Disclaimer is in chapter 1. So apparently Tenhawk has resumed posting fanfiction on one of his own sites ( t . evancurrie . ca ) and on patre on (username tenhawk).

Ethan dropped easily out of the PRT truck, eyes already scouting ahead to see where Glory Girl was positioned.

"That must be this Magus guy," Battery said from beside him as she finished circling around the truck to join him.

"Seems so," He nodded as they walked forward together, "BBPD beat us here."

"Probably had a car nearby," She shrugged.

Assault nodded absently as he and his partner made their way up through the gathered crowd.

"Glory Girl," He greeted boisterously, "And who's this? A new beau? Oh what ever will Mr Stanfield think?"

"That I broke your nose because you kept making cracks like that?"

He laughed at her, knowing it was an empty threat. Even if she were so inclined to try, his powers to allow him to escape any serious injury.

Beside him, however, Battery sighed.

"Oh I wish it were that easy," She said in a much put upon tone.

"Puppy!" He objected, hand over heart as he shot her a hurt look.

She just ignored him, looking the new Cape up and down, "Magus, I presume?"

"Alexander, please," The Cape told her with a smile that made Assault suddenly want to live up to his nom-de-plume. "pretty ladies can always use my given name."

"Alexander then," Battery smiled sweetly at him, her tone far from the irritated one she'd reserved for him, Ethan noted with growing annoyance. "Would you mind explaining what happened?"

"Of course," The little brat said cheerfully, "Glory Girl and I were just doing a little shopping… she was generous enough to offer her time showing me around… and we were just finishing up when we heard the commotion."

He nodded to the grungy looking man on the ground, grimacing a little.

"He was running more or less in our direction, having taken something that didn't belong to him," The young man said with a cheerful tsking sound, "I decided that he really ought to return it."

"You stopped him?" Battery asked, glancing toward Glory Girl.

"All him," The white and gold clad heroine nodded, pouting a little, "I didn't even get a chance to move."

"Wouldn't have wanted you to break a nail, princess," Magus winked.

She scowled at him, but without much heat, before rolling her eyes.

"At any rate," Magus grew serious as he nodded down once more. "I'd have the lab check his knife and blackjack. They were used for some rather nasty business."

"How do you know that?" Assault asked, noting the change in tone away from the light hearted flirting.

"Powers," Magus answered. "There's blood on both, doesn't match our friend here, and bone and brain matter on the club."

Assault grimaced, looking down, "We'll make sure its run, though it looks like this is more the PD's case than ours. I have enough contacts to put a bug in some ears."

And he both did and would. As bad as the city was, there was no way he was overlooking a potential murder case, or letting anyone else allow it to slip through the cracks.

"Excellent," Magus said cheerfully as he glanced around, "If that's all, though, it does seem like I have some more things to do."

"Just a couple questions, if you don't mind?" Battery asked, her tone light and sweet.

Magus hesitated, then shrugged and smiled back, "Anything for a Lady."

Battery rolled her eyes, "from what we know you're new in town?"

"I am indeed. Just passing through, though I may be here a bit longer than I'd hoped," Magus frowned. "But that's nothing to do with you."

"Hunting Nazis?" Assault asked intently.

"Sadly no," Magus sighed, "not that I wouldn't very much love to, but I'm working my way home and if I delay too long I have a couple girls who… well, let's just say that it won't end well for me."

Assault got the gist instantly and relaxed, "Ah yes, a pain I know all too well."

Battery snorted, elbowing him in the guts. He feigned pain and having the air pushed from his lungs, despite his power easily absorbing the impact.

"So I see," Magus grinned, "though one of mine is more likely to use a dagger… or an axe."

"One of?" Battery and Glory Girl demanded together.

Magus shrugged, "What can I say? They insisted."

Assault stared for a moment, "What cologne do you wear?"

Battery hit him again.

"You will never find out," She growled, pushing him backwards before turning back to Xander, "The Protectorate would love to have you join, if you're interested."

"I doubt I'll be around long enough, but if there's an emergency and I'm in the area, I will be happy to make myself available to help." He told her firmly.

Battery nodded slowly, "May I know your powers so we can determine how you might be able to help?"

"Oh here we go," Glory Girl said, rolling her eyes.

