Exposure
By Adrian Tepes
Rating: PG-13 to R.
Summary: The actions of Champions bring changes across the world and to one man in particular. This is his story.
Disclaimer: All properties, characters, etc… are copyright of their respective owners. I make no profit off this and am writing for my own amusement and enjoyment.
Takes place during the S8 comics and follows/replaces/adds on to the series canon from there.
Author's Note: Special thanks to everyone who helped me with this story. You know who you are. I couldn't have done it without you. You may archive just tell me where ie, shoot me a link.
Timeline: Takes place during S8 comics Issue #10 "Anywhere but Here".
Chapter Seven: Knocking on Heaven's Door.
"So you don't know what happened?" Renee asked.
"Not a clue," Xander answered, looking at their surroundings. While he might not remember everything that had happened last night, he did remember luck only lasts so long. The Scoobies needed to know what was on 'their land' just in case next time, luck had fangs. So here he was, accompanied by Renee, out doing a more thorough survey of the entire estate. Before, they had tried to stay closer the castle and the main paths the slayers and others used to move around. Now he had decided to do a more detailed, and in-depth look at the countryside.
"As a way of henging our bets," he told Buffy.
She and Willow were getting ready to do something. Xander recalled it had to do with a Demon that could see all and that the Council was somehow involved.
"And of Miss Summers?" Renee's voice pierced his thoughts.
"Miss Summers? Oh, Dawn. Yeah she's been a bit down lately. But don't you worry, the X-man has an idea sure to put a smile back on her face." His confidence faded as he looked around. "If only I had a plan for everything else".
Renee smiled at him as she slipped her helmet back on before starting up her bike. Letting out a sigh of resignation he slipped on his before starting up the four-wheeler he had opted for. Whereas the slayers got bikes, he preferred having four wheels under him at all times; it helped compensate for the whole depth perception thing, he told his friends.
Unfortunately, four wheels or two, he still hadn't completely replaced all of his shattered equipment from before. Thus, he was making due with what he had. 'I wonder if there is something else I can do in the meantime.' That's when he felt an all too familiar tingling around his waist and pulled over.
Xander looked down to see a familiar looking belt and harness around his waist. He recognized it as the one that had shocked the crap out of him last time he had worn it. Probably owing to him entering the wrong code into the phone, he believed. His musing was cut short as he saw Renee pull up beside him. "Is there something wrong?"
"Wrong? Oh no, no. Nothing's wrong. Just checking some of my improvised field equipment." He attempted to head off any line of questioning before they got started.
"Improvised?" Renee peered around at his gear.
He started fumbling about before finding a familiar shape around his back, which he grasped and showed to her, "Look, binoculars," he noted as he raised them to his eye to look around. "And they really work," he said, almost more to himself then her.
Renee seemed satisfied as she smiled, "Then we should put your equipment to good use," she finished as she revved up her bike, circled around him and resumed her previous course.
Xander merely lowered the binoculars and looked at her with an expression he often wore back in Sunnydale. Saying nothing he fired up his four-wheeler and followed.
Some miles away, one of the countless small hamlets stood silent in the morning air. Normally the area would be filled with the sounds of its residents. The sounds of the livestock would mix with those of the towns few vehicles ferrying townspeople to and from neighboring communities. Most of the men would seeing to their respective livestock as their sons and daughters laughed and played at this time of year. The wives normally met in and around the towns square to catch up on the latest local gossip of the region.
On this day, the town was silent and an eerie sense of calm hung over the area. Save for the local wildlife, no sound emanated from the town. Indeed as one looked through the place, they would see disturbing signs. Doors ripped from their hinges, shattered windows tinged with crimson. Cars and trucks stopped in the middle of the street with a few over-turned. The smoldering remains of at least one building gave evidence of a crisis. Yet, there was not one sign of people that lived here.
Had an observer been truly brave of heart, they could have found a pair of figures standing in silence near the largest building in the town. Silhouetted in black, they watched one seemingly guarding the other. They stood peering into the blackness, the air around them filled with horrible sounds of squelching and moaning.
Back at the estate, Xander and Renee had pulled to a stop atop one of the many hills in the area. Xander was looking through his new pair of binoculars at the surrounding terrain. When he thought she wasn't looking he also discreetly looked at his companion. Renee held her own unique beauty, like all the women in his life now. Like Anya had held in his eyes. Thinking of her caused him to linger slightly longer then he should have on Renee. She coughed softly, waved and smiled as he felt a familiar feeling of awkwardness color his cheeks.
"Did you find something you liked?" Renee teased.
"I, uh" Xander started to stammer. His stammering was cut short as something blindsided him and knocked him to the ground. Rolling on his side he looked up and saw a woman dressed in tattered clothing with a crazy look on her face glaring at him. He could sense the pure, unbridled hate coming off her in waves as Renee moved to stand beside him.
"A woman scorned?" she asked him.
"I have no idea," Xander responded. The woman crossed her arms, growled and then her entire body seemed to split apart revealing a very disgusting and decidedly heavily armored form beneath it. After that, Renee didn't hesitate and charged the she-demon wielding her hatchet like a tomahawk.
