Title:White Knight
Author:Joshua
Spoilers:Season 4
Disclaimer:Joss Whedon is the original writer/creator of all that is Buffy, and Monster/Enemy also holds those rites. Dwayne McDuffie is the creator of Static Shock, Sandra Schwartz and Jean Macurdy are the producers of, and the WB, or Warner Brothers are the main distributors. Also, DC Comics basically owns the "universe" of which Static Shock, and therefore this fanfic, is based in. IE, the Superman universe.
Summary:Xander manages to get a bit further than Oxford on his summer "trip of discovery", and is in Dakota City just in time to help a young black kid get home after the 'Big Bang'.
Rating:PG-13
Story:
Part 1:Vacation"On the road again, I'm on the road again," Alexander LaVelle Harris sung horribly off-key and even in his own opinion very badly as he passed the exit for Oxnard in the turquoise Chevy convertible. As he noticed where he'd just gone past, Xander couldn't help feeling a jolt of déjà vu-ness sweep through him, only it wasn't. It was more like he had just forgotten something or missed it. Shrugging, he just kept driving on until the gas meter told him to stop, and since it was still over the three quarter mark, he wasn't about to do that anytime soon.
"And in hopes of getting better singing talent than the sardonic voice of Mister Harris, we turn with bright hopes to the AM radio," Xander said sarcastically and flipped the AM-only radio on. To find static, static, static, and yet more static.
"See, this is why I love road trips, nothing but peace and quiet," Xander said over-enthusiastically as the radio was turned disgustedly off. He thought back to one time where the word quiet had come out of his mouth before.
"I like the quiet, yeah right," he mumbled bitterly to himself.
It was nearing sunset and Xander was hoping for a place to stay, but every hotel he saw by the side of the road was either a Holiday Inn, and therefore out of his price range for his budget, or the sign 'No Vacancy' was flashing or turned on.
Finally, after another three or more hours, and getting close to where he would have to stop anyway for gas at the least, he entered a town called "Dakota City". When he saw that he blinked and stared in shock. He had no idea he'd gone that far in just, he paused to look at his watch, in just…THREE DAYS!?
No wonder he was hungry, he should have stopped back at Oxnard at that diner his Uncle had told him about, but no, he just kept on driving. And driving, and driving it seemed. He distinctly remembered stopping for gas and snack stuff on occasion, but he had driven all through the night for the past two, and now here he was in Dakota city!
He got off the highway and began looking for the first gas station he could find, and afford. Unfortunately, both were not the same. The cheapest that he could find was the last he could find, nor expected it to be. It was an old, run-down self-service shop down near the docks. Xander got out and was surprised to find somebody actually working the station and quickly filled the Chevy. Only cost him twelve bucks rather than the twenty it would have back at the stations next to the highway.
Xander went inside and immediately alarm bells started to go off in his head. There was something…a smell, no a stench in the air that made him want to gag, and at the same time reminded him of home. Home sweet Hellmouth.
Unconsciously, Xander had never gone a day without a weapon ever since his sophomore year of high school. Super consciously, he always made and excuse with vampires, demons, and living and going to school directly over the Hellmouth. Consciously, he was just thanking god and anybody listening that he had remembered to bring a supply of stakes with him and had grabbed one out of the car before coming up to pay.
"Twelve dollars," the young looking blond guy said with a straight face and forced smile as Xander came up. Xander just nodded, needing to buy time. He started fumbling for his wallet while almost casually, by appearance, scope-ing out the inside of the gas station as he did.
"So? Worked here long?" Xander asked casually, having retrieved his wallet and finished mapping the layout of the place. He took his sweet time getting out the cash, noticing a mirror directly behind the vamp, which of course showed nothing but Xander and the store…and a crumpled figure on the floor at the vamps feet.
"Not really, it's my first night," the blond said conversationally, letting the forced grin fall into the more common predatory smirk vampires bore, and Xander knew he was right. Even if the mirror hadn't already proved it.
"I'll bet," Xander said he triggered the wrist-stake he'd fashioned earlier in the summer, the stake coming out of the sleeve of his jacket, and faster than even the blond vamp could register, Xander drove the weapon forward and into the vamp's heart.
