A Grey Justice on the Horizon

by Shadow Master

(BtVS/Young Justice/DCAU/Marvel Comics) Ever dress up for Halloween intending to be one thing only to be seen as something else by those that saw you? The Scoobies certainly do because thanks to the chaos spawned by the spell of Ethan Rayne they will become people who are quite different from what they'd intended to be. A difference that will echo throughout the world.

10. Being a Ladies Man Isn't Always Good

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my work. Therefore I would greatly appreciate it if no legal action were taken against me. I can promise that you won't make back even a tenth of your legal fees.

NOTE: Sorry about the trouble with this. Normally I just put a line of shift key symbols to act as scene/pov breaks but for some reason 's system isn't letting them show up. Hopefully this will fix things

XANDER'S POV

It didn't take him long to make it back to Palo Alto and, once there, he reclaimed his stuff from its hiding place before leaving the city in a random direction.

While he was fairly sure that there'd be no more League attacks against Artemis or any of his loved ones, he didn't think the blonde would approve of what he'd done in order to secure her safety. Like most Americans and perhaps humanity as a whole, there was a strict code of conduct for costumed crime fighters and one of the big rules was 'NO KILLING' with subsections that included no maiming or excessive force. Thus he was pretty sure that if she found out he had horrifically murdered a large number of people belonging to the League of Shadows she'd read him the superhero riot act and then reject him. Since he had no particular desire to sit through that and she'd been the only thing keeping him Palo Alto, he felt it was time to move on. He'd made sure to leave her the motorcycle, the warehouse and everything connected to it so that she'd be able to keep up her fight against the darker elements of the city. Everything was in her name or, if age was an issue, he made sure to put it into her mother's name. Same thing with the warehouse security system since it now recognized her as the one in charge when it came to authorizing changes or protecting when it was set to automatic.

She'd be safe and provided for.

As he flew he began to consider what the Justice League's reaction to his little offensive against Ra's Al Ghul would be. The fact that they hadn't caught up with him yet implied that they didn't know for sure that he was responsible and hadn't had time to get to any of the hidden bases or the last place he was at in time to nab him. Still, it'd probably be a good idea to lie low for the time being until the next big crisis happened, one requiring their undivided attention. If it was anything like he thought it was, they'd likely forget any mysteries that happened beforehand entirely or at least not be quite as determined to solve them. After all they were usually pretty busy on the Hellmouth that, once they got four or more problems away from an unsolved mystery, they generally put it on the metaphorical shelf until something popped up to make it relevant again. True, some of the obsessive compulsive members of the Justice League, like Batman, would probably stay with the mystery until he was satisfied and the perp was cuffed, but the rest would let it slide.

It wasn't until hours later that he finally got tired enough to start looking for a place to sleep for the night and, when he spotted the lights of a big city, he flew towards it. He touched down outside of the city itself, right in the middle of some obscuring trees, before changing into his civilian clothes since he didn't want to be misunderstood by the public and labeled a super villain by mistake. Once everything was in his bag he began walking towards the city by the side of the road, wondering which city he'd chosen to stop in for the night. It was a little over half an hour later before he saw a sign answering his question, telling him he was entering Central City, Missouri. Not his first choice since this was the chosen city of the Flash and he'd wanted to avoid contact with members of the Justice League, but he could cope. He'd only live in the city until he could find a place close by that would reduce the odds of him running into the speedster and then he'd move there.

What would he do once there?

Probably just relax since he had enough cash in his bank account that he didn't need to work to support himself and, if he ever needed more, he could just rummage through his Magneto memories for anything useful that couldn't be weaponized. Basically he'd treat it as a vacation from all the adventures and missions he'd been on lately so he could relax while enjoying all the good stuff life had to offer. Not that he'd pick up a hooker or do drugs or get seriously drunk but all the legal stuff that wouldn't have people looking at him weird would be worth trying out. Would he try dating? Probably not because, while he was no longer feeling the sting that used to pop up when he remembered Bette as bad, he honestly wasn't looking for love at the moment. Maybe if a knockout of a lady crossed his path and had some fire in her, his interest might be piqued enough to have a go of it but, for the time being, he'd just coast along the river of life.

It didn't take him more than an hour to get into the city proper and, once there, less than twenty minutes of walking to find a motel that looked well maintained but not expensive. He might be well off financially but that was no reason to foolishly spend his money like it was burning a hole in his pocket. Plus it'd always been a belief of his that advertising that you were rich or well off financially attracted the gold diggers and sycophants like flies to crap. Since he wanted nothing to do with either he'd have to be careful with his spending so that he still appeared to be middle class in the eyes of others but would be able to splurge from time to time.

Entering the motel he could see a balding Hispanic man behind the counter watching television, indicating that it had been a slow night and therefore not a whole lot for him to do. That didn't mean the man was inattentive to his surroundings, though, since before he got halfway to the counter the motel clerk turned towards him with a polite but only half honest look of welcome. A quick exchange later and he was on his way to his room, passing a few others along the way but, in most cases, the curtains were drawn on the parking space facing windows so they didn't attract his attention. The only one that didn't have its curtain closed, though, and therefore inspired enough curiosity to peek through the gap though had him seeing something that almost caused him to break stride.

Now unlike the majority of people the world over, he was a little more flexible when it came to what was acceptable during a bedroom Olympics competition, aka sex. Not that he'd had sex himself but Jesse, being the horn dog that he was and having access to his father's porn collection, had often held debates with him over such things. Though not when Willow or any other female was around, of course, because that'd have earned them both 'The Look' followed by cold shoulders lasting at least a month.

They'd gone through topics like what features were most desirable in a woman, what the cutoff point was for dating older women, whether shaved was better than trimmed and where to draw the line with the kinky stuff. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't found some of the topics Jesse had wanted to debate disturbing but they were best buds so he had at least given it a decent try, even if he had mentally wished for brain bleach afterwards. In the end, though, after thinking things through, debating them and trying not to let societal norms take hold, he had actually found himself to be rather reasonable about what people could and could not do to express their love or lust for one another. He was still firmly against getting physical with someone who wasn't above the average age of consent and, when the one person could easily be the parent of the other person, things ventured into dirty old people territory. Basically if it didn't do harm to anyone, was entirely consensual for both parties and certain age parameters were kept in mind, he didn't have a problem with it.

What he'd seen through the gap in the curtains was a guy who looked to be in his mid-to-late thirties getting it on with THREE lovely ladies, all of whom had long since shed their last article of clothing. He didn't stick around to memorize the details but he was pretty sure all three ladies stood a decent chance of winning a modeling contest if one was ever held in Central City. All three were regular gym visiting fit, had racks that were neither too big nor too small in his opinion and, if the sweat he thought he saw was any indicator, had a decent amount of stamina to their names.

As long as they don't get loud enough to be heard from my room, they can go at it all night for all I care. Reaching his room and pausing to look back at the distance between it and the other one, he entered it.

Tossing his bag onto the small bench in the room he stripped down to just his boxers before sliding into the bed and grabbing the TV remote from the bedside table. He figured he'd stay up and watch an hour or so of television before going to sleep since it'd give him time to get a grasp of the local news and goings on. If he planned on hanging his hat around her for the foreseeable future then he'd need to have some idea of the craziness that tended to happen in the hometown of a member of the Justice League. He was pretty sure that there'd be a set of regular super villains hanging about committing crimes at least once a week, so he'd have to remember to stay clear of any areas that had buildings that were the cliché targets of criminals. If he needed money he could just get it from one of the ATMs scattered about the city rather than go to a bank. He had no use for jewelry so he was safe in that area. His taste in restaurants was more middle class than upper crust so he wouldn't have to worry about being robbed there or taken hostage.

Sure, there'd be the usual ski mask robbers probably, but nothing dangerous enough to specifically require the Flash to run in to save the day.

"We now return you to 'The Flash: History of the Scarlet Speedster'," the voice on the television declared before images of Central City's speedster began to cycle through on the screen.

Well, that's convenient! he thought before looking about the room for suspicious objects and ran through Magneto's checklist of ways to determine if you have a telepath in your head. Either Karma's hitting me early for all the assassins I killed or it's just really, REALLY strange timing.

CORDELIA'S POV

Another day, another meal at the Noleski Soup Kitchen, she thought with only half the disgust she'd started feeling the first time she'd walked through the buildings doors. Once again, ah HATE the I.R.S.

It'd been like this the last couple of months and, while she was growing more accustomed to being poor, it still wasn't something she and her Echoes liked. Her Echoes were the lingering remnants of the people she'd… touched… after Rogue's powers had clicked on. The memory of that horrid day still caused her to shudder and immediately she tried to find something else to focus on, starting with the food on the tray in front of her. It wasn't much and it certainly wasn't what she'd lived off of for the first decade and a half of her life. The place was called a Soup Kitchen for a reason because just about everything they offered came with a bowl of soup, with the type changing between chicken noodle, tomato and vegetable at random during the course of the week. Sometimes a sandwich was put with the soup and other times a salad, but nothing as fancy as she'd have chosen. Today it was tomato soup with a ham sandwich and one of those mini-cartons of milk elementary schools sometimes gave their students. She tried to enjoy the taste, to savor it, but sadly both she and the Echoes of her parents didn't find it that appealing, so part of her mind still lingered on the memory of the day everything went to hell.

It'd started out just like any other day since Halloween had turned her into a wannabe southern belle and, while she'd gotten better at suppressing Rogue's Mississippi accent, it still slipped out of her mouth when she didn't pay attention. At school she passed it off as wanting to be unique rather than just another valley girl speaking rich girl and at home she'd told her parents that being able to fake accents naturally would help her acting career. Of course her parents had only feigned confidence that she could make it in Hollywood and they'd been pretty thoroughly convinced that her only future lay in her body, either as some rich husband's arm candy wife or as a model who was seen but not heard from. How did she know this?

Because that morning she'd walked in on the two of them talking about how 'it was only a matter of time before they caught on' and naturally, like any other time when something that concerned her was being concealed, she asked what they were talking about. They'd tried to brush her off, claimed that nothing was wrong and that she should get to school, but even as experienced in putting on masks as her parents had been, she'd been able to see past them. Something had them worried and when they hadn't answered her question, she'd let her eyes do some looking about to get to the truth and found what looked like financial statements and account records on her father's desk. Putting two and two together she immediately came to the conclusion that her parents had been trying to pull a fast one on someone financially and the countdown had started on the truth coming out. Taking that as the truth she'd asked them straight out how long they had and how much they owed whoever THEY were while believing that it couldn't have been too much. After all they were Chases and they'd been one of Sunnydale's most prominent families for over two decades, so surely they couldn't have been too foolish with money.

That had been her belief.

The truth had been something different.

When her parents hadn't answered her she'd started tossing out guesses about how much they owed the person they'd pulled a fast one on and looked to her parents' faces for tells about whether she was getting warmer or colder. When her guesses had passed the one hundred thousand dollar mark she'd started to feel seriously worried but it wasn't until she'd went above the million mark that she'd seen her mother glance in her father's direction, as if to ask him what they should do. That'd been enough to shock her and make her wonder who the hell they'd ripped off that they owed the person or persons over a million dollars. She'd asked her father that and, after sighing in submission, he'd told her that for the last couple of years he hadn't exactly been honest with the government about the Chase family taxes. The man had tried to downplay it by claiming that they'd only lied about a little here and a little there and that, before anyone realized, it the amount had risen to quite a bit. When he'd glanced back at her mother and stated that he'd been warned by the family accountant that the IRS was sniffing around, she realized how badly things could go.

