Within the Apple 17C

*****

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.”

*****