, from what they’d told her, this was the easy mode, because the police were already on the scene before she and Magus had arrived, so there were plenty of official witnesses and a solid chain of evidence. To Taylor’s horror, they then went on to explain… in detail… what she would have to do if she were out on her own in the future.

Taylor wasn’t really sure she wanted to be a hero by about the halfway mark.

Magus, bastard that he was, just grinned as she desperately wished that he’d already taught her his teleportation trick.

The cops, while their Sergeant lectured her, had gone about cleaning up the gang members, packing them away into a pair of vans that had rolled in just after she and Magus had landed. That took less time than the lesson did, but Taylor was relieved when the Sergeant started to wind down.

“I’ll have some handbooks waiting for you at the station,” He promised, “In case you want to study on your own.”

“Yes! Thank you!” Taylor blurted. They had it written down? And they STILL made her listen to the impromptu lecture.

Magus just snickered, “She’s a book learner, can you tell?”

The Sergeant just laughed along with him, “Just pop by and pick them up in costume. If you have questions, my card will be in the book. Call the office, if I can’t talk I’ll get back to you.”

Taylor slumped in relief, “Thank you.”

“Anyway, we’re almost packed up, and I have everything I…” The Sergeant started to say before a scream cut him off.

“It’s Oni L- ARGHH!”

They spun toward the source of the scream, and Taylor sucked in her breath as she recognized the figure of the ABB’s teleporter, Oni Lee, standing over a police officer who was laying on the ground, clutching at his belly.

“Shit,” The Sergeant swore, waving to his men, “Get loaded up and get moving!”

“Apprentice,” Magus said calmly as he started walking, “Cover the cops. Do not get involved in this.”

“What? No! I can…”

“Protect the cops!” He snarled over his shoulder. “You’re the Apprentice, I’m the Master. If you can’t do what I tell you, that can still change.”

Taylor grimaced, but just nodded as she drew her wand and stepped to cover the police Sergeant. “Fine. Hey, remember, he’s a teleporter!”

“So am I,” Magus grinned. “This will be fun.”

*****

Xander sized up the man in the Oni mask, eyes narrowing as he noted the bandolier filled with frag grenades as well as multiple blades to match the bloody one still in his hand.

The man, Oni Lee apparently, locked eyes with him across the distance.

Normally, that would have been a big mistake, since Xander had passive legilimancy running nearly constantly. This time, however, all he got was a muted sort of buzz from the other man. Xander had known animals that had more detailed mental pictures of the world around them, and of the meaning of it.

This guy is either shielded in some way I’ve never encountered, or he’s not all there upstairs.

Either was bad news, to be frank, but he would worry about which it was later. The guy had just knifed a cop in plain view of a dozen other officers and two Parahumans. That took confidence, or insanity. Again, neither of those were a good thing.

Oni Lee barely even seemed to acknowledge his presence at first, but as Xander got closer, the masked man lifted his Tanto and planted the butt of the hilt to his free hand as he shifted his footing to face Xander.

Oni Lee… teleporter with a fondness for blades and grenades, according to the local internet.

“You are trespassing,” The man rasped out. “This is the Dragon’s territory.”

Xander nodded to the ground by his feet, “I may be, but that’s a peace officer. The city is their territory. Let me have him, and we’ll leave.”

Oni Lee seemed confused by that, his masked face tipping down to the look at the cop who was bleeding out, then he looked back straight.

“The police do not belong here.”

“That’s not how the game works,” Xander countered. “You want to play territorial games with Parahumans, that’s fine, but the cops are sworn to the city. The whole city.”

Oni seemed confused again, for a moment, then something changed, something Xander couldn’t quite place.

“Behind you!”

Xander twisted as Taylor called out the warning, foot lashing out to catch the copy of Oni Lee in the throat as the other man lunged in with his dagger drawn. Xander was surprised when the body burst into dust, washing over him as he again felt the magical shift.

Knowing what it was this time, Xander continued to turn, catching the figure with a ridge hand even as it appeared from the night air, crushing his larynx and again turning the man to dust.

Clones. That’s new.

Oni’s response to losing two clones in quick succession was to teleport further away to get a chance to evaluate the situation. Xander opted not to allow him that and apparated in pursuit.

With a crack of displaced air, Xander appeared beside the shocked Parahuman and slammed a fist into his guts, then followed through with an elbow to his face as he doubled over. The Oni Mask cracked a moment before the body turned entirely to dust, mask along with it. Xander didn’t pause, extending his senses as he sought out the next location.

