Within the Apple Ch10C

*****

“Complete fugue state?” Magus asked, looking Militia’s way.

Hanna sighed, but nodded, “Unfortunately yes.”

“I zoned out?” Chris asked, looking disappointed in himself. “I hate it when that happens.”

“Did you figure anything out?” Magus asked, looking at the young man intently.

Chris perked up, Hanna noted, “Yeah! I mean… well, maybe?”

“You’ll need to clear that up a bit,” Magus laughed easily.

Hanna could see Chris relax noticeably, something that was a bit unusual. The young tinker was very self conscious of both his lack of understanding in his specialty as a Tinker, but also in the learning disability he labored under. Dyscalculia made tinkering a challenge, to say the least.

“Well, um, I think I can see the process for making the aligned molecular structure,” Chris said, before admitting with some chagrin, “but I’m not sure I can build the rig to do it… not… entirely, maybe?”

“Huh. Interesting,” Magus said. “What process are you thinking about?”

“Induced magnetic field to align the molecules,” Chris answered instantly, looking pleased, before he slumped, “but controlling the field… I don’t know, I think I can induce the field, but fine tuning…”

Magus nodded, “Fine tuning is the problem. You’ll just align every molecule at once, which is fine if all you want is a superconducting element, but it means that you’ll have to build the circuit entirely before you start.”

“That’s not what you did, is it?”

Magus shook his head, casually holding up his hand, “Nope. I flipped them individually, one at a time.”

Chris just gaped, “But… that’s billions of individual operations!”

“A lot more than that, even with the limited circuits I needed,” Magus said chidingly before looking pensive, “I think that there are more than a tredecillion carbon atoms in a pencil lead, for example? Something like that. Hang on a Mo…”

Magus took out his communications device and busily tapped around on it for a bit before looking up, “My last build have over three trillion individual operations.”

Chris just stared, gaping with his mouth as wide as his eyes. Finally the young Tinker looked over to Hanna pleadingly.

“Don’t ask me,” She held up her hands, “You both lost me a long while back.”

“It’s not difficult,” Magus said, “It’s just a matter of automating the function. I do it with Magic, but from a technological point of view I suspect that you could manage the same effect with precise applications of magnetic bursts as you apply the circuit material.”

“Huh.” Chris blinked, “I can see that… I wonder if it would work on my hoveboard?”

Magus leaned back, head tilting, “You built a hoverboard?”

Chris grinned, “Yeah. I love that thing!”

“I imagine so, what flight mechanism did you use?”

The young Tinker grimaced, “Uh, well… you see… Idontknow…”

Magus flinched, visibly.

“You… You don’t know?” He asked, incredulously.

“No,” Chris said miserably.

Hanna just shook her head when Magus looked to her, shrugging.

“Tinker’s can’t always explain their tech,” She said.

“Being unable to explain it is one thing,” Magus said as he looked back to Chris. “Not knowing, is another. Do you just not have the words, or do you not have any idea of the mechanism?”

“I… really just don’t know.”

Magus slumped, clearly disturbed by that.

“Sorry…”

Magus just waved off the apology, “I’m not angry, Kid. I’m honestly just shocked. For your power to allow you to build something that you can’t explain is one thing. We’re limited by the English language, and it’s entirely plausible that you’re playing with things that you literally don’t know the words for. For it to let you build tech you don’t have any idea about… that’s…”

He shook his head slowly.

“Damn, that’s weird.”

Hanna was about to speak up, but she was interrupted by movement from the far corridor. She looked up just in time to recognize the newcomer and felt her gut sink.

Oh hell.

“Who’s the chump,” Shadow Stalker demanded as she, well, stalked into the room.

“Stalker,” Hanna snapped, “Some decorum please. Magus is a guest.”

Magus had barely even reacted, however, and idly waved off the ward’s rudeness, “it’s fine. Been called worse by better.”

Hanna winced as the young man then proceeded to completely ignore the brash and prickly Ward in precisely the worst way that guaranteed setting her off.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Sophia snapped, her body language practically vibrating even through her costume.

“This is Magus,” Hanna offered, “Now please get a hold of yourself, Stalker. You’re treading on thin ice already.”

“Magus?” Stalker sniffed, “The loony who thinks powers are magic? What’s he doing here?”

“Not being a dick,” Vista muttered under her breath, “unlike someone else in the room.”

If she heard it, however, Hanna was relieved that Stalker didn’t seem to pay any attention to the younger hero.

Time to put a stop to this, She thought grimly.

Magus, however, beat her to it by standing up quickly and turning away from the black clad vigilante turned hero.

“Probably time to get going,” He said.

“I do apologize for Stalker…”

Magus just waved it off, “She’s a teeny bopper edgelord. That costume looks like something I’d have come up with when I was thirteen after watching the Ninja Turtles. She’s expected to be stupid. Don’t worry about it.”

Hanna had to fix Shadow Stalker with a glare to keep the young parahuman from lunging across the room. She only hoped that Magus had no idea how close he’d come to being assaulted, because that would hardly be a great way to end a tour.

“Of course,” She said, gesturing. “Right this way.”

Magus nodded and followed her gesture, only pausing to look back to Kid Win, “I’d love to check out your hoverboard sometime.”

“yeah,” Kid perked up, “That would be fun.”

“See you guys,” Magus waved over his shoulder as he and Hanna headed out of the Ward’s lounge.

*****