Within the Apple Ch.9A

Chapter 9

PRT HQ, Downtown, Brocton Bay

The guards were clearly expecting him as he arrived from the air, having taken the time to get a proper address this time and using the GPS on his cheap phone to direct himself to the location.

“Magus?”

Xander nodded to the heavily armored guard, idly wondering how much all that Kevlar and trauma plating must weigh. It couldn’t be comfortable to lug all that around, that was for certain. His own kit was lighter thanks to magic, and a hell of a lot slimmer, while certainly providing superior protection.

He had no doubts that the locals could have done better, even without using the so-called Tinkertech, but as always when it came to the grunts who actually did all the work, well they tended to get the shit end of the stick and whatever was most cost effective to help them with their tasks.

“Miss Militia is on her way down,” The soldier? Agent? Told him casually.

“Perfect,” Xander said, taking care to visibly relax.

When dealing with people, especially the professional paranoid types, visibly relaxing had two possible effects. Either they would relax a bit, which made things a lot more comfortable for both in the long run, or they would tense up even more.

Either way it would give you a good idea of what they were thinking.

If they relaxed, then you weren’t currently being considered a potential threat and everything was likely about to go fairly smoothly. If they tensed up, well then they had you down as a threat and were even more threatened by the fact that you didn’t consider them to be a threat.

The Bat was always fun to mess with like that, at least until he figured out why I was doing it, Xander thought with some amusement.

In this case, though, the PRT troopers relaxed marginally in response, which made him more comfortable with walking into the local lion’s den.

The familiar figure of Miss Militia appeared in short order, smiling at him from behind her star spangled bandanna as she approached.

“Magus, welcome to PRT Headquarters.”

“My pleasure, no doubt,” Xander responded easily. “You said you had things prepared?”

“Of course, come,” She nodded back the way she’d come. “The testing facility is back this way.”

Xander fell into step with her as they delved deeper into the building. The building was little different from any of a thousand he’d been in before, at least at first glance. Looking closer, he spotted more installations in the ceiling than could quite be explained by a sprinkler system.

He reached out with his senses and was both surprised and not to find that there were multiple locations within the building that radiated magic in no insignificant power.

Interesting. These people don’t believe in magic, but they use it in their headquarters?

It was another data point, a piece of a puzzle that Xander couldn’t quite see the whole of yet. He didn’t know what to make of it all, but it was giving him bad juju feelings aplenty.

Someone or something is dancing on these people’s faces, and they don’t even know it… but why?

Combined with what he knew from Myx, it was becoming rather sinister.

“Here we are,” Miss Militia told him as they arrived at a sealed pair of doors, oblivious to Xander’s internal musings. “Since you wanted to build something, we’ll be using the guest Tinker lab today.”

“Of course,” Xander smiled. “That should be perfect.”

“The materials you requested were oddly generic, for the most part,” She said. “Granted, the small amounts of gold and silver aren’t exactly common, but I expected something more… esoteric.”

“Bronze is a good material for most enchantment,” Xander said. “Gold is better, of course, but it’s not durable enough for long term use without enforcement. Generally the less you have to do to get the effect you want is preferable.”

“KISS principle?” She asked as they went in and Xander glanced around the lab, eyes flicking to the cameras as well as the slightly bulkier nozzle looking things he’d spotted in the lobby.

“More or less,” He told her idly as he looked over the materials laid out on the tables. “You can always force things, but a kludge is more likely to develop poor interactions, sometimes even within itself. That can lead to decay. As a very general rule, I prefer to maximize life while minimizing maintenance, to a point.”

“Oh? And what point would that be?”

“Well, no maintenance is preferable up to a few decades or so,” Xander said, not noticing her eyes widening in surprise at that. “There’s little point in building for centuries or more unless it’s something you expect to be in operation that long, after all.”

“Your… Artifacts last that long?” She asked, choosing her words carefully.

“Easily,” Xander nodded. “In theory, at least, I could make something that would last thousands of years with no upkeep. The exchange, of course, is utility. By selecting for endurance, so to speak, you have to sacrifice variety. The more functions you put into something, the worse the long term efficiency…”

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