For his part, Xander blinked as he found himself reaching into the pocket of his jacket and receiving a jolt up his arm that burned thru the fog of what had happened. From within his jacket pocket, he removed the familiar yellow-highlighted cell phone. He looked up and saw Renee wasn't fairing too well against the demon. It had managed to knock her to ground and was putting its hands around her neck. That made his decision much easier.
"Hey, She-squid!" That comment drew the attention of the monster and Renee, who both turned to face him. Satisfied, he keyed the code sequence to the phone, sliding the cover shut as he finished.
"Standing by," the phone's dark voice relayed as he took a deep breath and let it out.
"Henshin," was all he said as he slid the phone into its slot on the harness around his waist. As the phone rotated 90 degrees to serve as the buckle, it spoke again "Complete" and yellow light erupted from it, encircling Xander's body in golden light that intensified until it was painful to look at him. The light then died down, revealing Xander in his new armored form.
Renee was surprised, to say the least, over his new appearance and form, remembering it as the mysterious armored warrior that had appeared and destroyed another monster before. 'She-squid,' as he called it, released Renee, bellowed its rage and rushed Xander, intent on exacting some form of revenge.
He intercepted the demon's rush with a stout kick to the midsection that seemed to deflate it and began raining punches and kicks on the beast. There was no hesitation, no pause, and no mercy in his strikes, just a relentless barrage that left his opponent staggering. A final brutal blow sent it flying.
He pulled out the strange X-shaped gun that Renee remembered seeing from before. From her point of view, he paused for a moment then opened fire on the monster showering it with a lethal barrage of yellow energy. The she-demon screamed as the blasts struck home setting her skin ablaze as she dropped to the ground.
"Xander?" Renee cautiously approached him. "Are you in there?"
He holstered his weapon and turned to face her, his breathing now audible to her senses.
"Yeah, just a little tired. This suit is not nearly as comfortable as it looks."
That brought a slight smile to her face. "Well, you fill it out nicely."
The helmet concealed his flush, but not his tone.
"And here I thought I would be ogling the girls in spandex. Not wearing it myself." That set both of them to laughing.
A quick movement out of the corner of her eye drew Renee's attention and she looked over to see the demoness leap, snarling into the air. Tentacles shot from its left arm and wrapped themselves around Xander's right hand, preventing him from grabbing his gun. She landed close to both them and then promptly backhanded the slayer out of the way. Then she attacked him, striking him repeatedly in the chest with her free hand before grabbing his throat and beginning to choke him. Xander struggled but couldn't break her grip
"Let him go, you ugly stonebitch!" Renee's voice brimmed with anger as she attacked the demon, striking it multiple times. With a shout and lethal chop, she severed the tentacle that had held his arm. Xander immediately reached behind and unhooked the binoculars from around his waist, then attached them to an anklet around his right leg, even as Renee was knocked on her rear by the demon.
In the blink of an eye, he had closed the distance, grabbed the squid-like demon and spun it around to face him. Reflexively, he blocked its strike, and then punched the demon in the face, rocking its head back. He went to throw a follow-up kick only to have to the demon catch and hold his foot while hissing at him.
"Your mistake, ugly," he flipped open the cover on the phone, hit a button with the phone confirming, "EXCEED CHARGE," and then snapped it shut again.
As he did so, a yellow burst of light emerged from the phone and traveled along the lines of his suit and entered the pair of binoculars attached to his immobilized leg. The two ends of the binoculars glowed, before unleashing a blast of yellow energy that struck the demon full in the chest, forcing it to drop his leg and be driven backwards. Very quickly, the energy blast unfolded into a cone shape.
Xander didn't hesitate as he jumped toward the monster. At the height of his jump, he twisted his body, throwing his feet out in front of him in the form of a drop kick even as he entered the cone, which seemed to suck him in and then collapse into the monster.
Renee scrambled to her feet as she witnessed the demon contort in obvious pain. Then the familiar looking armor flashed into being before her. Behind him, there was a yellow flash and the monster let out a whimper as it quickly crumbled into dust.
With an audible click, the armor flashed and faded away, leaving Xander behind looking at her. There was an anxious pause as each searched the other's expression.
"That was pretty cool," Renee said at last triggering a sigh of relief from him.
"Cool is something I can live with," Xander answered good-naturedly.
He took one step towards her before the world started going wrong. All of a sudden things started getting blurry and he felt intense tingling flowing through his body. Renee's face had changed from a smile to a look of fear as she moved forward to be by his side.
"Mr. Harris? Xander?!" Renee's words were spoken in a panic stricken voice. She was holding onto his arm, trying to gently lower him to the ground even as he struggled to draw breath.
He could tell Renee was saying something, but he couldn't hear her. He kept trying to take a breath, but it felt like an elephant was sitting on his chest. Oddly, he could feel himself begin to sweat profusely. The world seemed to take an odd haze of brighter colors. Each was harder to look at then the last. Then he saw nothing.
The morning sky was pierced a grief-filled scream of a Slayer.
