Willow stared at Angel from across the Slayer training hall. A building just across the street from the high school. Kendra was posted as close as she could without going to their high school when it opened next week. Willow wasn't looking forward to it as much as she used the other years. There was no Jesse, no Xander and no Buffy there any more. Only long days and possibly mortal danger broken by mockery by Cordelia and her gang of fashionistas.
Kendra couldn't go there. She just wasn't socialized. She jumped out at people, she was abrupt and she didn't seem to really like people or doing anything but hunt vampires. She was according to the Handbook a thing never mentioned in Buffy's time, a perfect Slayer. But Willow only pitied her and Angel told Willow that he thought she wasn't as good as Buffy. She lacked something. Passion according to Angel. Willow wasn't sure she disagreed either.
Xander and Buffy. They occupied her mind. Angel wouldn't tell them why Buffy was hiding in Seattle only that she was and that it had something to do with her dad having been involved in terrorism and now the terrorists were looking for her and if they got involved they'd get killed. Giles had gotten a few more details and had accepted the explanation. In fact he seemed tense but seemingly uncaring towards the fact that they had no idea where and what Buffy was doing and why exactly her death had been faked. Willow wanted to know more but even though Angel seemed to be talking to her more than he did to Giles, he swore he couldn't tell Willow more for her safety. She had considered trying to find Buffy herself, but had not been able to during a few of her net searches. Buffy kept a very low profile it seemed.
And Xander was a totally other story. Willow missed him. Every day she turned around and expected him there. A remark and a grin on his lips. He had been a part of the center of her world for so long that losing him felt wrong. And his death was a wrong that time didn't seem heal.
--
Paul looked at the report from Seattle then back up at Celia. "Still nothing. Invite these guys down here for a friendly meeting and have them all killed on the way. I'll call in some real pro to deal with everything. I wonder if there isn't some good killer on the market, who has some sort of tracking capability," he told her.
Celia nodded. Paul guessed she knew he was under a lot of pressure to get the Summers file closed permanently. It had been a long time, but there was still no trace of one measly girl. He knew he was hunting her on a single clue from a source that believed in magic, but living in LA helped with believing. "It can't be that hard to find a single Californian girl. It's not like she's a trained spy," he cursed.
"Maybe we should acquire the resource in Sunnydale that was able to track the target. That way we'd have a much easier time of it," Celia suggested. Paul looked up.
"Our contract says no. But maybe we can ask for a bit of assistance. Usually a few campaign contributions can move a lot of muscle in a place like Sunnydale especially given what kind of monster is the mayor. I guess we should start moving in on Willow Rosenberg before we spend a wad of cash on yet another manhunt through Seattle," Paul agreed.
"I'll see to it that our negotiators call up Wolfram and Hart immediately. I am sure they can facilitate any permissions we might need," Celia said.
"Do that," Paul said and turned to his next problem for the day as Celia left.
--
Buffy lazily stretched her body for a while before getting up. It was raining outside and so they had opted for a late morning. She looked over at Orion. He was awake and looking at the ceiling. Buffy admired her friend. He was always thinking and trying to come up with a better way to make money, a safer place to stay or planning for eventualities. Life in Seattle hadn't been easy even with the lump of money Angel had given them. Orion had forced them to only use it sparingly. It was a one off thing, so if they got used to it then they have to get used to not having it later and so it was better saved or used for stuff like new clothes.
Buffy had wanted to rent a small place, but no one had wanted to let a group of kids without IDs or a guardian take over some place and the few times they had gotten close to something looking like a deal it had either been with a pervert or Social Services and the police had come swooping in. She figured it a bad thing if she, supposedly dead and all, was caught by them and apparently so did Orion and the girls. They had run like mad that day.
It was getting a bit domestic in their little borrowed hideaway, but still they struggled. Orion couldn't always expect that one of the many fast food places wanted him to stand-in as delivery boy and Buffy hadn't got much luck securing a waitressing job either. Still they had food to eat if not always that healthy, a roof over their head albeit illegally and a lot of the time they had running water even if they had lost their power last week.
"Thinking heavy thoughts," she asked out loud as she noticed Orion frowning at something.
"Nah, I was just thinking we should teach the girls math," Orion said.
"Uh, you're not gonna be popular with that one. And I can't help you with that one. I can do the basics but anything fancy and I am drawing a blank thanks to the narcolepsy inducing teaching style of most Math teachers," she replied.
"Then I'll teach you too. If we don't learn stuff, we'll never get anywhere in life. We don't have money. I don't have looks or the inclination to be a trophy anything so smarts is the way to go. Smarts, hard work and guts those have to be our great equalizers," Orion said.
"You should read less," Buffy said.
"And you should read something other than fashion magazines," Orion replied. Buffy chuckled even if some dark part of her mind told her to listen. She didn't have neither trophy wife or slayer death on her immediate life expectancy chart anymore so she might have to learn something too. She had to face that she had some sort of future.
"Yuck, you made too much sense," she said and got up.
"Okay the last one out of your nest is getting tickled," Buffy said and dug into the growing pile of pillows that was the girls sleeping nook. There were laughs and chuckles as she dove in digging around for the two.
--
Xander coughed for a moment as he lay in his cell and waited. He was waiting for the return of Toad. His friend had been picked up by the guards two days ago for some further testing and he thought he had heard them dump someone back in his cell a few minutes ago. If their regular cycle was kept up he'd be picked up for more testing and torture in a day or two. They had been going easy on him lately, mainly because since they had nearly killed during the disease tests. Turns out that while he could keep the disease in check well enough he wasn't able to wave his mutant power over a case of the flu and have it disappear. He could handle other things like genetic faults even cancer, but something like a random bug had nearly gotten him killed.
According to the calendar he and Toad maintained by keeping an eye on each other he estimated he had been imprisoned in Neverland for nearly three months now. He tried not to wonder most of the time how Buffy and Willow were doing. He did wonder if the government had faked his death like they had done with Toad. According to what his cell neighbor had experienced during his last brief stint outside. He wondered if his friends missed him.
