Title: Emerald Ignition (3/7)
Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.
Rating: Just a little bad language.
Spoilers: Anything and everything.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: All the cards are on the table. It's time to change the future. Part two of Emerald Flame.
Author's Note: Nothing to say here, really. Hope you enjoy.
"Hey, Uncle Rory!"
The thoroughly soused Harris squinted and took a moment to identify the person standing at his door as his nephew, Xander. "Hey, Xander, what's up?"
"You still got your taxidermy stuff?" Xander asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Couldja make a belt for me outta this?"
Rory blinked at the snakeskin Xander had handed him. It wasn't shed skin either; it had been carved from the critter itself. He frowned and turned it over in his hand, "Where'd you get this, anyway, kid? Never seen its like before."
"Trust me, Uncle Rory," Xander said. "You don't want to know."
Rory shook his head, "If you say so, kid. A belt shouldn't be a problem."
"Xander!" Buffy screeched. "Where have you been?!"
"Dealing with something," Xander said.
"And who's the dead guy?" she asked, waving at the spare room in the Baxter home where he had left his the Ashrak host.
"He's not dead," Xander pointed out. "He's just unconscious, a recently-freed victim of possession. Not something you need to worry about, Buff."
"Possession?" she retorted. "That's hellmouthy. That's my business."
"Actually, no," he said. "Not demon. Not ghost. Funky snake thing. Anyway, it was out of your jurisdiction. Definitely further than you could have gone in those heels. It's an ongoing case."
"You sound like a cop," Patrice interjected.
Xander turned and shrugged, "In a sense, I am. Either way, it has nothing to do with our brain-eater. Any leads?"
"Not much," she said, shaking her head. "A few more vics, all down by the docks. City Hall's hushing it up."
Xander nodded, "Buffy?"
"Ran into a few brainless demons," the Slayer replied. "So not much new there, really. Except for that shark demon."
Xander's head snapped around, "Shark demon?"
"Yeah, found it in a dumpster near one of the big hotels," she said. "Down by the waterfront. Brain scooped out."
Patrice whirled on the Slayer, "And you didn't think that was important?!"
"Cool your jets, Officer Miller," Xander interceded before it got ugly. "Buffy's a Slayer. She patrols. She slays. She doesn't do investigative work." He leaned over to the police officer and murmured, "Listen, keep an eye on our guest, okay? He kinda had the same problem you had until a short while ago." He cleared his throat and said, "Faith, Buffy, come on. Let's go check the docks."
"Cool," Faith said. "Practical applications of pier pressure. I can get into that."
Xander groaned and looked at Buffy, "And you said my sense of humor was bad."
The three walked through the dock area. Faith and Xander were in civilian clothing, a single ring-flare away from their uniforms, but Buffy was in her fishnets and leather. Even Faith had run out of jokes over the past few months.
Still, she did have great legs. Unfortunately, her California diet mentality seemed to be causing her to lose a little too much weight... Xander tore his eyes away from Buffy's legs and the way the black one-piece hugged her hips, only to see Faith smirking at his ogling of the blonde Slayer.
What? he thought sourly. No comments from the Peanut gallery? After a moment, he frowned at the lack of response, E? What's wrong?
I am... concerned. About Jolinar.
Family comes first, E, was Xander's answer.
I see, came the frosty reply. I trust you see the irony of that statement, Alexander.
Xander winced. We're on mission, E. People are dying. The Ashrak's taken care of, and whatever the UNSC does to Jolinar, they'll be doing to Carter as well. Jolinar will keep.
You have considerable faith in their goodwill.
Don't try and tell me you lasted as long as you did without learning how to read people, E, Xander thought. Loyalty up, loyalty down. They'll move heaven and Earth for Carter if that's what it takes; they won't mess with her unless Jolinar does something truly idiotic.
...very well, Alexander, she answered with grudging acceptance.
Please, Jolinar, Xander sent the thought across the pond, don't do anything stupid.
"Hey!" a voice called out. All three turned.
We should do something! Jolinar huffed.
No, Sam retorted as she deliberated over the chess board. We're in good hands. So long as we don't do anything stupid, we'll be fine. We just need to wait for Green Lantern to return.
Sam finally advanced her pawn deliberately into the line of fire, incidentally unblocking a bishop that now finished pinning down the black king and prevented it from moving.