His clones are short lived, but they stay intact for a time after he teleports, Xander realized. Tricky bastard.

Xander had seen a clone user once before, but thankfully Oni Lee was nowhere close to that one’s level.

He felt the shiver in magic as Oni reappeared and locked eyes on him as the man appeared on the top of one of the police vans, reaching for a grenade. Xander twisted his fingers slightly and vanished in another crack of displaced air.

He appeared in front of Oni Lee, casting a quick flame freezing charm on the grenade as it was dropped, then jumped up to lash out with a kick that through the Parahuman back off the roof of the van.

“Grenade!”

Xander ignored the cop’s yell as the lethal egg bounced off the van and to the ground. The flame freezing charm wouldn’t stop the fire from burning, but it wouldn’t have the heat to trigger the primer needed to detonate the small amount of high explosive that would make the weapon explode.

The spell would last several minutes, much longer than the fuse, so he stayed focused on the threat.

“Apprentice, flame freezing charms on the grenades if he gets close,” He ordered.

Taylor nodded, clearly frightened, but managed to look determined through it all.

“Backup en route,” a cop yelled. “PRT is responding!”

“Just get out of here,” Xander called. “Leave him to me!”

“You heard the cape,” The Sergeant snapped. “Everyone load up!”

“Wilson’s still bleeding out!”

“I’ll get him,” Xander promised. “Move! Apprentice, this means you, stay with the police!”

“But…”

The Sergeant, bless him, didn’t hesitate to grab her and drag her to the van.

“Come on, kid, this fight isn’t for you!”

Xander let them go as he surveyed the street, not feeling the presence of the other man anywhere.

He might have run but… doubt it.

With the moment’s respite, however, there was only one thing to do. Xander again apparated, this time directly to the fallen officer.

“Hang on, buddy,” Xander said as he cast a quick diagnostic and grimaced, “I’ll get you out of here.”

“W… watch… o…”

Xander felt the change in magic and air pressure and twisted in time to block the knife blade as it came in for his neck. He turned his arm, getting a grip on Oni, and pulled. As the man fell forward, Xander planted his shoulder in Oni’s midsection and rose up to his feet, and threw the man across the street.

Xander quickly cast several medical spells at the officer, slowing his heart rate and encouraging clotting around the wound. Both would cause long term problems if not addressed, but they’d worry about that later. A quick pain relieving charm followed as Xander stepped away from the fallen man and into the street.

“Hold tight, this won’t take long.”

*****

This guy really isn’t all there upstairs, Xander decided as he saw the man in the Oni Mask watch him approach.

There was something wrong with the thoughts that were happening there behind the eyes that were partially covered by the mask the Parahuman wore. His thoughts were a mix of simplistic, almost… child-like, and not a particularly bright child either… and a cold calculating set of equations that were flashing past almost too fast for Xander to make out.

If he didn’t have his mastery of Legilimancy, Xander rather doubted that he’d have even seen the other set of thoughts.

Almost like he’s being controlled, but not quite.

Still, with the officer bleeding out behind him, Xander couldn’t afford the time it would take to properly figure out that particular mystery.

Halfway mid-stride, Xander focused his intent and vanished in a warping puff of blackness.

*****

Oni Lee stared in confusion, briefly, when his foe vanished in mid step. Only his instinctual response saved him as he felt and heard a shift in the air behind him. Mid-twist, Lee teleported away, leaving his clone to finish the attempt at blocking the attack as he watched from a nearby rooftop.

The enemy parahuman struck true as he watched, killing the clone with a single strike, then again vanished in the distinctive sound and puff of smoke. Lee twisted in anticipation, teleporting clear again as he heard the crack of the parahuman reappearing.

From his next destination, a rooftop across the road, Lee pulled two grenades from his bandolier and, with a practiced motions looped fingers from each hand in the grenade held in the other before the teleported again. On arrival, Lee popped his hands apart, yanking both pins, and dropped the weapons before teleporting out again just as he saw a boot head straight for his face.

From his original position, Lee watched as his clone turned to dust from the impact, and the Parahuman made a casual gesture at the two grenades before turning to look straight in Lee’s direction.

Lee silently counted down, then waited past the time that the weapons should have detonated.

When they remained silent, he realized that the one earlier had not been a dud. Moving his hands away from the explosives he still had, Lee gripped a pair of blades instead and drew them from his bandolier.

“Stop!”

*****

Xander casually kicked the grenades away, just in case they went off anyway despite his use of the flame freezing charm, not taking his eyes off the masked man as the blades in his hands gleamed in the reflected streetlights from below them.