The kid didn't even have time to vamp out before he crumbled to dust, a curse word on his lips.
Xander just sighed and quickly walked around the counter, to find the gas station attendant already dead, from a broken neck, but only after the vamp had apparently fed. Xander closed his eyes and just sighed again and left the twelve dollars he owed on the counter. He found the light switch and turned everything off and locked the doors. Then he got back in his car, planning on either continuing his road trip, or going to the police to report the death. They would just chock it up to gang members on PCP if his experience with police was worth anything.
Sighing at the waste of life and consequence of being the Hellmouth's favorite target, Xander drove away from the gas station, his tank now full and began looking for the cheapest place he could spend the night. That is until he was buzzed by at least three Police choppers and the sound of gunfire and fighting reached him from across the way.
Xander actually hesitated as he listened and watched the choppers. Thirty seconds later, and after he saw the spotlight of one of the choppers get blown off, Xander made up his mind and took the next turn that took him in the direction of the choppers and the fighting. He even sped up when he heard and felt an explosion that quaked the ground.
He was finally forced to stop when it became obvious that he had reached the area where the fighting/explosion was. It was a fenced off factory, or maybe a storage depot as there was a lot of crates and barrels around. A purple mist was quickly spreading throughout it though, and Xander could make out shapes of people, possibly teenagers, through it. Quickly getting out of the car, Xander raced to the fence when he caught sight of a young black teen, maybe no more than 15, already leaning over the fence, but had been stopped from breathing too much of the mist.
Xander did not hesitate now and quickly climbed up the fence and pulled the kid the rest of the way over and down safely on the other side. Unfortunately, he had breathed and absorbed some of the mist himself, but Xander never let the consequences affect him when he was working to save someone's life.
"Hang on kid, I'll get you to a hospital," Xander said.
The black kid tried to speak but he seemed to be going in and out of consciousness. That was when Xander looked back and around at the other teens in the mist. Some of them were close enough that he could see the details of. What immediately set him rigid was that some of the kids were still fighting between themselves, but only between ones who were wearing different colored scarves. But they all had guns and other weapons that could best be described as 'gang weapons'.
Xander looked back down at the kid he'd just pulled out of there and realized he neither had a weapon or a colored scarf on. 'Probably some innocent bystander that got caught in by the fighting,' Xander thought as he picked him back up, just as a Police helicopter stopped overhead.
Xander had just put the kid in the passenger side of his car when the spotlight was turned on to its brightest and shown down on Xander. He tried to cover his eyes, but the light was so bright. The purple mist was still moving throughout the area, especially around Xander and his car. Before the Police could issue orders for Xander to stand down and wait to be taken into custody however, there was a second, larger explosion that nearly knocked all the helicopters from the sky. Xander thanked his lucky stars as the helicopter left him and he quickly raced around to the drivers side and sped away as fast as he could.
He tried to look for signs of a hospital nearby, but he didn't see any. Seeing no other option, Xander tried to rouse his passenger and ask him directions.
"Hey kid! Hey kid!!" Xander poked the kid in the ribs.
"Ow! Cut it out Sharon, I need my beauty sleep," he mumbled. Xander shook his head and sighed.
"My name's not Sharon, and you'd have to sleep for a hundred years to qualify for beauty anything. Kid wake up!" Xander shouted louder.
"Huh? Wha? Hey, who're you?" he asked.
"I'm the one that just pulled you out of that turf war back their kid. We both breathed in some of that purple mist stuff, and you looked like got hurt or something. Not to mention you were delusional. And my name is not Sharon."
He blushed furiously and scratched the back of his black dreadlock covered head. "I'm Virgil Hawkins. Uh, Sharon's my sister. She's usually the one that wakes me up in the mornings. Uh, listen, thanks for savin' my tail back there."
"No problem. Are you all right though? Think you need to go to the hospital?" Xander asked, concerned.
Virgil seemed to consider the question for a few moment before deftly shaking his head. "Nah, nothing's broken, I just got too much of a lungful of whatever the heck that mist stuff was. You, uh, mind taking me home instead? I really don't want to worry my pops by calling from a hospital."