"Triage," Toad asked. It was their chosen name for him. Why should he keep his human name? He wasn't that guy anymore. Alexander Harris had died with his parents. Alexander Harris had been a lie. A mask behind which he had hidden his true self. Triage had been forged by the trials of Neverland and the past. According to Toad triage was what doctors did in a crisis to pick who got treated first. Essentially who lived and died. Xander liked that idea. He liked the idea of having power over something.
"I'm here," he said.
"I saw what I hoped for. I am certain of where the central control room is. If we can get there I can use the generators to alert our brothers and have them come to our rescue. This place will be destroyed and we will be free to do what we wish to do," Toad said. They didn't sedate him like they did Xander when they moved him. They only muzzled him, because of his tongue apparently. Xander they wisely didn't dare be close to, while he was conscious.
"I got all the energy I need stored in me. If I control it just right, if I unleash it at the right time I'll get the guard and make him open the cell and then I free you," Xander confirmed.
"Yeah. Then I'll rip the tracking collar of you, we make our way to the control room as fast as possible, send out the messages and try to hold out long enough. Sooner or later one of our brothers will come to our rescue," Toad said.
"Okay. I am ready. I'll try at the next feeding," Xander agreed.
"Good luck," Toad said.
"It has to work," Xander replied. He couldn't imagine spending more time in his cell. He wanted to be outside, be free of his tormentors. He deserved freedom. He had a right to a good life. And as Toad has taught him, it was his job to claim it.
--
"Welcome back," Xavier said as Logan walked into his office. His English class had left for their afternoon training with Kurt and Ororo.
Logan dropped into the couch that stood to the left of his desk.
Xavier sensed that Logan had something to say. Something that weighed on his mind. "Listen bub, I am still not sure why you'd want me here but I'd like to stay and help with the kids for a while," Logan said.
Xavier knew that was as close as Logan would ever come to saying that he had no other place to be and no other people in the world he cared about. "I think the kids would like that. You'd be helpful I am sure. I wonder if I could convince you to take over the Auto shop classes and help with some of the training of everyone's mutant powers. Scott is slowly getting back to teaching but I don't want to overburden him," Xavier explained.
"Because he's a precious flower," Logan commented.
Xavier raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
"So do you think you could do what I ask?" He looked at the burly hairy Logan.
"Yeah, that won't be a problem. There," Logan was interrupted as Nightcrawler appeared in the room.
Logan was nearly out of his chair and rearing for an attack before the sound of Nightcrawler's had finished echoing around the room.
"Ah, entschuldigung, I did not want to interrupt," Kurt said.
"I think we're done here anyway," Xavier said. Logan nodded giving Kurt an irritated look before leaving.
"So is he back to stay," Kurt asked.
"Yes," Xavier said. "He wants some sort of connection to the world now. And luck has it that is us. I for one is glad to have him," he mused.
Kurt looked in the direction of Logan then said, "I wanted to talk to you about Kitty. I think she might be making trouble between Bobby and Rogue."
Xavier nodded and turned his thoughts towards the other tasks of a boarding school headmaster.
--
Xander waited close to the door and waited. He watched the hatch in his door open and the bulky armor-covered hand of the guard push the food inside. Xander felt tense.
Hr forced his power outwards into the guard, but tried to hold its full power back. He had to make it just enough to hurt but not kill one of his faceless tormentors. The guard collapsed with a pained gasp Xander could hear. "You have ten seconds to open my door or I kill you. I have nothing to lose. I don't give a shit about the others or any help coming. You'll be dead if you don't unlock the door," Xander said.
He remembered Toad explaining it to him, "One of the flaws of this place is that it was not really built as a prison. They don't have centrally controlled locking or audio in the cells. So each door has a lock and all the guards have keys."
The guard fought to stand and inched upwards. Xander pulled back his power even more. The guard ran his card through the lock next to the door and it unlocked. Xander tore it open and grabbed the key while unleashing his full power on the guard anyway. The guard shook for a moment then dropped back to the floor grabbing his chest. Xander ran past him and immediately unlocked Toad's door.
The greenish tinted man greeting him was a happy sight for Xander. They had described themselves several times. "You do look a little green, are you okay?" Xander asked as Toad bounded out of the room.
"Funny," Toad replied dryly and made off to the left.
"Shouldn't we release more people?" Xander asked.
"Unlock any cell you have time for, but we don't have time to stop and talk. Just unlock it and move on. And do it at a run," Toad said as a guard rounded a corner and was immediately wrapped in a long tongue that shot out of his friend's mouth. Xander heard the vicious snap of the guard's neck as the tongue tightened like a noose. Toad never stopped moving though. Xander stopped at door after door. He swiped the card through their lock not even looking inside to see if the cells were occupied.
An alarm started. They had been seen on the cameras. Toad led them together into the corridor that they thought led into the control room. The door had been closed but Toad threw himself against it, while Xander swiped the card through the adjacent lock. But nothing happened.
There was a growl behind them and a hairy man ran up grabbing the door.
"Sabretooth. I didn't know you were here. Triage, Sabretooth here is an ally, a brother," Toad explained. The huge man rammed his clawed hands into the wall and started to dig out the concrete.
"Hold," a voice yelled down the corridor. Xander turned and unleashed his power in their direction. There was a hissing noise in the air and a seemingly fine dust seemed to fall onto the ground in a path towards the advancing guards.
Both dropped silently and lay twitching a few moments.
Sabretooth looked at him gratefully. A frightening sight really for a man that looked at least part animal. The giant nodded in approval then turned and tore the door of its hinges. Xander threw himself down to avoid it as it was thrown down the corridor. A gun fired. But none of them got hit. Toad jumped into the room. There was a wet sound and then a frightened scream. Sabretooth charged into the cloud of concrete dust next. There was another brutal snapping noise then nothing but silence. Xander got up and walked inside. He passed two more corpses.
"I think we might have needed the door to be able to barricade ourselves," he said.
Toad didn't say anything. He was busy tapping stuff into a computer, while Sabretooth stalked back down the corridor. Xander meanwhile studied the monitors. There were many more captured here. All of them victims like him. He looked around until he saw another monitor picture. A pair of doctors one of them sure to be his cold hearted tormentor were doing amateur surgery on yet another of his race. He wanted very badly to go back there and kill the bastards, but for now they needed to stay free long enough to get Toad's much vaunted help here. Toad kicked the computers and smashed his tongue around the room.
