Title: CC: The Uncanny X-Slayerettes
Author: Joshua
Disclaimer: X-Men were created by Stan Lee, who's a really great guy since he's allowed so many parodies and Fanfics to be made of his characters, and then here he is making MOVIES too! Great guy, really he is. BtVS was created by Joss Whedon, who's kind of a megalomaniac ever since the fourth season ended and while he makes GREAT characters and comes up with decent enough stories, which is the only reason why I would bother writing BtVS fanfic. Anyway, only thing I could possibly own in this is the time spent writing it and the convoluted twisting and bordering on slightly insane plot. Furthermore, I have no money so don't bother suing me. You'll just embarrass yourself.
Summary: The continuation of 'Chaotic Circumstances'. Dealing primarily with the original team of Slayerettes that were transformed by Halloween into the X-Men and now have mutant powers.
Issue 1: "Whose Line is IT" In the wake of Halloween, things are changing, from the people to the entire world. As Buffy and her friends try to deal with the changes in their lives, they still have to deal with everything else the Hellmouth throws at them.
Story:
It was the middle of November, and Christmas Vacation was looming like a carrot on a stick, but that was what the few remaining 'normal' students of Sunnydale High were worried about and spending their energy on. Everybody else was focusing on and worrying over the Holiday that was already past. Halloween.
A day that would be forever remembered for what happened to the citizens of one small suburban town called Sunnydale on the southwest coast of California on that night. Thanks to the workings of a chaos mage named Ethan Rayne, and the bizarre Englishman's mistakes of drawing directly on the Force of Chaos and handing out Halloween costumes that would change whoever wore them /into/ the costume.
Supposedly, the mage's plan was just to turn loose the havoc and chaos of costumed entities running free in the real world for a single night, but something far worse happened. And while for a single night, everyone was transformed into their costume and possessed by the spirit, the minds and souls of whatever or whoever they dressed as, when morning came, it didn't end. The spirits that had been called for a single night returned to whence they came, but their changes remained.
Due to not just one set of circumstances, everyone that wore a costume enchanted by Ethan Rayne and was thusly affected by his spell of costume chaos, found themselves with the same powers, abilities, and/or bodies of their costume. Though they were still themselves, more than half of the citizens, adult and child, of Sunnydale still were whatever it was they had dressed as.
Yet none had quite the grasp of understanding that four teenagers at the local high school did of what had happened. It helped that these teens further understood a great deal more about the world than just the existence of magic and chaos mages. And that one of them was a mystically empowered champion for good even before she dressed in a costume was just another reason why these four found themselves at the center of a growing league of those changed by the chaos of Halloween, or Chaotix as the term would come to be called.
Further coincidence is that each of these four dressed as one of the fabled X-Men of Marvel Comics, the misfit band of mutants hated by those they protect. After contacting a large number of other Chaotix throughout Sunnydale, the teens, who had previously dubbed themselves the Slayerettes, formed the core of the new league and began to spread the word and help the other citizens of Sunnydale understand what had happened to them.
Yet while their aid in the new league is very important, they still have to deal with the problems and issues they were dealing with before Halloween, problems such as demons, vampires, and the forces of darkness. All converging in their small little town because of the Hellmouth, a mystical convergence located beneath Sunnydale that can open a portal that can unleash the forces of Hell.
These teenagers are Buffy Summers, once chosen as the Slayer, gifted with enhanced strength, healing, and the power to defeat vampires and the forces of darkness. After dressing up as the X-man /Cyclops/, she can shoot optic beams from her eyes at will, and thanks to the mixture of Chaos, her mystical Slayer powers, and her mutant genes, Buffy's powers are growing and mutating day by day, making her more powerful than ever.
Willow Rosenberg, an introverted "geek" once, and with one of the most brilliant minds in the country as she can crack almost any computer database and has the highest IQ of her class. After dressing up as Jean Grey, codenamed /Phoenix/, she's now quite literally one of the most powerful minds on the planet.
Xander Harris, Willow's best friend since Kindergarten, he was the proverbial flipside of Willow's coin as he never considered himself smart and very extroverted and in the top running for class clown. After dressing as /Iceman/, he's inherited Bobby Drake's sense of style and way with the ladies, and is discovering that while he has the powers and the humor, he may end up being more than Drake ever was. In more ways than one.
Cordelia Chase was the richest, snobbiest girl in Sunnydale, but after being saved from vampires by Buffy, she opened her eyes and joined a group where she learned who her real friends were. After a night as the X-man /Rogue/, Cordy's view on life was permanently changed, giving her Rogue's powers, all of them, as well as putting a mirror under her nose to show her how she had been before then.
They're led by the High School Librarian, Rupert Giles, who is also Buffy's Watcher, the one that helps her directly with her destiny of protecting the world, and who happened to be the one that helped stop Ethan Rayne once and for all.
These teens, brought together by the circumstances of the Hellmouth, forged through the chaos of their new powers and status, they are the Uncanny /X-Slayerettes/!
/Sunnydale High/
Buffy Summers was toying with her red-tinted shades, trying to concentrate on the test in front of her. It wasn't much of a "test" really, more an "Aptitude Test" for the upcoming Career week. Normally she'd be outside in the courtyard, enjoying the outdoors and 'out-of-school-time' as much as she could, but of late, 'out-of-school-time' was more stressful and more dangerous than running the chance of getting an extra training session with Giles or running across the goblin-transformed "Troll", Principal Snyder.
Truth be told, she wasn't paying nearly half the attention she should have been on it, only focusing enough to be sure she was writing on the correct part of the test instead of doodling all over it. The questions just kind of blurred before her and felt like they went in and if not out then just outright disappeared. A couple like, "Do you enjoy physical labor?" and "If you saw a crime taking place, would you stop it?" stood out and she answered them accordingly, but mostly she just let her mind drift, playing with her red shades, watching how the light played through the crimson lenses.
"Are you a people person, or do you prefer keeping your own company?" Xander read from his test. He, Willow, and (Heaven only knows) Cordelia were seated around a table in the lounge, where the aptitude test had been set up to be taken by the students, each doing their own test and seemed to be giving it all a great deal more concentration than she was.
"Are you asking me?" she returned, "And do you want me to answer on pre-Halloween status, or after?" She gave him a teasing grin when he glared at her with his ice-blue eyes.
"I dunno," he finally shrugged. "Hey Wills," he turned to the telepath that was right beside Buffy, "am I a people person? Do I enjoy the company of people?"
"Before or after Halloween?" the redhead questioned without looking up from her own test.
"There's a difference?" he asked, confused by getting the same response from two different people.
"Uh, gonna have to go with 'Yeah' on that Xan," Buffy answered, turning her page automatically when she finally noticed she'd finished the one she was on. She blinked in surprise when the entire test was flipped over. There were no more pages, she was done.
"Duh!" Cordy added to the conversation while Willow just nodded emphatically to her longest and bestest friend.
"Fine, before!" he exclaimed.