Lying to the government, to the IRS, didn't just mean they took what they were owed plus interest; it also carried with it a rather heavy prison sentence with the time served varying depending on just how much money the government had been cheated out of by one of its citizens.

All at once she'd begun freaking out about either suddenly becoming poor or going to prison with her parents for being an accomplice or something. Back and forth her mind had gone until she'd gone with the first thing she could think of, which had been to get to the bank and begin to withdraw as much from her savings account as possible each day and hiding it someplace. She'd even thought about finding places to hide her car, her clothes and eventually herself until the whole thing blew over. She'd said as much to her parents and had been halfway to the door before both of them had latched onto her upper arms trying to stop her. They'd only gotten as far as saying doing that would only make things worse when it'd happened.

Rogue's powers had clicked on and immediately the personalities, memories and even life energy of her parents started to get sucked into her body.

Chaos had reigned after that as thoughts, feelings and everything else that'd made up her parents began to connect to her mind like they were her own. She hadn't known how much time had passed between them touching her and the three of them being on the ground but, as soon as her mind had regained some equilibrium, she'd grabbed the nearest phone to call for an ambulance.

Too bad she'd accidentally crushed it in her right hand the second she'd wrapped her fingers around it.

Rogue's Echo had chosen that moment to pop up with memories of coping with Carol Danvers' powers the first few months after permanently absorbing them. It'd helped her with the next phone since it'd let her actually make the call and hang up before her hand broke the device in two. When she'd realized that an ambulance and more people would be on the way, people who she might absorb stuff from by accident, she'd told the maid Selma to keep an eye on her folks while she went to her room. Once there she'd looked through her closets and drawers looking for clothing that'd cover up a lot of skin but not make her stand out like a freak too much. Sadly her control over Miss Marvel's powers hadn't been much better than Rogue's had been in the beginning and she'd gone through three shirts and two sets of pants before finally looking presentable. Sliding on a pair of black gloves to complete the picture, she'd gone back downstairs just in time to see the EMTs rush to her Dad's office to tend to her parents. The man and the woman had naturally asked her the same questions as the nine one one person had and she spat out the same half-lies she had over the phone. She couldn't tell them the truth, they'd never believe her and would likely have had her committed to an asylum for the mentally nuts, so she'd given them something as close to the truth as she could manage.

She'd ridden along in the ambulance, not particularly willing to test her driving skills with her new circumstances, but the time not spent talking got used up dealing with everything floating around inside her head. Most of what popped up centered on what'd been in her parents' minds before… before she'd sucked some of them into herself… and she'd learned just how screwed the Chase family really was. Where her parents had tried lying to themselves about how bad things really were she'd been able to view things from a more objective standpoint. During the ambulance ride she'd viewed memories of her parents' conversations with the family accountant, none of which were very encouraging about her future. According to the memories her parents had been up to no good financially for twelve years, making her think that they owed the IRS quite a bit more than a million dollars. Add to that the fact that she likely had only months before the Chase family went completely and utterly bankrupt and she'd barely held together long enough to reach the privacy of the hospital bathroom later on.

After she'd collected herself in the bathroom she'd tried to figure out if her parents dropping into comas thanks to her would change the outcome of the IRS investigation. She'd concluded that it wouldn't. That meant that while she'd be able to afford their hospital care for a few months, it'd dry up once the government caught up with them and she hadn't liked the scenarios her mind had come up with about what'd happen to her parents afterwards. Unless someone seriously generous stepped up to foot the bill she'd imagined that they'd be shipped off to some charity hospital or… or… or someone would think that death was preferable to being comatose.

Right there and then she'd decided that extreme times called for extreme measures and so decided to find a way to get more than enough money to pay the hospital to take care of her parents.

She'd rob a bank!

Had Xander or someone else been there at the time she'd probably have calmed down and rethought her plan but they hadn't been there, leaving her to act on her plan.

After making sure her parents had been taken care of she'd gone home, dressed in the most middle class clothes she owned and then snuck out the back of the mansion before making her way to Sunnydale's main bank. She'd wrapped up her head in scarves and made sure her unique skunkified hair was concealed before approaching the bank but, once she was ready, she'd steamrolled right into the place. She'd ignored everyone there, even the security guards who'd tried to stop her, only flinching a bit when the guards used their pistols, even though it didn't do more than put holes in the outfit she'd tossed on. She'd grabbed an empty garbage bag once she'd gotten behind the tellers counter and began stuffing money from their tills, shoving anyone trying to get in her way to the side. Sometimes 'shove' turned into 'throw' by accident but none of the people had stayed down or had looked seriously hurt, so she still didn't feel too guilty. Once she'd cleaned out the tills she'd gone to the vault and, using all the strength she'd been able to muster, had actually found it quite easy to tear the door off its hinges. After she'd tossed it to the side she'd begun to empty the contents of the vault into the bag, not stopping until it was full and grabbing a few money bags inside for good measure before exiting the room.

By then the local Sunnydale P.D had shown up, shouting the usual 'surrender' lines, but she'd known that unless they'd brought a tank from the local military base nothing they'd brought with them could harm her or even slow her down. Add to that the fact that Sunnydale didn't have police choppers and she'd known that, if she could just get clear of the police, they'd lose her. She'd exited the bank, kicked a couple of cop cars into the air like they were cardboard boxes and then broke into a sprint, intent on putting as much space between herself and the police as possible before going home. It'd only been after she'd managed to sneak back into her room that she'd fully grasped what she'd done but the only real problem that'd popped up was whether or not anything she'd stolen was traceable. She'd known in the cop films that when bank robbers stole money they usually had it laundered so that no flags would pop up when the serial numbers on the bills were checked. When she'd tried to think of how she'd be able to do that, she remembered hearing about a local bottom feeder by the name of Willy during a meeting with Summers and her freaks. The description she'd gotten of the snitch made her think he was the perfect person to launder the money so, a week later, she'd went to his bar and made a deal with him.

She'd give him ten percent of what she'd stolen if he'd use his contacts to launder the whole lot of it.

Once he'd gotten the total amount stolen he'd readily agreed to the deal and agreed with her recommendation to do it slowly over time rather than all at once, especially when she'd demonstrated her super strength on a demon that'd gotten lippy with her.

She'd used the legal money her family had in their names to pay for the medical fees starting out but it'd been five months later that the IRS had finally come calling. She'd had to sit through many meetings since she'd been the only member of the Chase family not in the hospital, and it'd been hard as hell not to feel like her world was ending when the total of what'd be taken had been listed. In the end she'd been told that she could keep whatever she could squeeze into two normal sized suitcases but the rest was going to be liquidated to pay off what her parents owed the government. That'd led to her going home and trying to efficiently yet strategically choose the things that were most precious to her and force them to fit into her two biggest yet normal sized suitcases. She'd moved into a local apartment once the Chase mansion was sold off along with everything in it and the money she'd picked up from Willy helped both her as well as her parents. She'd actually thought for a few weeks that, while no longer the richest girl in town, she'd be able to 'rough it' well enough.

Then had come the day that she'd gone to Willy's Alibi Room for her latest pick up of laundered money, only to find the place in shambles and the bartender slash snitch dying on the floor. She'd reflexively asked him what'd happened and, with his dying breaths, he'd told her how the people he'd been laundering the money through had come looking for the source of the cash. Apparently a steady flow of moolah had gotten the launderers interested and they'd had a low enough opinion of Willy that they hadn't minded coming and 'persuading' him to reveal the source. She'd asked him why he hadn't just given her up and, surprisingly enough, he'd mumbled something about her deal finally giving him a shot at a better life before going limp. She'd been about to call for an ambulance when four guys in suits entered the room, talking about how maybe she'd be more cooperative than Willy'd been.

The Rogue Echo and her had then launched a joint effort to show just how 'cooperative' they would be, resulting in all four guys stuffed into the trunk of their own car with the lock broken. A call to the police later and she'd read in the local Sunnydale newspaper that all four had been arrested for the murder of William Guerra, easing her conscience somewhat for contributing to his death. However it'd also put her in the bad position of no longer having a steady flow of cash to pay her parents' hospital bills and her own needs.

So she'd made the only choice she found she could live with.

She'd poured all but a small amount of the clean money she'd had left into paying for her parents' care and then left Sunnydale altogether. It'd been the only rational choice for her. She hadn't known of anyone else she could launder money through and even her moment of inspiration about rolling vamps and demons for valuables or cash died a quick death. She hadn't and still didn't know where her limits were in terms of invulnerability, so for all she knew demon claws or enchanted weapons could cut her up as easily as they could ordinary people. That didn't even take into account spells or curses or whatever other freakiness could've been sent her way if she rolled the wrong demon or vampire.

She couldn't help her parents if she was dead.

So she'd hit upon another plan that'd been promising: head to a new town or city every six months, locate the local human scumbags and then take them for whatever they had on them and then move on before the crooks could organize themselves to take her down. Anything that wasn't cash but was traceable got dumped in the nearest river, with the rest being hocked at the pawn shops two states away where it was unlikely the original owners would look for their belongings. Eighty percent of whatever she got during each six month stretch she sent back to Sunnydale Hospital to pay for her parents' medical bills while the rest she put towards her own survival. Sometimes she got enough money for herself that she could afford to rent an apartment for a short time as well as eat decent food but most times she had to take charity food from whatever shelter or soup kitchen she could find. Sometimes she raided some farmer's fields for fruits or vegetables as well but not enough to clean the person out or cause them problems.

It wasn't easy being uncertain of where your next meal was coming from or going from having enough cash to last six months to barely having enough for one, but she was coping.

The Rogue Echo helped the most since the X-Woman had some experience surviving on her own but her parents' echoes also helped by pointing out what was most valuable during her raids on the criminal element. Still, despite the usefulness of her echoes, she was doing all she could to keep from picking up any more of them and had even commissioned a business that dealt in professional motorcycle gear to create what she was wearing. It was made to be as durable as possible without requiring materials that were out of the business manager's reach to acquire and it'd been patterned after the green and yellow uniform Rogue had worn for a number of years.

With one exception: it was black and dark green.

The black as an eternal reminder of her parents' current state, of where she'd put them however accidentally it might have happened and of the bottomless pit that was her former life.

The dark green because she'd known how much easier it'd be to pass off the primarily leather suit as normal civilian wear rather than something that stood out as cosplay material.

She even had brown leather jacket that was a close match for the one Rogue wore but had more realistic boots and gloves, though she made sure all of it was as fashionable as she could afford.

She had only one spare outfit in case something happened to the one she was wearing at the moment and, unless she decided to take on some of Flash's rogues gallery, it'd likely be another six months before she could afford a third spare.

Then I guess I'd better not do my target dummy impersonation anytime soon, she thought finishing her meal. I want to be able to eat decent food sooner rather than later.

XANDER'S POV

Definitely got a 'getting away from it all' vibe, he thought as he stood out on the back deck of the cottage he'd rented out on the edge of Smithville Lake. But still close enough to civilization that a quick flight can get me to Central City if I need to go there.

Not that there weren't shops closer by but, from what he'd seen, Smithville was even smaller than Sunnydale had been and that meant fewer mainstream shops carrying the stuff he liked. It definitely felt like one of those places where everyone knew everyone and most of the businesses had been passed down from generation to generation. Sure, they weren't cut off from the outside world or anything like that but rather they had their only little slice of peace and quiet with only occasional deliveries from civilization.