Magus just grinned, "Why, I'm a Wizard of course."

Xander didn't think he was ever going to not be amused by the reactions stating that aloud got, especially locally.

After Glory had mentioned it, he'd actually snuck a few minutes on his phone to look up this Myrddin chap and quickly found that he was at the center of quite a bit of mockery for his use of the magic angle. Part of Xander found it all rather amusing, of course, while an admittedly smaller portion actually was just slightly affronted by it all.

The idea that Magic didn't exist was something he normally understood, to be honest. Most people, at least back home where the Statutes existed, had never really seen evidence of such a thing… and while faith in something's existence might be a virtue for the religious, Xander didn't consider it as such for himself.

Here, however? In a world where people flew and threw lasers from their fingertips, and whatever else there was out there in the Parahuman world? To not believe in magic was, frankly, insulting.

Oh, if the science had managed to explain it all… or even a significant portions… or any of it, really, then he would be more forgiving.

However, as best his research had been able to determine, while they had a reasonable idea of some of the effects of powers… no one seemed to have the slightest of clues when it came to their causal source.

For Xander, that reeked of magic.

Perhaps he was wrong, of course, there was such a thing as experiential bias that had to be taken into account, but if you couldn't explain something then Magic was as good a placeholder as any other to use in the meantime.

Battery, in particular, seemed to disagree.

"Really?" She asked flatly. "That's what you're going with?"

"I speak naught but truths," He told her, hand over his heart before shrugging, "Unless it's important enough to lie… or funny enough."

Assault chuckled, turning it into a cough quickly when Battery turned her glare on him.

"Can you explain any of what you do?" He asked, mildly curious.

She sighed, "Just because I don't understand the mechanics of it, doesn't make it magic."

"Can anyone explain the mechanics of it?" Xander pressed.

That got him a dark glower, which answered the question neatly.

"I've seen things that would warm your soul, and things that would curdle your heart," He told her, quite honestly. "Magic so ancient it predated humanity, and technology so advanced that calling it magic was about as close as anyone living could get. The difference between magic and technology is far slimmer than you think, fair lady."

Battery rolled her eyes, "And I suppose you know what the difference is?"

Xander winked at her, "Of course. The difference is… Consciousness. We're all magic given form. Our tools, sadly, are but inanimate hunks of increasingly refined rock."

She just sighed, "Well that's one way to put it. Allow me to ask the question in another fashion, then… what can you do?"

"Anything I imagine."

Battery groaned, rubbing her forehead before shaking it and just pushing Assault forward.

"You talk to him. I have a headache."

Assault snickered at her, but obediently stepped forward, "I don't suppose you could be more specific?"

Xander shrugged, "Honestly, it's easier to tell you what I can't do in some ways, though even those are less hard and fast rules and more that it's normally not worth the effort to do them."

"Oh?"

"Creating money, in the old way of thinking," Xander said, "is a no go. That means conjuring gold and silver and the like is pretty much impossible. Same goes for food, for most of the same reasons."

Assault seemed to take a moment to process than, frowning behind his mask, "but you can… conjure other things?"

"Sure," Xander flicked his want, making a bouquet of flowers appear from thin air, which he then caused to float over toward Battery, hiding a grin when Assault quickly stepped between them and plucked them from the air instead.

"Cute," The red clad hero said, glaring at him before checking the flowers. "Huh. Seems real."

"They're not," Xander told him, "Just an energy construct that will fade in a few minutes. Making them real requires more power and focus."

"But you can make them real?"

"I… can make them permanent," Xander said cautiously. "Real… that has implications on a genetic, molecular, and atomic scale. They would be 'real' in the sense that they exist, but not real flowers, if you get the difference."

"Huh, ok that is impressive," Assault said after some thought, "And you can do that with… anything?"

"Sure, but some things you want to be real in the real sense, if you get my drift. Gold, for example, is only gold if you get it right down to the atomic level," Xander told him. "It would take me absolutely ridiculous levels of focus and power to make Gold, and the same holds true for food… though water and many drinks are possible."

Now Assault rubbed his forehead, "Wait… why is water and drinks possible, but food isn't?"