Xander nodded. "I understand. No problem. Uh…ya mind giving me some directions though? Besides your house though, know where a cheap motel would be around here?"
Virgil actually laughed. "Don't sweat it. My dad's the guy in charge of the Shelter in town. You can spend a night there, no charge."
"Really?" At Virgil's nod, Xander felt like doing the Snoopy dance, "Cool" was all he said though.
'See, my time with Oz has not been wasted after all,' Xander thought to himself with a smug grin.
Xander was genuinely surprised when Virgil directed him to one of the nicer looking neighborhoods, and right up to a two-story house that even his rich Uncle and Aunt in LA couldn't afford and still call it a nice house. Because it was actually a great house. From the outside anyway.
"This it?" Xander asked as he parked the car where Virgil had pointed. Virgil nodded.
"Come on in an meet my Pops. I'm sure he won't mind letting you spend the night at the Shelter," Virgil said as he stepped out of the car, and stumbled the rest of the way out of it.
"Shit!" Xander cursed and quickly got out of his own door and raced to the other side. He couldn't blame Virgil for being disoriented, he was feeling pretty weird himself. What was that purple stuff anyway?
"Hey Virgil, you all right man?" he asked, picking the black kid up by one arm.
"Yeah, I'm ok, I just forgot about the curb there," he said, scratching the back of his head and ducking his head slightly. If Xander didn't know any better, he'd say Virgil was blushing. Xander couldn't help himself as he laughed at the klutz trick of tripping over the curb. That was when Xander noticed the other things though.
"Nice shiner, the curb do that too?" Xander asked as Virgil stood under his own power while Xander locked up his car.
Virgil tentatively touched his cheek and grimaced. "No. This was the reason I was at the docks with all those other…people."
"I don't often call gangs people," Xander coldly remarked. "I call them wild animals. Of course some 'people' also deserve that title in the wrong circumstances. It seems to be healing nicely though. Take it from someone who knows."
"You have much experience with gangs?" Virgil asked.
Xander shook his head. "I get into a lot of…fights with…gang members on PCP. Pain, injury, and I are not strangers. In fact we often get together every week or so. You sure your dad doesn't mind…"
"Just wait until you meet him. My Pops makes Mother Theresa look like Oprah. Not literally though."
Xander laughed as they reached the door. "I figured that."
Rather than just walking right in and announcing he was home, like Xander would at his own, Virgil rang the doorbell and calmly, if not nervously, waited for the door to open. It did, less than five seconds after the bell had finished its knell. The man that had opened it was really quite impressive, he was at least a few inches taller than Xander himself, was black and had well-trimmed black hair and a soft mustache that seemed to make him almost dignified. He also wore simple glasses and a short-sleeved dress shirt with a maroon tie and gray slacks. But it was his eyes and face that immediately made Xander like him.
His eyes went immediately to Virgil and his face showed the gravest and most loving concern that Xander had seen on anyone's face, except maybe for Joyce Summers. Coupled with the suppressed anger and fear that flashed through the man's eyes, Xander knew without a doubt that this man loved his son and would do everything in his power to protect him.
"Virgil, oh my god, are you all right? What happened? Where have you been?" Virgil's father, Robert Hawkins asked in a deep bass, and concerned, voice.
"He's fine sir, just a little shook up and maybe a little worn around the edges, but he's all right," Xander answered for the youth.
Only then did Robert seem to even notice Xander. "Not to be rude or anything, and since my son doesn't seem to remember his manners about introducing people, but who are you? I'm Robert Hawkins, Virgil's father," the large man introduced himself and held out his hand.
Xander took the hand easily and with a smile. "I'm mostly a drifter. I happened to be drifting by when Virgil here ended up getting caught in the middle of a turf war. I helped him to my car and got the both of us out of there as fast as I could. Virgil gave me the directions to your house and other than a black eye and a stubbed toe; neither of us felt the need to go to the hospital. He also…"
"Uh, Pops, we're all right, really," Virgil interrupted quickly. "Uh, also…he kinda needs a place to stay, since…well, you know, I figured maybe he could spend the night at the Shelter, if it was okay with you that is…" he trailed off at his father's continued stare.
