Within the Apple Chapter 12C

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Hookwolf paused, eyes drifting to Xander’s hand.

“I’m supposed to be afraid of a stick?” The Nazi asked slowly.

“Nah,” Xander shook his head, “Just thought you might want to play fetch, lapdog.”

He flicked the stick around, eyes not leaving Hookwolf, “Come on, that’s a good boy. Who wants the stick? You do, you do!”

Xander paused, covering his mouth and mock whispered to the spectators, “I’m just kidding… He’s clearly not a good boy.”

Hookwolf roared, rage overcoming him as he surged forward… and immediately fell on his face, his feet somehow stuck to the ground.

“What the fuck…” Hookwolf twisted, looking at his feet in disbelief before blades whirled out of them, shredding the ground and allowing him to get to his feet, “I don’t know how you did that but…”

“Yes, yes, you’ve made that clear,” Xander interrupted him. “If you did know, you’d make like a good Nazi.”

“You think I’m going to give up to you?”

“Give up?” Xander raised an eyebrow, “I meant swallow your own pistol barrel.”

Hookwolf roared, blades erupting from his flesh, throwing bloody viscera to spatter across the cement around him.

“Going to fucking kill you!”

Xander let him finish and commit to his forward charge before he slashed his wand forward. A beam lanced out, connecting the fighters for a brief moment before Hookwolf let out a confused shriek of metal and voice… and then collapsed in on himself, body folding in strange, impossible ways, until where the Nazi had been standing there was now… a small dog.

A Chihuahua, to be exact.

A very loudly yapping chihuahua.

“That’s more fitting, I think,” Xander said. “Yo quiero Taco Bell?”

The little dog just kept yapping up a storm while silence otherwise descended around them and Xander looked around to the spectators.

“Now… what should I turn the rest of you into?”

Proving that they had some slight level of survival instincts, the crowd began to panic and started pushing wildly to escape.

Xander just watched and let them run one another over in their efforts before he heard a metal scrape that sounded familiar but… off pitch somehow, then a sting on his ankle.

“Ow! Fuck… what the…?” He looked down, confused, until he spotted the mini-blender coming back around to attack his other foot. “Seriously? Your powers still work? Ow! Stop that, you little shit… Son of a bitch!”

He danced over the mini-blender’s next attack, firing a stunner at it in irritation, only to miss and hit the ground.

“How are you… ow! How are you harder to fight as a Chihuahua than as a person, damn it?”

Frustrated, Xander planed his feet and waited, then kicked as hard as he could at the next charge.

The yipping dog flew in a high arc, his barking dopplering as he flew off and impacted the cement wall of the old factory, only to slide slowly down, seemingly unconscious or stunned by the impact.

Xander followed the kick with a stunner bolt to make sure, only to suddenly be jerked around by a strong hand on his shoulder.

“Do not kick dogs!”

Xander looked at the stocky girl’s angry expression, then over his shoulder before looking back, “Not even Chihuahuas? Really?”

She shook him, eyes blazing, “No dogs. Don’t care.”

He slowly smiled, shaking his head, “I think I like you. Relax, not a dog. Just hookwolf changed to look like a dog.”

She glared at him evenly, not looking away, then slowly let her hand drop.

“thanks,” She grunted, limping away from him and toward the factory, stepping on a broken dog mask that had been crushed at some point during the fighting.

“Hang on, you need some help there,” Xander told her, walking to catch her. He flicked his wand in the direction of her thigh, “Episkey.”

She paused, looking down in surprise as the blood flow slowed to a stop and the flesh began to pull together.

“Take it easy for a while or you’ll pull the wound open again,” Xander advised.

“Can’t,” She grunted, nodding forward. “Dogs.”

Xander followed her gaze, the dog cages were visible and many of them were barking angrily.

“What the fuck?”

“Hookwolf runs dogfights. Gambling on winners.”

Xander looked in the direction of the sleeping Chihuahua, “Shit. I didn’t think you could get lower than a Nazi until now.”

He paused, thinking about it, “Well… not while you were breathing anyway.”

He followed along with her, watching as the girl began looking over the dogs. Her movements were careful, with intent and efficiency, but her body language was expressed without any sign of weakness. The dogs mostly reacted to that, allowing her to evaluate them before she dropped a little treat for them and moved on.

Not all of the dogs were so cooperative, however, and even she couldn’t approach a cage with a particularly large rottweiler who looked like he’d been through a couple wars and several even worse peacetimes. No matter what she did, the dog attacked the viciously when she approached.

Xander saw her slump, shaking her head. He put a hand on her shoulder, and pushed her slightly aside, growling low in his throat. The big Rotty turned on him and lunged at the cage for a moment before Xander’s eyes flashed golden and the growl grew.

The girl pulled away from him, eyes wide, and the Rottweiler fell silent with the rest of the dogs, dropping to it’s belly and whimpering.

Xander relaxed, letting the magic go.

“You can check him now,” He said, turning away.

“Hey…” The girl said, getting his attention. “Name?”

“Magus.”

“Bitch.”

Xander looked at her oddly for a moment before he nodded.

“Good to meet you, Bitch. Need help with the dogs?”

She considered, then nodded slowly. “Thanks.”

“Any time.”

Getting the dogs checked over took time, during which… through various grunts and similarly short communications, Xander got an impression of the girl. She certainly cared for the dogs, more than people he was quite certain. Not that he had a problem with that, in all honesty.

She apparently had a place to look after them, so he agreed to help her get them situated and similarly decided he would see about getting her some help with food for them too.

The dog that she had been defending limped along with them, plus her other two that had… shrank from their demon dog appearance that had originally caused him pause.

Bitch pet all three, before kneeling in front of the one who’d been injured. She stared into he dogs eyes for long time before nodding firmly.

“Angelica,” She said with certainty.

*****