Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognizable characters contained within.

That would be Joss Whedon, Stan Lee, Marvel Comics

Curiouser and Curiouser

After swinging by Buffy's house and not finding the slayers there, Willow headed out to start checking the local cemeteries. She finally found Faith and Buffy as they were just coming up to Holmestead cemetery. It had been about 30 minutes since she had snuck out of the Bronze and she could feel time slipping away, the chance to save someone else from dying sliding through her hands.

"Quick, you guys have to come back to the Bronze" she gasped out as she came running up to them. Buffy took in the paler than usual look to Willows face and wide darting eyes. "Willow, what's wrong? Why are you out here alone?" Buffy asked.

Panting and trying to catch her breath Willow tried to explain what happened after Faith left the Bronze. She actually managed to keep the babble to a minimum. "Faith left, bad man came, a girl died, Xander and Oz are still there!!"

The two slayers were moving almost before Willow had finished speaking. Buffy shouted back over her shoulder, "Willow, go to my house and stay there. We'll get the guys out and meet you back there."

Faith mumbled beside Buffy, "Can't leave them alone for a minute without someone trying to kill them." Running at full out Slayer speed, it only took them a few minutes to reach the Bronze. "How you wanna play this?" asked Faith as they stopped outside the club.

Buffy replied "We go in, we see, we kick ass, simple."

"My kinda plan" Faith said with a grin and walked through the missing front door.

Inside-

There are some moments in life that will stay with you forever; this was one of them for the Slayers.

Half a dozen people were being held up against the wall by what looked like the metal legs from chairs piercing their shoulders. Their heads were lolling to the side as they whimpered or cried from the pain.

There were others lying on the floor. Some cut open and bleeding others appearing to have been through a juicer. There was blood everywhere they looked. The cause of all this misery was nowhere to be seen. Chained on the floor next to the stage was Oz. The only way they knew it was him was due to the partial change into wolf form that must of occurred during his torture.

Of Xander there was no sign.

"Get Oz outta here," Buffy yelled to Faith "I'll call the cops and see who I can help. After Oz is in a safe place, come back and give me a hand"

Faith, who had moved through the club looking for the cause of this butchery, called back "Seems like the creep that did this has motored. This just proves there's such a thing as human monsters B." She came over to Oz who was only semi conscious, hefted him over her shoulder and paused at the front door. "You gonna be alright if that clown comes back?" she asked.

Buffy looked over at the younger Slayer. Faith saw a look in her eyes that reminded her that Buffy's cheerleader appearance was just that, an appearance. "Yea, in fact I'm kinda hoping to have a little quality time with him whenever we track his ass down."

Faith turned away with a grin on her face that made her dimples show. She really loved the occasional peeks at Buffy's dark side that came out whenever friends or family were threatened. Those glimpses made her feel better about the dark side of her own personality. After all, if an upper middleclass, fashion and status conscious, tiny blonde could want to rip something to shreds every once in awhile, Faith shouldn't feel too bad about enjoying the violence that being a slayer brought to her life.

Meanwhile-

Willow was about four blocks from Buffy's house when she noticed the group of people moving through the night. It appeared to be two men and a woman gliding from shadow to shadow, just outside of the circles of light thrown by the streetlights.

As she quickened her pace another woman stepped out of nowhere right in front of her and grabbed her arm. Willow tried to turn and run but the woman's grip felt like steel. Turning back to face her, Willow saw she was a vampire and now she was in full game face. The other three vampires came up from behind and formed a circle around her.

Oh shit.

Trapped, alone, and with no escape, Willow let out an ear splitting scream as the vampire in front of her plunged her mouth down towards Willow's exposed neck, fangs fully extended. Knowing her death was at hand Willow closed her eyes and waited for the sharp pain of teeth sinking into her.

Instead she heard a slight poof sound along with the smell of ozone. She then felt dust raining down on her face. The grip on her arm was gone. She started to run and opening her eyes she saw a man and a woman that appeared to be wearing black leather body suits attacking the vampires.

Even better they were winning.

The man turned to the male vamp on Willow's right and touched the visor he wore over his eyes at the temple. A bright narrow red beam was emitted from his eyes, immediately vaporizing the vampire. Meanwhile, the leather clad woman had already dusted the other woman vampire and was fighting the last one using balls of what looked like ultra violet light. These seemed to slowly grow out of the very air, forming in her hands. As the light balls would leave her hands they trailed sparkles and at any other time would have been a pretty light show.

The vampire had either wised up or was getting lucky since the last few light balls thrown his way missed him by inches. "Cyclops, a little help would be appreciated here", she said. Obviously she was talking to the man in black. He turned to face the vampire that was beginning to look for a way to escape and touching his visor once again, turned the vamp into a pile of ash.

Willow stood there staring, her mouth hanging slightly open as she tried to figure out who these strangers could be. She had never before seen anything like the way they were using light to kill the vamps. Although the way they moved and worked with each other, reminded her a little of Buffy and Faith when they were in slayer mode.

The woman came over to Willow and said "Hi, I'm Jubilee. That's Cyclops. Are you alright? Did they hurt you or draw blood anywhere?"

Willow's mouth snapped closed as she realized these people seemed to know about vampires and more, knew how to kill them. "Ah, yes, I'm alright. No, I'm not bit or bleeding. My turn, who are you guys, and where did you come from?", Willow shot back.

The one called Cyclops asked, "Is there someplace we can go to talk? This could take a little time."