Within the Apple Chapter 10B

“Legilimens,” Magus whispered, eyes locking with the Tinker’s.

*****

Insane.

The wash of information that was flying through the teen’s brain was stunning to Xander, and he couldn’t imagine how it was possible for that much to flow without burning the brain right out of the young Hero. Ideas were proposed, simulations run, variations and iterations… thousands of them, all in the span of a few ticks of the boy’s mental clock.

This much isn’t coming from him, it can’t be… but, where then? Xander wondered as he looked around the mental space.

It didn’t take long to locate the source of the flow. As the old expression went, all roads lead to Rome. Rome in this case was a small singular point in the boy’s mental space, where everything came from and where it went back to after it had been processed by Kid Win’s mentality.

Whatever the source of this, it has a lot of processing potential, but it’s leaning heavily on Kid Win for… something. Ideas? Iterations? It seems to be taking his ideas and running simulations before feeding them back to him for another pass?

It was like his brain was connected to a supercomputer running a pretty rudimentary AI, Xander decided after a moment. Of course, however rudimentary the AI was, the brain interface was anything but. He’d never seen anything even remotely matching it, and now He was the one getting ideas.

Too bad I can’t run them through an iterative AI to speed things up, Xander chuckled. Still, a project to be considered. Now, let’s see how this interface works…

Xander quickly back traced the data feeds, looking for how they linked to Kid Win’s brain through his mental space.

I see… a primary link with a secondary backup… and they’re clearly Protean based, or similar enough. It functions like my communications system, only far more advanced. The Supercomputer could be… anywhere. Dimensions away, certainly.

Is every Parahuman connected to the same system?

He drew back from the connection, letting it slip away as he returned to his own consciousness and blinked rapidly as he leaned back from the Tinker Teen.

“Interesting.” He said softly.

“What did you just do?”

Xander looked back over his shoulder, noting that Miss Militia had a hand on her weapon, but hadn’t drawn it.

“I just took a scan of his brain activity while he was in this state,” Xander said honestly, if incompletely, as he rose to his feet. “I’ll need to see more Tinkers in action, but if they’re the same…”

He trained off, thinking it through as Militia stared with hard eyes.

“If they’re the same… what?” She demanded firmly.

“He’s processing enough neural activity right now to fry his brain like a carton of eggs on a running engine in a car parked on a Texas lot in July,” Xander said, quirking a grin, “but it’s not causing him any harm. The data is being offloaded, sent to… somewhere for processing.”

He nodded firmly, “Definitely a Planar Contract, just not with anything I’ve ever heard about.”

“What’s a Planar Contract,” Vista blurted, confused.

“An agreement with an extra dimensional contractor,” Xander said. “I have one myself, though it’s an external contract, unlike his.”

Clockblocker snorted, “You’re claiming Kid made a deal with the devil? Come on, Magus, you can do better than that.”

“Not the devil, not even a demon, I know what those look like,” Xander responded with a shake of his head. “No… This is weird. There’s no emotional tangent to the link, and… I honestly didn’t think that was even possible. Wherever powers come from, I think Tinker abilities… at least… provide the Tinker with an off-site, and probably extra-dimensional, supercomputer to help make plans, analyze technology, execute builds… that sort of thing.”

“And you can tell that just looking at him?” Vista blurted.

Xander glanced at the young girl and shrugged, taking off his glasses to hand over to her, “Have a look.”

She frowned, looking at the glasses before sneaking a glance at Miss Militia, who appeared torn. Finally she took the glasses and, with some frustrated grumbling, managed to cram them painfully up under her visor.

“Oh… oh wow!” Vista said, shocked as she looked around, “These are awesome! I can see everyone’s weapons… even yours Miss M!”

“I’m not exactly hiding it,” Militia said softly.

“No, it’s highlighted! Like a warning sign, telling me that you’re armed. Kid’s blasters too and…” Vista looked at Xander, “You’re carrying a lot of warnings.”

Xander nodded, “While I’m not a Tinker, precisely, I am an inventor and my security is kept by my inventions. Look closer at Kid, focus on his head.”

Vista stared at him for a while longer before nodding slowly and turning.

“I… I don’t know what I’m seeing, but…” She looked over to Xander again, then back to kid, then to Militia and back again. “What is it?”

“Neural activity, but more than that,” Xander said, “A lot more than a human is physically capable of generating.”

“Kid is a Parahuman…” Vista said slowly.

“Unless he eats like a small Army Division, there’s no way he’s generating that kind of power,” Xander shook his head. “Even magic can’t just make things from nothing. So the power is coming from somewhere, and it’s enough to kill a normal person, but Kid is just fine. Data points, Vista. Important ones, I think.”

“Neural activity?” She asked, before looking over to Clockblocker and nodding after a moment, “Yeah that checks out.”

“What?” Clockblocker asked, confused.

“I’m not seeing anything when I look at you,” the young girl deadpanned.

“Damn, Vista, what did I ever do to deserve that burn?” Clockblocker asked, before holding up his hand. “Don’t answer that, it’s rhetorical.”

Vista giggled as she pulled the glasses out from under her visor and handed them back.

Xander accepted them, pocketing them casually as he noticed Kid Win stirring. The young Tinker blinked and straightened up.

“I think I can make that work,” He said, excited, before suddenly stopping and noticing that everyone was staring at him. “What? Do I have something on my face?”

*****