Chapter 1: Rescue Party
In Sunnydale, California
Merrick walked into the high school library of Sunnydale High. He was looking for his old friend, Rupert Giles. "Rupert?"
"Merrick?" came Giles response from inside the office. He walked out of the office and smiled as he gave the American Watcher a firm handshake in greeting. "It is a pleasure to see you, Merrick. What is it I can do for you?"
"The Slayer," Merrick said. "Has left Los Angeles. My sources say her parents are getting a divorce and she is moving here with her mother. I need you to locate her and train her for me. I am needed back in Los Angeles. Lothos is there."
Giles sighed as he knew of Merrick's obsession with the vampire known as Lothos who had killed several of Merrick's Slayers in the past. "Merrick, tell me you are not planning on going up against him without a Slayer?"
Merrick smiled at Giles.
Across the continent in Alberta, Canada
Buffy shifted awkwardly in her seat in the Blackbird, the X-Men jet, trying to get comfortable. In the pilot's seat in front of her Scott dozed lightly, a visor strapped firmly to his face. In the seat next to him sat Ororo, who like Buffy shifted awkwardly. The last two hours had dragged inexorably past, the white snow around them falling hard, covering everything. On the tracking monitor, their subject, Sabretooth, was still a half mile away, stopped.
Waiting. They had no idea for what, but he was clearly waiting. And so were they.
"So…" said Buffy as she looked to Ororo.
Ororo turned in her seat and looked at Buffy. "Please call me, Storm. At least while we're out here," she said.
Buffy nodded. "Ok, Storm," she said. "What am I doing here though?"
"The Professor said you are cognitive. That you can see the past and the future," Ororo said.
Buffy nodded. "But I can't control it," she said. "Professor Xavier said he would help me learn to control it."
"And he will. But for the moment it is why you are here. Even with you unable to control your mutation it is possible you may see something that could help us," Ororo said as she glanced around at the raging blizzard falling around the jet. She then looked back at Buffy, "You're going to stay in the jet, okay?"
Buffy nodded. "Sure. So how long have you known Scotty?" she asked.
"Since he came to the school. So six and a half years," Storm said.
The sound of a hard crash echoed through the trees, waking Scott from his light sleep. He glanced first at Storm then at Buffy. "What was that?" he asked.
"Darned if I know," Ororo replied as Buffy shrugged.
They all studied the scope. Two other blips were now stopped where their subject was located, just down the highway. "Seems Sabretooth found a way to stop traffic," Ororo said.
Scott laughed. "What traffic? We haven't seen a car in hours."
"Let's go," Ororo said. "Buffy remember remain here. If your mutation kicks in and you see something." She pointed towards a button on the console. "This will patch you into our communicators. You let us know immediately what you see."
Buffy nodded. "Okay," she said as she watched Ororo and Scott climb out of the jet before moving into Scott's vacated seat.
Scott watched as Ororo created a warm breeze around them that held most of the snow back. Within a few seconds they were headed at a fast walk up the road, her breeze and their form-fitting X-Men uniforms keeping them warm and comfortable, despite the subzero temperatures of the Canadian forest.
It wasn't long until they saw exactly what was happening.
As they moved around a slight curve in the road, they could see where a camper had hit a downed tree, smashing the camper and scattering the contents of a trailer it had been pulling. The camper was on fire, with one person trapped inside, on the passenger side of the cab.
Sabretooth was fighting with another man, and as Scott and Ororo watched, Sabretooth picked the man up and smashed him through the windshield. Judging from the force of the throw, that person was going to be lucky to be alive.
But it was clear the person in the camper was still alive, and was struggling to get out—clearly trapped. And now that person had a dead weight on top of him or her.
Side by side, Ororo and Scott moved up and stood twenty paces behind Sabretooth. The hulking mutant started toward the camper; then he must have sensed them. He turned, then growled with a low, mean rumble, like an angry animal. He even looked like one, with the skins and long yellow hair.
"Seems we aren't welcome company," Scott said.
Sabretooth charged at them, moving quickly on the snow-covered road.
Storm stepped aside as Scott fired a hot red beam from his eyes. The beam hit Sabretooth square in the chest.
Hard.
Sabretooth roared as the beam picked him up and flipped him through the air, end over end, smashing through the high branches of the trees and disappearing in a snapping of limbs and brush.