Then, after a bit of silence, Robert's face flipped completely around and he smiled easily and said kindly, "I don't think it's a problem at all. And it's the least I can do to repay you for helping my son out tonight."
Xander blushed and shrugged, "It's no big deal sir. I would have helped no matter what. I'm not one to turn my back on those that need my help."
Robert's smile grew. "That's a good thing. Come on, I'll show you the way to the Community Center and get you settled in. Virgil, you go inside. Sharon's got supper ready. I'll be back in a little under an hour."
Virgil, looking like he was about to make a whining complaint, wisely closed his mouth, nodding his head, "Yes sir," and went inside, looking dead tired.
Xander could sympathize. He was surprisingly beat himself, and this was normally still "early" for him.
"Listen sir, I really appreciate what you're doing for me…" Xander started to thank Virgil's father.
"It's no trouble at all. We always have a free bed or two at the Center anyway. And call me Robert."
Xander nodded, smiling, "Robert. Well, thank you anyway. You mind if I follow behind in my car, I really don't want to leave it just anywhere."
"No, that's perfectly all right. Just follow me," and he got into a station wagon in the garage and soon pulled out. Xander was in the Chevy before the station wagon was out of the driveway and followed Robert to the Community Center, only a few minutes away. Once Xander's car was taken care of, Robert quickly set him in one of the empty dorm rooms there and the moment that Xander's head hit the pillow he was fast asleep.
Strange dreams haunted Xander's sleep. The purple mist from the factory was swirling all around him, and then the spotlight from the copter, at least that's what he thought it was, was always on him, surrounding him with blinding, endless, pure light.
He had restless sleep, despite being so tired, and when he finally woke in the morning, he was surprised to find the sunlight streaming directly onto him from the window. Yawning, Xander got up and went to the window, planning on shutting it so he could get a few more minutes sleep, but the moment he got there, he saw the sunrise. Xander smiled, and couldn't help feeling more awake and slightly more alive just from the sight. He stood there for several more minutes, forgetting sleep entirely and just soaking in the sun's rays. Unknowing that he was doing so quite literally.
Xander sighed after a time and the sun had fully risen, and finally noticed the time. He winced and then looked at his watch, noting the date. He pulled out his wallet and counted. His trip was over. He, barely, had enough to get him back home, and as great as Robert Hawkins had been, he wasn't too anxious to answer questions. Especially if, or rather when, the police came upon the dead attendant from the gas station the night before. Finding an attached bathroom, Xander quickly showered and brushed (the materials were all there, better than a motel even!) and then dressed back in the same clothes and quickly slipped out to the parking lot where his car was parked.
Much to his surprise, he wasn't that hungry, but for habits sake; he opened a package of Twinkies and quickly swallowed them on his way out of Dakota City, heading back to California. He was supposed to have a whole other month to his trip, but he wasn't that delusional. Maybe… Maybe he could stay with Cordelia for a few nights in LA before showing back up in ole Sunnyhell. He'd gotten a few 'courtesy' letters from her after they had finally made their peace, and knew where she was staying.
"Oh what the hell, worth a shot," he remarked to himself as he came to the exit that would take him to LA.
Xander's relationship with his ex-girlfriend, once debutant Queen C of Sunnydale High, was if anything incredibly complex. Especially now.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU WOULD SHOW UP, NOW! HERE! And that you saw me like this! XANDER HARRIS I SHOULD STRING YOU UP BY YOU…"
"Can I come inside to let you finish insulting me?" Xander asked.
He was standing outside of Cordelia's door to her apartment, and judging by the hallway, it would be a miracle if the inside looked half as better than his soon-to-be home in his parent's basement. Cordelia herself was looking remarkably…drab. Her hair was uncombed, but clean at the least, and she was wearing rumpled gray sweats, and no make-up. Although she did have a little blush, but Xander figured that was more from seeing him than any effort to look good.
Xander's calm statement forestalled the rest of Cordelia's wrath and she was left standing there for a couple moments, her mouth left open, and then she finally sighed, closed her mouth, and stepped aside, opening the door. She didn't invite him in with words or hand motions.
"Thanks," he said quietly and with his backpack of clothes on his shoulder, stepped into the apartment.