"Water and alcohol are pretty simple, molecularly speaking," Xander shrugged. "Making water from air can be done with a dehumidifier, or by burning hydrogen and oxygen in the correct ratios, both of which exist in air. Alcohol is more complicated, but it's a known process… probably because some drunken wizard decided it was worth spending the time mapping out the molecule. Don't know the history there, if I'm honest."

Xander flicked his wand again, making a gold bar and letting it drop to the ground between them.

"Sometimes you just want the shape of something, and that I can do easily."

Assault murmured a bit, bending down to pick up the bar.

"Huh…" he said, hefting it, "Feels close."

"Won't pass any test, not anything serious at least," Xander affirmed. "and similarly you wouldn't want to try to eat conjured food. Though if it's permanently conjured, it won't harm you at least."

"And if it isn't?" Assault asked tentatively.

"Depends," Xander answered. "Short duration, no real harm either… but a long duration conjuration done with sufficient skill might be enough to be digested and processed into your cells. Then, when it turns back into energy… well, you wind up with holes where you shouldn't have any. Done right, in theory, you could cause someone to bleed internally. That would be almost as hard as conjuring food in the first place, though, and there are much simpler ways to kill someone."

"Ugh," Glory Girl grimaced, "Gross."

Xander nodded, "Yeah, but that's Magic for you. Great and terrible, all at once."

Battery sighed, for the… well she lost track of how many times she'd done that, actually.

She understood that most Parahumans had a lot of trauma to deal with, but the ones who didn't have a proper grasp on reality still managed to get to her every time she had to deal with them. With Case 53s, at least, it was understandable.

Powers had warped them so badly that she was often more shocked at how lucid most of them turned out to be.

This one, this… Magus, because of course he'd call himself that, was another matter entirely.

Clearly this one snapped when he triggered, She thought wearily.

Granted, it could be worse of course, he obviously was Heroically inclined and a cheerful sort. Too much like Ethan for her personal faith in humanity, but it was a far sight better than another villain on the streets.

It wasn't the magic bit that was bothering her most about him, however. Myrddin, irritating and exasperating as that man could be at times, was a great hero who stylized himself as a wizard. She knew well enough that wasn't all that crazy. More than a couple heroes garbed themselves in the trappings of fiction, using the familiar to boost their marketability and recognition factor.

It wasn't all that different from using historical imagery, similar to Dauntless' Spartan look. It gave you a solid base to build upon rather than forcing you to start from scratch.

No, listening to him talk, it was something else that bothered her.

Assault found himself rather enjoying the back and forth with Magus.

The kid, he couldn't be more than twenty… if that… was quick with a quip, and certainly wasn't above trolling people. And yes, Assault knew well when he was being trolled, not that he would let that stop him from playing back.

Wouldn't be kosher to put the kibosh on another troll's game, after all, Ethan thought through a masked grin.

The kid's responses to his questions, though, they were just bringing more questions to the fore and that was something he just couldn't quite make heads or tails of.

"That's a lot of power," He said after noting that the kid had a mover rating for flight, blaster rating for whatever that stun bolt he'd used was, definitely a shaker rating for the projection of the flowers.

If the kid was telling the truth about making them permanent, it wouldn't be a low shaker rating either.

Not if he's telling the truth about what all he can create, at least.

There were a few shakers, breakers, and even changers who could create matter from somewhere, locally the E88 leader, Kaiser, and his attack dog, Hookwolf, came to mind as examples. However they were limited to one material, or at least variants on a common material. Steel in each of their cases.

"Magic is a very versatile talent," The kid just grinned at him.

Which is another thing.

"Why no mask?" Ethan asked curiously, remembering what Beardmaster had noted, that there were no facial matches on the kid… anywhere. "Changer power?"

That wasn't impossible, but it was certainly improbable in the modern day, and left some questions he'd like answered.

"Changer?" Magus asked, head cocked to one side. "From the context, I'll guess you mean shapeshifting?"

Ethan nodded, "That's right."

"Well, I could do some of that, I suppose, but it has nothing to do with my lack of a mask," Magus said blithely.

"Wait, you have a Changer power too?" Glory Girl cut in, throwing her arms up, "Did you just steal the whole grab bag or what?"

Magus chuckled curiously, "Grab bag?"