At least that was the feeling he got when he rode into town.

He'd signed the rental paperwork and paid for the next three months but held off on anything more long term until he was satisfied that this was the place he wanted to lay down roots. The cottage was partially furnished with the basics but he'd ordered some new stuff to be brought in by truck in the next few days, but that was just the big stuff like furniture and a fifty inch flatscreen TV. The smaller knick knacks and personal treats he'd be getting today when he flew into Central City to pick them up. He wasn't going to be a complete couch potato and have others deliver everything to his doorstep. Laying low didn't mean going all hermit and staying away from other people. It just meant no getting into costume unless he absolutely had to and keeping any usage of his powers low profile so that he didn't wind up on the evening news. It was why he wasn't magnetically carrying the furniture and TV to the cottage himself since people tended to take notice of such things. Also, contrary to popular opinion, he didn't need a moderate amount of metal to be incorporated into whatever he wore to fly, so he could easily get to where he needed to go in civilian clothes.

Looking around to see if any hikers or lake revelers were in a position to get a clear look at him, he took to the air as soon as he confirmed the answer was no. Accelerating himself so that he wouldn't be seen by those further away with a clear view of the blue sun-filled sky, he waited until he was just under the minimum radar altitude before setting course for Central City. Feeling the wind against his face, he gave into the childish urge within him and began doing aerial maneuvers employed either by maneuverable aircraft or what he'd seen Superman do on television. It was silly but, if he was on vacation, then it only made sense to have fun where and when he could so a little silly flying as okay so long as he didn't get too careless.

The more he did it, though, the lighter his heart felt and the more he began to act his age rather than someone aged by hardship as well as loss. By the time he was close enough to Central City to make out some of the details of the building, he was feeling rather optimistic about how things would be for the foreseeable future. No worrying about walking down the same path as Magneto, no obligations no matter how much fun they could be at times, just him being the young man he was. He knew he'd never be able to stay out of the 'good fight' forever but having some time off to unwind and remind himself why he fought wasn't a bad thing.

He touched down in the middle of some trees a couple of dozen yards away from the road before walking out of the greenery and onto the gravel that lined either side of the asphalt. He walked at a leisurely pace towards Central City, not being in any particular rush, letting his eyes wander to whatever caught his attention. By the time he reached the city he had a short list of places he wanted to check out along with what he'd already mentally written up before leaving the cottage.

The first thing he did was stop by the nearest ATM to withdraw the cash he needed for the day since he'd used up his last walletful two days ago. He knew that he could get a debit or credit card instead to save the time he'd usually use getting cash from the ATM but he didn't like leaving a paper trail of his purchases if he could avoid it. He might no longer be hiding from Willow by choice but every use of his debit or credit card was stored electronically by the bank his cash was in or in the credit card company's server. Both could be hacked and he'd rather not leave his tastes and interests recorded where those with both legal and illegal access could peruse them for their own purposes. He had no doubt that even with his warning Ra's would still keep tabs on him any way he could and, while he didn't believe he could block EVERY method of surveillance, he could neutralize some. One of his vacation 'activities' was to sharpen his ability to sense the bio-electric fields of living things to the point where, even if he was rendered blind, he'd still be able to perceive an enemy well enough to fight. If he could make some progress there and condition himself to always be aware of his surroundings that way it'd make it impossible for someone to sneak up on him.

Unless they had some kind of tech that completely contained their bio-electric field, of course, but he'd overcome that hurdle eventually, too.

Sliding his cash into his wallet and putting it on the inside of his jacket pocket he used a trick he'd come up with to magnetically seal the metal zipper. It was invisible to the naked eye and would make it impossible for a pickpocket to get at his cash unless they sliced their own hole in his jacket and he'd sense the metal long before it cut, so it'd be all good.

The next hour went by quickly as he went to a few clothing stores to increase the size of his wardrobe to at least two weeks' worth of outfits. At the moment, thanks to the capacity of the bag he'd packed leaving Palo Alto, he only had three days' worth of clothes plus his costume and a few tech odds and ends. He didn't want to have to do laundry every two days so, even though he had quite a few bags with him it was for a good cause in the end. Now he'd be able to wait a whole thirteen days to do the laundry if he had to though he'd probably do it every seven days just so the cottage didn't look or smell too unkempt.

Next up: groceries, but if I'm right the best place for that is a bit far to walk even for me, he thought, looking about a bit before spotting what he needed. Guess I'll take the monorail.

A toll paid and doors closing later, the mode of public transportation pulled out of the station heading towards the one closest to his destination. He slowly moved through clumps of his fellow passengers, hoping he'd find a vacant seat, but the car was pretty packed in places, making it difficult to move at times. Still, he soon found a seat that wasn't taken and began to move as quickly as he could towards it in order to take it before someone else did. He did his best not to rudely push someone out of the way or knock them on their butts and it looked like his skills of crowd navigation paid off… but so did someone else's.

Tracking the gloved hand back up to the body it was attached to, he couldn't contain his shock at who was standing in front of him.

"Cordy…?" he gasped, completely floored seeing someone that he hadn't laid eyes on in months.

She just gaped at him, clearly shocked at him being in front of her and, for a moment, he wanted nothing more than to give her the mightiest hug he could muster… but then he remembered what he'd found out before arriving in Gotham the first time. Looking at her, the clothes she was wearing, was all the confirming evidence he needed to know that Rogue's powers had indeed activated and in the worst possible way. Still, it had him wondering what she was thinking getting on the monorail or any form of public transportation where a lot of people were riding in the same vehicle. Sure, it looked like she was pretty well covered up but her face and hair were still exposed and, in close quarters like this, all it'd take would be one careless hand or a stumbling commuter to make things go FUBAR.

"Take the seat. I'll stand," he said, figuring that if she was sitting then he could work to keep anyone from accidently making contact with her skin including him.

His words seemed to knock her out of her shock and she immediately took her seat but never did her eyes leave him.

"Long time no see, sugah," Cordy said, sounding like her Rogue mental imprint had gained some ground on her behavioral centers or the surprise of seeing him had loosened her control somewhat.

The Cordy he remembered would've been pissed at the slip but he didn't see that on her face.

"Ditto. Um… seeing as how your wardrobe's taken a decidedly Rogue slant, I take it that means the x-light really did switch on?" he asked, trying to figure out how to phrase things gently.

A mix of sadness, guilt and a glance around to make sure no one was TOO close to her told him he'd botched things with his phrasing and wondered for the umpteenth time why he hadn't gotten a talking upgrade with the Magneto package.

"Yeah. Looks like the same thing happened to you," she said, obviously trying to change the topic of discussion. "Unless y'all decided to copy Summers with the hair dye."

"No hair dye. Just powers activating and LOTS of property damage," he said, letting her put her own backstory on the back burner. "You might've seen it on the news. Warehouse district got trashed in Gotham City and… a hero died."

He could see the light of recognition in her eyes so he knew she'd at least seen a newspaper article, if not a news broadcast on television. There was also sympathy there and he appreciated that coming from someone who used to make his and Willow's lives miserable on a daily basis. She also wasn't being snarky about it and that'd been Cordy's main method of defense when dealing with an uncomfortable situation or discussion.

That or stomping off in a huff to make some other poor student's day a living hell as a way of venting her displeasure.

"Guess we've got a lot to talk about then." Cordy said with a glimmer of a grin appearing on her face.

"Guess we do," he said in agreement with her position. "Let's get off at the next stop and we'll spill what we've been up to then."

A nod was all he got in return but it was all he really needed.

CORDELIA'S POV

"Gotta admit… ah didn't expect to see the inside of one a'these places anytime soon," she said, looking about the restaurant Xander had taken her to.

"Hey, I'm well off financially and I've just run into someone I haven't seen in a long while," Xander said with his usual lopsided grin. "Somehow just taking her to the local fast food joint didn't quite feel right."

It was definitely a step above fast food.

In fact, in her opinion, it was just a step shy of being one of those places that you were required to wear a suit and tie in before they'd let you past the door. Definitely head and shoulders above what she'd been eating since she'd left Sunnydale, so she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth by walking out on the dweeb, especially not after placing an order already. Besides, there was one thing she could not refute: it really was good to see Xander again.

For all the sniping and arguing they'd done in the past, a part of her had always felt more at ease whenever she talked with Summers and the rest. Unlike with Harmony and the others, she didn't have to keep up the 'pretty rich girl' routine that was expected of her as a member of the Chase family when in the library. Well… not keep it up as much. She still hadn't been willing to get TOO chummy with the school outcasts but she'd been smart enough to know that if she wanted the skinny on the weirdness of Sunnydale, then the library was the place to go for it. The more she'd become aware of the truth about Sunnydale, the more it just made sense to check the freaky fact board every so often so she'd know what to keep an eye out for.

Then there was the fact that Xander had been one of the few people who could trade insults with her at her level. It was weird but it was also fun to see who could one up the other quicker and what the loser would come up with when they had their rematch. None of her girls could last as long as Xander could and occasionally he'd come up with one that she really liked and, after a few modifications, she'd use it herself.

Still, a lot had changed since the two of them had last seen each other and, until they got over that, they wouldn't be able to see if they could resume their old relationship or try for something better.

"So what exactly happened to you?" she asked as they waited for their orders. "Buffy and Willow completely flipped after they read your letter. Tried to get Giles to do a tracking spell so they could find you and drag you back."

"Travelled, mostly. Tried to stay under the radar so Willow couldn't find me with her hacking skills," he replied, easing back into his seat. "Got to Las Vegas and mugged some vamps for enough cash to get a fake ID made and the info inserted into the federal database. Lex Lensherr, at your service."

"And you really thought that Willow wouldn't catch on immediately?" she asked incredulously at the alias since even Harmony would've caught on to the connection soon enough.

"Well, seeing as how I didn't see her after getting the new ID and she didn't teep me telling me to go back to Sunnydale, I figured either she knew and let me go find myself or assumed I'd never choose such a bad fake name and kept looking."

"Probably the former, sugah," she said, not even bothering to hide the southern drawl. "She was a good enough hacker before Halloween but after getting Emma downloaded into her head, she's only gotten that much better."

"Whatever. I eventually got to Gotham and, after a short hospital stay for playing hero, I met Bette Kane, who then gave me a guided tour of all the best spots in the city. I mean, sure, the place has a bad crime rep but it has its good points. There are a lot of good people there they just… just don't know how they can make a difference against the scumbags and the psycho crooks."

What followed was a fairly detailed retelling of Xander's time in Gotham City but the part that interested her wasn't the landmarks or the stores. No, what had her attention was how passionately he spoke of Bette, the fallen heroine known as Flamebird, because unlike all the guys who say they're in love with their girlfriends, she could FEEL the love the young man across from her had for the girl. It wasn't lust or infatuation or any one of a number of feelings that most teenagers mistook for love. It was the real deal.

Just as real as the pain and grief that bled through Xander words when the moment of her death was laid out. The feelings were… lessened… somewhat by the passage of time but she knew without a doubt that if anyone tried to reopen that old wound with Magneto's heir present, it'd be the last thing they did. It wouldn't matter how many years went by because when it came to the pain of loss all it'd take is a word, a sight or an action to make it feel like it was only yesterday. Would she particularly care if Xander killed whoever decided to pour salt in the wound or piss all over Bette's memory? Probably. Even if she could empathize with what he was feeling, losing your cool rarely ended on a positive note and you tended to look like an ass afterwards once you calmed down. Her Rogue echo agreed and even pointed out some ways that she'd used to calm Magneto down when the Master of Magnetism got particularly pissed.