"Well, we're people," Willow pointed out, actually looking up.
An evil grin crossed the mutant's face as he then turned back to his test and said aloud, "So that would be a 'No' then."
"You really want to get a grade off this test based on who you were /before/ Xan?" Buffy questioned as she pulled out her homework and started leafing through, trying to find an assignment that she hadn't already finished. One really great thing about dressing up as Cyclops for Halloween, he'd been an A+ student during school and then was a school teacher whenever he hadn't been saving the world, thus her GPA had taken a serious upswing.
That made the mutant freeze, and not in the literal way he so often could do. "So I am a people person?" he asked, confused.
"How many dates with how many girls have you had this week /alone/?" Willow icily queried. It was Monday.
Xander's eyebrows shot up, but he kept his mouth shut and silently went back to the test.
A few minutes later he exclaimed with an exasperated sigh, "It's just . . . these people can't tell from one multiple choice test what we're supposed to do for the rest of our lives! I mean it's . . . it's ridiculous!"
"Just shut up and finish the test!" Cordelia shouted at him, getting tired of hearing his constant whining from right next to her.
"Taking a break Buffy?" Willow asked after seeing that her friend had pulled out some of her homework and was steadily working on that, even while continuing to toy with the shades Willow had gotten for her the week before.
"Huh?" the blonde looked up, her expression a mixture of confusion and boredom.
"Taking a break from the test?" she asked again.
"Oh, that. No, I finished it," she answered, turning back to the homework, but frowned when she saw that she'd continued to write while answering Willow and was now completely done with all of her homework. Now what was she supposed to do?
That was about the time she felt the heat of the others gaze and looked up to see them all, staring at her in absolute disbelief. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a couple other nearby students also staring at her.
Seeing they weren't saying anything, and truly bored, she just shrugged it off and started putting her homework away and pulling out a book Giles had given her a couple days ago to read. It was, according to him, a book on Slayers and their fighting skills. Reading through it though, she'd discovered it was more a Watcher Diary on tactics commonly used by a couple of Slayers that had lived back during the Renaissance. Which translated to the same thing, she supposed, but it was slightly more interesting than just sitting here worrying over a test she didn't care about. She'd already read about a couple of things that intrigued her and she felt she might try some of them out on patrol sometime.
"All right, who are you and what have you done with Buffy Summers?" Xander questioned.
Buffy, internally, turned her attention to the psychic link that she had with Willow, something they'd discovered only very recently and communicated in emotions and feelings rather than words and thoughts her current frame of mind and mood.
Willow rolled her eyes at the wave of pure boredom flowing down the link from the Slayer. "Marco promised to have the Danger Room up and running by the weekend Buffy. He and the others have to go to school too y'know. And you shouldn't abuse Cyclops' knowledge like that. It might get you in trouble someday."
"Wills, I've got his powers, his experience, and /some/ of his memories, not his knowledge. Part of his experience is how to use the knowledge I already have. Besides, you helped me study, I can't help it if my subconscious is smarter than me these days," the mutant Slayer excused.
"That is so unfair," Cordelia remarked, finally turning back to her own test, until she looked down surprised that she'd already finished too.
"If you want to rag on someone for using knowledge not their own, put the blame on Rogue over there," Buffy said with a grin as she put on her shades.
The white-striped brunette glared at the blonde, sticking her tongue out before just putting her test away and looked about to pull out her own homework, until she recalled that she had already finished all her homework.
"So just Willow and I still have to go through this brain-sucking torture?" Xander exclaimed.
Willow, exactly forty-five minutes after she'd started, which just so happened to coincide with the moment after he'd said that, flipped the test back over and put it away.
"Whu...!" Xander stared, stunned. "That is SO unfair!"
"Tough!" the girls all shouted at him, struggling to contain their giggles.
"C'mon girls," Buffy said, getting up, "Let's leave the Unfunny Iceman to his torture. I feel in the mood for a shopping trip."
"Will! Buff! Come on! Cordy!" Xander protested as one after one the girls left the lounge. Grumbling, he remarked one final time, "This is so unfair!"
/Abandoned Factory/
/Spike's Hideout/
Drusilla was laying out her cards with trembling care while Spike was pacing around the room, the other vamps, the few that remained after Halloween and the following weeks, were huddled around watching the master vampire warily. At the table, opposite Drusilla, and at the center of the circuit that Spike was making in his paces, was the one vampire that was born before this century and knew how to read before he was turned. The vampire's name was Dalton and he actually used to be a Watcher, not a Watcher to a Slayer, but one of the Watcher's nevertheless.
At the moment, Dalton was pouring over several tomes, all magical directories or manuscripts on magic and seemed to become more and more frantic with everything he read. Aloud he said to Spike, "This is the spell that can change a person into the costume they're wearing, but it's temporary, it calls upon the Roman god Janus. It's the only thing that could actually . . . uh, actually do what's happened."
"Yes, yes, yes, I know that," Spike growled, his pacing becoming more agitated. "That doesn't bloody well tell me why the hell the Slayer and every bollocks'd /thing/ out there STILL has their bloody powers! Although I really gotta thank that demon eyed boy for getting rid of Grunide," he muttered.
"It . . . it just doesn't make any sense. That's the only spell that could actually affect a whole town, even one on the Hellmouth. There's nothing else that could—" Dalton stopped suddenly, his vampiric eyes wide with shock.
"Wot?" Spike demanded.
"Chaos," the ex-Watcher muttered. "It-it-it's the only way. He, the wizard, whoever it was, he . . . he tapped into Chaos to power the spell. That's the only way, and for it to be permanent, oh /fuck/!!"
Spike stepped back, a little shocked, but even more impressed at the unexpected reaction from the bookish demon.
"Spike," Dalton hurriedly spoke to the master vampire, "You, we can't do this! We can't, there's no way, it can't..."
Spike casually backhanded the vampire with enough strength that he flew out of his chair at the table onto the floor. "Now," Spike drawled, "care to try that again, this time without the blubbering?"
Scrambling to his feet, Dalton tried to make Spike understand, "Chaos is one of the fundamental forces of the universe. If this wizard, whoever he was, tapped into that for this spell . . . It's permanent. There's no way to change anyone that was changed back to normal, no matter what. And we can't risk trying the same spell to change ourselves! There's no telling what may happen!"
"Hence calling it chaos I'm assuming," Spike's face was no longer amused.
"You could kill Drusilla," Dalton provided as example, "Or turn into a good guy, or even be changed so drastically you aren't even yourself, you'd be some other more powerful demon, like the Master or somebody worse!"
"Or more boring," Spike scrunched his face up in annoyance as Dalton convinced him.
"Spike, come dance with me," Drusilla hummed, holding out her arms to her childe.
"Not now pet, can't you see we're busy!" the vampire snapped.
