Within the Apple 17D FINAL

*****

“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 he air and vanished at high speed.

*****