The moment the door was closed, he expected more yelling. Instead, Cordelia just turned the locks and walked back around him into the "living room". She walked over and carefully seated herself on the couch, which looked like it had come with the apartment…and whatever had been here before the apartment too.
"So, what brings you here Xander?" Cordelia asked in a much-subdued voice.
Xander sighed and walked over to the couch. He placed his backpack on the table before the couch, not trusting that floor for anything, and just as gingerly as Cordy had sat down, sat across from her on the couch. "I needed to get out of Sunnydale. Wanted to 'see the world' so to speak, so I borrowed my Uncle Rory's car again, packed up my life savings, and went on a road trip. About two days ago, I reached my spending limit and still be able to get back home. So…I came here."
"Why?" Cordelia asked immediately.
Xander was silent for some moments, staring at a thing on the wall he couldn't identify before finally quit stalling and answered, "I don't know." Cordy didn't say or ask anything more after that, and Xander didn't know what more to say.
"You're sleeping on the couch, no way in hell am I letting you sleep in the bed with me," she finally said, getting up and walking across the room to the "kitchen", opening the fridge and grabbing two sodas from within. She handed one to Xander, who accepted it gratefully and returned to her place on the couch.
Later that night, after Xander had brought the rest of his valuables up from the car, and got his sleeping bag settled on the couch and he sprung for Cordelia's and his pizza-delivered dinner, and at least an hour of catch up, how are things in Sunnydale, and I still don't have a job talks with Cordy, he had finally settled in to sleep. He didn't trust anything, save for his hostess, in this building so he was sleeping for the second time in his clothes, shoes included.
While he slept, a strange dream kept reoccurring throughout the night. Light of every color, shade, hue, and form surrounded him, but this wasn't shadow puppet light or even the light from the spotlight during the Big Bang. The Big Bang is what the news was calling the explosion in Dakota City; he'd heard it on the radio on the way to LA. The light that surrounded him in his dreams however, was not that light.
It was…it was as if light were more than just light, an energy traveling through the air, but more like it was a combination of water and some kind of Jell-o mix, but more like the air than water whenever it brushed up against him. That was the really freaky part of the dreams; he could actually touch the light and feel it. Not like you feel the heat of the sun or a lamp, but he felt it in a way that he had never known or imagined before.
Also, the purple mist was still all around him, and it was definitely not to be confused for the light around him. Where he felt the light in all intensities and sensations, the mist was a constant liquid burning, like it was burning him, moving throughout him constantly.
Xander had to wonder if that stuff had done something to him. At least in his dreams he wondered that. Consciously, he wondered what was happening to Virgil if this was happening to him. Virgil had been exposed to that stuff longer than he had been.
When he awoke in the morning, he planned on starting breakfast to further thank Cordelia. Or at the very least start the coffee to shorten her bad mood. He both was and wasn't surprised to find the fridge almost empty, save for a couple bottles of soda, and still in the bags leftovers from restaurants.
Xander paused just before he close the door however, spotting a McDonald's bag from when he was a kid. Curiosity getting the better of him, he carefully grabbed the bag at the top, careful not to touch the bulge of the contents at all. He pulled it out and opened it, letting the light fall on it to show him what was inside. He stared for about ten seconds and only blinked twice before quickly rolling the bag back shut and shoving it to the farthest bottom corner he could toss it to.
"And I thought all the weird stuff was on the Hellmouth," he mumbled as he turned around and started putting his stuff together.
When Cordelia stumbled out he smiled gently at her. She stared at him and seemed to be weighing some decision in her mind. Before she came to it though, Xander interrupted her thought processes asking, "Hey, mornin' Cordy. I thought I'd spring for breakfast today. And, hey, to say thank you for being such a gracious host, I remember you have that party tonight, so I'll pay for your hair appointment and manicurist too!"
Cordy stared suspiciously at her ex for half a minute before finally asking, "The McDonald's bag?"
Xander nodded, a guilty look on his face, "The McDonald's bag," he confirmed. Cordy nodded back, no longer suspicious or grumpy looking. "It made me want to eat at a Café, a last taste of…of tasteful food in a tasteful restaurant. I ordered Chinese instead. You're really paying for breakfast?"