The voice calling out an unmistakable order to stop left him surprised, briefly, as Xander’s eyes flicked briefly in the direction of the speaker.

On the street below, a bare chested man in a steel mask was standing in the center of the street. A flicker of motion caught Xander’s eye as Oni Lee vanished into dust on the rooftop across from him, his body reappearing at the side of the newcomer.

Must be the leader of the ABB, Lung I think it was, Xander thought as he stepped casually off the rooftop and allowed himself to descend to street level at a controlled glide that brought him to the center of the street a few dozen meters from the pair.

“Lung, I presume,” He said, positioning himself between the two Parahumans and the cop laying on the ground behind him.

“Indeed. You must be the clown known as Magus.”

“Hey, ixnay on the Own-Clay,” Xander countered, making a point of looking around nervously, “There might be one listening.”

Lung didn’t appear to be amused.

“You are trespassing on my territory.” Lung said firmly.

“As I told your lacky,” Xander nodded to the silent form of Oni Lee, “I am merely here to see to it that the officer is evacuated safely. I have no interest in giving insult.”

Lung snorted, stance menacing, “Interest or not, your presence is insult enough.”

Xander sighed, “Permit me to apologize, then, and request that I be allowed to remove the officer to safety.”

Lung was silent long enough that Xander began considering his next move. Everything he knew about the man was from reading online profiles, which he trusted about as much as he would the word of a lawyer he hadn’t personally hired.

Lead with stunners, if those don’t put him down I’ll have to pull out the big guns. Playing with him is a bad idea according to everything I know… besides, Xander glanced back to the officer on the ground. Need to end this.

Lung, as tough as he might be, was likely to be easier to deal with than the cloning teleporter if the gloves came off. Xander would rather not bring that level of attention to himself… or his Apprentice… if he had an option, however.

Before he could make a decision, however, Lung spoke again.

“Burning my territory down will not serve me this night,” Lung said, gesturing dismissively. “Take him and be gone.”

Xander watched as the man turned and Lee vanished into dust, then let out a sigh of relief. A rush of air from behind him almost set him off again as he spun, wand snapping to his hand, only to come face to face with a red suited man who was throwing his hands up.

“Whoa, friend here!” The man said, “Velocity, with the Protectorate. I got here a minute ago, but didn’t want to start anything with Lung while it looked like you were talking.”

Xander relaxed, nodding, putting his wand away as he walked past the man. “Good move. I have to get the officer to the hospital.”

“I have a van on call, they’ll be here in two minutes,” Velocity offered, matching his pace.

“EMT?” Xander asked.

“No, they’re ten minutes out.”

“I’ll take him. Brockton General,” Xander said, kneeling by the officer and quickly checking the officer’s pulse.

“Damn he’s pale,” Velocity said as Xander muscled the cop up into his arms and rose to his feet.

“Yeah, call ahead will you?”

“Brocton general? You got it,” Velocity said. “See you when you get there.”

Xander blinked when the man vanished in a blur, then chuckled and apparated.

*****

Brockton General

Velocity skidded to a stop in surprise as he saw Magus carefully setting the police officer on a stretcher as the ER Docs swarmed over him.

“Watch for blood clotting,” Magus was saying. “I had to use field medicine to keep him from bleeding out. His heart will be slow for a bit longer, then it’ll come back to normal, but when it does it could shake the clots loose and send one to the brain.”

“Right,” The Doctor didn’t even question him, it seemed. “We’ll call in Panacea, that’ll be the safest. If we wait and he has a stroke, there won’t be anything she can do.”

Magus nodded, stepping back as they wheeled the officer away. Only then did he seem to notice Velocity standing there.

“Hey slowpoke, what took you?”

“Har har,” Velocity rolled his eyes. “I know you didn’t fly here that fast. You can carry others when you teleport?”

Magus nodded, “One, maybe two. It gets harder with more weight, and risks splinching.”

“Splinching?” Velocity said slowly, not liking the sound of the word for some reason he couldn’t place.

“Leaving a piece behind… hand, arm, leg… usually something that dangles,” Magus grinned at him.

Velocity winced, pressing his legs together, “And you do that willingly?”

“What can I say? I like to live dangerously.”

Velocity shook his head, “Right. You alright?”

Magus nodded, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just as happy that Lung didn’t decide to fight. Not sure I could have taken him without going for the kill, and I know you guys don’t appreciate that.”

“True, but with an injured cop behind you, I doubt the courts would have complained,” Velocity admitted. “Still, best not to find out. Especially since he’d have torched the entire neighborhood if you missed.”

