Within the Apple Ch13C

*****

Medhall Offices

“What the hell happened last night?” Max Anders demanded, shaking his head as he looked at the others in the office.

“Well, Brad was running one of his dog fights,” James offered up…

“Yes, and Bitch intervened, I watched the video,” Max cut him off. “I’m talking about the new guy.”

“Magus.” James responded with a frustrated grunt.

“What do we know about him?”

“Aside from his dislike of Nazis?” James snorted, “Nothing.”

Max stared, “Nothing?”

James shook his head, “Not a damn thing of value. As best we can tell, he appeared out of thin air the night he stopped one of our bottom feeder members who was robbing a 7/11.”

Max groaned, rubbing his nose. He honestly had no idea what kind of moron robbed a 7/11 in the first place. Even robbing a bank made more sense, if only marginally so. There was no money to be had beyond maybe a couple hundred dollars from the till, but had basically the same risks and penalties.

“How is that even possible?” He asked after a moment.

“I checked with our moles in the PRT, they have the same results,” James said, “Not even a hint of a classified file, even.”

“If they had a classified jacket on him, the PRT wouldn’t have left his public file empty,” Max said. “Makes too many people curious.”

“True.”

Max sighed, “Alright, fine. He’s a ghost. What about his powers?”

“That’s where things get interesting,” James confirmed. “Currently, my best guess would be to call him a Trump… however, the PRT have him listed as a Shaker/Blaster primary, with sub ratings in essentially every other category.”

Max stared, “What.”

“As far as I can tell, we have a Mini-Eidolon in town,” James sighed. “One who apparently grew up with a Camp survivor next door.”

There were times when Max honestly wished that his Father hadn’t been an insane racist. Was just being a criminal mastermind honestly not enough for the old bastard? It had worked well enough for Marquis, after all, at least until the Brockton Bay Brigade kicked in his front door and he went to the Cage.

The power and leverage offered by the rhetoric was too much to give up, however, so much of his personal power was tied to it.

“Spread the word, I want any of our people who spot him to observe… from a distance,” Max emphasized. “We’ll pay for video, photos, and accurate information on his powers.”

James Fliescher nodded, making a note, “I will see to it.”

“Keep our capes away from him, at least until we get some more information.”

“A lot of our ranks won’t like leaving him be,” James warned, “The Empire was mocked rather significantly, after all.”

Max snorted.

This was the problem with the idiots his power base was tied to, of course. They were idiots.

“We’ll repeat the Fleur tactic,” Max ordered.

James nodded, “I’ll quietly spread the word. Promotion, or cash?”

“Promotion,”

“Very well, then what do we do about Hookwolf?” James asked, moving on. “He’ll be shipped out for trial soon.”

“Get the PRT schedule, we can’t let them keep him. That would be a far more serious sign of weakness.”

*****

Herbert Home

Daniel didn’t like the way the argument had swung, but he honestly couldn’t fault either his daughter or Magus on it.

Brockton was a dangerous town, that much was irrefutable, and it was even worse for a cape… somehow. Since Taylor’s powers seemed to mirror Magus’, and they needed training, there wasn’t really much in the way of options left open to him.

“Fine,” He growled, rubbing his face. “What do you intend to teach her?”

Magus leaned back on the wall behind him, considering the question, “Well the normal course load is seven years just to test out as an adult, and most of my real skills came from study in addition to that so…”

Taylor turned a pasty pale color, squeaking out, “Seven years?”

Danny almost laughed at the pitiful expression she had on her face.

Magus didn’t bother resisting the urge.

Taylor folded her arms on her chest, looking put out as she glared at them both.

“You both suck.”

“I’ve been told worse,” Magus told her blithely, “Not sure yet if it was better than you or not, but we’ll see. We’ll have to reshuffle the course load, especially giving the city you’re in, but we’ll figure that out later. If we do this, however, you don’t go out using your powers without my permission and your father’s.”

“What? No fair, other Capes don’t have to do that!”

“How do you know?” Magus asked simply.

“What?”

“How do you know what other Capes do?” He pressed, shrugging. “Capes don’t exactly advertise their private lives.”

“Everyone knows that Capes need to use their powers,” She said.

Magus raised an eyebrow, “Oh?”

Danny sighed reluctantly, “That’s does seem to be the case. There’s some literature that’s made the news, in fact. Capes that try to hold back seem to slowly start losing control of their abilities. Training supposedly can help a bit, but usually it’s not enough.

Magus’ face stilled, his eyes half closing.

“Interesting,” He said finally. “I will have to look into that. If that’s the case… I’ll check with Myx.”

“Who’s Myx?” Taylor asked.

“you’ll meet him soon enough,” Magus promised. “As to your concerns, if that holds true, then you’ll go out with me or another Cape I and your father designate. Most likely I’ll arrange for you to get some time with the Wards, other things of that nature.”

“You can do that?”

“I can ask.”

*****