Whimpering, Dru withdrew her arms and seemed to fold in on herself. Instantly regretful, Spike was at his sire's side in a flash, holding her and whispering sweet nothings in her ear and calming her down. Once she was back to her cards, Spike returned to Dalton, his anger evident from every pore of his body as he lashed out at the minion and ordered, "Fine, forget the bloody Slayer and every bloody thing else out there. Focus on Dru's cure."
"Actually, on that, I do have a lead," Dalton excitedly reported grabbing one of the magical directories. "A necromancer."
Spike smashed the vampire's head in before another word could be uttered. "Are you bloody mad! Not even I'm stupid enough to go anywhere /near/ a bloody fuckin /Necromancer/!! They can control the dead in case you forgot and guess what a vampire is!"
"Not a real one!" Dalton quickly assured the master vamp. "One of the Changed, a Chaotic," referring to a citizen of Sunnydale, "with all the powers but none of the experience or bound by the laws that a true necromancer would be bound by. I got this from a contact at Wolfram&Hart, it shows the name and location of every magician of every type in the country, or North America in our case. There's a necromancer in Sunnydale, one that hadn't been there before. All we need is to get him, control him, and get him to use his powers to heal Drusilla."
Spike waited, listening to the other vampire until he was finished. Finally he asked, "Don't suppose you've got a way in that big brain of yours to actually do that, do you?"
Dalton froze at that, panic entering his eyes, but before Spike could punish him further, Drusilla interrupted, raising on trembling finger and whispering out in that sing-song voice of hers, "There is a way."
"How ducks?" Spike asked, by his sire's side in an instant.
She pointed at the cards before her, and Spike's evil grin quickly became quite infectious.
/Sunnydale High Courtyard/
Xander and Cordelia were looking over the list of names and careers posted on the bulletin board, looking for both their own names as well as their friends. The Cordettes were just behind them waiting for their own chance. Charlotte, Erin and Cindy in particular looked nervous about their results.
Finally, Cordy found her own name and read aloud, "Motivational Speaker or . . . Professional businesswoman!"
At the same time Xander read, "Prison guard!!"
Cordelia looked at him annoyed and then looked down at his name and added, "Or construction worker."
"I'm trying to have a venting moment, if you don't mind Miss High and Fly," Xander griped to his fellow mutant. He looked over the rest of the list and made note of Buffy's and Willow's listed roles, and then double-checked the entire list quickly before turning to the complete (minus Harmony) Cordettes and asked, "D'you think that this might be the fake list, y'know like April Fools or something like that?"
"No, why?" Brittany snapped as she shoved him out of the way.
"Cause Willow's name isn't up there," was all he said with a frown on his face. In the events since Halloween, Xander had gotten much closer to his friends and he knew when something would trouble them. And ever since the revelation that there actually were people, namely Bobby Drake, out there that were even more immature and comedic than he tried to be, he'd learned when /not/ to be funny.
Everybody else that knew Willow Rosenberg however, also knew that the nerd wouldn't take being left off the list that has to do with their futures at all well. They also knew that she was telepathic now and each struggled not to let the fact that her name was not on the list be the forefront of their minds.
Suddenly, they all heard Buffy Summers shout from across the yard, "HEADS UP!"
Xander and Cordelia looked around sharply, then their eyes widened in fear at the same moment and they grabbed as many of the ones still in front of the board and dragged them away as fast as they could, Cordy taking extra care not to touch anyone with her bare skin.
Half an instant later, Willow flew down right in front of the board, her eyes wide in panic, taking in the list at a glance and then she began going over it in detail, going all over the list once she'd confirmed that her name was under neither 'R' nor 'W'.
Buffy jogged up to join Xander and Cordy and helped a few of the people that'd been knocked down stand up. "Tried to warn you," she told them. "By the way Brittany, that wasn't funny."
"How did you know . . . ?" the Kheran Empath demanded.
"Brittany!" Cordy snapped, "You almost got us killed there!"
"Hey, I figured she'd want to know," the brunette shrugged.
A growl drew their attention back to Willow as she turned from the list, apparently having confirmed that her name was not on the list. A dangerous hot-pink aura surrounded the redhead as she growled out, "Snyder," and then took to the air, hunting down the troll. Though most had taken to calling him a goblin of late.
Everyone glared at Brittany as the girl shrugged sheepishly. "Oops," was all she said.
"I'll stay on her tail," Cordy took to the air after her friend while Buffy instead just started running into the building, trying to calm Willow down through their link.
"Oh c'mon, it's funny!" Brittany protested to everyone looking at her like she was the bad guy.
"Do you realize what she may do to Principal Snyder because of this perceived slight?" Aura questioned.
Struggling to keep her grin from actually splitting her head open, Brittany nodded.
"Snyder replaced Flutie, who the heck do you think they're going to replace /Snyder/ with?" Cindy asked their 'Second-In-Command' since Harmony had gone psycho.
That sobered the Coda-trained teenager right up. "Oh. Well, she won't kill him. She's an X-man, not to mention Rosenberg doesn't have the balls to kill."
"Three words Brit-Brit," Xander coldly retorted, "Dark. Phoenix. Saga. Look it up." Then he stalked off after his friends.
"She's also a telepath, she could turn him into a vegetable," Erin remarked.
"I think that would be an improvement," Charlotte commented with a Russian-lilt.
"You gotta admit though, it was a little funny," Brittany tried to defend herself one last time. Suddenly she froze, a frown marring her face. "Hey, wait a second! How the hell did /Summers/ know it was me that broadcast to Willow? She's not a telepath and it happened to quick for Willow to tell her!"
The Cordettes all looked around at each other, confused and wondering about this latest development. Things were so much simpler before Halloween.
/Sunnydale High/
/Principal's Office/
"SNYDER!!" Willow's voice was both telepathically and telekinetically (added echoes) enhanced as she tore the roof off the school to get into the room. Evidence that the roof had been torn off before was ignored as the raging redhead just put it back, telekinetically fusing what needed to be fused to ensure that it wouldn't fall down on them, any time soon.
The green-skinned, actually a putrid puke-green, orange-haired creature squeaked and huddled down under the desk until the desk was lifted off of him with but a gesture from the mutant now in his office. The dark, pupil-less beady little eyes stared out from a heavy brow and an ugly pugged-nose and finally recognized Willow Rosenberg.
Snyder immediately got to his feet and straightened his suit, which was extremely out of place on the goblin-like creature and just made him look even stranger than he normally would, trying to make himself look and feel important again and maybe even intimidate the normally shy student.
That was effectively stopped when Willow dropped the desk right back where it had been, startling another squeak out of the goblin-Principal and almost crushing him if he hadn't jumped back in time. "What's the meaning of this Snyder?!" Willow's voice boomed in the small room and his head equally.
"M-m-meaning of what?" the Troll stuttered, thrown completely off-balance.
"My name has been left off of the printed career list!" Willow informed him, seeming, to his simple mind, to grow over ten feet tall with burning pink eyes.
