Within the Apple Ch 17A

Chapter 17

Brockton Bay

The evening sun had set a short time earlier, leaving the city blanketed in the cold of the spring night as Xander and Taylor sat on the edge of one of the taller buildings in the city, looking down over it all.

Brockton Bay was a city well into its decline, the sort of thing that Xander had seen before during his travels, through various causes. In its own way it felt like a grittier and darker version of Gotham, but somehow without even the hope that the Batman brought. The local heroes were holding on to the status quo by their fingernails, sheer determination, and little else.

“I don’t get it,” Taylor sighed, “We could do so much more…”

“We could,” Xander confirmed. “But just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should.”

She glared at him, “How can you say that? There are people here being hurt every single day!”

“There are people being hurt everywhere, every day,” Xander said mildly. “Should we try to save everyone?”

Taylor faltered, “No… I mean, yes… if we can, we absolutely should, but I know we can’t save everyone, I’m not a child.”

Xander chuckled, “We’re both children by the standards of many, but that’s not what I was getting at.”

He got up, standing on the edge of the building, casually walking along the forty story drop like it meant nothing to him. Taylor struggled to her feet, following along from a safer distance since her broom wasn’t in her hand at the moment.

The lights from the ‘Medhall’ sign backlit them as they strolled and looked out over the city.

“Tell me,” Xander said mildly, “what would you like to do?”

Taylor was silent for a moment, considering it before responding, “Eliminate the gangs?”

“Was that a question?”

“Eliminate the gangs,” She repeated, firmly this time.

“Alright, let’s forget about the collateral damage we’d cause fighting,” Xander said easily. “and say we won. There are no more gangs in Brockton. What then?”

Taylor looked confused, “What do you mean?”

“I mean what then,” Xander said. “There are no gangs, but nothing else has changed. How long before new gangs show up or form?”

“We take them out too.”

“Oh? When does it stop? When the fighting has destroyed the city?” He asked her. “How many people die while you’re fighting the gangs?”

Taylor frowned, head dropping as she tried to parse that.

“So… that’s it? There’s no point in fighting?”

“Fighting never solves anything,” Xander shrugged. “All it does is push the problems around the board a little. The better part of a hundred million people died in the fighting around World War 2… and we’re in a town with a Nazi gang trying to start it all over again.”

“So we should just… what? Do nothing?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Xander said firmly. “What I’m saying is that you need to have a plan to actually fix the problems. Fighting doesn’t do that… but, sometimes you have to fight to buy yourself a little time. There’s no point in fighting, though, if you aren’t going to fix the problems as well… You’re just going to waste lives and then piss on their sacrifice.”

Taylor considered that for a long moment, “So… what? Social programs?”

“Maybe. Those can work,” He said, “but there are other options too. Just improving the economy would cripple the gangs, force them to change how they operate.”

“Really?”

“Oh yes,” Xander smiled. “Most of the members of these gangs you have aren’t true believers. They’re desperate, looking to protect themselves, their families… the Asians flee the Nazis, sheltering behind Lung, white people run to the Nazis… The Merchants gathers up anyone those two groups find unsavory. Improve the local economy and you bleed that desperation off, people feel like they don’t need protection, stealing recruits from the gangs.”

“It can’t be that easy.”

Xander snorted, “Have you ever tried to fix an economy? There’s a reason why people prefer to go to war, economies are hard and they do not follow any common sense rules you’d recognize. Anyone who claims they understand how an economy works is how an economy works is lying to you.”

She slumped, “So it’s hopeless.”

Xander sighed, drawing his wand, “Nothing is hopeless, Taylor… but being an adult means knowing that you don’t have all the answers and doing the job anyway.”

He let the wand spin casually in his hand, thinking his next words out carefully.

“We can’t solve a problem like this alone,” He said, “No one can. Come, I have something to show you.”

“What?” taylor looked confused, but quickly scrambled to get her broomstick as he lifted off the rooftop and slowly floated out into the night air.

In moment she was along beside him, and Xander sped up.

“Where are we going?” She asked, breathless as the cold air whipped past them.

“To teachable moment,” He said, glancing at the wand in his hand and adjusting his flight to follow where it was pointing.

*****

Gunfire echoed through the street as they descended, and Taylor stared with wide eyes as she saw members of the ABB in a shootout with the police. She started to rush forward, intent on helping, but was pulled sharply back by Xander’s hand on her shoulder.

“We have to help,” She turned on him.

“You don’t have to do anything,” He corrected her. “You’re a student on a field trip, and those are professionals dealing with a task they’re well capable of handling.”

“We have powers!”

“So?” he asked, looking bemused.

She blinked, “What do you mean, so? We have to help, we have powers.”

Xander shook his head, but idly flipped his wand over in his hand before casually snapping it down and showering the ABB soldiers with a series of orange blasts that left them thrown all over the ground they’d been holding, unconscious.

“Ok. Now what?” He asked her.

Taylor stared, first down at the street, then back at him. “What do you mean? The fight’s over.”

“This one, maybe, so you want to fly on to another fight somewhere?”

“Is there one?”

Xander shook his head, “There’s always another fight. But look down.”

She did so, and was surprised to find that the police hadn’t approached the ABB members. If anything they were even more defensive now, looking around nervously.

“What are they doing?” She asked.

“They’re wondering if they just got saved by the Nazis or someone just as bad,” Xander said. “So now they’re getting ready to withdraw while calling for PRT backup.”

“But… the gang members are right there!”

“And they don’t know if there isn’t a Super villain waiting to take them out too.”

Taylor sighed, “Right. So we have to go down?”

“We have to go down,” Xander nodded, flipping his wand briefly to his throat before he called out in an amplified voice, “Ahoy to the police! Capes coming down, we’re friendly!”

*****