He heard Sabretooh roar in the distance. Several shots were fired. "Listen I know we wanted to stay here, but plans change," Xander yelled over the noise.
"I know. We'll have to cause as much chaos as we can," Toad agreed. Xander nodded and followed Toad out of the room.
--
Pyro watched as Mystique hurried into Magneto's private chambers. He wondered what was going on. He was busy however. Magneto had helped make small flame projectors that were mounted in his sleeves and he had been busy testing them. Pyro enjoyed working with Magneto. Here was finally a man that wanted him to be stronger, wanted him to use his powers. Someone who could lead them, defeat the humans that were in his way. Pyro had never felt loyal to anyone before. He had been friendly with Bobby and Rogue but he had never really respected them or most of his teachers.
He had created a small man made of fire in the air in front of him when suddenly Magneto wearing his helmet came striding out. "We're leaving. I have just received the coordinates of a mutant prison. We must go to free our brethren," Magneto said. Pyro noted the usually calm and stoic elder mutant sounded furious.
Pyro nodded. "Coming," he replied and ran after the pair heading for one of Magneto's special aircraft. The X-Men weren't the only one's with resources.
--
Xander was amazed he was still alive. He was hiding in one of the labs of Neverland with Toad. The guards were keeping them suppressed with machine guns now. Sabretooth had gunned down earlier, but Toad hadn't seemed too bothered about that.
There was a lull in the constant firing. "Listen in there. There is no way out of there. If you surrender peacefully, we'll move you back to your cells to await trial," a guard yelled.
Xander didn't believe them. He guessed that after all the damage they had done. After all the guards they had killed. There was no way he'd survive a surrender now. Toad snorted derisively.
"Like we believe you," Xander yelled.
There was a tremble through the floor. Xander looked at Toad who started smiling viciously. There was another tremble stronger this time. Then the entire room seemed to rock. Xander had been in Earthquakes before, but this had to be a nasty one.
"Fuck," Xander heard a guard curse. Then there was a roar and a scream.
"Now," Toad mumbled and jumped out into the corridor spitting something down it immediately continuing by jumping down it. Xander edged up to the corridor and glanced out. Sabretooth. The bestial mutant had been gunned down earlier taking a shotgun blast to the chest. Now he and Toad stood over the defeated guards. Xander ran up the corridor. The building rocked again.
"He is here," Toad said.
"Who?" Xander asked.
"Magneto," Toad replied and set off down a corridor. Xander could hear the distant sound of fighting coming from that direction.
"Magneto," Xander gasped. He had heard the name before. He was a big fan of TV after all and while he didn't like watching the news sometimes it had been unavoidable. Sometimes he had watched anyway because it had been about mutants. Magneto especially had come up a few times. The government called him a terrorist. Looking around him at what the government had done to him, Xander thought he might be a hero.
The sounds of fighting died down. They entered a large loading area. Dead guards and smoldering crushed vehicles were scattered all over. Xander focused first on the blue sky and forest he could see through the large door leading outside. Then he looked towards the trio standing in the doorway. One was a woman who looked partly like a blue reptile, a man and a demon had mated to make her. There was a regular looking kid his age holding a globe of fire in his right hand and an older man pressed in dark colors and wearing a metallic helmet and cape.
Toad launched himself across the room and landed in front the caped guy. "Welcome to Neverland, Magneto. Where the US government plays with their doctor sets on their mutant prisoners," Toad said.
"I see, well that stops now. We'll free all our brothers and sisters from this hell and make sure all can leave here of their own free will," the gray haired man strode forward heading up towards them. "Who is this?" Magneto asked as they approached.
"Triage. He's the reason, we got out and were able to signal you. He is a powerful mutant," Toad explained.
"Greetings brother, I believe all here should thank you, but let me be the first. It is an honor to meet you," Magneto said and held out his hand smiling kindly. Xander looked at the man and saw steely will and a ruthlessness coming from some sort of dark memory. He also saw a genuine hero like Buffy had been. Someone doing what the authorities should have done and doing it right.
"It's an honor, sir," he said trying to remember his good manners for just a moment, which was hard given the colored costume, helmet and cape.
"Let us free the prisoners," Magneto said and strode past him. "Will you join us?" Magneto asked as the group of mutants started heading back inside.
Xander stood for a moment looking at the freedom outside, but then he realized that other people were probably still caught inside. Others like him or possibly innocents. He also knew if he went with them the government might consider him a terrorist too. That meant he wouldn't be able to go back to Sunnydale. And what would Willow and Buffy say? The only two homo sapiens whose opinions he cared about anymore. But then he would be a murderer to them no matter what. Still if he helped he really would be doing good. The mutants needed champions and that meant Magneto to him. And if he could help him then that would be like helping Buffy fight vampires. "Sure sign me on, if you want me," Xander said and followed the troupe of mutants into the shaded corridors of the prison.
--
"Professor, I think you want to see this," Ororo said and pointed the Professor towards the TV in the teachers lounge.
"What is it?" Charles Xavier asked wondering why Ororo had called him out a Physics class to show him something on TV.
Ororo activated the playback on the paused TV signal. They recorded everything important for later review using a system set up by Hank. Charles watched as a press secretary reported on a message released by Magneto. He denied that the Mutant terrorist's allegations of government sanctioned experimentation and internment of mutants were true and that the so-called evidence released by Magneto had to be false, because the American government would never violate the rights of their citizens no matter their race. Logan, who lounged on the couch, chuckled darkly at that, but didn't say anything. The news show then went on to air Magneto's statement coming from a ruined looking control room some place. He showed rooms and laboratories and had statements made to the shaky video camera by very angry looking mutants including several he and the X-Men knew well enough as criminals and terrorists. Then the news show host promised a deeper analysis later and Ororo shut off the recording.
Charles sighed and felt his hopes drop a little. They had known something like this happened. The base had probably been shielded from his detection by some contraption thought up by William Stryker and his racist scientists. Those mutants had a right to feel betrayed, no matter their deeds. Imprisonment wasn't the same as losing your human rights. "What will happen now you think?" Scott asked.