Snyder's beady little eyes blinked once, twice, and on the third time he grunted as he recalled the information he needed. He opened his mouth to respond, but Willow beat him to it, her eyes going wide with surprise as she blurted out, "An international software corporation singled me out? They want to offer me a job? Oh. Uh, sorry for the mess. I'll clean it right up," the telepath was suddenly the sweet, shy redhead everyone knew Willow Rosenberg to be.
On her way out, she waved her hand across the room and everything that had fallen out of place was instantly put back to where it belonged and another surge of telekinetic energy reinforced the repair job on the ceiling even as she walked out.
Half an instant after the door had shut though, the ceiling crashed in again, or rather a much smaller hole in the ceiling, as Cordelia smashed through and hovered there for a second. Seeing the now thoroughly terrified Troll standing there she asked, "Did Willow come through here?"
He just silently nodded, his arm trembling, pointed out the door and gave a soft grunt. Confused, Cordy landed and opened the door and seeing Willow standing there calmly waiting as Buffy and Xander ran up to her. "Oh, thanks," Cordy said to Snyder as she stepped out and shut the door behind her with a small slam, which caused a little bit more of the ceiling to crash down. Snyder just whimpered and went back to hiding under his desk.
"Hey," Cordy said as she, Buffy, and Xander a beat later, joined up with Willow. "Snyder's still alive, so I'm assuming you've calmed down?"
"Oh yeah, that, just a mild misunderstanding," the redhead reported with a wide grin. The sheer giddiness she said this with, opposed to the irrational rage she'd been seen with before caused the rest of them to break out into shared laughter as they all walked on to the Library.
"So, computer software company, huh?" Buffy asked with a grin, her crimson shades flashing.
"Yep," Willow bounced with giddiness.
"Come again?" Xander blurted, thoroughly confused.
"The reason I'm not on the career list," Willow explained as they rounded a corner and started towards the hall where all their lockers were at. "A computer software company, an /International/ computer software company signaled me out and they want to offer me a job. They had to get special permission to set up their closed off booth from Snyder, that's how he knew about it."
"Yeah, but how did . . . oh, hang on for a sec, be right back . . ." he trailed off as they reached his locker and he quickly went to switch his books and then hurried over to rejoin the girls as they, except for Cordelia, changed out their own books, their lockers right next to each other. As soon as he did, he quickly picked up where he left off, "So how did /Buffy/ know about the computer thing? Did you like, tell her, y'know," he glanced around the hallway warily, "privately? Not that I have a problem with that, but maybe Cordy and I, particularly me, want to be included in such, uh . . . private conversations to, y'know?"
Smiling, Willow shook her head and answered, "It's not like that Xander."
Cordelia rejoined them herself and took only a glance at everyone's faces before blurting, "Oh, you haven't told him yet?"
"What? What, what, what, what, what, what!?" Xander stuttered looking between the three gorgeous ladies that were his closest friends in the world. He began to feel the panic that maybe they weren't as close as he'd believed before now.
"Yeah Cordy," Buffy dangerously questioned, narrowing her eyes beneath her crimson shades, "what didn't we tell him?"
There's more than one secret! Xander thought to himself in a complete panic.
Willow winced and looked empathetically towards the mutant and immediately hugged him close. "Xander, it's not like that," she repeated, the stress of his panic in her voice. "We aren't keeping secrets, we aren't excluding you, we just don't give you a complete CIA-report listing of everything that's happened to us since we last saw you the moment we see you again. Now stop your panicking, it hurts and you're starting to give me a headache."
"Panicking? Who's panicking? I'm not panicking, there's nothing to panic over!" Xander squeaked.
Buffy shrugged and sighed. "Face it Xan, our best friend is a telepath. I've just learned not to think of what I don't want to think about. And that sounded so much better in my head," she muttered, scratching the back of her neck with a frown.
"Hello?!" Cordelia exclaimed, "Did you tell him or not?"
"Tell me what?" now that he was sure they weren't intentionally keeping him out, Xander's curiosity was piqued.
"About Giles and Miss Calendar," she said, partly to help remind the other girls.
"What, them kissing? I'm trying to repress on that actually," the Slayer admitted.
"Uh, not exactly Buffy," Willow hesitated, only after a look from the blonde did she share the memory of what had happened and what she, Cordelia, and the Cordettes had witnessed the evening before when they'd all gone on a patrol sweep of the town. Buffy'd stayed home, partly because her mother wanted to spend some "quality time" with her daughter and partly because they'd all agreed the Slayer should get at least /one/ night off a week.
Buffy's eyes went wide, as Xander asked again, "What?!"
"Uh, Giles asked Miss Calendar to marry him. And she agreed," Willow told him. "We were going to tell you both, honest, it just, well, we were waiting for the right time."
"Damn I wish I had my camera," Cordelia grinned widely at the looks on both Buffy's and Xander's faces.
"I need air," Buffy pronounced, turning and leaving, though class was starting a few minutes and they all knew that.
"Damn, and I wanted to ask her out," Xander blurted out. At the sudden heat he felt directed at him, he noticed the remaining redhead and white-striped brunette glaring dangerously at him. "Did I say that out loud?" he squeaked.
/Random Cemetery/
/Night/
It was Buffy's night to patrol, and as they'd all agreed, she wasn't doing it alone. Xander 'Iceman' Harris was right by her side the whole way. It was even somewhat enjoyable given their friendship, and since Buffy didn't have to worry too much about Xander getting hurt anymore, a lot less stressful than their first few times patrolling together. Plus, during the whole Battle Royale they'd discovered that they could work well together.
"Can you believe Willow's reaction today?" Xander asked with a laughing grin on his face.
Buffy struggled to keep her own face, straight, not entirely succeeding, answering, "Don't laugh, it's not . . . that funny! Besides, you know better than anybody else how seriously Willow takes academics! She was really looking forward to the test results, so she could know what she would do for the rest of her life."
"Yeah, but c'mon Buff, since Halloween, do you really think that anybody in this town is going to be doing anything that a standardized test has to say?" he countered.
Buffy shrugged, uncomfortable, "Even before Halloween I couldn't be what that test said I could be."
"Yeah, how about that? School teacher, huh?" Xander's tone shifted to something Buffy didn't quite recognize. It almost sounded . . . smug.
"Or Law enforcement, don't forget law enforcement!" Buffy reminded him.
"You're actually seriously considering that?" Xander was surprised.
"I . . . might be. And if I make detective I don't have to wear the ugly polyester uniforms," she pointed out. "Better than school teacher, getting ragged on all the time by snot-nosed brats and teenagers. Thank you but no!"
"Either way, don't make much money," he added.
"Yeah," she agreed.
"Construction worker though, there's money in that. Help build high-rises and get government contracts and other stuff," the Slayer turned it around.
"Better than Prison guard," he agreed. "But seriously, do you look at me and see construction worker? You need all kinds of education for that too, math and physics and geology and I think there's even a special school they make you go to for reading plans and other construction-type stuff!"
"Then there's the automatic membership to the YMCA," Buffy innocently remarked as they walked along the cemetery.
