Chapter Text
Magnus checked his watch, and then checked it again. Julia wasn’t late, not by far, but Magnus was early, so it felt like she was. Magnus didn’t want to appear desperate but he knew he was going to be late so he planned on arriving half an hour early. He arrived fifteen minutes after that so he supposed he’d made the right call. The entrance building to the zoo - he still couldn’t believe Julia let him take her to a zoo on their first date - had posters and pamphlets advertising what was inside. Their marketing theme this summer was “endangered animals” apparently. He was busy internally cooing about a cute bear poster, and all the fun facts it had on it, when there was a tap on his shoulder.
“Having fun?” Julia asked. She was slightly smaller than him, but then again, so was everyone. She had long, curly hair, pulled back with a red bandana, and wore a white t-shirt under light blue dungarees. Magnus was surprised, but covered it with a grin and a nod. “Well you’re going to be thrilled to bits when you see what’s actually in the zoo.”
“Is it animals?” Magnus asked, handing Julia her ticket.
“Oh you bet it’s animals.” Julia said, and they headed into the zoo.
Nothing especially remarkable happened at the zoo. Julia, Magnus learned, liked smaller animals, especially lemurs and wildcats. She had two dogs, one of which looked a lot like a wolf apparently, and she was surprisingly good at arcade games, so Magnus spent the rest of the day holding a teddy bear she had won for him since he “seemed to be such a big fan”. Eventually, they stopping for lunch. The cafe was nice, it had plenty of space outside it that was perfect for picnic blankets.
Magnus was setting up their stuff when Julia said. “Hey, did we get drinks?”
Magnus thought for a second, and looked at the tray that had two portions of noodles and nothing else, before shaking his head.
“I’ll go get some,” Julia said. “And no, you paid for lunch, it’s the least I can do,” She added when Magnus began to say that he’d get them. “You just sit by our stuff and make sure seagulls don’t get it.”
As Magnus sat on the blanket, looking at the enclosure next to the cafe - It was a variety of birds, some tropical, some urban - he noticed a light appearing a couple dozen meters away. It was red and didn’t seem to be emitting from anything, and it was lazily moving towards him, which wasn’t a good sign. Magnus stood up and tried to discreetly walk away from it, but the light followed him. It got closer and closer and it didn’t seem to have any properties other than red light. It wasn’t warm or cold, there really was no light source, just light. Eventually, he gave up and the light stopped, right in front of his chest for a moment, before disappearing inside of him.
It was a weird feeling, and for sure not what he expected. It didn’t hurt, but it felt like he’d just had a shot of really strong coffee, and he had an artificial burst of energy. He decided, perhaps unwisely, to ignore it, and go sit down. Julia only took a few minutes to get drinks, and Magnus really couldn’t focus on anything that happened, except for the fact that he slowly felt the energy draining out of him, until they had finished lunch and Magnus could barely keep his eyes open. Julia was smiling at him, and the sky was really really blue, and then darkness.
When he woke up, it was evening. He was still sitting on the hill, but there wasn’t any other people around, just Julia.
“Oh, you’re awake!” She said, “I got scared that you were ill or something.”
“How long have I been asleep?” Magnus had dreamed about some really weird thing, it was full of static and there was a jellyfish?
“A few hours.” She explained. “I thought you were just gonna nap for like ten minutes, but then you kept sleeping and it got to a point where it where it’d be awkward to wake you so I just “let you sleep.”
“I don’t think I nap for that long though.” Magnus was worried, but he didn’t feel ill, so it couldn’t be that bad, “I’m sorry for making you stay here instead of seeing the rest of the zoo.”
“Nah, it’s fine,” Julia said. “There’s still a few hours until closing, we can make it worthwhile.”
The rest of the day was quiet. All the children had been taken home so there was only a few people still wandering around the zoo. They managed to catch the last giraffe talk and feeding of the day, and Magnus was convinced that he had a conversation with a parrot.
“He was talking to me!” He insisted.
“I think he was talking to his friend,” she said, “and maybe telling you to not steal his food.”
They left just before closing, and Magnus only realised he’d been holding Julia’s hand when they had to let go to get in their respective cars. Julia laughed goodnaturedly at Magnus’s blush, and Magnus had an elated feeling in his heart all the way home.
~~~~~
The next day was Monday, so school was back in session, and Magnus told Johann and Avi all about his date, leaving out the part about the weird light. They seemed to be glad for him, but rolled their eyes when he told them he’d fallen asleep halfway through the day. Magnus wasn’t to be deterred, and he rummaged around in his bag to bring out the teddy Julia had given him. He couldn’t get to ask them what he should name it before the worst voice in the world spoke over him.
“Hey Maggie, is that a teddy bear you’re holding?” Marvey. leader of the hammerheads, an almost comically stereotypical school bully. “I know I keep calling you a big baby but you don’t need to act like one.” He high-fived one of his friends, Magnus couldn’t give them the time of day to tell who was who.
“Just because I cry doesn’t mean I’m a baby, asshole.” Magnus said, going to put it back in his bag, but before he did, Marvey snatched it off of him.
“I mean if you’re not a baby then you won’t be needing this,” he said, and threw it to his friend (Jerry?), who caught it and threw it to another one (also Jerry?). Magnus followed them, knowing full well how much of a fool he looked like, until it came back to Marvey and he held it still, one hand on its head, one hand on its arm.