"it's what we use to refer to Capes with several seemingly unconnected powers," Ethan answered, looking to cut off the digression if he could.

"Ah, well no grab bag here, just the one power." Magus shrugged, "Told you, magic is versatile."

Everything Ethan knew about reading someone told him the kid was being honest, which really only meant that the kid believed it of course.

"Changing form can be accomplished in a few ways, the most common… and it's not super common," Magus said, "is the Animagus form."

"Ani…" Ethan paused, frowning, "You have an animal form?"

Magus shrugged with a wink, leaving Ethan to groan.

Add a stranger power to that list then.

This was rapidly becoming ridiculous.

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to prove it?" Ethan asked, some of patience starting to slip.

The kid's eyes narrowed, and Ethan knew instantly that he'd stepped wrong. He just wasn't certain how.

Did he seriously just ask a Wizard to prove his power?

Xander wanted to laugh maniacally at the very idea. It was one rule of fiction, more than reality, but this guy should have known better.

He brought up some of his magic, letting it lace his eyes so they shed sparks of power that floated out from behind his sunglasses.

"Be careful what you ask for," He let himself grin. "I may decide to give it to you."

Assault lifted his hands, taking a step back, as Battery began to charge up visibly behind him. Xander tilted his head slightly in her direction, his expression slipping as he focused intently on her for really the first time.

"What in the…"

"hey," Assault snapped, "If you're mad at me, focus on me."

"You are not nearly as interesting," Xander said, his minor bit of irritation with the man in the red costume already long forgotten.

He didn't know what he was looking at, but it was almost like watching a wizard draw up their power… much the way he just had… but there was something… wrong about her. Her magic was funneling in from elsewhere, which wasn't completely nuts. His own, like all wizards, was primarily from an internal well of power… but Xander had known many who drew theirs from outside sources in his time.

Hers almost looked like a Demon contract, but without any of the malevolence.

"Have you contracted with an outer power?" He blurted, not really thinking as he spoke.

Battery stared at him, her power draw stopping and starting fade as her concentration was broken.

"What?"

"Sorry," Xander said, shaking his head, "Terribly rude of me. I was taken by surprise when I saw your power funnel in."

He cocked his head, walking around her as she turned to face him while Assault tried to get between them.

"Curious…" Xander said. "Can you do that again?"

"Do what?"

"Summon your magic."

"I do not use magic," She hissed, irritated.

Xander rolled his eyes, "Your power then."

"I will not."

Xander sighed, stepping back with some annoyance. He could force her to, he supposed, just a mild attack would do the trick, but they were local heroes and he didn't need that kind of hassle.

"Whatever," He said, turning away. "Bored now. You two have fun with the mugger, I'm going to go see if I can find the rest of the materials I need to go home."

"Hey, wait a…"

Xander waved negligently at them over his shoulder and lifted easily into the air, "Later."

Glory Girl was slightly amused, slightly annoyed at how the encounter had gone, though she wasn't certain who she was annoyed with. Magus had been a bit rude there at the end, for sure, but Battery certainly hadn't help.

"I'll see you two later," She said as she too lifted off, heading in pursuit of the departing Cape.

She caught up easily, of course. She was fast, and he wasn't trying to run.

"That could have gone better," She said as she came abreast of him.

Magus just shrugged, "I have a limited attention span for officiousness. Redman was pretty fun, though, especially when he thought I was macking on his girl. Good thing she has a hot bod, though, cause with that personality I feel bad for him."

Glory Girl snorted, "Battery's not that bad. She's just very serious when on the job. Were you serious about your powers?"

He glanced at her, "Of course."

"Well, I don't buy the magic stuff, but if you can do what you said… that's a pretty nifty power set." Glory Girl admitted. "I love my powers, but you got all that and flying?"

"Oh, I can't fly."

She stared at him, and he grinned back at her.

"I'm going to regret asking, aren't I?" She asked plaintively.

He just kept grinning.

"Fine," She huffed, pointing down, "What do you mean you can't fly? Have you noticed where we are?"

"I made a flight harness," He said.

"You're a Tinker too? Bullshit!" She swore, shaking her head. "Did you leave any powers for the next guy? Come on!"

Magus just shrugged, "Some of us are just that good, I guess."