"Yeah, then there's . . ." he trailed off and gave the mutant Slayer the evil-eye, "Don't go there. Just . . . don't. Go. There." he warned her.
Struggling to maintain a straight face, she held up her hand in a solemn vow and managed, "Not going there, check. You'd look good in a hardhat though," she almost burst out laughing.
"Buffy!" Xander growled holding up his left hand, a Freeze ball forming in an instant.
She screeched with a wide smile and took off running, even as Iceman immediately gave chase. "Get back here Slayer!" he crowed, shooting out ice beams to create patches of ice in hope that she might trip up. Of course it never happened.
Before they could make too much noise however, they slid to a stop as they passed one mausoleum and discovered a couple of vampires inside making even more noise than they had been. Buffy, using the few stealth skills Giles had managed to train her with, but mostly relying on the experience of sneaking cookies out of the cookie jar when she was little, snuck up to the entrance and looked inside before sneaking back to Xander, who had put on his ice-armor so he looked much more capable than normal 'Xander Harris'.
"It's just one vamp, looks kind of like a Giles-wannabe if you ask me. He's digging in one of the wall-spaces. Looks like he's looking for something," she told him.
"Just one vamp, you wanna take it yourself and I'll watch your back or . . ." Iceman offered.
"Tell you what, you take him and I'll watch your back, you deserve it, and it is just one vamp," she suggested. She smiled at his suddenly prideful look of accomplishment. "Go get 'em Tiger," she clapped him on the back and then slipped back into the shadows, while Iceman leaned back against the outside of the mausoleum, arms folded and waited for the vampire to come out. They didn't have long to wait.
The vampire, which was exactly how Buffy described him, dressed like a librarian, balding, and had spectacles on its nose in front of its yellow demonic eyes, exited carrying a bundle in its arms, wrapped in cloth so he couldn't actually tell what it immediately was. Before it got too far, Xander stopped it, coughing softly to get its attention, freezing it in fear.
"Y'know, I get the whole demon being evil thing, but don't you people have any respect for the dead? I mean, you're dead yourselves so you should at least let the non living-impaired dead keep the few possessions they've still got. How evil can you get, really?" Iceman taunted.
Buffy, from the shadows, watched as another vampire came at a run straight for Xander's back, and outwardly the mutant showed no sign of even detecting it. She hesitated for half a second, unsure whether to interfere or not, but the choice was taken out of her hands because of her hesitation. The vampire that had run up was already on Iceman, or was about to be if it hadn't turned into a frozen vamp-cicle just inside three feet of the mutant.
"And that's another thing," Iceman continued with not even a pause in his speech, the vampire in front of him effectively terrorized, "attacking from behind is another not-nice thing to do. Of course since I've on occasion done it too, I can't exactly call it evil, but it's still a not nice thing to do. But I'm not a nice person, except to my friends. And you creeps," Xander paused as he shot his right fist behind him and shattered the vamp-cicle turning it into a clump of dusty ice, "are /not/ anything even remotely close to my friends. Greatest enemies comes to mind honestly," he mused even as the vampire before him took off as fast as it could.
Iceman gave an evil grin and brought forth both hands and ice beams shot out and turned the ground beneath the vampire into a solid sheet of ice, also covering and freezing over the manhole that the vampire had been running for in hopes of disappearing into the sewers. It's escape effectively cut off, the vampire scrambled around for a bit, dropping its bundle and crawling away from the mutants as fast as it could.
Enjoying himself, Iceman casually formed the Freeze Ball between both hands, just watching the vampire struggle from a distance and taking his time in ending it. Finally, he figured enough was enough and launched the Freeze Ball after careful aiming and watched to see another vamp-cicle be made. To his and Buffy's shock, who was watching from behind her friend, the vampire took one look at the oncoming attack and then jumped up as high as it could. The mutant attack went on to completely freeze an innocent headstone behind the vampire, but neither mutant took notice at the moment.
The vampire, either through sheer dumb luck or an incredibly well-executed plan, landed precisely on top of the frozen-over manhole, and with the combination of its weight and the force of its jump, it actually cracked and broke through the ice and fell down through the hole into the sewers below. For several long seconds after the fact, Buffy and Xander just stared in stunned disbelief. Then they quickly raced forward to see exactly what had happened and discovered the manhole.
"Did that really just happen?" Xander asked as he lowered the ice-armor, reverting to his normal self.
"Damn, I hate it when they pull shit like this," Buffy cursed, looking down the manhole.
"Should we follow?" he asked.
"Hell no!" Buffy protested, "Remember the /last/ time we went in the sewers?"
Xander winced, remembering the failed rescue attempt on Jesse and how he and Buffy had nearly been killed because of their shortsightedness. "Well, at least he didn't get away with whatever it was he was stealing," he commented as he went over to the bundle and picked it up. He frowned when he realized that it was actually a book. A very old and powerful looking book.
"What is that?" Buffy asked.
"The /Necros Arcana Codex/," Xander replied automatically.
"Wow Xan," Buffy said, very impressed, "I'm impressed. All those research parties are starting to pay off. You recognized this book immediately. Probably from the mausoleum, and the cemetery and some other really impressive random facts that you just put together in an instant."
"Yeah," Xander grinned with overwhelming pride at her compliments, then did the dumb thing and turned the book over and told her, "also it says right here on the front, 'Necros Arcana Codex'. See, right there . . . Hey! Where ya going?"
/The Library/
/The Next Morning/
"So you say this vampire was raiding a mausoleum in order to obtain this?" Giles asked while anxiously looking over the book Buffy and Xander had come across the night before.
"Yeah, it was suspicious and kinda creepy when you think about it, but I went back to check out the place, just to be sure, and other than tools and a broken wall, uh, what did you call it Xan?" the Slayer turned to her patrolling partner.
"A reliquary," Xander answered. "Believe it or not, my hi-jinx in church as a youth has finally paid off for something."
"A reliquary?" Giles was surprised, "What would a book on Necromancy be doing in a reliquary of all places? Have you, uh, have you tried to open it? The book I mean?" he asked.
"Yes, and I got a nasty shock because of it too!" Buffy pouted.
Now Giles' curiosity was really piqued. "That would indicate that this book is more than just what it seems, its is magical, possibly even a Grimmoire for a practicing Necromancer, meaning that only the Necromancer itself can open it, and the dead or undead can safely handle it."
"Hey, we managed to carry it just fine, it was only when I tried to open it that it went all blue-flamey," Buffy pointed out.
Giles blinked. "Then this hasn't a necromancer of its own just yet. Which, unfortunately, means only one thing," he sat down heavily with a long suffering sigh.
"Oh, oh, oh! I know, I know!" Xander started waving his hand around like a little kid in class. "Somebody dressed as a necromancer for Halloween and now the powers of necromancy of this world are reaching out to this new necromancer."
"I'm afraid Xander's actually right, for once," Giles let out another suffering sigh.
"Hey!" the mutant exclaimed.