"The government will do damage control and cover this up. If it wasn't sanctioned they'll handle it internally rather than admitting error and give Magneto the PR victory," Charles said.
"I had hoped for something better from this government," Ororo said.
"Government's are huge entities with a vast difference in agendas between its internal parts," he said.
"I just hope Hank won't be a party to something like this knowingly," Scott mentioned.
Charles knew that his former student would never do something like that. "He would never. Hank might be too much of a politician to publicly call out the government on this but I have to believe that he will try and force the President to arrange things so that there won't be a repeat of this," Charles said.
"Let's not forget that once is once too many," Logan said sounding very anger an anger Charles really understood.
"I agree, however do we blame an entire species for the errors of a few individuals," Charles asked. Logan looked at him then almost imperceptibly shook his head. Charles took the victory not wanting to know where Logan put the exact difference between not the entire species and a few bad individuals, he knew he wouldn't like the answer to that.
"No," Scott said and got up. "I'll go make sure the kids understand that. You guys should expect them to have a lot of questions as soon as they hear," he said and left the room.
Charles smiled for a moment despite himself. He had felt it for a while now. While Scott still mourned Jean, he was coming back to himself. Scott would mourn for a long time to come, but it seemed he was slowly accepting her death and learning to live with it. "He is right. I think it is best if we discuss this event openly and lay it out with all the facts that we have. Logan would you mind taking the group that is waiting in my office and start their gym session early. I want to see if I can learn more using Cerebro," Charles asked.
"No problem, I'm sure the kids will love a little gym session with me today," Logan commented and cracked his knuckles after getting up.
--
They were making their way through the woods towards the aircraft Magneto said would bring them to his closest base. Several mutants had joined up with while a lot of others were making their way out of Neverland and the forest alone. Xander wished them well.
Sabretooth, who habitually ran out in front of them, stood at the edge of a large clearing and gravely pointed out over an area. The air had a strange chemical smell in it. Xander and the rest emerged into the clearing. There were two square areas dug into the ground. One had been filled in with dirt seemingly long enough ago for it to get covered in weeds and fallen leaves. The other was still open. In the bottom lay maybe ten corpses naked, without hair, mouthes open but having no teeth. A white powder covered their rotten bodies. Two had very obviously been mutants from their features.
"It has gone further than I feared," Magneto said and Xander noticed he was crying.
"We've waited too long. The humans think they can do to us whatever they want," Mystique agreed.
Xander didn't listen. He was too busy dry heaving.
--
It was late afternoon in Seattle. Buffy was playing bodyguard again, watching Singer while the girl sang her heart out and Dream gathered in what coins were tossed their way. It was a good day. There had been no gang bangers by to demand protection money and no police had rolled up to chase them off or capture them.
Buffy glanced over the small plaza in the downtown area as she did periodically to see if something was approaching. She was used to people running around chatting on their cells, but there was a guy that instantly worried her. He had just snapped a photo with his phone and was talking now nodding while staring intently at Singer and Dream. Buffy worried it might be police, social services or maybe even a journalist of some sort. She decided it was about time to stop any way. They had made enough to buy them some food and that was all they needed today because Orion had finally got a regular sort of bike messenger job by using a good fake ID they had bought using some of Angel's money.
"Dream, pack it up, we're going," Buffy said as she walked past the kid. Singer stopped immediate as Buffy and her twin started to move. Several nearby people listening seemed to awaken from somewhat of a stupor and they too started to go their way.
Buffy led them from the plaza really not liking how the man she had spotted had watched the entire time now. She decided it would be a great idea to avoid going straight home.
--
Willow sat in front of her homework. She had finished most of the work for the first few weeks already. The news was running in the background. Something about a mutant terrorist, when a voice said, "I was taken here without ever seeing a courtroom and tortured relentlessly." Willow looked up and saw a glimpse. A glimpse of a thin, pale and angry Xander speaking to the camera.
"Xander?" she asked and only after a few seconds remembered to breathe.
Xander was alive. He was not dead. He had not killed himself. Someone had tried to make them think he was and they had never been the wiser. They had not cared enough to check. She could get him back. She had to have her friend back. Maybe it had all been a lie then. A trick played on them all by someone in the government.
"But who did this. I have to find out after I find Xander," she said. Willow wondered if she could get Jenny Calendar to help, but the computer teacher had been distant for a while now especially after the Anointed One had tried to kidnap them last week. Magic might help but it had nearly drained Miss Calendar for a week when she had tried to find Buffy. Willow decided she'd still ask her teacher the next time she saw her. Meanwhile she might as well do some detective work herself.
Willow booted her computer and started by looking into what was written online about Magneto and the place that had just gotten liberated. Willow wanted to know about the prison and who had taken her friend from her.
The search quickly turned difficult and frustrating. Most of the stuff online was mostly focused on stuff who was right the government or Magneto, race issues and the like. Willow could care less. She wanted something else. She wanted to know about the details of the prison and where Magneto might be. It could give her a clue leading to Xander.
In the middle of her computer session Willow thought, "What if what's happened to Buffy is some sort of trick too?" She knew that Angel said Buffy was hiding, but what if Buffy had been forced to run and hide. What if those were the same people, she thought and started to search into the reports on Buffy's death. The FBI had pronounced Buffy and her dad dead from evidence found on the scene, but that was a lot like with Xander. She wasn't dead. Willow nodded to herself and again started the programs she wasn't supposed to have, the tools that other hackers on the net believed that a team of security gurus had made, but which had really been things Willow had made to ensure that she could help Buffy gather the information she needed from the servers of the Sunnydale administration. It took her time to find links between the FBI offices, getting government IP addresses, setting up dummy accounts and getting security clearances. She had to force her way into a workstation in a Atlanta field office that hadn't been properly security updated and use its connection to other government offices slowly making her way from network to network until she got into the FBI databases and from there had links to much more sensitive systems.