She immediately edited out all the ones that could double as romantic advances.

"I left Gotham as soon as I was physically able to. Too many bad memories," he said, losing some of the sorrow in his voice. "I just picked a direction and took off. Trained myself in my new powers since I figured that, since I had them, I might as well get good at using them. Got pretty far when I sensed something odd coming from the direction of Salem and when I went to investigate it turned out that someone was busting into this realm from another one."

"Demon?" she asked, going for the obvious possibility.

"Technically demon-human hybrid and a pack of demon minions," he replied with a small grin. "Raven was running from her dad, who'd just laid waste to the place she called home. I tossed the minions back through the breach and helped her seal it up so we couldn't get any more visitors."

"She?" she asked, remembering Harris' track record with dangerous non-human females.

"Yes, it was a young woman but nothing happened," he replied with a roll of his eyes as he caught the implications behind the question. "It was too soon after Bette for anything to happen. All I did was help her adjust to Earth and give her some starter cash to help her get going. She wasn't evil at all. More like a female Vulcan, really."

"Geek," she said with a slight roll of her eyes.

"Geek who knows how to put together high tech gizmos," he said to counter her eye rolling. "Patented a few devices and have myself a nice little cash mattress to lay on. Hard as hell to come up with anything that can't be turned into a weapon but I'm working on a few more ideas."

"Sounds like you've done pretty darn good for yourself in spite of all the tragedy," she said, a little disappointed that she hadn't done as well herself.

"What about you? What've you been up to?" he asked tentatively, probably because his Magneto memories informed him of how rough Rogue's life had been.

She was about to answer when she heard sounds of an argument coming from the front of the restaurant. Most of the people she saw were normal suited goons but the one in the center was a BIG guy that had to be almost eight feet tall and wearing clothes that had to be custom. She couldn't tell who the giant was thanks to the hood over his head but she very much doubted that he was human, which meant either demon, robot or superhuman. All three had the potential for trouble but she'd seen enough examples of them being good guys that charging in fists flying would wait until the new arrivals made with the violence.

"I am sorry, sirs, but we simply do not have a table available at the moment," the greeting employee said with grudging politeness. "If you'd like to leave your phone number we can call you when there's an opening or you can make reservations for the future."

"Nah! I think we'll just take what we want!" the big guy said before he picked up the employee by the front of his jacket and threw the man clear across the room.

As if waiting for that cue, all the suited thugs pulled out weapons, most of which were guns but a few were bladed weapons. Naturally that's when some of the more… fragile minded people present began to scream in fear for their lives but it was kicked up a notch when the Big Guy tore off every patch of cloth above his waist. What lay beneath was, to put it lightly, a man of rusted metal that looked like someone'd pieced him together in a scrap yard and glued some hair on his head.

"Okay, people! You all know the drill!" Metal Man said, sounding like he'd done this before. "This is a robbery! My men'll go around with bags and ALL your valuables are going inside it, whether you like it or not. Trust me when I say it'll be less painful for you if you hand it all over willingly. Not as much fun for us but still your best option."

As she watched the thugs in suits start going person to person for valuables, she turned back to Xander and raised an eyebrow as if to ask 'shall we'. She was a little surprised when he shook his head in the negative since, in her mind, he could take out the ringleader and the metallic weapons of the thugs with a thought if he was as good with Magneto's powers as she thought he was. Then she'd be able to finish things up with a few light, for someone with Rogue's strength, anyway, punches to KO the thugs for the police to take care of.

Only Xander wouldn't act.

"Why not?" she asked, conveying her confusion.

"Too little intel, too much at risk," he replied low enough so as not to draw attention to them. "We don't know his powers or what surprises they might still have. Plus… I'm kinda trying NOT to attract Justice League attention. This is Flash's city, after all."

"What'd you do, dweeb?" she asked, ignoring the part of her that thought she'd regret asking.

"I kinda sorta killed a bunch of evil assassins, demolished their secret bases and obliterated two of their strongholds," he replied, sounding like he expected a negative response from her. "The Justice League kinda frowns on the use of lethal force and I'd rather not listen to them read me the riot act before tossing me in prison."

She knew just by hearing him talk that he was understating things greatly but she also wanted to believe that whoever had been on the receiving end had deserved to die. Xander didn't have the black and white view of the world that Buffy'd shown herself to have back in Sunnydale, but he also wasn't some ruthless killer who'd off you for jaywalking. Therefore, until she had evidence to the contrary, she'd trust her old friend from Sunnydale.

"Fine, but you're gonna pay me back for whatever ah gotta fork over, Xander," she said reluctantly as she set aside her initial inclination to do the hero thing.

"Easily doable."

Not that he should be, considering she didn't have a whole lot on her at the moment in terms of money or valuable items.

She flinched every time one of the thugs got particularly rough with one of the restaurant customers but so far nothing'd happened to motivate her to go solo hero on their butts.

"Mmmmm! This one doesn't have any cash on her, boss, but I bet Roughcut'd pay money for her fine ass. Whattaya say, boss?" one of the thugs asked, roughly pulling a girl that couldn't be older than fifteen away from her parents.

The mother and father, of course, reflexively tried to go to their daughter's aide but got pistol whipped for their trouble.

"Do whatever you want but she's your responsibility. You lag behind, you cause trouble, and you get cut loose," the boss replied in gruff tones. "I ain't getting caught 'cause you've taken a liking to some slut."

"Why you botherin' with that shrimp?" she said, getting up out of her chair, cocking her hip to one side before putting her gloved hand on the other. "Everyone knows that, unlike test scores, Ds are way better than Bs."

Changing her posture to better showcase her leather covered chest, she could tell that she had the teen kidnapping thug's interest but not his undivided attention.

"What you talkin' about, bitch? You lookin' to become Roughcut's twenty dollar whore?" asked the thug, obviously not fully swallowing her act.

"Darlin', once that boy sees what ah can do, he'll be charging guys five grand a TASTE," she replied as she sashayed up to him using a bit of her own style and Rogue's. "Maybe you'd like a taste right here. Interested?"

She could see that he was almost ready to let down his guard but he still needed something to knock him over the edge so she could get within arm's reach of him. She could try to rush him but she wasn't absolutely sure that she could get to him before he pulled the girl in front as a shield. With a sigh at the indignity of it all she reached up to ring attached to the front zipper of her leather bodysuit and pulled it down until it was almost at her waist. As a result not only was she showing off some serious cleavage but also revealing that she wasn't wearing a bra under her suit. She'd stopped wearing either once she'd gotten the suit because, in her mind, she was never going to be taking off her current outfit except to use the bathroom or bathe. Just like Rogue she didn't have control over her absorbing power making any skin to skin contact a trip on the sanity coaster for her and a one way trip to a coma for others. That being the case, there was no point in wearing anything that wasn't total body covering or wearing sexy and stylish undergarments.

"DAMN! Beat it, brat I'm trading up!" the thug said before shoving the teenage girl back to her parents.

"Well something of you is gonna be going up, sugah…" she said before her sexy tone turned ice cold, "…but ah promise you're not gonna like it!"

She grabbed him by his jacket and threw him has hard as she dared into two others on the other side of the room. The pervert's still-standing chums started bringing their guns to bear on her but the same weapons were yanked out of their hands and were sent through the front window onto the street. She didn't look at Xander but she was sure that he was responsible for disarming the suited thugs and so she zipped up her suit before diving into the job of dealing with the assholes, who were in even less of a favorable situation with her than before.

It wasn't easy for her, not by half, to punch the crooks without hitting them too hard. A few times she definitely felt bones break beneath her fist but, since they still seemed to be breathing even after they hit the ground, she presumed that they'd survive so long as they got help soon. She was about halfway through the thugs when the big metal brute came at her, throwing a right hook, but she wasn't too worried since, even if it hit, Rogue's invulnerability would keep her safe.

That being said, though, she wasn't into pain and couldn't afford to have what she was wearing damaged since it'd only increase the risk of skin contact.

Ducking under the hook, she tested the durability of the metal man with four times the strength she'd used on the thugs in the form of a straight left punch. The attack connected and she didn't get the reaction she was hoping for but, before she could launch another one, the rust bucket managed to tag her with a punch from his left hand, sending her into the far wall. She could tell through feel that, while damaged, the wall itself was more or less intact but all it'd take to put her through it would be one more solid blow. Forcing herself out of the impression her body had made in the wall, she prepared to go another round with the scumbag, this time with ten times the level of strength she'd used on the man's minions.

Or she would've if two blurs, both crimson and gold but with alternating dominance, hadn't started dancing around the restaurant, KOing the remaining minions before circling the metal man with the sound of impacts filling the air. Both blurs soon stopped though, revealing themselves to be Flash and Kid Flash, shaking their hands, no doubt to get the feeling back since, even at super speed, their fists were just human fists.

"So…think he has a glass jaw?" Kid Flash asked with false hope.

"Ah'm ready to find out, sugah!" she said doing something reckless but, at the moment, she didn't care.

She used Rogue's ability to fly to propel herself towards the metal man and, with strength she hoped would be enough to do some good, slugged the man right in the jaw. This time the reaction was precisely what she desired since it lifted the man right off his feet almost to the ceiling before coming crashing down to the floor. She readied herself for round two, secretly hoping that she'd be able to intuitively control her flying power enough to keep from looking like a complete loser, but found it wasn't necessary when the rust bucket made one attempt to get up before passing out.

"Damn but you are a knockout girl!" Kid Flash exclaimed before looking her over like every other teenage guy who thought he was the epitome of what women looked for in a man.

"Ah can't help it if ah haven't found a MAN yet who can keep up with me," she said, making sure to give off signs that she didn't think HE was man enough either. "Still, thanks for the help. Ah needed a breather."

"Anytime, sweet cheeks! Anytime!" Kid Flash declared like some Don Juan wannabe clearly not fluent in tells or body language.

Looking about as the speedsters began to tie up every crook, putting extra on the metal man, she noticed that Xander had vanished in all the commotion. Walking over to the table they shared, though, she found an address and a phone number written on a napkin in the dweeb's handwriting. Obviously he'd ducked out during all the fighting but had stuck around just long enough to give her a means of finding and/or contacting him if she needed to.

Ah might just take him up on the offer, she thought before a gust of wind heralded the arrival of Kid Flash next to her. Funds're a little low this month and, if'n I play my hand right, maybe I can get Xander to make a donation.

Shouldn't be hard.

Xander always did have a soft spot for ladies in distress.

XANDER'S POV

It was nice seeing Cordy again, he thought as he lounged on his couch watching the evening news. Her powers have changed her, changed us both, but she's holding on and moving forward. She'll make it.

