Within the Apple Ch12D

*****

Lisa leaned back from her screen and blew out a long breath.

What in the hell was that?

Magus was all over the place with his power set, leaving her just confused. She didn’t think she’d ever even heard of anyone with powers this diverse before.

None of the literature covered it. No Grab Bag had powers this diverse, and the only Trump she’d heard of in the ballpark was Eidolon himself.

Magus seemed to be even more flexible than Eidolon, though not as powerful? I think? Eidolon takes time to shift between power sets, but the ones he brings out are far beyond what Magus just showed… How much was Magus keeping back, though? Because he was straight up playing with Hookwolf.

The forums were already losing their minds, of course. Magus was going viral like nobodies business, and if the Empire didn’t consider him a threat to be dealt with before this?

Well, they would now.

Her phone rang and she took a moment to settle her thoughts before picking it up.

“Boss. No, trump is still the best I’ve got, but frankly I’m worried we may have a mini-Eidolon on our hands. You’ve watched the video, I assume… He’s not Manton Limited, and his powers are all over the map. The only thing I’m certain of is that he hasn’t shown all his cards yet.”

The angry snarl from the other side caused part of her to flinch, while part smugly enjoyed the obvious distress her boss was dealing with.

The line went dead a moment later, so she just set the phone down and started the video up to watch it again.

Whatever else, this… Magus… was fascinating.

******

“How is there nothingon him, anywhere?” Coil was close to literally pulling his hair out by the roots.

Magus had seemed to be a minor player when he showed up. A vigilante with a hate on for Nazis arriving in Brockton Bay was hardly a shocking turn of events, after all. He wouldn’t be the first, nor likely the last.

However, when he went in to the PRT for a bit of power testing, that changed. Armsmasterwas impressed with his tech, and the very idea of having a few of Magus’ communications devices had left Coil salivating at the thought.

Unjammable, untappable… The value was incalculable. What Accord would pay for a few alone would have made up for almost any investment he might need to put into acquiring them.

However, having attempted to take the man three times already, Coil was no longer so optimistic.

Each attempt had ended with his men taunted, captured, and somehow with Magus learning the location of Coil’s base despite only having access to the captured men for minutesat most before turning them over to the police or PRT.

After that, well none of his security had done jack shit to keep the man out, and invariably he’d been forced to drop those timelines in order to prevent capture.

Normally, not a big deal. Losing over and over was just how he perfected his plans, after all. In this case, however, Magus never really gave him any useful information to streamline the next attempt with… and, worse… he’d begun to notice something off during the attempts.

There were small… variables that he couldn’t account for between the timeline’s he kept and the ones he dropped. Things that didn’t seem like much… until Coil had realized that they shouldn’t be there at all. Little things, little changes that shouldn’t have changed.

Glitches in reality.

Possibly it was his paranoia speaking, but Coil was a cautious man. He needed to know what was causing those changes before he made any moves he couldn’t undo.

*****

Armsmaster slowed his bike to a stop at the address that had been reported and directed to him from Dragon. The old factory looked like any of dozens of others in the area, several times that in the city as a whole, but looking closer he could see evidence of recent use.

“Console, Armsmaster,” He said, more for the record than out of need, “I’ve arrived at the reported address. Am proceeding inside.”

“Understood, Armsmaster. We have backup available if needed.”

“Keep them standing by.”

“Yes Sir.”

Dismounting from the bike, he retrieved his Halberd and started in toward the factory, eyes peeled while his suit scanners were moved up to full power. He picked his way in through the debris left by those who’d been spotted leaving in a hurry earlier, and found a big open bay door that led within.

The large skylights that had, in times long past, provided light to the workers within, were long since smashed out, letting the elements in to turn the interior into a state of disrepair that was likely well beyond any attempt at recovery now.

“Armsmaster.”

Armsmaster readied his Halberd automatically, only to relax marginally a moment later as Magus descended from one of the broken skylights.

“Magus,” He responded.

“Got a call?” Magus asked curiously. “I was going to call it in myself once I got the more important things cleared up.”