Xander nodded. "Well…Anywhere under a ten dollar max item and not Mickey D's." Cordelia graced him with a rare smile. And then something even rarer and to be valued more than anything in the world. "Thank you Xander." Then she turned and entered her room to get ready for the day.
Xander blinked. Then he smiled.
An hour later they were driving through the Hardees Drive-thru when Cordelia, feeling human once she had food in her belly, gave her first insult of the day. "You know Zeppo, you kept me up half the night with your night light or whatever the hell it was you had on last night."
Xander frowned, confused. "Night light?" he asked.
"Well, it might've been the TV, I never even turn the damn thing on, but I didn't hear any sound. All I know is that there was a really bright light coming from where you were sleeping and it kept waking me up." Cordelia further explained.
Xander made a confused face and was about to argue the point when Cordelia grabbed his unbitten hash browns and asked as she moved them towards her mouth, "Are you going to eat that?" and then without waiting for an answer she quickly ate them.
"No, it's all right, I'm not very hungry," Xander said distractedly. Surprising, what he'd said was true, he wasn't very hungry, and he didn't mind Cordelia eating the rest of his breakfast. If she had been paying attention, she might have been concerned that Xander had only consumed his orange juice.
Xander was driving them through the city with the Chevy's top up to cut down on the wind and was trying to follow Cordelia's directions while at the same time paying very close attention to the sky. Specifically the sun. She had a hair appointment that she had used half her savings to get so she could go to this 'Producers' party tonight, and still had a dress that she looked stunning in to wear to it as well. Xander was being gentlemanly in trying to get her there, but first he had to find the damn place.
But what was distracting him though…was that Xander thought he was still dreaming, because like the wind passing through his open window, he swore by everything he believed in…that he felt the light of the sun and just about everything else that had light in/on/or reflected off it. In fact it was almost as if he could reach out and touch it…
"Xander! Are you dumber than even I thought! It's green! GO!" Cordelia shouted in his ear, startling the young man, and he noticed that she was right and quickly sped through the intersection.
"What's wrong?" Cordelia finally asked after another couple minute's silence.
"Nothing," Xander said immediately.
"Don't give me that. I may not like it, but I know you better than that. You were more than just a little, 'oh, there goes a hot piece of ass' distracted. You were more…'Buffy's in trouble and I gotta go save her' distracted. I guess that translates to 'Hellmouthy' distracted. What's wrong?" Cordelia asked, sounding like she genuinely cared.
Xander sighed, and closed his eyes to think. He opened them shortly, a decision in mind. "That the place?" he asked as they passed a decent looking boutique. Cordelia quickly turned and smiled and turned back and answered with a nod. Xander nodded back and turned the car around to go the way they had come. He parked at a nearby children's park not too far from the boutique.
He then got out of the car and sat on the hood. A minute later, Cordelia joined him.
"The end of my road trip was in Dakota City," he began.
"Hey, isn't that where that 'Big Bang' everybody on the news is talking about happened a couple days ago?" Cordelia automatically made the connection.
Xander nodded, looked across the way at the pond reflecting the sun's rays. "I was there a couple days ago. Drove into town, just stopped for some gas when I was buzzed by a police helicopter. Well, you know me. I followed it, just in time to see the explosion, the Big Bang, happen. I managed to get a civilian, an innocent kid that had gotten caught in between the gangs fighting and I got him home. His "Pops" gave me a place to spend the night. After that, I came straight here, knowing my 'vacation' as it were, was over."
Xander stopped as he stood and turned to face the former cheerleader. "I've been dreaming about that purple stuff for the past two nights."
Cordelia gasped, her eyes widened. "Xan-Xander, you know what they're saying about…about those kids, the former gangs that were near that stuff. They…they're calling them Bang Babies. I listened to it on the news because, well, Sunnydale screwed me over so bad that I actually pay attention when anything Hellmouthy makes the news. But…you've heard."
Xander nodded. "Caught the report on my way into town. Meta-humans. I…ever since I woke up, things have been, I don't know…weird. I…I feel, as in can touch and feel the same way that you can feel water and the clothes on your skin…I can feel the light. And not just the sun. The light from the car radio, the stoplights, even reflected light, I swear I can actually…feel it."