Watching scenes of the reporter dispatched by the TV station to cover the attempted robbery of the restaurant patrons, he had to smirk at the poorly veiled attempts by Kid Flash to put the moves on the former cheerleader. In a way it reminded him of the early days of Jesse's crush on Cordy but it was debatable who had less skill in getting the former rich girl's attentions. Watching as his schoolmate took to the air in the middle of the reporter's interview with Flash, he saw it as proof enough that Jesse had more skill in the wooing department, if only because normally it was he who retreated. While some would see a retreat as being the weaker position, they failed to consider that it could in fact be called regrouping. After all, his brother had made numerous attempts to woo Cordelia and, rather than take steps to permanently stop him, the cheerleader allowed the attempts. In the case of Kid Flash, however, he'd actually forced Cordy to leave in a way that he wouldn't be able to easily follow, even with his super speed. He was a little worried that she might have a bit of trouble with flying since he noticed during her fight with the crooks that she didn't have complete control of the powers she'd gained from Rogue.

Probably sees her powers as a curse and gone into serious denial mode, he thought as the news broadcast returned to the anchor in the studio. I hope she'll at least consider dropping by to say hi. My Magneto memories might not have a means of giving her complete control but perhaps a little training will make it all manageable.

Both as the leader of the Brotherhood and as a one-time headmaster of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters Magneto had experience training people in the use of their powers. Sure, he didn't have a Danger Room or any training facility but, so long as they didn't make too big a mess, the local woods would be good enough. If that turned out to be too attention getting, he could fly her to a better location where there wouldn't be attention to get in the first place.

The meeting, though, made him wonder if maybe this was a sign to start looking up old friends. His original reason for fleeing Sunnydale, for leaving his friends behind, had been to protect them from the power and legacy of Magneto that he carried inside himself. Now that the powers were his along with the memories, there was nothing really keeping them apart except time and information. Getting up from the couch, he walked over to the computer he'd set up prior to heading into the city. It wasn't anywhere near as powerful as the one in Artemis' HQ back in Palo Alto but it'd let him do some basic stuff. Knowing Willow, especially with her inheritance from Emma Frost, she wouldn't be hard to find since all he'd likely have to do is look for new up and coming companies. Buffy would be harder to find since, last he checked, there hadn't been any new sightings of the Red Widow, making him believe that Buffy had finished achieving her vengeance for the deaths of the people they both cared about.

I will probably need to come up with some kind of subtle sign in a national newspaper or maybe Willow can locate her telepathically, he thought as he began to Google using search words connected to his best friend and Emma Frost. If normal teeping doesn't work then maybe we can put together a basic Cerebro unit to amplify her abilities. Between the two of us we've got the cash and the technical know how to make one.

Add to that his knowledge of where Cordy was and the gang… would be… ALMOST back together.

His mood sank and his typing slowed as thoughts of a reunion were dampened by the knowledge that not everyone would be there. G-Man, for one, wouldn't be there and, considering the father figure role the Brit played for the rest of them, it'd be like the Justice League without Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Even without those three people the team of heroes would go on, but it'd still leave a gap that the remaining members would be perpetually aware of, even if three new people were added to the roster. A lot of the people who'd made Sunnydale home weren't there any longer with some of their presences missed more than others.

Still, it wouldn't hurt for them to at least get together and exchange contact info in case one of them got in over their heads with something. Buffy was still the Slayer and that meant that the paranormal would always find her, sooner or later. Willow, with Emma Frost's tendencies, was bound to piss people off, leading to them seeking payback. Trouble always found him or he'd wind up seeking it out eventually. As for Cordy, he suspected that now that the Flash and his sidekick were aware of her, it was possible that they'd approach her to make the hero thing a regular occurrence for her.

Having the means to call on back up was never a bad thing.

Looking back at his search results, he saw a few possible hits but to narrow it down he clicked on the 'image' option of the search engine. If he was right about Willow's plans, then there'd definitely be news articles and where there were articles, there would also be pictures, one of which hopefully would have his best friend dead center. As the images began to pop up he examined each one for signs of either Willow Rosenberg or Emma Frost but it was only after the eleventh one loaded that he hit pay dirt. Wearing a professional yet sexy ladies business suit was Willow but she'd dyed her hair blonde and might've gotten some additional plastic surgery done on top of the physical changes Halloween had wrought on her. Still, there were enough features and consistencies with the redhead he remembered that he was sure he found who he was looking for.

Sophie Snow. C.E.O of Snow Enterprises. He read the article attached to the picture of his friend. On the cutting edge of electronic engineering, genetics and cybernetic technology. Considered to have the potential to one day rival Wayne Tech and LexCorp. Either the reporter is trying to hype things or Willow really impressed him.

Reading further into the article, he found out that the corporate headquarters for Snow Enterprises was in Star City, California, making him wonder why he hadn't heard anything while he'd been in Palo Alto. It wouldn't be hard for him to fly there if he had to but it'd have to wait a few months until he could be sure that the Justice League wasn't looking for any suspicious electromagnetic readings. That was okay since knowing where her center of business was only told him where she MIGHT be rather than where she actually was. It'd take him time to figure out where she'd be so he could arrange for the two of them to meet and see if their friendship was still as strong as he hoped it was. It'd also give him time to find out where Buffy was, or at least make a decent attempt at it, before asking 'Sophie Snow' to add her resources to the search.

He was about to go back to see if there was an interesting movie to watch on TV when he received one helluva PING on his magnokinetic senses. It only lasted for five seconds, if that, but it definitely kept his attention since it sort of felt like the dimensional tear Raven had come through, except it was more stable and controlled. Were those demons making another attempt to pursue and capture Raven? Was it something new entirely? It was at least closer than Salem had been when he'd lived in New Haven, someplace to the northeast according to his sense, so if he wanted to he'd have no trouble getting there quickly if he wanted to investigate. Considering the odds of something good coming through a portal or dimensional tear… yeah, he'd better check it out, if only until he detected the approach of the Justice League then he could bug out.

It only took him a minute to get into his Magneto uniform and less than ten seconds for him to leave the cottage before getting airborne. Flying towards the focal point of the disturbance he'd picked up on, he kept his senses stretched out and watched for any sign of trouble or surprises. The two weren't always mutually exclusive, sometimes they were one and the same, but both could be negative depending on the source. Thus far he wasn't picking up trouble like a scout force for an invasion creeping in so he considered that a plus since it might just eliminate the possibility that Raven's demonic daddy was making a play. Then again it could be that the evil being he'd sensed on the other side of the tear and he might have just sent a small yet insanely powerful team to retrieve his daughter, but he did his best not to dwell on that possibility.

As he reached the location where the anomaly had manifested, he was relieved to see that there looked to be no dimensional tear or group of demonic soldiers trotting about. What he did see, though, was someone, a young woman, who looked like she'd been walked around the block a few hundred times while being a combo of the clumsiest person alive as well as being drunk. The block she walked around looked like it had plenty of sharp and blunt objects, making one question the sanity of someone who'd walk it, but then again he wasn't exactly the poster child for sanity himself. Dressed in what looked to be a black and grey full bodysuit with bans of metal around her wrists, neck, boots and Speedos that looked to be metallic made him wonder if she was a Red Sonja fan. If she was a fan of the old Brigitte Nielsen film then she should've let her red hair grow out until it almost reached her waist, since it'd be more in keeping with the movie as well as a comic book he vaguely remembered. In any case, it was looking like he might be rescuing another damsel in distress, making him wonder if this was the beginning of a trend with him.

Slowly he descended to the ground, aiming for a spot about a dozen feet from the female form struggling to get to her feet, wanting to be sure that his grasp of the situation was accurate. Sure, she looked like she was running from the people or things that'd beat the crap out of her and, sure, she didn't look like she'd be much of a threat to him, but the Sunnydale Rule still rang in his mind.

Appearances can be deceiving.

"Do you need any help?" he asked loudly enough to be heard without coming on too strong.

He didn't had 'miss' or 'ma'am' or anything else at the end because he'd heard some ladies got annoyed when someone spoke too politely and he didn't want to start things off on the wrong foot. His voice definitely got the young woman's attention as she tried reflexively to get into a battle ready position, only for her arm to give out halfway, putting her back on the ground.

"Hey! I'm not here to hurt you," he said, trying to ease her fear since putting more strain on her wounds was only going to make them worse. "I sensed your arrival and decided to see what was going on. No offense but you look like you got the shit kicked, punched and pierced outta ya."

"You wouldn't be far off, lowly," the young woman said as she repositioned herself into a crouching position before looking right at him.

Green eyes and a face that, while in pretty much the same state as the rest of her body, had likely been quite beautiful before someone decided to practice their pain techniques on it. What caused him to raise an eyebrow though was that he could see some of her lighter wounds healing right before his eyes. It wasn't anything as fantastic as Wolverine's but he'd bet good money that if the girl let her body rest she'd likely be back on her feet inside of a week.

As for the 'lowly' bit, he wasn't offended.

Considering some of the barbs he and Cordy had exchanged back in Sunnydale and some of the things vampires and demons had tossed his way, 'lowly' was pretty tame.

"So… wherever you were running from… did you intend to come here or was it a case of 'anyplace is better than here'?" he asked, trying to get a grasp of what he may have walked in on.

"Why do you want to know?" the Red Sonja Wannabe asked, sounding guarded and suspicious.

"Wellll 'cause if it's the former then I'm guessing you didn't want any Earthlings to see you arrive and expected to touch down in better shape than you're in right now," he replied honestly, figuring that lying would be bad at this point. "If it's the latter then I'm wondering what the odds are that the people who beat on you might follow you here."

A explosion of light and noise heralded a tunnel of energy manifesting out of nowhere with a comet tail-like extension that drifted back a dozen or so feet before becoming imperceptible. While a nice light show accompanied by a displacement of air, it also felt exactly like the disturbance in the Earth's electromagnetic field that'd drawn him there in the first place. However it was the people that came out of the tunnel of energy that confirmed that it was the latter in the redhead's case and BOY was he wondering what he'd stepped into. Wearing a variety of clothing, most of which was centered around being useful in combat, were a group of women and none of them looked like they were very nice.

In fact some of them had looks on their faces that sort of reminded him of the nasties back in Sunnydale AND Victor Creed from Magneto's memories.

"I hope you enjoyed your few moments of rest, Knockout, because the next respite you'll receive will be of the eternal kind," a woman in blue, gold and red armor declared hefting her golden axe ominously as she spoke.

Definitely the start of a trend, he thought with a roll of his eyes as he prepared to make his choice.

KNOCKOUT'S POV

Damn. I thought I'd have a little longer than this, she thought as she looked at the gathered group of her former sisters. I should've had more time!

Then again the entire thing going as well as it had so far was nothing short of a streak of good luck considering how many different ways it'd gone to shit.

Life on Apokalips was hell no matter what level you were born into and the only real choice you had was to either become the one dealing out the pain and misery or the one on the receiving end. Her earliest memories were of the Orphanage, Granny Goodness' Orphanage, and of the 'love' the old bat showed the children from the moment they were brought in. No one knew what the criteria was for being brought to the Orphanage, whether it was genetic or just random selection, but the one thing they did know was that the only ones who survived were the ones with the will to survive. Survive by any means necessary. There were no real loyalties amongst the Orphanage residents, no real friends, just horrors that you tried to survive by any means necessary. If it meant slitting the throat of your roommate for that extra portion of food so you could make the hunger that little bit more bearable, then you did it. If it meant feigning kindness to one of the other kids so that they'd let their guard down enough that you could stab them through the heart in training, you did it. There were only two things that resulted in automatic punishment that you weren't guaranteed to survive.

You did not defy your betters.

You did not forget that your life, your very soul, belonged to mighty Darkseid and him alone.