Ororo nodded. Their foe wasn't going to be coming back anytime soon.
On the Blackbird Buffy's eyes clouded over as her mutation kicked in and she saw the camper explode. She hit the button that Storm had pointed out to her. "Scotty!" she yelled. "The camper is about explode!"
Scott and Ororo looked at each other for only an instant and they turn and ran over to the passenger side, seeing instantly that the intense flames were almost to the camper's propane tank. And it would likely explode any minute like Buffy had warned. Ororo kicked up a swirling wind filled with snow and rain to douse the fire, but it wasn't going to work quickly enough. The flames were just too close to the tank and too hot to be put out easily.
Scott yanked open the passenger side door.
"Don't touch me!" a female voice shouted, the person trapped in the cab was definitely a girl. "Just help me get the seat loose. I can't move my legs."
Ororo focused on the fire, but with the propane tank about to explode, there wasn't a thing she could do to stop it. "Cyclops!" she said. "Hurry!"
Scott focused carefully and used his optic beam to dislodge the seat behind the trapped girl. The seat snapped and came loose. She quickly climbed out and over the hood of the camper, dropping to the ground. At the same time, Ororo pulled the unconscious man free.
Suddenly they heard the valve on the propane tank blow off.
It was now or never.
Ororo brought up a massive wind behind them, forcing it in low and hard along the passenger side of the camper. The wind caught her, Scott, the girl, and the unconscious man and slid them all down the road on the slick surface. All of them were knocked from their feet. Ororo was just climbing back to her feet when the camper exploded, sending flames and debris into the air, lighting the falling snow with bright orange and yellow colors.
Beside Ororo, the girl and Scott stood and stared at the flames. Then the girl said softly, "Thanks."
As they got on to the Blackbird Scott secured the man as the girl buckled herself in.
Buffy then hugged Scott. "I'm sorry I wasn't more use," she said.
Scott shook his head. "It's ok Squirt," he said as he smiled at Buffy. "You did what you could, given that you have yet to learn control over your mutation."
"I did?" Buffy asked.
Scott nodded. "Yes you did."
Buffy looked at the girl for the first time since she had boarded the jet and instantly recognized her from the dream she had days before. "Marie?"
The girl frowned. "How do you know my name?" she asked.
Scott looked at Buffy. "That is a good question," he said.
"A few days ago I had a dream, she was in it." Buffy said as she looked to 'Marie'. "I saw you kissing a boy."
Marie's' eyes went wide. "That was eight months ago," she said.
In Sunnydale California
Rupert Giles paced the library. He had notified the Watcher's Council immediately of Merrick's suspicions that Buffy was moving to Sunnydale with her mother. Quentin Travers, the head of the Council, had told Giles to check around and that he would be assigned Miss Summers' Watcher upon arrival if she was indeed moving to Sunnydale.
But the Slayer had yet to show and according to school records there was no new students enrolling. He quickly got on the phone and dialed a number. "Quentin Travers, please. This is Rupert Giles."
Giles waited a moment before Travers picked up the phone. "Yes Mr. Giles?" Travers said.
"I have done some checking," Giles said. "Miss Summers is not enrolled at the high school here in Sunnydale. Can the Council confirm that she was indeed coming?"
There was a moment of silence, Giles assumed that Travers, who was the head of the Watcher's Council, was getting a subordinate to check. Once Buffy Summers had been identified as the Slayer the Council would have made it their top priority to keep track of her.
"We have a business and home being purchased by Mrs. Joyce Summers, Miss Summers mother," Travers said. "In Sunnydale, California."
Giles nodded. "Is it possible she did not move with her mother?" he asked.
"Not likely. Mrs. Summers has custody and packed up her daughter's possessions and brought them with her," Travers said.
"Then we need to think that it's possible Miss Summers ran away from home. Either that or they sent her to a boarding school," Giles said. Both possibilities were likely. He had seen where Potentials had not been found before being called before. And when the family found out about the girl's increased strength and agility they would become very scared of their daughter and either sent her to a boarding school or the girl simply ran away. Those girls tended to only last a few days before a vampire found them. It was one of the reasons that the Council took every Potential they could locate away from their families.
"We'll check into it and get back to you," Travers said before hanging up the phone.