She downloaded the FBI files on both Buffy and Xander before working her way back erasing her tracks and the logs in the servers as she went. Willow sat in her room late in the night and discovered that both Buffy and Xander's cases had been handled by other government agencies. One called SHIELD had dealt with Buffy's case because of the circumstances and all her file held was the contact information of the agents in SHIELD who had written the final report and in Xander's case it was some sort of project named Weapon Plus that held Xander's file, what ever that meant. But Willow felt vindicated. She had been right. Nothing that had happened to her friends had been above board and now she had to help them. At least she hoped she'd be able to do so in the end. But that would require more information, the reasons behind that the agents who had written the reports hadn't been told. Willow decided to risk another deeper dive into the government system was due as soon as possible.
--
Buffy woke up from someone thundering up the stairs. She wondered why Orion was home so late and in such a hurry. The girls were sleeping after a long day out performing for money and Buffy had even managed to have them stay in while she had a few hours in a nearby diner. She looked up as Orion burst into the room. He was looking scared. "We gotta pack! Get the girls up, we gotta pack. I just heard two policemen talking to someone across the street. They were looking for the girls. They had descriptions," Orion said.
Buffy jumped up and grabbed her bag with spare clothes and toiletries.
"What's the noise all about," Dream asked her voice still faint and thick like she had just woken up.
"You gotta get up. The police is coming," Buffy said.
"Singer, wake up. Come on, we gotta go," Dream started whispered. There were a few murmured protests then Buffy could hear Singer's voice, but she wasn't listening too close. She was busy shoving everything from money to spare clothes into her and the girls bags. She grabbed a pillow as well and filled her bag to it.
"Go go go," Orion hurried as he finished packing too. Buffy looked around at the books, pillows and few toys that they wouldn't be able to bring.
Dream and Singer emerged with sleepy eyes and wearing only half the clothes they should. Instead of berating them, Buffy just started putting a shirt and their coats on the girls. It was warm even for the season, but if you slept in an alley or somewhere like that they'd probably get cold anyway.
"They're at the front doors," Orion said. There was a noise downstairs.
"Run!" Buffy commanded and the girls headed down the stairs then Orion and finally Buffy.
Buffy hammered down last getting to the door, when someone yelled: "Hold! Police!"
"Ma'am, put down your bag and then put your hands on your back pressing your thumbs together," a voice commanded behind her. Buffy knew she couldn't get caught. She'd have to run again and that she'd have to escape police custody. She decided it was better to just try and run then.
She lunged for the door.
Buffy was in mid air as the police man behind her fired his gun. The projectile hammered into the wall nearby. It had been a warning shot. She landed outside and started to run heading towards the street instead of in the direction she knew Orion had taken the girls. They had spots in downtown they had agreed to meet if they got separated like this. Orion had thought of that.
"Stop her," a voice yelled from inside the house. A figure jumped out of the night as she passed the corner of the house. He took her in a bear hold, pinning her arms to her sides and lifting her off the ground which was easy given her size.
"Let me go," Buffy commanded but didn't struggle. She was strong now. Strong enough to hurt someone unwittingly especially when she was agitated.
"Calm down," the deep bass voice of the man ordered.
"Please," Buffy said continuing to think, "I don't want to hurt you."
The police man threw her down. Buffy saw her chance and used her Slayer training just as she landed on her stomach. She flipped onto her back and then jumped back up to stand.
"Whoa," the police man said taking a surprised step back. Buffy decided to kick him on the shin, before the other rapidly approaching police man joined in.
The police man yelled in pain and Buffy set off through the overgrown yard, easily jumped the tall fence and ran as fast as she could into the night.
Buffy headed for the first best alley she could see and decided it was time to use her experience of hunting vampires and how they'd hide from public view in the relatively few back alleys of Sunnydale to her advantage.
--
Buffy had slept her first night on a bench and decided that complete homelessness was not for her. She wished she could go home and sleep in her bed, be with her mom and forget about the nightmares that filled her life. It had been the first moment like that in weeks and while Buffy cherished her mom, she admonished herself for being weak. Her mom's survival depended on her staying away.
She woke up. A car had run red lights and another car that had nearly had an accident was honking loudly. Buffy looked around. There was no sign of either Orion or the girls. Buffy immediately worried if anything had happened to them, if they had been caught by the police after she had gotten away. Buffy got off the bench and looked around an extra time. She needed to go and find her friends. She headed towards the other places they had talked about, hoping she had just made a mistake and Orion had taken the girls to one of the other places.
--
"So you're not really trained in the use of your powers?" Magneto asked Xander as he sat eating in the kitchen of the hideout of his new friends.
"Nope, I experimented a lot when I was a kid and since then I've only healed myself and a friend a few times. They wanted to find my limits at Neverland of course, so I got to use my powers a lot there," Xander explained.
Magneto nodded. "Then I'll try and help you to learn more about your limits. But with the cause as it is, I'll have to do it in-between other operations. Several of the others will also help with your training," the elder mutant explained.
"That's okay. If there is anything I can do to help just ask," Xander said.
"I am sure we'll find something, but first I believe you have a lot to learn especially about life on the run from the US government. They'll spare nothing in their quest to suppress us even kill us," Magneto said.
Xander nodded. He knew from personal experience just how vicious and inhuman the government could be. And they would pay. For every moment of agony. For every corpse of his fellow mutants they had found in the scarcely hidden mass-grave Neverland had kept in the wood. Sabretooth had taken them past it on their way out again. Magneto had cried at the sight and Xander had to admit he had felt an almost blinding rage since that day when ever he thought about it.
"What are you going to do?" Xander asked.
"We're going to find every single place like Neverland, free the prisoners and then level the place. And that is just the first step. Humanity has declared war on us. We should get around to fighting back," Magneto said.
Xander nodded. It had to be a war. He wondered what that would mean. He wondered about Willow and Buffy, how would they see things now and in the future. What would they say about all this? He wondered if there was some way he could send them a message. Telling them to duck and cover. Telling them he hoped they'd understand. He decided to ask Mystique about it later. She seemed to be Magneto's second in command.
--
Willow threw her book bag onto her bed and practically yelled in frustration. Jenny hadn't been able to trace Xander because they had no object tying to him. They had tried using Willow as a focus but even that had not been enough. Either it wasn't Xander or he didn't feel connected to her any more. Then she had asked Angel yet again to tell her everything about the Buffy situation. She had even suggested that maybe they should just solve it for her. She had thought that Angel would have wanted to pull off something like that. But he had plainly turned her down and Giles had told her to not even speak of it around Kendra.