When she was deemed physically old enough she was placed with the rest of the girls to see if they had what it took to become a member of the all-female military unit known as the Female Furies. Instructed by Kanto in both combat as well as military strategy, they were pushed hard every day to master the ways of war and, if they made a mistake or failed to defeat their opponent, inventive and hellish punishments awaited them all. Granny called the punishments her 'love' for them and that they should be grateful to receive such a gift. Some didn't get it, though, and were stupid enough to call the old woman on her lies. Those idiots never lasted very long, if at all. Others actually bought into the lies, thinking that the fact that they were merely 'punished' rather than executed outright meant that Granny actually did like something about them. In her case, though, she just memorized what was necessary to stay alive and didn't care about actually believing the words that came out of her mouth. She did whatever she had to in order to be convincing to those stronger and deadlier than her but she didn't believe for one second that Granny actually cared about any of them.

Her Orphanage, the Female Furies training, it was all just one big process by which they weeded out the weak and cultivated the strong.

Nothing less than the best would do for Almighty Darkseid and anyone not meeting that high standard quickly came to curse their own weakness almost as much as they cursed the ones that held their fate in their hands.

There was one, though, one person who was better at tricking the higher ups than she was, that actually seemed to care about those around her and did her best to make sure they all survived. Sometimes it was by volunteering to discipline the other hopefuls but making sure to place her blows in areas that wouldn't be life threatening or run the risk of permanent injury. Other times it was by painfully pointing out the holes in their defense before manipulating them into attacking the same spot on her so that they could see how to properly protect that area or at least counter the blow. There were even times when she mouthed off to a superior so that she'd be the one to get thrashed rather than the girl that'd been targeted moments before. It didn't always work and sometimes, despite her elder student's best efforts, she still got chained to the side of the fire pit, but she still appreciated the reprieves she received. She didn't try to do the same thing to return the favor because, honestly, she wasn't that good at fooling the higher ranks, but rather she did her best to improve enough that she wouldn't need the covert help.

Years passed and the one she'd come to consider an older sister officially became a Fury since she was two years older than her and was even promoted to be their leader less than a year after joining them. She, on the other hand… she was having a harder time making the grade, gaining her colors and becoming a full Female Fury. She trained hard every day, did her best to be the kind of warrior the Furies embodied, but whenever the time came for the final test it was always the same three who got in her way: Lashina, Bernadeth and Mad Harriet.

The final test in order to graduate from being a mere cadet to a full Female Fury was to face off against three randomly picked members of Furies. Victory wasn't the goal; SURVIVAL was. You had to not only survive in a three on one battle but you had to endure long enough to satisfy Granny Goodness and convince her that you were worthy to become one of the Furies. You convinced the old hag by actually getting some good shots in on your opponents, you convinced her by not letting yourself get turned into a target dummy and you convinced her by proving how far you're willing to go to win. Unfortunately, for all the training and all the effort she put into becoming the best she could be, she could never get a passing grade, even if she did manage to do well against those three. When she took the test for the third time in a row she knew something was up because she'd watched enough of the graduation tests to know that random meant you never fought the same three that often. Random meant RANDOM. If she'd only been paired against one of them more than once or two of them more than once she wouldn't have been so suspicious, but all three at EVERY one of her tests.

Someone had it in for her.

There was no way a random drawing from the ranks of the Female Furies would set her against the same three women each and every time. As she languished in the little alcove cut into the side of the fire pit, the flames tearing at her back like razor sharp talons, she'd tried to figure out who her true enemy was. It might've been a hallucination or it might've been real, but the last time she failed to make the cut, she could've sworn her sister visited her in the pits.

She said two words and left.

I'm sorry.

She knew that she could've just dismissed it but for some reason it gave her something to build a theory on and the more time passed, the more she became convinced of its accuracy. She hadn't been the real target during the graduation test! It was her sister they were after! It was no secret that among the Furies there were always those who thought that they deserved to lead more than the woman currently in charge. Some of the Furies had been fighting for years, dreaming of the day when they'd ascend to become the commander of mighty Darkseid's elite female fighting force. For her sister to come in out of nowhere, years younger than the rest of them, and be given that position must've pissed them off something fierce. Whoever it was had probably already tried to get rid of her sister the usual ways: poison, assassination, ambush or 'she fell in glorious battle', except not really. All failures. So they tried a new tactic by tried to provoke an emotion, a reaction, that was forbidden on Apokalips: they tried to expose the fact that her sister cared for her like family. All who served mighty Darkseid were to put his wishes first above all else. His will was the only will that mattered. His goals were to be achieved no matter what was asked of you, whether it be to kill those who had fought beside you for years or slit the throat of the one who'd given birth to you.

That was likely the purpose behind the failed graduation tests: to hurt her, to make her suffer, in the hopes that when her sister heard of it she'd take action they could exploit to oust her.

Once she'd realized that she'd redoubled her training efforts in order to make sure that only her opponents suffered and even attempted to devise ways to increase her tolerance levels for her time in the fire pit alcoves. With her hard work she'd managed to last another four tests but it was a downward spiral rather because, after fighting Lashina and the other to for so long, they got used to each other. They learned each other's tells, each other's tactics, their strengths and their weaknesses, so when combined with the three on one disadvantage, it meant her defeat was inevitable. When it finally happened, Granny had gone into a speech that, while she praised the young cadet for lasting as long as she had, there was no room for weaklings in the Furies or in the armies of Darkseid. As a result she would be publically executed in the most horrible manner ever devised by Apokaliptian death artisans in over a millennia. All the other cadets would be made to watch the execution so that they would see what happened to those who failed to prove themselves worthy of serving Almighty Darkseid. The old hag had then feigned compassion by saying that she would give the failure three days to make peace with her fate before meeting her end.

She suspected that the real reason that she'd been given three days was so that her sister might take it as an opportunity to try to free her and then be ambushed by her enemies.

Too bad her older sister proved to be just a little too smart for them.

In the three days that followed she was given basic meals in order to keep her strength at a level where she'd be able to scream in agony long enough to get the point across to the other cadets. What no one knew was that on the plates and in the cups, obscured by food and drink, were words carved into the very material of both. It wasn't complete sentences or anything since that would've been too much to do in the time her meals were left unattended, but rather symbols she recognized from Kanto's strategy courses. Starting from the first meal she'd received while imprisoned to the last, an outline of an escape plan was laid out for her with the destination being a sector of Apokalips that stored Father Boxes. Father Boxes were semi-sentient machines capable of opening Boom Tubes to other worlds and, if she could get ahold of one, she could escape to a place where she'd never be found. She knew in an instant who was helping her and she diligently destroyed the markings so that no one else would know the truth.

On the day of her execution she'd been escorted in the strongest of chains by Lashina and Bernadeth to the platform where she would be slain for all to see. She did not cower that day, did not act like a coward begging for her life to be spared, but rather she looked straight ahead with strength in every step, like a true warrior of Apokalips. This had earned her a few forced down to the floor bows from her escorts but she'd expected and desired this since it let her covertly test the strength of the chains. Just as the hidden messages had indicated, there'd been weak links that, if she used all her strength, could be snapped freeing her to proceed to the next part of the plan. However the strategy outlined in the hidden messages had indicated that she was to wait until some sort of distraction was implemented so all she'd done was proceed as those around her had expected. As the speeches were given and the crowd had called for her death, she'd begun to grow uneasy fearing that the messages had been planted to give her false hope. Given what she'd heard of Lashina, Bernadeth and Mad Harriet, it'd be in keeping with their senses of humor to pull something like this but she'd clung to the belief that her sister was the true sender of the escape plan.

Even waiting for it to happen, she'd been quite surprised when the distraction actually happened as well as how it'd wound up being triggered.

Somehow her sister had wired the very button meant to end her life to detonate a series of explosives scattered about the area, with each being strong enough to harm a Fury as well as bring about chaos. She'd taken that to be her signal and snapped the chains that held her before punching out both Lashina and Bernadeth, managing to floor them both since they'd been caught unprepared. However, rather than stay to beat on them some more, she'd stuck to the plan and run for a hatch that led to the sewers system of the area. Normally this would have been a death sentence since many a vicious predator prowled the tunnels looking for those who sought to flee or hide from the ruler of Apokalips that they might feed. However, as she'd moved through the sewer tunnels, all she'd found had been carcasses of beasts in various states of death, having been killed by either a blade or energy weapon.

Another bit of aid from her sister no doubt.

She'd gone through the filth and the sludge for a full twenty minutes before resurfacing outside of what was likely their immediate search area and headed towards the location of the Father Boxes. She'd known that normally they'd be under moderate guard by a combination of Parademons, Hellhounds and experienced male infantry but part of the strategy that'd been related to her would take care of them well enough. She'd had to evade a few patrols and aerial drones, not her specialty since they were taught from the beginning that such actions were unnecessary for a member of Darkseid's army, but she managed since no alarm sounded and no horde of troops descended upon her. However it'd been when she'd finally reached the storage building that she'd hit her first hitch: she'd followed the route as prescribed by the strategy for this stage of the plan but she saw nothing that could help her against the guards. In the strategy there was a weapon or tool waiting right where she was to deal with the next obstacle in her path but she'd seen nothing no matter where she looked. Had something happened? Had her sister been unable to prepare this part of the plan before the time of her execution? If so then she'd have to make it the rest of the way on her own and hope for the best.

Though weakened and not at her best, she'd charged the forces defending the building she needed to get into, kicking one soldier while stealing his plasma spear before throwing it directly into the head of hellhound, causing it to fall dead to the ground. She'd managed to slay two more before the rest had finally got their acts together and began to work together to kill her since there was a very narrow capture policy on Apokalips and her situation didn't meet the criteria. She'd had one thing in her favor, though, and that was that, while dangerous and numerous, none of the security forces assigned to the building she was determined to get into were the equal of the Furies. Some she'd used as meat shields while others she'd been forced to confront directly, using her superior strength to overpower them. She'd done pretty good against them for the most part, a few minor injuries that her regenerative abilities would take care of shortly, but it'd been once she got into the buildings that things had taken a turn for the worse.

This had occurred in the form of Speed Queen, Stompa and Malice Vundabar.

She'd been initially overwhelmed by Speed Queen's barrage of blows and sent to the floor, dazed and trying to bring her mind back to some semblance of order. The three of them had laughed at her attempt to escape, had told her how they'd been waiting for her even before the explosions had occurred, and how she'd failed before the escape attempt had even begun. Naturally she'd rebelled against the idea that her escape had failed and rallied against them, determined to fight her way past them to where the Father Boxes were stored. They'd been so confident in their position that she'd been of the opinion that they hadn't moved any of the Boxes to some other location so there was still hope. Stompa wasn't overly bright and her strength wasn't even close to matching hers, but there was one threat that could be brought into play: the anti-matter boots. With one step the orange and yellow clad Fury could cause an earthquake strong enough to knock armies off their feet, prepared or not. Speed Queen's advantage was the ability to move at superhuman speeds but, in terms of strength, her blows were actually weak, making up for potency with quantity. As for Malice… she might act all sweet most of the time but she had a bloodthirsty side of her and this was only aided by her shadowy, disembodied pet called Cheshire when it came to killing a foe.