Cordelia blinked. Then she blinked some more. Her thinking was short-circuited. "So…omigawd, last night. Your 'night light'. That was you!" she suddenly realized.
Xander blinked. He hadn't thought of that.
"Great, so I'm some kind of light battery, and a living night light to boot," he sarcastically commented. He sat back down on the hood with a huff. "Do you hate me now?"
Cordelia looked at him, shocked. Then she considered what to say and realized what he was thinking at the same time. "No Xander, I don't hate you. I…" she sighed. "I never really hated you. Although I came pretty close to for the whole fluke thing, but… No, I could never hate you because of something like this. If you can love Buffy because, or even in despite of what she is and her Angel, then I'm certainly not one to hate you because of what…would make you different."
Xander was quiet for a time and then he looked up and smiled at her. "Thanks Cordy."
"Come on, let's get you to your appointment."
"We can walk," she said, taking his arm. Xander smiled and let her guide him back to the boutique.
"But…"
"I'll get the car before we leave, and will drive with the windows up." Xander promised. Cordelia just smiled broader and they walked along in companionable silence.
While Cordelia was being "done-up", Xander went back to the park. It was late afternoon, so while the sun was low, there was still plenty of light and a long way off from being sunset. The park was deserted, and Xander was glad for small miracles. He needed as much privacy as he could get for what he had planned.
A theory had struck him while he had been handing out the cash for Cordelia's appointment. While the cashier had reached out and taken the money actually. If he could feel the light, and according to Cordy generate it as well, what if he could also touch the light in the same way the cashier touched and took the money from his hands. The light, to him anyway, actually felt more solid than any kind of liquid, but just as flowing and unrestricting. And with the right ways you could hold and mold liquid into different shapes, forms, whatever. What was stopping him from doing the same with light?
Taking a deep, calming breath, Xander cleared his mind of all confusing thoughts and reached out his hand at the reflection of the sun on the pond. He wasn't even sure what he was trying to do, so he tried focusing his mind like Yoda kept telling Luke to do in the Empire Strikes Back with the Force. Nada. He then tried to force the light from his skin like he'd done last night apparently and maybe try to lasso the light from the pond. Zip. Getting frustrated, Xander calmed himself once more and just felt the light flowing around him. He closed his eyes so he could feel it better, no longer distracted by what his eyes were telling him. Feeling it was like constantly being in the shower, only with no bad elements to it.
His eyes still closed, Xander reached out his hand to where he felt the reflected light, and in his minds eye, through this new sense of his, he saw the stream of particles/waves from the pond, somehow brighter against the 'background noise' of the sun in the sky and even the light of the sky itself. That had surprised him, to find that the sky, not just the sun, had and cast its own light rather than just reflections of the sun or the moon. But what really surprised him was that when he cast out his hand, he felt it brush up against the stream of light, like rubbing your hand against a fountain of water. Only…this fountain was solid like a steel pole.
Xander, his eyes still closed, wrapped his fingers around that pole and pulled. The light resisted at first, but was easily bent, having already been so. Xander opened his eyes. He stared in complete shock as the reflection of the sun on the pond hovered before him. But not as a beam of light, but the actual reflection. The waves were still distorting the image, and it was 'life size' not what his eye said was its size. A quick look at the pond provided another shock; there was no longer a reflection of the sun on it.
Xander quickly closed his eyes and tried to feel what he had done.
It was surprisingly simpler than he'd thought. The light of the sun was still hitting the pond, but the light of the reflection, what casts light to your eye for you to see it, was not however many micrometers off the surface of the molecules, it was now hovering five centimeters above his hand.
He quickly looked back at the pond and saw something even more interesting. There was no shadow where he had grabbed the reflection from. In fact…there was nothing at all. Xander, now that he was looking for it, could identify what had happened. He had grabbed the light of an object, light that people use to see that object with. His, and anyone else's eyes would say that there is nothing there, but the human mind can't comprehend 'nothing' so it was making him fill in the 'nothing' with the color and motion of the rest of the pond so it just looked like there was no reflection. Xander smiled as he figured out the enigma.