You're reckless, Jolinar commented, even as she pressed the attack with her rook, capturing the pawn Sam had just moved and adding it to the small army of captured white pieces which stood as silent testimony to the Tok'ra's aggressive strategy.
No, Sam replied, her lips quirking into a smile, I just keep my eyes on the goal. She advanced her half-forgotten white knight into place, completing the plan she had started setting up four moves ago, and announced aloud, "Checkmate."
Xander tilted his head, "Cor- Huntress?! What are you doing here?"
The purple-clad cheerleader rested her fists on her hips, "What? Did you seriously think I'd let you go after that thing without me? Black Canary there might be the Slayer, but I'm the Huntress."
Xander groaned, then frowned as he noticed the three girls nodding. "Uh, what is it?"
"The three of us have comm links to Oracle," Huntress said. "She's suggesting we split up to cover more ground."
Faith nodded, "You can send up a flare if you run into anything, sensei, and I can do the same of any of us do."
"Right," Xander nodded, a brief flash of envy at the idea of real-time intelligence backed up by Willow-brain at his beck and call. "Works for me."
There, there, Alexander, came a teasing thought. It's all right. At least you have me.
Gee, thanks, E, he shot back. I suppose I'm better off. Cortana would probably hijack the link anyway, and I shudder to think what it would be like to have her in my head.
At the Baxter home, Willow frowned as static crept into the audio feed.
"Canary? Huntress?" she called into the headset even as her fingers danced across the keyboard, trying to tweak the NRO bird she had hacked into. "Do you read? I'm getting some interference on the audio feed."
Her frown deepened as static began to streak across the monitor. "What the hell?"
Suddenly, for a brief moment, the screen cleared, revealing Cortana's face, before the static overwhelmed the AI's signal again. "Cort--...--cle--...--sition's--...--mpromi--...--RUN!"
Willow paled, catching only the last word clearly. She rose to her feet and barely managed to whirl around in time to hear a crashing sound from the kitchen.
"Black Canary, Huntress, this is Cortana," the AI's voice emerged from Buffy's earbud, a little tinny from the tiny speaker. "Oracle's position is under attack. Electronics in the area are non-responsive, and I can't use her computer to contact Faith."
It was one of the peculiar oddities of the Green Lantern rings. They simply didn't interface well with Earth technology. Had they been in range of existing Stellar Sentinel equipment -- a crystal-based technology that bore little resemblance to Earth computers -- Cortana would have had no trouble keeping in touch with the rings. As it was, the comm link Willow and Faith had jury-rigged between the Oracle computer and Faith's ring was the best they could manage.
"On our way," Cordy replied. "Canary, my car's over by Pier Thirteen."
"I'll meet you there."
Two witches and a cop faced off against what could only be described as a humanoid shark. Willow was hovering over the unconscious man Xander had brought back, even as the Baxters and Patrice stood opposite the man-shark.
I hope blessed silver works, Patrice thought. Firearm discharge paperwork was exceedingly lax at SPD, especially when the rounds fired weren't standard hollow points. Silver jacketed rounds meant no one would even look twice.
"Tara," Rebecca said calmly. "Stand back."
"But, Mother..."
"You aren't ready for this," she said. "Incendere!"
The shark creature flinched away from the lance of flame, and Patrice opened fire as well, but the soft and light silver rounds merely flattened themselves against the man-shark's thick skin.
With a roar, the shark creature lunged forward, backhanding Patrice and sending her flying with one hand, while the other grabbed for Rebecca, catching hold over her blouse. His mouth gaped open and closed on her side.
"MOTHER!" Tara shrieked. She whirled on the man-shark and flung out an arm, "Fulmenos venite!" Lightning arced out and struck the shark creature, sending him flying back.
He slowly rose to his feet, hissing, "Out of the way, little girl."
Eyes blazing, Tara stepped between the man-shark and her mother's prone form and declared, "You shall not pass."
Patrice was busy reloading her pistol with standard jacketed rounds, silently impressed with the teenaged girl. It seemed everyone around here had hidden talents. Willow, meanwhile, was crouched behind the couch, watching in awe.
"T-Tara..."
The younger witch turned, only to have her mother reach up and press something into her hand. She blinked at it for a moment before she recognized it.
"He said... when you were ready..."
Ready? Am I ready for this? Do I want this?
She turned back to face the man-shark and slid the power ring onto her finger.
"I do."
Willow eeped.
Author's Postscript:
Okay, seriously, did anyone not expect Tara to get a ring?