“More important?” Armsmaster queried, “Hookwolf was here.”

“Is here, actually,” Magus nodded over to a wall, “but he’s not important. I was helping Bitch get the dogs to safety, that’s more important than any Nazi.”

Armsmaster grunted, not voicing his disagreement but practically radiating it anyway.

“You say Hookwolf is still here,” He asked, tensing up.

“Relax, he’s out.” Magus told him, walking over to the wall with Armsmaster reluctantly trailing him. “See? I stunned him after I transfigured him.”

“That’s Hookwolf?” Armsmaster asked in disbelief as he looked down at the, apparently sleeping, chihuahua.

“Yup, I think this form suits him better, honestly,” Magus snorted. “Yappy little bastard.”

“Is the change permanent?”

“Nah, he’ll change back in a few hours. Maybe sooner,” Magus said, “Depends on how his power interacts with the change.”

Armsmaster shook his head, “Can you undo it?”

“I suppose, but why?”

“Because I’d rather not have him change back by surprise while we’re transporting him, and encasing him in confoam while in this state might kill him if he turned back,” Armsmaster said.

“Confoam?” Magus asked with a shrug as he produced his wand.

“Containment Foam,” Armsmaster explained as Magus flicked the wand and the Chihuahua shuddered and began to expand, turning back into the form he had come to expect with Hookwolf. “A breathable matrix of flexible foaming polymers, we use it to secure the more… troublesome prisoners.”

He produced a small grenade while he was speaking, dropping it by Hookwolf’s body before stepping back.

The grenade hissed briefly before suddenly foaming out exponentially, covering Hookwolf entirely from foot to head.

“Breathable, you say?” Magus asked curiously.

Armsmaster nodded, “completely permeable to air, yet strong enough to hold a tank in place.”

“Very impressive,” Magus admitted.

“What happened to Hellhound?” Armsmaster asked.

“Hellwho?”

Armsmaster sighed, “The Public Relations Department won’t allow us to use her preferred name.”

Magus laughed, “Are you serious?”

“Unfortunately,” Armsmaster shook his head.

“Bitch and I,” Magus carefully pronounced the name, “cleared the dogs out, got them to a place she had set up. I helped her get food and water for them before coming back.”

“She is wanted for murder, I have to ask where you left her.”

“Ask all you want,” Magus shrugged. “Who’d she kill?”

“Officially she killed her foster parents for unknown reasons before fleeing arrest and becoming a fugitive.”

“And unofficially?”

Armsmaster scowled, “There are… questions about the original report. However, until she’s brought in, we can’t do anything about them… and the longer she’s out committing crimes, the less likely any investigation will bother to look too deeply.”

“What do you think happened?”

“I don’t.” Armsmaster said simply, “What has been suggested, however, is that her Foster mother attempted to drown the stray puppy she brought home and Hellhound triggered during the incident.”

“Ooh,” Magus winced. “Nasty.”

“Indeed. Unfortunately, without her statement, that suggestion has essentially been ignored. At this point, I’m not even certain that there is any evidence to uncover,” Armsmaster admitted. “When she came into our jurisdiction, the Director had all her files delivered to our care. Reviewing them didn’t turn up much to support the suggestion.”

Magus nodded.

The system sucked sometimes, he was all too aware of that. Innocent people made bad calls all the time, and the system ground them up for it.

“Will you tell me where she is?”

Magus shook his head, “No. I don’t believe I will.”

Surprisingly Armsmaster just nodded, “Understood.”

“That easy?” Magus asked, eyebrow raised.

“Hookwolf is a priority suspect, Hellhound…” Armsmaster shook his head, “We have to take her in, if we come across her location, but I see no reason to push for that tonight. How many dogs were there?”

“Forty. Give or take. Several aren’t going to make it.”

Armsmaster nodded, then just keyed open his radio. “Console, Armsmaster. Send in the prisoner van, pickup for Hookwolf.”

“Yes Sir.”

He looked back up at Magus, “They won’t let this go. Empire 88, I mean.”

Magus just grinned, “Good.”

*****