So she sat on her bed and stared over at her computer. The files she had fished out of the government databases yesterday couldn't be the only ones that existed. She had to go deeper. First she needed to update her tools and that meant immersing herself into the world of computer languages, bits and bytes as well as the darknet sites where hackers like her met like minded people.
--
Celia ducked her head into Paul's corner office and said, "We've got an okay from Sunnydale. We can send two teams and pick up Rosenberg whenever we want. We had to promise that she wouldn't make it back alive, and pay a bit, but really it was a lot cheaper than we originally expected."
Paul smiled, "Put together a team. Use some Mexicans. There is a pool of professional kidnappers in and around Mexico City they should be both professional and affordable. Talk to Eduardo down in Department E, he's got the Middle America desk. I want the girl to tell or show us her tracking methods and once that is in order, I want her kept alive until we have Summers or Summers is dead. After that the girl dies and the kidnappers get paid as long as they don't discover who they're working for. Oh, yeah and remember to tell the Pride what we're doing or we'll get in trouble again. I want to be invited to the Wilders next party after all."
"No problem sir," Celia replied and left again. Paul smiled and turned his chair to look out over LA's downtown area.
--
Buffy felt tired. Her feet were hurting and she was resolved to ignore them. Her feet and her discomfort didn't mean a thing. She had still not found Orion and the girls. She was on her way to the potentially most dangerous part of her search. She had gone back to their house, but there had been no one waiting there neither her friends nor the police. She had picked up a few things that the police had left behind and headed out again hoping to retrace the steps of her friends somehow.
Buffy walked down the streets leading downtown and noticed a 24 hour open diner. She had taken the girls in there a few times to use the restroom on their way back from the main part of the city. She wondered if the clerk that always watched her as a hawk had seen some thing. She had visited a few other places like the pizza place Orion was a delivery boy for which was just up the street, but they hadn't seen him or the girls, but there was nothing else to do but to keep asking.
Buffy noticed that the clerk was the usual asshole that she suspected wanted more than just to look at girls like her. "Excuse me, I was in here a while back with some little girls, have you seen them or a boy a bit taller than me in here today maybe in the morning," Buffy asked.
The clerk studied her. His eyes wandering up and down her body making Buffy feel like she needed to wash before he said, "Yeah I saw them. I had the night shift and they came in here for a while, bought some things and left again. They headed down town. So did you get kicked out of your squat and need a new place to crash. I am sure I could find a warm spot for you."
"In your dreams," Buffy commented.
The man leered and said, "yes often." Buffy quickly left after that not acknowledging the clerk at all any more.
--
Buffy walked up to one of the dope fiends that lived in the back alleys near the main street. She had asked around but no one had seen any one or remembered it anyway. Buffy had learned however that some guy named Leif in this alley had been up pacing the streets of the neighborhood looking for his dog.
She spotted an thin elderly man sitting with a dog of very indeterminate race petting it possessively. "Excuse me are you Leif," Buffy asked having difficulty with the weird name.
"No," the man answered but his eyes shifted to the side and Buffy guessed he had lied.
"Listen, look at me, I am not the cops or anyone else for that matter. I just wanted to ask if you have seen a boy this big with black hair together with two young girls last night," she asked.
"No," the guy said again with out looking at her. Buffy frowned. She hadn't expected someone to lie like this.
She crouched down. "Why are you lying? What happened to them? Where did they go?" She asked.
The homeless man looked up at her. "I didn't see anything," he answered but he seemed unable to look directly into her eyes.
Buffy was angry and had become increasingly afraid something had happened to her friends as the day went on. She lost her patience and grabbed the homeless guy lifting him easily as her mutant power slipped from her control and her eyes started glowing. "What did you see!" She commanded.
The man fought to get free but when that failed he covered his face with his hands. "I am sorry. I don't want any trouble. I just saw them meet some gang bangers. The boy got into it with them over something. One of the girls did something and then chaos. There were guns so I ran. I didn't look," he babbled.
"Where?" Buffy practically roared her fear fueling her anger.
"Collins street, just after the next intersection that way," the man flailed with his right arm. Buffy dropped him and picked up her bag in a run ignoring that the other homeless people had hidden or were running away from her. She ran across the street and down the streets as fast as she could.
Buffy arrived at the place Leif had described and found something that immediately made her body go cold. There was blood on the pavement. Buffy swirled around and recognized a bag she had given to Dream herself lay in a pile next to a dumpster. She ran over and examined it. It was covered in blood. Buffy rose and gingerly looked into the dumpster. Inside it lay.
Orion's hair was the same as always and his eyes hadn't lost their brown color yet, but his face was pale and his body still. Buffy silently looked at his corpse trying not to cry, not to collapse. She wasn't aware that her eyes were spouting white fire. She turned and walked back out of the alley. She needed to find Singer and Dream. It was time to use full on Slayer methods it seemed, at least what habits and training remained with her. She looked up and down the street noticing a street crew selling drugs at the next intersection.
Going by instinct rather than any real plan Buffy fired her power into the ground and launched herself that way in a rocket boosted jump and leaving behind a small crater. She judged the distance correctly and landed in the middle to the mixed race group. "I want to know who shot that boy in the dumpster down there and I want to know right now," she said and kicked the biggest guy in the group without warning. They were all her age, but Buffy didn't care. Nor did she care about the boy she had just hammered several yards back into a wall. He had bounced off the wall and crumbled to the ground in a whimpering heap.
Several of the teenage boys ran, one headed for a black plastic bag, one headed away with his pockets full of something. Two however stood their ground. Each pulled out a sort of small machine gun. "You're dead ho," the first one of them said. Buffy fired off her power again letting it come from her hands aiming at his face.
The kid flew down the street and only skidded to a stop after a while. The kid coughed and lay there whimpering in pain too. Buffy heard several noises akin to angry buzzing and the bangs coming from a weapon behind her, but she didn't feel any damage. Quickly as not to waste a chance she turned towards the other guy, the last one remaining. He was shaking. Buffy was surrounded by white fire now she realized. It was like her insides were suddenly warm and it felt pleasant to let go. It was like a pressure, she hadn't been aware off, was being slightly relieved.