“That too.” Magus said, looking around before waving to the closest officer. “Hey, Officer. You know where my Apprentice is? She…”

“It was called in, Sir,” The street cop said, approaching. “They’re on their way here now.”

“Excellent, thank you,” Magus said, letting out a breath of relief. “Already going to have fun explaining to her dad why she was anywhere near that mess.”

“What were you doing there,” Velocity asked, shrugging when Magus looked back at him. “I’m going to have to tell the brass when I check in.”

“Right,” Magus nodded. “Just showing her the ropes. I found the gang shootout and decided to give her a lesson in procedures. Just bad luck that the teleporter, Lee was it? Just bad luck that he showed up.”

“Oni Lee, yeah. Usually the ABBs Parahumans don’t mess with the police unless they’re directly confronted,” Velocity sighed. “Lee might have seen you and thought it was a Parahuman group pushing into Lung’s turf.”

Magus grimaced, “So you think I might have caused the attack? Great. Wish I could say that you’re wrong, but there’s something not all there about Lee, I’ll tell you that for free.”

“You’re not the first to notice, but don’t think I’m blaming you,” Velocity said, hands up, “Could just as easily be that Lee didn’t bother to even identify the officers as police. He’s… unstable. Is the officer going to be alright?”

“He should be,” Magus confirmed. “Especially if they get Panacea in, from what I understand. They’ll have time, he wasn’t in immediate risk.”

“He’ll be fine then,” Velocity confirmed. “You did good. Thanks.”

Magus just casually nodded, turning as they were pinned by the lights of a police van as it came around the corner.

“Time to pick up my Apprentice then,” He said cheerfully. “I think she’s going to need some time to process everything.”

“Probably. Good luck with that.”

*****

“What exactly happened?”

Xander winced a bit, the anger in Danny’s voice was on a low simmer but he could tell that it was only barely restrained.

“In my defense,” Xander said, holding up his hands, “I made certain that there were no parahumans on site when we moved in, and took out the active threats before letting her get anywhere close.”

“Get to the part where Oni Lee and Lung showed up.”

Xader sighed, glancing over to where Taylor was reading one of the books on police procedures provided by the Sergeant.

“The teleporter apparently decided that we were trespassing, either because he didn’t like the police or because he considered my presence a personal insult,” Xander said wearily. “Coin flip on which, from what I’m told. Either way, when he showed up I told the cops to take Taylor and beat it. After that, tangled with the teleporter for a bit, then bargained with Lung, and that was it.”

Danny collapsed, his ire running out, “That’s it, you say. Lung is a goddamn nightmare, you know that, right? Could have burned down the city… almost did the last time the Protectorate tried to take him down.”

“He was fairly reasonable,” Xander said with a shrug. “Though he was somewhat torn.”

“Torn?” Taylor looked up, “What do you mean?”

“Part of him really wanted to fight,” Xander said, scowling. “Like a junkie wants their next fix… no, like a strung out junkie needs a fix after going cold turkey for a month. The man has willpower of the gods to resist that. When was the last time he got into a good brawl?”

Danny shrugged, “Not sure. Maybe when he moved into the Bay and the Protectorate tried to take him, maybe a bit after… fighting the E88? It’s been a few years.”

Xander frowned, “Not good.”

“Him not burning the city down is very much good,” Danny corrected sharply.

“If it’s been years and he feels that strung out, it’s not just him being an adrenaline junkie or something,” Xander said. “Normal addictions get better once you get over the hump, but it felt like Lung was just getting worse. Eventually, no matter how strong your will, everyone breaks under that kind of strain. Want to guess what it’ll look like when it happens?”

Danny paled at the thought.

“Ah well, a bridge to burn when we get to it, I suppose,” Xander admitted with a sigh. “Suffice to say, the cops grabbed Taylor and hoofed it while I held off the ‘porter. It wasn’t ideal, and I apologize for that, Danny, but it was the best that could be managed. The city is unpredictable.”

Danny glowered, but settled a bit, “You don’t have to tell me that. That unpredictability is why I don’t want Taylor out there on the streets.”

“You and she are the ones who told me that her powers need to be used,” Xander reminded him, “That entails a certain degree of risk.”

Danny glowered, but said nothing as he physically flexed his fingers into balled fists.

“He’s right Dad,” Taylor said, “and it’s not like I was in all that much of a risk anyway. The cop just threw me in the back of the cruiser and we tore out of there.”

