SCAU WORM : Within the Apple Ch4B

*****

Xander found himself honestly surprised at the relative lack of availability for many of the spices he needed. The basics were in stock, of course, though they did seem a little pricey by his measure of things, but a lot of the less common and more exotic variety were either out of stock or simply weren’t stocked to begin with.

This might make getting home a tad more complicated.

“Something wrong?” Glory Girl asked from a short distance off.

The young superhero had opted to follow him around a bit, mostly out of idle curiosity as best he could tell, though Xander supposed that she was probably being tracked by her communications system and, thus, so was he. For the moment, though, he honestly didn’t care.

“This is the best place in town for spices and such?” He asked, skeptically, “Really?”

“Why? What’s wrong with it?” She asked, looking honestly confused.

Xander couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“For one, there’s basically no Saffron in the Saffron, the Long Pepper is just black pepper with artificial sweetener added, and the grains of paradise are basically the same thing… black papper, sweetener, and some floral herbs,” Xander shook his head. “And that’s just the stuff that’s supposedly in stock. There’s tons of stuff just completely missing.”

Glory Girl frowned, tilting her head as she looked over everything.

“Really? I mean,” She shrugged, “I don’t see anything obvious missing…”

Xander groaned, rubbing his forehead.

“Sadly, young man,” an elderly Asian man behind the counter, who had clearly overheard, spoke up, “Few of your generation even know that the missing spices exist. Are you certain about the Peppers and Saffron, however?”

Xander nodded firmly, “Absolutely.”

“I knew that shipment was late for a reason,” The old man spat. “blasted gang probably lifted the spices for Lung.”

“Someone’s inhalingthis stuff?” Xander gaped briefly, before hearing a rather unladylike snort from behind him.

By the time he turned, though, Glory Girl had schooled her expression and was clearly daring him to comment on it. Xander had learned well enough, dealing with Buffy, not to walk into that trap.

“Lung is the name of our belovedwarlord and beneficent protector,” The old man said, putting just enough emphasis on his words to push his true meaning across. “His Cape name, at least.”

“Lung?” Xander thought about it, before blinking, “Ah right, Dragon. Cute. So the local dragon stole your spices? He a foodie or something?”

“Quite possibly, I suppose, however they are incredibly expensive as well,” The old man sighed, glaring at his wall of spices. “To the right people, that was thousands of dollars of stock.”

Xander whistled, he’d known that they were relatively rare and all, but that was a bit extreme in a modern America.

“Why?” He asked, shaking his head. “They should be pricey, sure, but not on par with precious metals gram for gram.”

“Leviathan,” The old man spat on the ground, literally spat on the ground at the mention of the name.

“That’s one of your Endbringers, right?” Xander asked, glancing back to Glory Girl, who was a little pale but also looking at him in distinct confusion.

“you don’t know Leviathan? Where are you from?”

“California,” Xander said casually. “Sleepy little town called Sunnydale.”

“Not knowing about Leviathan isn’t sleepy, Magus,” Glory Girl said, “It’s comatose.”

Xander just shrugged.

“If you say so, how’d Leviathan crank up the price on spices?”

“Shipping by sea has become rather more dangerous, at least in perception,” The old man sighed, “And Leviathan has specifically targeted many key ports over the years, leaving shipping backlogged for months, years, even more so.”

“Well damn,” Xander grumbled. “Might take me a little longer than I expected to be moving along then. I’m assuming that these spices are available in their native countries?”

“Of course.”

“Good enough, I’ll pop over and get what I need,” Xander decided, gathering up a few of the things he had found and setting them on the counter. “In the meantime, I’ll take these.”

“Very good,” The man said, ringing him up.

Xander rounded up the total and waved off the change, thanking the man for the information before taking his bag and heading out of the store and onto the boardwalk.

“Pop over?” Glory Girl asked as she followed along behind him, drifting a few inches off the ground. “How are you planning on managing that?”

“I’ve been to India, Japan, the whole shebang. I should be able to apparate over from memory, though I’ll have to be careful about it,” Xander answered truthfully, not caring about hiding anything, though it did suddenly occur to him that he really should confirm that there wasn’t a Wizarding World in this dimension.

Crap, been getting too used to not having to hide. Going to have to nip that in the bud before I get home for sure. He thought with a grimace. Shouldn’t be a problem here, though, even if there are wizards, I’d lay money on them not sticking their heads out of whatever hole they’ve buried themselves in. Not with beasts like this Leviathan running around… causing that much destruction? If there were wizards locally, and they could kill it, it would be dead. If they couldn’t… Most wizards probably would have moved in with the Goblins to get away.

Xander snickered at that thought, stuffy pure bloods bunking in the tunnels with the Goblins. Of course, in reality, they’d probably have lain siege until the Goblins starved out, wiped them out, and then moved in… but that wasn’t nearly as funny to consider.

“When you say… apparate, you mean…?” Glory Girl blinked furiously.

“Teleport?” Xander shrugged, “That or Portkey… that’s less teleporting and more hypersonic travel via tornado. Pretty sure a portkey was the inspiration for the Wizard of Oz, thinking about it…”

Xander felt an itch at the back of his brain and twisted around, looking for the source, only to find Glory Girl staring at him with her jaw hanging down.

“Are you… trying to…” Xander tilted his head from one side to another, attempting to work out what the feeling was and how to describe it, “Are you trying to do something to my mind?”

“What? No! Oh… shoot,” She stammered out, the feeling going away in a moment. “Sorry. Shaker field, part of my powers I don’t have great control over.”

“Huh. Weird feeling,” Xander admitted after a moment, “Kinda like you were giving my mental shields a hug. Next time, try for a massage… Maybe I’ll let you in.”

She blushed bright red as he winked at her.

And an instant later the itch was back, only this time it felt more like claws digging into his shields and running down them like nails on a chalkboard.

*****