"The gang where is it?" Buffy asked.
"We're the only gang who use these blocks. Any one else would get theirs. L-like you will," the last kid blustered.
"You killed him," Buffy jumped forward. The gun fired wildly. But that was into the air as Buffy had grabbed hold of the kid's arm and forced it up. She pulled back a fist.
"I-I didn't. This kid that we had seen here before. The boy. That arrogant prick. He wouldn't pay our toll and then one of them. One of the mutant bitches with him did something. Lil Joe tried to shoot her. The boy got in the way. They dumped the body and took the girls," he said.
"They took them. Took them where?" Buffy asked practically growling.
"A warehouse at the old train station," the boy replied. Buffy didn't thank him for the help. Instead she tossed him into the building wall hard enough to leave a bloody smear where his nose had been smashed. She saw that he was still breathing then looked towards the distant train yards that they used to look down at from the back porch just before going inside every day these last months. Buffy decided to try and fly there. She fired off her powers and blew through the air the fiery cocoon around her protecting her as she flew across the sky like a white meteor.
She only needed to stay airborne for a few moments then she could see the huge abandoned buildings that Orion had sworn were full of squatters, drug dealers and worse. She flew low over the ground turned sharply upwards and cut off her power. She dropped to a kneeling position from four yards up and slowly rose. She surrounded her body with fire. Thinking about Orion in the dumpster the thought of his dead body and what could be happening to the girls just made it grow bigger. Buffy walked towards one of the warehouse's. The only one that seemed mostly intact. It had a lot of graffiti tags that reminded her of several she had seen just moments ago. She expected someone to have noticed her coming. She rounded the building and saw several expensive cars and two bikes parked next to a loading dock. Buffy walked along the loading docks and looked into the storage area through the single open door. Just inside out of the sun two young boys about her age stood holding more of the same types of guns from earlier. They both looked like they wanted to be mean and dangerous. Having fought and slaughtered demons Buffy considered them about as scary as boys playing at being men.
"Run! Now!" She yelled as she stepped inside. One fired his gun. Buffy flinched and forgot to react. For a moment she gasped in fear. The bullets had hammered into her fire but dropped to the ground harmlessly as soon as they hit it. Buffy looked at the two. "No second chances," she said and fired her power at them. It flung them through the width of the warehouse and blasted them into the walls with a ringing gong like noise. Buffy was figuring out that her power could either burn and exert force.
Buffy looked around, but saw nothing. No trace of those she wanted to find. Then she heard the yell, "Hey is something wrong up there." She looked around and saw that there were a ramp leading underground.
Buffy ran over and headed straight down the path. A guy was on his way up. She rammed into him and sent him back down. She stopped as she saw what she had found. This was probably some sort of temporary drug distribution place. There were boxes and tables with money, white powder and in the far corner some gathering of people that were yelling and egging someone on.
"Kick her mutant ass," one yelled. Buffy kicked the one she had just struck down in the throat before she turned and ran towards the distant group at the other end of the basement.
Buffy could see this was some sort of sick beatdown. Five guys with guns surrounded one large sweaty guy without a gun and a very badly beaten Dream. Buffy couldn't see Singer anywhere and that just made her feel even worse. She winced as another wet sounding punch that landed on Dream. They were beating on little kids.
"You fucking flatscans! Take on someone who can fight back," she said. The group turned and looked at her. Buffy knew from the glittering reflections across the walls that she was probably looking like she was engulfed in fire.
"Shoot it," one of the drug dealers yelled sounding a bit afraid. Another one immediately fired. Buffy noted with glee as the bullet dropped harmlessly to the ground. Still she was afraid that if she fired back someone might die or she'd hit an already hurt Dream. She really wasn't in control of her power most of the time. Orion had told her weeks ago that she had to learn it or it would get out of her control.
"I want you to surrender! Now!" She commanded. They replied by firing again. Three hunkered down behind some transport crates, while the other two stood in front of Dream. The guy that had beaten on Dream headed behind Dream's hanging form to grab something from behind a couple of boxes.
Buffy fired her power at the transport crates. She regretted then not having trained in her powers before. The crates exploded into tiny fragments and the incandescent rays she fired hit the people and the wall. There was a small explosion scattering concrete dust from the wall. She had no idea if there were survivors or not. There were several series of bullets that hammered into her fire from the right. She felt them. It was strange as the bullets landed on her fire, there seemed to be a pressure back against her, but the fire still kept the danger out. Buffy in her rage barely cared about herself.
She fired again. One ray from each hand. Buffy noticed that her rays sounded like dull thunderous roars as they passed through the air. Both of the gunmen flew back and hit the walls behind them bumping Dream on their way back. The last man, the one who had beaten Dream, walked out of his cover behind his victim. He had a gun to the head of Singer. The dear little girl was crying her eyes out and didn't even seem to recognize Buffy. Buffy meanwhile flashed back to Dream and looked at the huge guy. Singer wasn't exactly a good shield for him.
"I'll kill her if you..." Buffy didn't bother listen to the threat. She fired her beam straight into his face and ran forward. He flew back. But Buffy had held back and he only landed straight behind Singer looking dazed. Buffy interposed herself between the man and Singer, who had dropped and curled to a fetal position on the floor. He lifted his gun towards Dream. Buffy stomped her foot down on his hand as hard as she could. She heard snaps and cracks then the groan of metal bending but didn't relent. The man screamed and she still didn't care. Buffy used her position over his head to punch him hard in the jaw. He thumped against the concrete floor and lay still. She turned and looked at Dream. She had been cuffed and the cuffs suspended from a hook. Gently she took her down. She slipped Singer onto one arm and positioned Dream over the other and so looking ridiculously over burdened but easily lifting the weight she left the basement with them.
Buffy walked away from the building not staggering or pausing until she had found a reasonably safe corner. She put the pair down and turned around. She needed to get her friends into a hospital, which meant she needed a few things like money and a car. Buffy couldn't drive or rather she could, but not in a way that made other people on the road feel safe.