"So what does . . . ?" Buffy trailed off suddenly, startling the others into looking at her, and then at what she was staring at. At the entrance of the Library stood a young woman, dark red hair, so dark it was almost black but still red. Buffy and Xander immediately recognized her as Laura Hamilton, a Senior in school. She herself, though, wasn't looking at any of them. Her eyes were only for the book on the table in front of them, which had begun to glow a soft twilight-blue.
"That's mine," she whispered, almost like she hadn't consciously said it.
Seeing that the girl/necromancer wasn't taking any steps forward and the book wasn't looking like it was going to fly through the air to get to her, Buffy just shrugged and casually picked it up and carried it over to her. "Here. If it's yours, it's yours," she said, holding it out.
Laura, pale skin flushing slightly, looked up at Buffy with pale green eyes and then back down at the now practically shining book. Finally she just took it, which immediately cut the light, only for it to seemingly go into her. "Thank you," she whispered shyly to the Slayer.
"No prob. Hey, you know why a bunch of vamps were digging it out of a mausoleum?" the blonde immediately asked the new girl.
Laura's eyes went wide with terror. "V-v-vampires!? Vampires aren't real!"
"You dressed as a necromancer for Halloween, didn't you?" Buffy questioned.
The senior blinked, stunned, but carefully nodded. "I, uh, I went as Anita Blake," she quietly answered.
Buffy rolled her eyes beneath her crimson shades and nodded her head in understanding, while Xander behind her said aloud, "Oh, that explains it!" While Giles just snorted and tried to maintain his stoic Watcher face.
"Don't worry . . . Laura right?" receiving a confirming nod, Buffy continued, "Real vampires aren't /anything/ like that. For one thing, the only ones with mind control powers are more than 1,000 years old, and compared to a telepath on the rampage, it's nothing to get worked up over. And personally, I haven't encountered any werewolves yet, but I'm pretty sure they don't run in packs. Don't worry. Vamps are a lot easier killed than in books. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about."
"Oh, good," the young woman squeaked. Apparently she was even more shy and quiet than Willow had /ever/ been. Though thankfully she wasn't dressed like a wallflower, so Buffy figured she was just shy.
Suddenly Buffy looked up/'Think of the devil,'/ she mused with a smile as Willow contacted her directly through their psychic rapport. "Look, Laura, you know Xander right? And Mr. Giles the Librarian? They'll fill you in, but I've got to go and jump through Snyder's hoop of the week and attend the whole career fair thing. Don't worry," she winked at the senior, lifting her shades and letting a crimson spark of optic energy leak out with the wink, "you're not alone."
As she left, she heard Xander say to Laura, "Oh, Buffy? She dressed as Cyclops. It was kind of a bet, y'see . . ."
Smirking, Buffy raced through the halls until she reached the fair and stepped up right behind the goblin/Troll principal. As she stood there she heard him shout to Willow, "Don't give me that, that story that you just saw her and she's around here somewhere!"
"But I /did/ just see her, and she is /around/ here somewhere," Willow 'innocently' responded.
"Where. Is. Summers?" Snyder's beady little eyes narrowed even further.
"You wanted to see me Principal Snyder?" Buffy asked in a normal tone of voice from right behind the Troll.
A high-pitched screech filled the hall and an instant later Buffy and Willow were both looking up at the ceiling as the green orange-haired blob hung from an overhang.
"Go to class," the terror-stricken Troll hissed at the mutant Slayer, quite obviously not coming down any time soon.
Buffy grinned and replied, "Okay! Have a nice day Principal Snyder!"
The girls left giggling, heading to class.
/Spike's Lair/
Spike was pacing steadily across the floor of the derelict warehouse, all the minions in the room were wisely staying out of his way or quickly finding useful things to do. Drusilla was rocking herself, not an uncommon event, at the table in the middle of the room, her tarot cards arrayed in a surprisingly complex, almost chaotic, pattern before her. Her eyes, while she rocked and hummed to herself, were jumping all over the place, from one specific card at the center, to a minion in the corner, to Spike, to a spot on the wall, to another card and all over. Until suddenly they stopped on one spot in particular and became more alert than the insane Mistress Vampire had any right to be.
Spike stopped at almost the same time as he could hear Dalton returning. Alone.
Scowling at what that meant, Spike rushed forward to meet the brainy vampire halfway.
"Where is it?" the Master Vampire demanded without preamble. Only after he said this did he finally notice that Dalton was empty-handed.
"The Slayer . . ." Dalton began, but Spike had already turned from him in a fit of rage.
"The Slayer!" he roared. "Always, always the /bloody/ Slayer! She's the /bloody/ thorn /bloody/ well in my /bloody/ side! And worse, since /BLOODY HALLOWEEN/ she and her /bloody/ super friends with their /bloody/ powers have gotten even more /bloody/ stronger!! What's a bloke to do, eh?" he asked as though begging the universe itself, "All I want to do is go on my /bloody/ way eating people, occasionally having a good row or two, kill myself a few more Slayers, and live happily /bloody/ after with my Dru. /IS THAT TOO MUCH TO BLOODY ASK FOR?!/ IS IT!!"
"Bloody hell," he cursed as he resumed pacing after his rant. A few more steps and he roared out again, this time overturning some furniture and throwing stuff around until nothing else was within reach to throw.
"Where is it?" Spike asked Dalton in a deceptively calm voice.
"The Slayer has it," he finally answered. "It's probably in the hands of the Necromancer now, but its not too late!" he quickly assured the master vampire.
Spike began to slowly stalk closer to Dalton, the tweed-wearing vampire backing away with each fearful step and blubbering in some way to keep himself alive for another second longer. "There's still a way that we can get her and bind her to us, to YOU! There's a ritual that every necromancer has to do daily! If we can get to her before she does this for the first time, then– URK!" Dalton's speech was suddenly cut off as Spike grabbed him around the throat and lifted him off the floor.
"Wait," came a quiet whisper that froze the master vampire.
"Any particular reason I should be waiting to rip this useless waste of brine apart piece by /bloody/ piece eh Dru?" Spike asked after a bit of standing there holding a 200+ lbs vampire up by his throat with a single hand.
"'E can still help us," she replied, staring intently down at the tarot cards she was laying out before her. "'E can bind her to us."
Unnoticed, Dalton's eyes went wide with terror at Drusilla's words, but he then shifted his fear back to Spike, even as his mind began to overwork on a new plan.
Spike looked up at the terror-stricken Dalton for half a second before snorting and tossing him away, the minion flying back into the shadows, a crash coming seconds later, which everyone else ignored, too fearful of Spike's wrath. "Hows that Ducks?" he tenderly asked the master vampiress.
"It's a secret," she whispered with that sly-seer-face of hers that always used to get him hot. Now that she was so weak, it just got him even more frustrated.
Getting back to his pacing he started to think out loud, "But even if we can still make this work, there's the /bloody/ Slayer and her super friends to deal with." He paced for a couple more circuits, until he suddenly paused and an evil grin that made every other vampire in the place even more nervous. "I think it's time I brought in the big guns. The Order of Teraka."