She'd moved against Malice first because, while not physically the most dangerous, her ability to control her dark pet would make direct attacks against the others hazardous. A snap kick to the kid's chest, followed by a lunge, allowed her to grab Virman Vundabar's niece by the head and slam it into the ground. With the little girl either unconscious or seriously dazed, she'd be unable to command her pet to do anything other than protect her and that'd made taking on the remaining two easier. Predictably Stompa had slammed her foot down to knock her off balance by shaking up the floor but she'd been ready and so, when Speed Queen had moved in to capitalize, she'd feigned being off balance but, at just the right moment, snapped her right foot up, catching the speedster in the jaw. Combine the speed the Fury had been moving at with the force at which she'd been struck and Speed Queen sprawled on the floor, balancing on the edge of consciousness. Getting back to her feet, she'd gone after Stompa next, determined to do to the big woman what she'd done to the others because beating these three into the ground wasn't the plan. No. By now the other Furies were on their way and she'd known that there was no chance of her beating all of them and every chance that she'd be torn to pieces. She'd just knock Stompa silly then head for the room with the Father Box's.

The large woman had put up a fight but her mass slowed her down and, after fighting such quick foes as Lashina, Mad Harriet and Bernadeth, it had been easy to evade then strike. With a grabbing of the head and a knee thrust right into the part of Stompa's head that hadn't been protected, her last foe dropped to the ground giving her a clear line to the inner part of the building. It'd been a minute or so later that she'd made it to the room where the Father Boxes were stored but, when she went inside, she found one more obstacle between her and her goal.

Her sister.

Clad in her usual armor with a large axe resting on her left shoulder, she tried to fathom how this was going to go. She knew that things couldn't go the way the plan had been originally with three of the Furies somehow anticipating the escape plan, but now she'd risk her sister's safety if things went any other way than badly. They exchanged the usual lines with her sister, making it clear the escape was over and that if she had any pride as a Fury cadet, she'd fight until her head was separated from her shoulders. She'd caught on to what her sister meant and snarkily said that she'd oblige the leader of the Female Furies before going on the attack. She'd gone all out, knowing that she'd have to make this look good if her sister's role in the escape was to remain unknown and likewise her sister would have to make her efforts look real. They'd done this dance before, back when they'd been training to be admitted into the Furies, but her sister had had the advantage in weapons as well as armor. She'd managed to keep things from being entirely in her sister's favor but had still been knocked around hard enough that she'd almost seen stars.

It'd only been when they'd heard the sounds of approaching footsteps that she'd come to the conclusion that it was time to go and so she'd let loose a flurry of blows before kicking her sister off to one side. Then she'd lunged for the closest Father Box in order to use it to escape, only to see her sister's axe smash it into pieces, destroying her means of escape. For a few minutes she'd been unable to fathom why her older sister had done that if the goal was for her to escape and, for a few seconds, she feared that her chosen sibling had switched sides on her and really intended for her to be captured. However it was when the Fury across from her did something uncharacteristic of her by taunting while one hand was on her hip that she understood. Not two inches from the hand on the hip was a Father Box and she'd concluded that that was the one her sister wanted her to use rather than one of the stored ones.

Letting the taunt guide her, she charged her sister but, just like she'd expected, her chosen sibling used a move that she'd dealt with numerous times before in training, allowing her to slip past it easily. Snatching the Father Box off her sister's hip as she passed by, she dealt as strong a kick as she could manage to send the armored Fury sprawling before activating the device in her hand. The Boom Tube opened immediately and, the second it'd stabilized she'd sprinted into it, leaving her birth world behind and travelled down a tube of golden light before coming out the other end.

She hadn't recognized the world but then she had never been off Apokalips before, but the important part was that she'd made it off her birth world alive. She'd hoped that it'd take her pursuers time to figure out where she'd gone and hoped that her sister had set her Father Box for some obscure world that would never be thought of or a place that the armies of Darkseid would be reluctant to go to. It'd give her time to hide, to fade into the background, to the point where unless she drew attention to herself they'd never find her. However it'd been after her first step on the world that would be her home that the fatigue and injuries gained from her escape had caught up with her, causing her to fall to the ground. She'd really given it her all, poured everything she'd had into the escape, and now it looked like her body was insisting on rest before doing anything else.

It'd been a short while later that a local had shown up, clad in purple and red offering help, but she hadn't believed him and, considering the environment of the planet, she'd concluded that he was a lowly. True, just about every other race that wasn't of Apokalips was referred to as a lowly but in most cases it meant a member of a race that was technologically and biologically inferior to their own. Still, the young man, maybe a little older than her physically, had been perceptive enough to figure out that she'd be pursued soon enough.

Sadly 'soon' proved to be too soon as another Boom Tube had opened up less than a minute later.

With her sister in the lead and nine Furies standing ready to end her as well as the local lowly and her body not feeling up to another fight, it looked as though her victory was hollow indeed.

XANDER'S POV

"You know, maybe it's just the old school outcast in me but I'm afraid I just can't stand the sight of a group of bullies ganging up on someone who clearly can't defend herself," he said even as he debated whether or not to take the offensive first or prepare a defense for their initial attack.

He knew that they were from someplace other than Earth but they didn't dress like demons, so he had to presume that they were aliens of some kind. He could tell with a glance that these ladies weren't harmless cosplayers or simple warriors. No, these ladies were killers in every sense of the word and they'd waste no time brushing him aside to get at their prey. However what would be the best move: strike first in the hope that he could end the fight before it began or throw up a shield to take the first hit and get a better measure of what the odds were that he'd survive the battle in the first place. In the end he chose the latter as he stepped to within five feet of 'Knockout' and readied the strongest force field he could manage to be activated at the first sign of hostile action.

"Since it's clear you don't want her then why not leave her to me?" he asked, keeping a sharp eye on all of the deadly ladies. "If you've got orders to kill her then just say you did. Some new clothes, a hair dye job, maybe some acting classes and the secret'll never get back to your boss. It'll save us all the hassle of a messy fight and save time that could be better spent with you home polishing your weapons and me getting something good to eat. Whattaya say?"

"A tempting offer, lowly, but the only way someone leaves the Furies is as bug food." the leader spoke before charging him, her axe looking to cleave him in two. "NOW YOU SHALL JOIN HER!"

With the speed of thought he brought up his magnetic force field and it was a good thing thought was as quick as it was otherwise he'd likely be dead. Instead he was channeling more strength into his dome-shaped force field in order to counter a level of strength that he hadn't thought the armored woman capable of. His Magneto memories likened it to a strike from Thor's hammer so, while not being strained to keep the dome in one piece, he knew he definitely didn't want to have a blow like that connect. The lady began to rain down multiple blows when it became clear that the dome would not fall from a single chop, with some being from the axe while others were from fists or feet. Definitely some power behind each blow and he didn't think it'd be smart to just stand there taking all of them, so with a gesture he grabbed hold of the lady's armor, throwing her over her allies, only for her to remarkably land on her feet. He'd been expecting her to land on her back or something but somehow, despite the suddenness of his move, she'd managed to reorient herself mid-air so she could land on her feet.

Definite skill.

"Then I guess the only way this is ending is if I make it clear that's not going to happen." He went about summoning a small amount of his feather blades from the inside of his cape. "So, are you all going to attack at once or one at a time?"

"You speak to those above your station, lowly!" one of the ladies, this one looking like she was into bondage with the metallic lashes wrapped around her body, said with a sneer of condescension. "Barda might not have been able to end you but I can do so with a single strike."

"Talk is cheap. Show me." he said as he took on a more serious tone.

With speed that was almost too quick to perceive, a length of the same bandage-shaped lashes that made up half her costume shot out towards him but, as it got close, he sensed something that could only make him smile.

It was also made of metal, just like the first woman's armor, and better still it appeared to be electrically charged, which would work well with his magnetic abilities.

The long range weapon struck his barrier but, instead of letting Bondage Girl pull it back for another attack, he grabbed it with his powers and, through it, seized it with the rest of her outfit. Deciding to make it look like he could defeat them with little effort, he used his magnetic powers to cause the woman's metallic weapons to constrict around their owner. He made sure to make it happen quickly so as to give Bondage Girl no chance to discard the weapons in order to save herself, but it turned out that they were connected to her somehow. He could feel resistance to his move that went all over the metal lashes rather than just around the arms or legs and the metal was apparently flexible enough that it'd stretched a bit, making suffocating the woman harder but not impossible. Unfortunately, just as he was about to up the rate of constriction, one of the other Furies came at him with a rather nasty looking sword and a haircut that reminded him of Malificent from Sleeping Beauty. Two quick slashes and the other woman was temporarily freed from his grip, causing her to fall to the ground so she could get her breath back. Malificent's younger sister, however, kept coming and delivered the mother of all power blows to his dome in an effort to cut through it. He didn't initially know why she was trying given that her leader's big ass axe hadn't done much but, when he felt a disruption in the force field at point of impact, he realized that the sword had a little something extra to it.

It'd still take her time to carve her way through but I'm not stupid enough to give her that time, he thought as he reached out for Bondage girl with his powers.

With a yank he sent the dark haired woman through the air to slam into her rescuer from behind, knocking both to the ground. Then, for just a little bit of fun, he used the former's weapon of choice to tie the two of them up like a Siamese mummy, making sure that they were bound tightly enough that using the unique sword to cut themselves free would be harmful or potentially fatal. However this last move also caused the others to abandon the one at a time approach and charge him en masse, no doubt with the intent of tearing him limb from limb along with Knockout.

Time to see just how durable these ladies are, he thought as he sent two feather blades apiece at each of his attackers, both aimed at disabling but not fatal targets.

One of them revealed themselves to be a speedster, making neutralizing her the priority, especially if she had superhuman strength on par with their leader. Expelling the remainder of his feather blades from beneath his cape, he repeated the trick he'd used against Ra's by having them circle his position at a speed that even the sharpest eye would have trouble following, with no space bigger than an inch between them. Even if the speedster was moving quickly enough to make the blades look like they were standing still, without enough room between them to squeeze through, hitting him would be hard. Could she force her way through? If it was just a dome of blades probably but, with the combo of his magnetic force field AND the blades, not a chance. Even at super speed hitting the dome would cause her to stop for at least a second and that'd be plenty of time for at least one feather blade to tear into her fist.

"This one has power. I wonder how it tastes," a lady who looked like a vampiric redheaded version of Wanda Maximoff said before crimson beams shot from her eyes, impacting the dome.

At first he didn't feel anything but then a steady decrease in the perceivable strength of the dome began to register in his mind and, even as he put more effort into maintaining it, the power slipped away. He put two and two together and figured the woman had to be some kind of energy vampire rather than the AB negative drinking type, but either way it put her on the top of his list of asses to kick. Pulling a handful of his blades away from where they were harassing other targets, he sent them at the energy vamp from every conceivable angle. Two missed but the rest hit their mark, sinking into flesh and breaking the redhead's concentration enough to stop the energy drain. However he didn't stop there because now that they were in flesh, he figured it was time to tear up someone so, with a bit of exertion, he pulled all of them to her stomach without withdrawing them, leaving some nasty cuts behind. Hearing the vamp wannabe cry out in pain at what he'd done caused him to feel some measure of satisfaction but it didn't last long.

A blonde girl in a pink dress with purple gloves came at him and, with a chop of her hand, actually managed to cut an opening in his dome and fragment a handful of his blades. Unfortunately for her the fragments were still useful since, with an E.M. push, they flew towards the blonde like shrapnel. It only gave her insignificant cuts but, much like most other humanoid species at the first hint of danger, she brought her hands up to cover her face. With a gesture he utilized his powers in a way that was dangerous but also necessary if he wanted to put down the karate girl before her team worked together to help her cut his protective force field to pieces. Just as the girl's arms came down, he unleashed a blast of electricity at her with a potency he hoped would if not remove her from the fight then at least keep her out of the fight until he trimmed the numbers a bit more.