“You probably don’t even want this stupid thing anyway,” he said, tugging slightly on the bear, almost as if he was going to-
“Please don’t break it, Julia gave it to me.” Magnus said, a last ditch effort at diplomacy. When Marvey didn’t stop, and the seams on the bear started audibly breaking, Magnus saw red.
He stormed up to Marvey and lifted him into the air by his shirt collar, not an easy feat, considering he was taller than Magnus and almost as heavily set. He turned pale, and the ripping stopped. Magnus glared at him, fighting back tears and trying to keep his voice steady.
“Give it back.” He said, and Marvey nodded, passing him the teddy bear back. Magnus set him down gently, and then turned to go back to his bag, when he saw that students had grouped around them, hoping for a fight. Magnus cringed, already heating the teacher walking up to them to tell them off.
“What happened here?” Mrs April said, looking between Marvey and Magnus. The rest of the hammerheads had gone back into the crowd.
“Magnus threatened me!” Marvey said, “he picked me up and I thought he was gonna hit me!
“Magnus, why did you do that?” She asked.
“He was breaking my bear.” Magnus said simply, holding up the bear and pointing to the broken neck seam.
“You shouldn’t have toys at school, and that’s no excuse for violence. This is grounds for detention.”
Magnus wanted to argue that he never actually hurt anyone, but he was in enough trouble as it was without talking back against a teacher. Instead, he nodded and put the bear back in his bag glumly, turned back to Avi and Johann, and went silently to his next lesson.
By the time he got out of detention that night, Magnus was tired. The school had called home to inform his moms that he wasn’t going to be home until later and why that was, and Magnus knew that they wouldn’t be mad, especially when he explained why he’d done it, but it still sucked not being able to walk home with his friends. It was dark when he stepped outside, and the streets were almost empty. Winter really was hitting hard. Magnus got out his phone and set off down the footpath, wanting to listen to music and not have to worry about cars, when a large rat ran across the path in front of him. Rats weren’t normally a thing to take note of, but this one was huge, almost as big as a cat. Magnus jogged to catch up with it and see where it had gone, and when he looked around the corner, he almost dropped his phone.
The rat was growing at an alarming rate, it’s eyes started to glow red and its light brown fur was replaced by a pitch black chitin, with streaks of colour running through it. It was almost the size of a small horse when he heard someone yell from beside him.
“There you are!” She was a girl around Magnus’s age, but he’d never seen her around school. “It’s great I caught you now and not later but I’d really love the time to explain.”
“Explain what?” Magnus said, looking between the girl and the rat, who hadn’t quite stopped growing and was screeching very loudly.
“Later,” she said, handing him a small golden token. “Take this, it’ll help you, I’ll tell you what’s going on afterwards.” And she ran a few meters back. The rat rounded on him, and Magnus clutched the token tightly. It was almost warm in his hand. The rat leaped at him.
“Protect me, please!” He yelled, and shut his eyes tight, not sure what to expect. The rat never hit, and he was instead lifted off his feet. He felt like he was underwater and when he opened his eyes, all he saw was white light, and bright ribbons wrapping themselves around him. This went on for a few seconds before he was let down gently. His hands were empty, and the rat was dazed a few meters off. The girl was cheering.
“It worked!” She yelled, “now quick, call on an attack!”
Magnus didn’t quite know what that meant, but he held out his hand, hoping that maybe he had magic now, and could shoot this rat with some fire. Instead, a heavy weight caught him off guard and he looked down to see an axe in his hand. It was ornately decorated, but still looked like it could hit hard. Also, his long sleeves were gone, and he was wearing fluffy fingerless gloves. That was an issue for after he stopped this rat from murdering him. He swung a few times, getting used to its weight, before the rat got up and ran at him again.
Magnus swung the axe with both hands, connecting with the rat’s head with a sickening crunch. There was slick black ooze on its face now, and Magnus tried to not think of it as an innocent creature; it was more like an enemy in a video game. He hit again, still aiming for the head, but he went wide and instead clipped its shoulder. The rat reared back and knocked him over, and his elbow stung from the impact.
He scrambled to his feet, barely dodging the rat’s sharp claws, and swung the axe one last time at the rat’s neck. It sunk in deep, and the rat screeched one last time, before it simply poofed out of existence. A puddle of dark ooze spilled out onto the floor, and in the middle of it, a rat, normal sized and thankfully unharmed. It took one look at Magnus and scampered off back into the bushes. Magnus looked around in shock, before spotting the girl that had gotten him into this mess. She was walking over to him, surprisingly calm considering what had just happened.
She was shorter than Magnus, and had deep brown skin, emphasised by her stark white hair. She wore a light blue turtleneck, and a long skirt with gold trim. “I’m Lucretia,” she said, as if that made the situation any more comprehensible.
“Magnus, charmed,” Magnus said, “What just- you just- I just- the rat- the axe-” there was no way he could finish his thoughts. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he could focus on the logistics of a magic axe, and a giant rat, and his sudden proficiency in fighting, and none of it made any kind of sense.
“This’ll take a while to explain.” Lucretia said, “come to the starblaster cafe tomorrow after school, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”
“One thing I need to know right here, right now.” He said, gesturing to his outfit, which, when he looked down, seemed to be comprised of a lot of fur. “How do I change back into my normal clothes?”