“At least someone had a brain,” Danny said, forcing air out in a gust of breath too filled with emotion to be called a sigh. “Ok, I get it. There’s always risk, and you did the best you could. I don’t like it, but I get it.”

“Nothing much to like,” Xander shrugged, “trust me, wasn’t happy about it myself. Taylor’s showing a lot of promise, so I sure don’t want to see that compromised by an injury or worse.”

He sighed, “It would be nice if we had a good medi-witch around. The dangers of this city aren’t much worse than school was, really, but we had much better medical care… Panacea aside, of course.”

Danny stared at him blankly, “Your school was riskier than Brockton Bay?”

“Well, aside from the potential of these Endbringers showing up, yeah,” Xander shrugged. “Quidditch is played on brooms, fifty feet off the deck at speeds exceeding a hundred miles an hour. Kids got messed up playing that, rarely had to spend more than a night in the infirmary though, Poppy Pomphrey could work miracles, and she was ‘just’ a school nurse.”

“The more I hear about this schooling of yours, the more I’m glad there isn’t one here for Taylor to attend,” Danny said simply.

“To each their own,” Xander shrugged, “it was normal to us, I suppose.”

“Just… go,” Danny said wearily.

“Dad…”

“For tonight,” Danny amended, tiredly shaking his head. “Just go for tonight.”

Xander nodded, “It’s fair, Taylor. He’s not wrong, things did not go right tonight. We almost lost a cop in the process.”

Taylor looked sullen, but nodded, “Fine.”

“You two should order in food,” Xander suggested. “Enjoy a good evening, alright? Relax a little.”

“I’ll consider it,” Danny said, sighing. “We’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Probably,” Xander nodded. “Taylor… focus on your control exercises.

Taylor nodded as Xander waved to them both before vanishing with a muted pop.

She started to turn to her father, but was cut off before she could say anything.

“Don’t,” He told her firmly. “Just… let me work on dealing with this.”

Taylor sulked, but nodded.

“Fine,” She said. “You want me to make supper?”

“No, Magus is right, let’s order in. Italian?”

“From Gio’s?”

“Of course.”

“Well Yeah.”

*****

This city is worse than Gotham, and that’s saying something.

Xander was looking over the cityline, lit up with the neon lights where they weren’t burnt out or smashed in. His free wand was revolving above his palm as he noted everytime it stopped before moving on.

The number of crimes being committed, according to the search spell at least, was an impressive number to be certain. Worse, though, because Xander knew all too well that the number was being sorely undercounted since it was based off what he considered to be a crime. Thankfully murders were in low occurrence, basically not showing up at all in the search as he would expect. Muggings, robberies, and the like were much more common however.

Common enough that your average Gothomite would nope right the fuck back to their own little slice of hell if they ever caught a glimpse of Brocton Bay.

Unfortunately, as he’d told Taylor, a man could kill himself trying to stop all of them and never make a dent.

One thing that his sojourns to DC and Marvel had taught Xander, though, was that he wasn’t really cut out for the Superhero thing. Ultimately, he was an engineer. He fixed problems, he didn’t run around slapping bandaids on them in hopes that they’d magically go away.

The problem, of course, was that he’d not been lying to Taylor when he told her that most people would literally prefer to go to war than try to actually fix an economy. And the economy was the least of the problems this world had.

“Myx,” Xander asked as he walked along the rooftop.

The fifth dimensional imp appeared alongside him with a pop, “’Sup McGurk?”

“Anything new?”

Myx shook his head, clutching at his bowler hat, “Nope. Still haven’t found our eldritch horror, or even the source of the barrier. Lot of space to check, infinite space even, know what I mean?”

“Yeah,” Xander nodded, and he did know what the Imp meant. He wouldn’t even be able to start looking for something like that. If he’d popped into this universe with Myx, he’d be screwed and Xander knew it.

“Your pals from the last place have started poking around though,” Myx told him. “I can sense them.”

Xander frowned, “Will the… whatever it is be able to?”

“Maybe, but probably not,” Myx admitted. “I was paying attention, expecting it.”

“Good. Ok, I’m going to blow off some steam,” Xander said. “Getting into a fight that ends in a draw just bugs me. Thanks for the help, Myx.”

“You know the deal, McGurk. Slave for a lifetime,” The Imp winked at him before being sucked up into the bowler hat, which then formed a mouth and continued to talk, “Best challenge I ever lost. See yah.”

Xander snorted as the hat popped out of existence, then looked over the side of the building and back to his wand before he launched himself into the air and vanished at high speed.

*****