He released his hold on the light of the reflection, and faster than thought, and in a bigger flash of yellow light, the "hologram" disappeared from over his hand and the reflection returned to the pond. Xander smiled as he began to no longer look at what was happening to him as a curse, like vampirism or something like that. Sure it had power, but he saw the down sides with stuff like that before he saw the benefits. Here…well since Cordy wasn't freaking there wasn't a downside yet.
For the next hour or so, Xander experimented with his new abilities. He created several holograms, first by stealing the reflected light at its source, and then he learned that he could also mold new light, taking it from the very air, the sky, and of course the sun, and making exact holographic replicas of several things in the park. He also learned to bend light to make illusions, and how to make several things, himself included, disappear by simply canceling out the light right at the reflected source, in other words the object he made invisible. The point wasn't to make light avoid what was being made invisible; it was making it so nothing else could see the light it would have reflected to the eye.
Of course what Xander didn't know at the time was that he wasn't just working with one spectrum of light, ie visible light, but the whole spectrum of all light in the area. So when he made something invisible, he made it completely invisible, to both infrared and x-ray as well.
Bending light was more fun though, for Xander anyway. There were several mirror-reflective surfaces in the park and he had fun making himself a strong man in several of them as well as the whole fun-house mirrors deal. Then he tried bending the light in a way that would totally rework the image. It was a bit harder, but surprisingly not at all a strain for Xander as he made himself look like Cordelia, and then a tree into fire hydrant, and then the pond into a scaled down replica of the Great Pyramid. He found that he had to "borrow" the extra light from the air for bigger illusions, and that was where the strain came in.
Forcing light into new forms was one thing, but apparently taking it and reworking it into something it wasn't, was a whole other deal. The more light he took, the more it felt like he was stacking his arms fuller and fuller, like carrying too many groceries or something like that. So it wasn't hard as much as it became awkward.
Finally, the time came to pick up Cordelia, and Xander thought of playing around a little. Making sure nobody was around, he reworked how the light reflected off his car so that people no longer saw a '57 turquoise Chevy convertible, instead they now saw a cherry red mint condition Mustang convertible. Xander smiled as he pulled off the illusion perfectly, having memorized the entire layout of the Mustang convertible from thousands of pictures when he was still young enough to be dreaming of cars and girls instead of nightmares about vampires and demons.
Xander pulled up to several wolf whistles just outside the boutique and waited patiently inside the car until Cordelia came out. He smiled when he saw her, already wearing the dress she was planning for the party, and looking absolutely spectacular.
He got out, standing by the driver's side door and waved to get her attention. She stared, open-mouthed at the car as she came up to him. "I thought you were out of money!" she hissed, staring in complete disbelief.
Xander shrugged, giving her a lopsided grin. "Get in, I'll explain." Then he just slid back down behind the wheel.
Cordelia did, with a stunned silence, which ended the moment she sat down and closed the door.
"IT'S THE SAME CAR!" she shouted. Xander winced and started down the street towards uptown, Cordelia had to be at her party before sunset.
"Yeah, it is. Remember how I mentioned that I can feel light now?" Xander prodded.
Cordelia's eyes went wide. "It…it's an illusion! You did this with…whatever is happening to you because of the Big Bang?"
Xander nodded, keeping the lopsided grin on his face.
"All right, so you aren't the Zeppo," she conceded. They spent the rest of the time driving to the party in silence. Cordelia was easily admitted, having been chauffeured in such a classic and expensive car, but before she even got out, she looked at Xander with a new light, not literally, and graced him with a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you Xander. Be safe. I'll…I'll see you around I guess. Good bye," and then she got out of the car, and that was the last Xander saw of her. For a while anyway.
Xander spent the rest of the night driving home.
'WELCOME TO SUNNYDALE'
"All those who enter, abandon thee all Hope"
"Appropriate," Xander commented as he drove past the sign, and to his new residence, his parent's basement. Stowing his stuff, and giving his father the first month's rent, Xander walked downstairs and stared at the mess and the hide-a-bed couch.
"Home sweet Hellmouth," he mumbled.
End Part 1