Oh you did not just…

Her eyes narrowed, "That sounds suspiciously like a challenge."

"Well, if you want to be silly enough to take it as one…"

"Oh you're on!" She grinned ferally. "Race you across the bay!"

He looked out over the waters, noting the old wrecks that dotted the waters out to the edge of the bay, including a massive old ship practically blocking the narrow entrance to the waterway.

"You've got it. First to the ship out there?"

Glory Girl looked out and nodded firmly. "Call it."

"On three then… One… Two… Three!"

The pair surged ahead, accelerating hard out over the water.

Glory Girl grinned widely as she surged ahead, out over the bay toward the ship, leaving Magus far behind in the process. She heard an echoing sound of what was probably a gunshot in the distance, Brockton Bay sucked sometimes, but couldn't place it so she pushed on to win the race while keeping an ear out for followup shots.

"Winner and still… huh!?" She started to crow, only to come to what would have been a screeching halt, if she could make such noises while in the air, as she got closer to the big ship and saw Magus already there standing on the deck.

"What the?" She pun around, looking behind her, but he wasn't there. "No way! Cheater! I call cheater! I know you didn't pass me!"

"Can you cheat in a race when no one set any rules?" He asked, finger on his chin as he pondered the question with a philosophical air.

"Yes!" She snapped, landing beside him on the rusted deck. "You cheated!"

"How?"

Glory Girl grumbled, "I don't know how, but I know you cheated."

"If you don't get caught, it ain't cheating," He told her with an infuriating smirk.

"Bullshit. You, sir, are pure bullshit." She grumbled as her phone rang. "Hang on, have to get this."

Magus just shrugged amiably and turned to look over the large ship, and then the sea beyond the straight that led out of the bay area.

"Amy? Oh, are you ready to go home?" Glory Girl asked, "Sorry, lost track of time. Met the new Cape, Magus. No, he's a cheating cheater who cheats, but he's funny about it at least."

Magus half turned and gave her a deep bow and flourish, to which she just flipped him off, much to his apparent amusement.

Rolling her eyes, Vicky said bye to her sister and hung up the phone.

"I have to go," She said, "my sister is done with her shift at the hospital."

"She's a doctor?"

"You don't know about Panacea?" Vicky asked, surprised. Within Brockton, she was arguably more well known since she'd triggered earlier and was more likely to be out and about, but Panacea was an internationally infamous name.

"Not from around these parts, if you'll recall."

"Everyone knows my sister, especially outside the city," Vicky said, her tone fond. "Panacea is the world's foremost healing Cape."

He looked at her sharply, "A healer power? That is something you don't see very often."

"Tell me about it," Vicky said, forgetting herself momentarily. "Everyone seems to want a piece of her."

"Tough on her?" Magus asked softly.

"Yeah. She sees things the rest of us don't have to," Vicky sighed. "Lot of pressure. Anyway, I have to go."

"Of course. See you around, Glorious." He flipped her a salute.

"Glorious," Vicky grinned, "I Like that, maybe when I rebrand at eighteen. Catch you later, Magus."

Xander watched the Cape lift off and speed back toward the city, thinking about what he'd learned thus far.

The local form of super powers were different from what he'd seen in both Marvel and DC's variants that he'd visited. It felt almost familiar, once he spotted it when Battery started charging up.

Definitely some form of outer realm contracting, or something damned similar. Never even heard of anything of that nature on this kind of scale, though.

Outer Powers weren't generally the sort to hold this kind of interest long enough to do what he was seeing here. Empower a supplicant or even a few? Sure, they did that all the time, usually in fairly subtle ways but occasionally in straight up super power ways too. However, they tended to lose interest quickly, and for people to be continually empowered like this over decades?

Definitely on the stranger side of things.

Mind you, he'd seen stranger still… not often, but he had seen it.

They were definitely using magic too, though not human magic… or demonic for that matter.

It almost reminded him of the magical energies that his custom wands converted his own raw power into, stripping them of the emotional content that he suspected gave Olivander's wands their near sentient status.

Definitely worth checking into a bit closer.

Xander leaned back against the superstructure of the old ship and peered out over the ocean as the sun was settling down over the horizon. He pulled out his Spellphone and flicked it easily open.

"Willow."