"The assassins guild?!" a random vampire suddenly blurted.
"Isn't that a bit overkill?" Dalton asked from the shadows, even more nervous of pissing Spike off again.
"Four of them are coming to my party," Drusilla suddenly announced, turning over some of the strange cards before her; the Cyclops, the Centipede, the Jaguar, and the Skeleton.
Spike's evil smirk became infectious as he answered, "I think it's just the right amount of kill."
/Various places around Sunnydale/
One by one they descended upon the unsuspecting Hellmouth. Each with more than 100 human deaths on their hands (or whatever else it was that they had), each a killer in their own right and each the deadliest in their profession; assassination.
A six foot plus man, dressed in casual black leather clothes, the only thing significant about him over other 'Hell's Angels' or bikers was the ugly scarring over one of his eyes, effectively making him a cyclops, a being with only one eye. He stepped off the bus with an annoyed look on his face, before he stepped down and the look of a hunter catching the scent of its prey took over and he began to walk off in a specific direction.
A geeky, harmless looking man in a polyester suit and thick glasses carrying a rather large case with him was walking down the street. He paused and glanced up at the Summers house and grinned to himself before moving on.
At the beach, a small family was enjoying the beautiful day and just having fun when suddenly the youngest started kicking up a fuss and trying to get the parents' attention. When they finally gave it, they stared in open mouth disbelief, unable to even begin to comprehend what they were seeing. Until the older child, a boy, suddenly cried out, "COOL! A zombie!" The walking skeleton, bare scraps of flesh and cloth still attached to it, looked over at the family with empty sockets, until an unearthly glow filled them as it paused to stare at them.
Officer Betty Jordan smiled to herself as she combed her bright red hair in the mirror and turned to finish putting on her uniform. Today she was volunteering at the career fair at the High School, and she was really looking forward to it. She never saw the creature slipping in through the shadows of her own house, she never saw the spotted demon stealthily sneak up right behind her. What she did see, at a tiny little prick that made her turn around, was herself standing there, naked, and staring at her with an evil look on her face. It was the last thing one of the few still-human officers on Sunnydale's police force saw before she died, screaming for help, which ended in a sudden-cut-off gurgle.
In a completely different part of Sunnydale, namely the airport, a black couple disembarked from the commercial plane and made their way to the customs desk. The younger, a female in a provocative tight outfit that was made of dark and rich colors to emphasize her mocha skin, looked around nervously and sneered at a couple of people, visibly ready at any moment to attack anything or everything if it proved necessary.
The elder, a well-dressed gentleman in a business suit with a tweed jacket, was dark skinned and a shaved head. He wore a pair of spectacles that somehow seemed to fit him and made him seem intelligent as well as respectable. He took one look around the airport and muttered a single phrase before frowning with confusion. Then he turned to his younger companion and snapped in accented French, "Kendra, stand down. There are no active threats here. Potential threats, yes, but nothing active, and I do not wish to draw too much attention to ourselves. Now /relax/. Consider it an order if you must."
"Yes Wat–"
"Ah!" the man held up a warning finger.
"Yes sir," Kendra blushed and lowered her head, nodding.
"Anything to declare?" the young Customs Agent asked in English.
"Not at this time," the man answered.
After a bit more paperwork, the Agent finally stamped the passports and handed them back to the Jamaican visitors saying with a smile, "Thank you, and welcome to America. I hope you and your daughter enjoy your stay Mr. Zabuto."
/A few seconds later/
Joyce Summers looked out the window and frowned as she saw something that she 'knew' about but hadn't ever really considered seeing before. An evolved hive of sentient bugs disguised as a human salesman, walking in front of her house, staring rather intently at what she judged to be her daughter's bedroom. Frowning, she cast a telepathy spell and listened for no more than a few seconds before waving her hands and casting out her magic. She'd been practicing and it was a good thing she was still at home so she could eat and replenish her energy. Still, she hoped nobody noticed the smoking scorch mark on the sidewalk where a traveling salesman/Terakan assassin had been standing just seconds before. She really couldn't help that part, must have something to do with the feedback of sending something to just above the surface of the sun. She'd have to ask Giles about it later, after she'd eaten.
Drusilla looked up suddenly and whimpered as she turned over the card with the Centipede on it, a frown of confusion marring her porcelain face.
The skeleton had stopped in it's land-ward pace and turned to stare with red-glowing eyeless eyes at the family that had witnessed it emerge from the ocean. It took one step towards them, knowing that there could be no witnesses, that there could be nothing to warn the target until it was too late. So imagine its surprise when the youngest suddenly squeaked in fear and then disappeared in a flash of fairy-dust and transformed into a fluttering pink light that the skeleton /knew/ was a real fairy, which then flew around to hide behind the mother.
The oldest child, still grinning at seeing a real zombie, began to change as well, his skin turning to a black/green shade and he grew talons and fangs to rival the fiercest beast in the animal kingdom, but still it only grinned at the skeleton. The mother meanwhile began to grow in size until she was a bear! No, not a bear, a Sasquatch! The skeleton didn't take another step after that.
It didn't matter though as the father, a look of protectiveness for his family on his face, took his own step forward and began to throw lightning at the skeleton! When it didn't move fast enough for his taste, he decided to not take any chances and threw a couple huge bolts at the assassin vaporizing it instantly, only the ring and a small pile of charred dust remained in the end.
Drusilla was no longer confused, but frightened as she turned over the Skeleton card immediately after turning over the Centipede card. Spike, a few minutes later, got the same word, that two of the assassins had been killed mere minutes after setting foot in Sunnydale. He considered contacting Teraka to request more, but he was out of money, and the Order was really strict about paying upfront.
/The Library/
Giles let out a long-suffering sigh as he took in the chaos that his life, such as it had ever been, had become. Seated in his library, his sanctum satori so to speak, were a group of teenagers, worse /American/ teenagers, and worse still, each and every one of them had supernatural powers and abilities that might make the average Watcher scream in terror before fainting dead away. Instead, he just sat there listening as they discussed the fundamentals of Magical Support in the "Community" like it was something they'd seen on the telly!
It was all he could do just to keep from screaming out loud.
"So you have no idea what a real necromancer does?" Xander asked the girl that Buffy had so carelessly given the Necro-tome to several minutes ago.
"Well . . . kinda," the girl, Laura admitted, her expression confused, but every so often her gaze would linger on the tome, proving, to Giles at least, that she truly was connected to it in some way. "I mean, I know how to raise the dead. I think I can almost do it by instinct too, and I made sure to dress as the Anita from after "Blue Moon". But all I got from the costume shop, which you're telling me is the real reason behind what happened on Halloween, was the cross and the wig! I swear!"
"We believe you Ms. Hamilton," Giles interceded before Xander could try anything, "but it would appear that that was enough," he added with a glare at the 'innocent'-looking Iceman. Despite Xander's "luck" with the ladies before his transformation, a teenage boy was still a teenage boy, and Giles, quite frankly didn't trust Xander "Iceman" Harris as far as he could throw him.