She headed back inside and took two of the shoe boxes of drug money then searched on of her victims none of which had gotten up yet or dared to move in her presence. She found a pair of car keys and went back out. Buffy stopped and looked at the building. Sooner or later the drug dealers would either be rescued or maybe recover on their own. She put the money in the car the keys worked on then faced the build. Concentrating really hard she fired off her power from her hands, she let go of her control, pushing her power out. The flash monstrous heat and thunderous explosion that followed was nothing compared to the effect. The air filled with dust and the noise of the single wall that had remained standing, collapsing out as the entire roof had disappeared. Small fires had started at the top of the falling walls and the air felt very hot. Buffy gaped in shock for a moment at the absolute carnage then in a run went to where she had put down the girls.
She managed to get the dust-covered and sobbing Singer and the now unconscious Dream into the car before she rapidly, haphazardly and with several engine misfires made the car move out of the old train yard at best speed. She was sure the police and fire department was coming as quick as they could.
Buffy looked at the huge dust plume rising to the sky behind her as she was more than a block away and said to herself, "Maybe I over did it a little."
--
Charles put down the helmet interface to Cerebro and activated his wheelchair. He considered the situation at the school, but decided it no longer mattered. Kurt and Logan were working out great with the students and Scott seemed to be getting back into shape too. Which was good because he was getting to be fairly certain that he would need them.
Charles searched through astral space and found the familiar thought pattern of Scott Summers. "Scott, I am sorry to disturb you during your class, but would you come to my office immediately," Charles sent to his second in command.
"Yes, professor," Scott replied.
Professor Xavier repeated the exercise but on Logan. He knew that Scott and Logan didn't like each other, but he felt that they needed to get past that and sending them out on a mission like he planned to do when he saw them was a possible first step. Besides he had urgent need.
--
Buffy was amazed by herself. She had made it to an emergency room. In a car. At least she hadn't killed any one in traffic nor was the police hot on her tail at the moment. She knew that there would be trouble. Social Services, police and the like, but she had to get Singer and Dream in there. Problem was that there was going to be questions. Questions to who she was. And the only thing she couldn't allow was for her to get identified as Buffy Summers. So she had to make up a name. Taking a deep breath to calm herself and hopefully keep her eyes from glowing Buffy ran inside.
She ran inside. Spotting a security guard and a couple of guarded looking nurses she decided to run up to the front desk. "Somebody please help. I have two girls in the car outside. They've been beaten. I saw some gang bangers beat them up. They look really bad," she blurted out half driven by her fear for the girls, the other was an act done half with calculation. She waited for a few moments before she ran out.
A few moments after she had reached the car. She turned and saw the security guy along with two male nurses come outside. The moment they saw Dream in the passenger seat, their attitude changed. "Ah crap, Randy, go fetch two gurneys," one of the nurses said.
"What about you kid?" the security guy asked. He was a young black guy, black hair, kind smile but with a weary look in his eyes and a Jamaican accent like she had only heard in the movies. She wondered for a moment what a guy like that was doing in Seattle of all places, then marveled at how easily her mind was distracted.
"I am fine, just a little... shook up," Buffy said.
"Why don't you come back inside. One of the doctor's should look you over," the security man offered.
"Miss, do you know these girls?" the nurse called Randy asked.
Buffy warred with herself. She knew she was supposed to say no and just walk away. But then with Orion gone the girls would have no one. She didn't want to be the one who ran away not after having been forced to leave her home as well. "Yeah, I know them. We live together. The guy who used to take care of them got shot this morning," Buffy explained trying to expand her lie.
"Randy, do you think you're gonna get their insurance info. Look at her. Look at the kids. They're homeless. Just help me get them inside," the other nurse said.
Buffy followed the girls inside where immediate she and the girls were led down some halls into a pediatric area of the emergency department.
"Stop here miss, let the doctors do their work," the security guy said. "Are you sure you don't want to go be checked out too?" he asked again.
"I'm fine. If I am bloody none of its mine," she replied staring off in the direction of the catatonic seeming Singer.
"Why don't you come back to the waiting area, you'll be able to see the girls later. Someone will swing by to ask you questions later. I am also going to call the police and social services," he said giving Buffy a look as if he expected her to bolt.
Buffy calmly looked at him and said, "That'll be fine, I wasn't expecting anything else." Buffy knew she was in a bit of trouble for now and again wished she had colored her hair or at least cut it.
She noticed they had hot drinks and went over to get some coffee. Having been on the street all night held left her thirsty and with a slight case of the sniffles. The security guy stayed out in the corridor only occasionally casting a glance in her direction.
--
"Listen, Scotty just get this bucket of bolts to Seattle and we'll be peachy. If you could do it without talking that would even better," Wolverine said glancing in occasional annoyance at his current partner in crime.
"I could live with that," Cyclops replied.
Wolverine nodded to himself as they exited the basket ball field and set off across the US the latest model of the Blackbird having even better stealth than the last. Logan really didn't care about their ride too much. Instead he worried about their mission. It was his first with the X-Men that didn't directly involve some major disaster in the offing. Although going off with Cyclops was bad enough the actual thing they were going to do was way outside anything he had expected to be doing. Sure he had expected some of demeaning task from time to time, like having to listen to one of the kids talk about their girlfriend problems. Now though he of all people was supposed to go and help recruit some kid for the school. The Professor and Cyclops had been vague when he had arrived, but still he had believed they had known him well enough to know that doing this was not something he was up for normally.
Wolverine really didn't want to break the agreed upon silence, but he had to ask, "so why doesn't Charley know more about whoever we're going after?"
"This mutant apparently has a very strong psionic power, which makes her easy to detect on Cerebro but seems to also lock the Professor out of her thoughts. All he could get was that it was a girl and that she was in some sort of danger or trouble. She has been in his thoughts for a while and so the professor decided it was time to offer her help and if she wants a place at the school," Cyclops replied.
"Without a name how do we find her?" Wolverine asked.
"The Blackbird has a short range mutant detector that only picks up the presence of a mutant if they are close and it is pre-programmed to his or her signature. This girl's signature is so strong we won't have any trouble finding her," Cyclops said.
Wolverine grunted and wondered what kind of girl they were going to look in on.