"Heheheheheheheheh! You play rough for a lowly!" a woman who looked like female knockoff of the Joker said as she began to try to slice through his barrier. "Why don't you come out from there and play?"

"Ummmm… sorry, but no," he said with mock consideration, "Seeing as how that'd wind up with me and Knockout dead, I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline. Why don't you go and play with your boss? I'm sure she's free!"

Seizing hold of her claws, he flung her at Barda, who, instead of being knocked off her feet, caught her teammate briefly before setting her aside and bringing some kind of golden metal rod to bear on him. He wondered what it could be used for aside from a blunt object and he got his answer a moment later and it was not one he liked. A blast of yellow energy shot out from the end and impacted on his force field dome with enough force that he reflexively tripled its strength and even felt some strain. He kept waiting for the blast to come to an end so he could remove the threatening weapon from Barda's hand but, as seconds turned into minutes, he began to suspect that that wouldn't be happening any time soon. Things only got worse when the other femme fatales, even the ones he'd thought he'd taken down, began attacking him from the remaining attack vectors that wouldn't end up with them getting fried. As a result the pressure on the dome was going up by leaps and bounds, with all his metal blades having been reduced to so much molten slag.

C'mon! There's gotta be something I can do!

Then it occurred to him.

Magneto did have one trick but it was normally intended to remove gravity's effect within a localized area but he had a more useful idea. Reaching deep within himself for every scrap of electromagnetic power he could muster, he began to stretch forth with his powers until the area affected was just a few feet further out than the most distant Fury. Then, without any warning, he worked to increase the local gravitational pull as much as he could, with the intent of immobilizing his opponents. It wasn't easy, at first only three or four showed signs of being under the influence of higher gravity, but as he tapped into the Earth's EM field for added power the Furies began to show some strain of their own. Tapping into the power of the Earth's atmosphere had gotten a little easier than his first try shutting down the dimensional tear Raven had created but it still pushed him to his limits. He waited until the whole group was down to their hands and knees before pulling phase two of his plan: going from increased artificial gravity to increased repulsion. Like the ground and their armor were opposing magnets they flew apart, sending the Furies skyward, hopefully to land quite a ways away from here.

"Whew! Now that they're gone we gotta make tracks and hope they can't follow us," he said, turning to Knockout, who looked much more recovered than she had minutes ago.

"Some of them might be awhile getting back, Bucket Head, but not all of them," Knockout said, pointing in the direction he'd flung the furies. "Look."

Turning, he watched with a little incredulity as half the Furies had put what looked to be semi-transparent glass disks under their feet and were now flying back towards them.

"That is SO cheating."

KNOCKOUT'S POV

Hope.

It'd been something she'd had so little of back on Apokalips and the brief glimmer she'd gotten thanks to her sister had gone sour to ever-increasing levels since the fight for the Father Box. No, that wasn't entirely true because, against all odds, the lowly that'd chosen to defend her from the Furies was actually doing pretty good, all things considered. True, she didn't think he could beat them all by himself, but the fact that he hadn't gotten massacred in the first thirty seconds put him way head of most of the adversaries the Furies had gone up against. However now it looked like Lashina and the others were going to take the man seriously rather than dismiss him as some inconsequential lowly they could kill with their baby fingers.

That meant that playtime was over but, thankfully, the time the lowly man had given her was enough for her regenerative powers to repair most of the damage done to her and let her recover some of her strength. Getting to her feet, she prepared herself for the fight of her life and, while the odds said she would die alongside the helmeted man beside her, she would die with honor.

"Do you have an afterlife for warriors, lowly?" she asked, watching as the Furies got closer to them.

"Call me Magneto and yes, we do. Several of them, in fact," Magneto replied, sounding like he knew things were about to get serious. "My personal favorite is Valhalla, where warriors who've died an honorable death go to eat, drink and fight new battles for all eternity."

"Sounds like my kind of place. First round's on me when we get there," she said as her former senior warriors reached striking distance.

Then something happened that she had not expected: Big Barda, leader of the Female Furies, turned on her subordinates.

A right hook clocked Bernadeth in the jaw and, because it hadn't been expected, it did a lot more damage than it otherwise would have, sending the sister of Desaad up in the air before plummeting, unconscious, to the ground below. Lashina was next as her former leader swung her axe but, even as the bitch managed to move enough to keep the attack from being fatal, enough damage was done to remove her from the fight. It wasn't until a blast from Barda's Mega-Rod blasted Mad Harriet to the ground that the other Female Furies who were airborne finally recovered from their shock enough to put some distance between themselves and their former leader.

"What in Darkseid's eyes are you doing, Barda!?" Bloody Mary asked furiously, making it clear that there had best be a DAMN good explanation or there'd be one more person to bury.

"Simple, Mary. Effective immediately I resign my position as leader of the Female Furies and renounce my status as a citizen of Apokolips." Barda replied calmly even as she took up a support position next to her and Magneto. "After seeing my little sister getting shafted and set up for execution, I just can't justify remaining loyal to Darkseid any longer. My little escape plan for Knockout might not have gone as smoothly as I liked it and, if the young man hadn't performed as well as he has, this would've been a lot harder. Now, with him and Knockout by my side, I figure we have just enough power to send you ladies back home in defeat."

"Three against the rest of us, two against us, it doesn't matter, traitor!" Bloody Mary roared with fury as her eyes glowed in preparation for the use of her power. "The only thing that awaits those that betray almighty Darkseid is DEATH!"

With that the flyers attacked and, while she'd usually be at a disadvantage against an airborne threat, she could adapt with the best of them. Running over to a nearby plant that was tall and looked sturdy, she ripped it out of the ground before using it as an improvised club to knock the flying Furies to the ground where she'd stand a better chance of beating them. Her improvised weapon was awkward but she succeeded in knocking Artemis to the ground with her second swing before doing the same to Gilotina. Deciding that two were playmates enough, she threw the plant like a spear at the two downed Furies before charging in herself to get up close and personal. She didn't wait for either Fury to collect themselves but instead swung her fists the moment she was close enough to connect to with their jaws. She knew that the only chance they had of making her older sister's words come true was to take down as many Furies as possible as quickly as possible to motivate them to withdraw. True, as loyal warriors of Darkseid they were prepared to fight to the death for their lord and master but they'd believe it better to 'regroup' and return stronger than to be utterly defeated.

"C'mon girls!" she goaded as she continued to mix it up with her two sparring partners. "If this is the best you've got then I should've been made a Fury a long time ago!"

Even as much as she didn't like pain, battle to her was right up there with sex and tough opponents only made it that much better. Mixing it up with Artemis and Gilotina, she could feel her blood SING with joy at the rush she was getting pitting herself against such worthy foes. Even if death was a possibility, even the spikes of pain she felt when one of her foes landed a hit, there was just something so intoxicating about being this close to the edge between life and death. Even as she executed a throw that slammed Artemis into the ground hard enough to leave a three foot deep impression, she found herself wanting MORE.

It was just as she was about to put down Gilotina when Speed Queen finally arrived, circling her while delivering about half a thousand 'love taps' at dizzying speeds. Unfortunately for the Fury woman, her super speed wasn't unbeatable and, with some careful timing, she executed a roundhouse kick that successfully connected with the speedster's stomach, sending her and through several solid objects.

"Nice try, Speed Queen, but my reaction time's better than yours!" she said with a smile before delivering an axe kick to Gilotina's head, rendering the blonde unconscious.

Looking about for new opponents, she was disappointed to find that, with the exception of a recovered Bernadeth and a charred Mad Harriet, the rest of the Furies were in no shape to put up a decent fight. This was just as disappointing to her as a man who couldn't fuck for more than two minutes before blowing his load and his cock shriveling up. Still, she wasn't going to refuse such a favorable turn of events and so, with a leap, she landed back at the side of her older sister Barda and Magneto to see what the Female Furies would do next.

"Give up, Bernadeth." Barda said with utter certainty. "The Furies are either barely able to stand or unconscious. Further fighting would only worsen your defeat."

She could see the swordswoman about to pop a blood vessel in her fury but the fact that she wasn't spouting the usual 'this isn't over yet' cliché or attacking meant the sister of Desaad was thinking the situation over. Continuing to fight would likely result in all the Furies being rendered dead or unconscious, after which her older sister would probably send them back to Apokolips via Boom Tube. To be found by Darkseid or one of his lieutenants in such a pitiful state would be a terrible humiliation that the Furies might not be allowed to survive. However, if they left of their own free will, they'd be 'punished' as only Granny Goodness could punish, suffer at least a year of insulting treatment, undergo insane levels of training and only then would they be given back their former status. Death or a period of humiliation wherein they would one day reclaim their former status as elite warriors of Apokilips?

"This is not the end, traitor!" Bernadeth said before using her Father Box to open a Boom Tube. "We will return and in greater numbers than you could possibly hope to survive. Your ends are all but certain."

"The future's always in motion, Bernadeth," Magneto said, not sounding afraid in the slightest. "Nothing is certain. Not our continued survival. Not your future victory over us."

"We shall see, lowly," Bernadeth said before walking into the Boom Tube herself and, the moment she disappeared from sight, it shut down, leaving nothing but the night sky.

"Well, that was a nice way to spend an evening," Magneto said sardonically before turning to look at her and Barda. "I think we should leave this area as soon as possible. Earth has champions who won't have missed our little fight and it'd be best for all of us not to be here when they arrive."

"You think they will harm us?" Barda asked, sounding ready to fight if necessary.

"Not unless we attack them first," he replied with a negative shake of his head. "However they don't approve of my methods and they'll probably keep a close watch on you two since you're not exactly from around here. If they hear you've possibly provoked a foreign power into sending soldiers here who don't care about collateral damage or innocent lives… they won't be happy."

"Where would you have us go?" she asked, sounding like she better understood the situation.

"I have a place I rented a couple days ago. It's away from watchful eyes and it's big enough for all of us," he replied with confidence. "It'll also have the means to help you learn about Earth so you can blend in with the people of this world. The Furies might know you're here but it's a big planet, so unless you draw attention to yourselves they won't know where to start looking for you."

"And what would you require in return for this… assistance?" she asked, suspicious of such generosity.

Someone being generous on Apokolips generally meant they were setting you up for something.

"If I'm ever in trouble and need two warrior women to get me out of it, you'll come as quickly as you're able to." he replied as easily as someone in the barracks might ask for the ale jug to be passed. "That's all."

"Just haul your ass out of the fire? That's it?" she asked, not quite believing that it could be so simple.

"Yep. Trouble tends to find me when I least desire it to," he replied with a nod in the affirmative. "Before I got my powers it usually meant a group of bullies or two vampires. Now that I have power over magnetism on this scale, the trouble is going to be that much more impressive. Odds are I'll either wind up confronting a force more powerful than I anticipated or much more skilled. That is why knowing I can call on you two for help is worth letting you stay at the cottage I rented."

Well, if running into me, Barda and the Furies is the kind of trouble Magneto tends to get into, I can see why he'd need help getting out of it, she thought before some lovely anticipation began to grow within her. Somehow I think sticking close to him will keep me from EVER getting bored.