"And there was /never/ anything like this in the Anita Blake books!" she held up the tome in example.
"Yes, well, I'm afraid that has more to do with real necromancers than what you'll find in any piece of fiction," Giles uncomfortably explained.
"In fiction, animators were apprenticed after they found out what they could do, and even then they had to either do the research or find their teachers themselves," Laura argued.
"Well, uh, as I'm sure you can imagine, um, true necromancers are a bit more powerful in real life, and as such, and more to do with, uh, certain persecutions they received a few centuries back, they've had to become a bit more organized. At the same time, steps were taken to ensure they were limited in their power. Specifically, um, by the gods themselves. Or, as I've heard some refer to the beings governing magic and the like throughout the universe, the Powers That Be. Once you open that tome, and perform the rites of the Necromancer, you'll be entering into a, uh, a contract of sorts. Until such time you are either released from it or break it, which is not advisable under any circumstances, your powers as an animator of the dead will be limited in scope and power, and at the same time, perhaps more focused as well. Instead of dead things awakening around you on their own or flocking to you on the slightest whim, only those that you, you, uh, that you resurrect will be, uh, resurrected, such as it is."
"Oh, well that clears it up," Laura huffed in frustration.
"And if she doesn't accept this contract?" Cordelia asked, with near unprecedented focus.
"Then undoubtedly her powers will continue to grow, but at an unmeasured pace," Giles shrugged. "I, uh, I once knew a Necromancer, back in my school days. He was . . . needless to say, a disturbing individual. I learned most of this from my association with him. If indeed, Ms. Hamilton, you choose not to perform the rites of necromancy, and it is well within your rights to do or not do so, then you will be, essentially, on your own. It will be exactly as you described from the novel point of view. Learning as you go, but in your specific case, there will be no one to teach you how to control your growing powers and abilities. Because I can guarantee you, every necromancer in the world, that has not gone insane or been possessed by evil and certain demonic elements/has/ accepted these rites and this unnamed contract."
"Sure, no pressure," the young lady murmured to herself.
"There isn't," Xander spoke up. "After all, we've all got memories and instincts left over from Halloween. Can't you go on that? What Anita knew?"
Laura shook her head even as Giles himself answered. "As detailed as the memories Ms. Hamilton may, or may not still have are, they'll be of the level of power that the spirit, this Anita Blake, was at, at the time of the possession. Laura's powers will continue to grow, either beyond, or in correlation to what is in the books, there's no way to tell, but her experiences will be limited. And again, it is as you said Xander, the magic of necromancy of /this/ world is reaching out to her. There's no way to accurately judge, without that tome, how that may affect her."
"I am sitting right here y'know," she sarcastically retorted.
"My apologies," Giles apologized.
"Hey all, what's up?" Buffy greeted as she and Willow walked in.
"We're just sittin' and talkin'," Xander easily replied.
"Hey Laura, how are you doing?" Willow asked, empathetic as she sat down next to the other redhead, Buffy taking the other side.
"Actually . . . it's going better than it has in a long time," she answered. "It's good to just finally be getting some information about all of this. I didn't know what the hell was wrong with me or what. Did you know I can see ghosts? Dead people? I felt like I was the kid in the Sixth Sense! Then I heard on the news that there's been an outbreak in Europe and other places across the globe where people claim to have seen ghosts of some kind, and there's still no proof that what they saw was any kind of hoax!"
"Any dead people in here right now?" Buffy asked, not really serious, but curious about her new friend.
Laura didn't 'look around' as everyone expected her to, instead her gaze going instantly to one spot, just behind Xander and Cordelia. "Yeah, a couple," the necromancer answered.
The room was still for several moments as they all digested that, but Willow quickly moved them all on from it. "I trust Giles has answered all of your questions?" she asked.
Laura nodded, now hugging the Big Book of Necromancy to herself, "Just about, yeah. I'm still a bit curious and way confused about this whole necromancer-contract thing, like what happens after? Do I meet other necromancers? What happens when I do?"
"Well, in regards to other necromancers," Giles answered, "I have a phone number somewhere that my old friend gave me. I'll have to find it again, but, think of it like joining the Masons. It's little more than joining up with any other International Club, except with the benefit of supernatural abilities of course, but, of course you would've had those already. And there aren't any membership dues . . . that I'm aware of . . ." he trailed off after that, and went into his office to find the phone number.
"In the more immediate, however," Buffy interrupted, "what would you say to joining a more local club?"
"That HSL thing?" Laura asked. "I've seen the posters popping up all over town, but it sounds like some kind of Community Watch thing."
"Well, as you can imagine," Willow pointed out to the other redhead, in the background Xander turned into Iceman, Cordelia flew off of the ground and around the Library once, and Buffy lifted the long table completely off of the floor with a single pinky finger curled around its edge, "it's a bit more than that."
/That Night/
/Summer's Home/
Buffy stretched with a yawn as she entered her room. It had been a long day. After the mess of sorting out the tome that she and Xander had found the night before and Laura popping up, after school, they'd all given Laura the complete introduction and tour of the HSL, to most/Halloween Safety League/, but in truth, the /Hellmouth Security League/. She had to hand it to Xander, having two names, a public one and the real name was a stroke of rare genius. Once they'd cleared a real "Halloween" victim from the still normal and self-blinded citizens of Sunnydale, they introduced the truth, step by step, or just got them to join a more modified form of what Laura had called a community watch program. Which was to say, they gave the normal people a card with a phone number and told them to call it if they ever came across anything "weird".
It was a work in progress, but it was progressing. At least she got a night off once in a while without having to worry about the world ending. Between the 'teams' that had been set up and other more powerful individuals, her own mother included, Sunnydale was going to get a whole lot safer.
Speaking of her mother, who'd been planning to go on an art-buying spree for her gallery earlier in the week, had canceled when she realized that it would be a whole lot easier just conjuring them out of thin air, or 'magically' buying them and hanging them in the gallery. So instead, she went out to enjoy a night on the town with some friends, while Buffy, after the day she'd just had, felt like spending a quiet night at home.
So imagine her surprise, when she saw Angel standing over her bed holding her stuffed pig, looking distractedly at the window.
Grinning to herself, she smirked and cleared her throat right behind the vampire after stealthily sneaking up on him. It was worth it to see the startled look in his eyes as he turned around. At least he didn't let out a little girl shriek, she thought to herself.
"Buffy!" he breathed, carefully schooling his features.
"Angel," she greeted with a grin, more for her trick than actually seeing him again. Honestly, she hadn't thought much of Angel since shortly after Halloween, and even then only in passing. "Here for some quality time with Mr. Gordo?"
"Huh?" he was confused.
"The pig," she pointed with a pert little grin.
"Oh, uh," he quickly tossed the stuffed animal onto the bed and put his hands into his pockets, turning back to her he asked, "So, uh, what's up?"