10 Days Later
Sunnydale, CA
"Where are they?"
It was the question of the day. At the moment it was being asked by Willow as she paced the length of the Library while the others watched her warily. She was of course asking about the status of Buffy and Faith, ie the symbiote-possessed Slayers called Venom and Wrath. Ten days ago, a future version of her made contact with them via some sort of mystical astral projection—which she couldn't even find a reference to in any of her magic books—telling them that the two mystical warriors would be returning to the Hellmouth in ten days! Today, in other words!
Alas, there had been no sign of their arrival nor any impending arrival since that day. Given the stealth Venom was capable of, it did not surprise the resident super heroes, but it was frustrating for the teen supernatural sleuths that called themselves the Scooby Gang. Unfortunately that only applied if they had a 'Scooby' or rather a Slayer to rally themselves around. No Buffy, no Slayer, no Scoobies. The only thing worse was the mysterious conundrum her future self had left for them to unravel!
"I—she said that they'd be back today! Well, where are they?" she yelled.
"Wills, we've already answered that. Twice," Xander replied.
"I know, I know," she deflated, but stayed on her feet and continued pacing, just with a slouch now. "She also said that they were being given their own warning of the future and that if we did anything to separate them from the symbiotes, bad things would happen. But... I miss Buffy!"
"I know," her bestest friend said sadly. "We all do."
"I know," Cordelia sarcastically remarked to her boyfriend, former tormentee and her boyfriend, "how about we focus on our strategy to sell this band candy? I can't believe the things Snyder comes up with to make our lives even more miserable. I thought Buffy was supposed to be the reason he did stuff like this?"
"Well, now we have proof, sweetie," Xander patted her on the shoulder, "He's just really that pathetic and spiteful. Besides, even if Buffy were to come back today, there's still that matter that she, not Venom Slayer, she Buffy Summers is wanted by the police over Kendra's... you know."
"Oh, I took care of that months ago," Willow casually shrugged off the fact that she'd hacked police files and pretty much scrubbed Buffy's record clean, while Black Cat took care of the hard copies. Only reason for the police to question her now, if she ever came back, would be because of the actual investigators being an ass about it. Not that such a person could actually do anything without hard evidence, any decent judge would toss the case right out.
"Guys?" Cordelia snapped. "Band candy? Stupid fundraiser, remember? Let's strategize already! I want to have a weekend instead of dealing with this when we're not patrolling. Hey, think we could talk Felicia into buying a couple cases?"
"You'd have better luck with Frank," Xander tried to suppress an involuntary shiver as he recalled his last few encounters with the athletic blond superhero.
"It's chocolate," the brunette said flatly.
"And you're suggesting that you sell her multiple cases of it?" he deadpanned right back at her.
Shrugging, she had to concede the point, while giving him silent points for not blurting it out loud like he usually might have. If he'd even hinted at the possibility of a woman making herself fat, she was fairly certain that she wouldn't be the only one castrating her boyfriend for such a crude comment. She went back to reading her magazine.
"I need to find them," Willow suddenly announced, Resolve Face forming.
Xander was immediately on his feet and in her way though, asking, "Uh, find who? And why with the 'need to'?"
"Buffy! And—and Faith, too, I guess," she stammered, trying to move around him, but he'd intentionally placed himself between the distraught redhead and the nearest computer. "I need to find where they are! If they're not here then they... they... they could be anywhere! I need to know where they are, Xander!"
"OK," he said placating, "That answers the first question, now about this sudden need to find them?"
"They could be in trouble!" she argued.
"Wills," he said, putting his hands gently on her shoulders. "They got the warning from the future, same as we did. They're not coming back. Not yet at any rate."
"But... but... but..." Willow started to hyperventilate, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Yeah, I know," he nodded and gave her a wry grin.
"They... she's really not coming back?" the redhead whispered, tears leaking out.
"Not yet, I don't think," he said honestly. "But we're still her friends and she's ours. She'll come back. Eventually. When she..." he stopped himself briefly before continuing, "When we're all ready, she'll come back. With more friends no doubt. Until then, we've got to hold down the fort until they do come back."
"Yeah, you, you're right Xander," she nodded, wiping away her tears. "You're right. We've got to defend the Hellmouth now. Oh, and hey, we've got actual superheroes helping us out!"
"Yeah, speaking of which," Xander looked down at his watch, "Frank is sort of putting me through the Special Forces version of ROTC, and I'm going to be late if I don't book it. It'll be OK, Wills." He kissed her forehead. On his way out, he paused by his girlfriend and whispered to her, "Don't let her near the computer to search for Buffy!"
She nodded and turned the page, having no intention of moving from her spot until she was done with the magazine. Yet the moment after Xander left, and Willow made for a beeline to computer, she snapped out her wrist, flinging one of the mini-projectiles that Felicia had been training them in, hitting the power button on the terminal the moment after the other girl had turned it on. Ignoring the glare she could feel pointed her way, she turned the page and continued reading.
"Fine," Willow grumbled and left, Cordelia grinning in the silence of the library.
Baxter Building
New York City, NY
"So this is what you do in your time off? When you're not exploring facets of reality or saving the universe that is?" Faith asked.
"Yep," Ben 'The Thing' Grimm answered with an easy shrug. "Nuthin' better than watching the game on the holographic TV that puts the newest 3D Flatscreens to shame, with a brew, popcorn, and good company. Even if that company is rooting for the other team. Of course, given our luck, just as we get into the 9th inning stretch, Reed'll probably blow something up, or Doctor Doom or the Mole Man or somebody will attack the city, or some other random crap will happen."
"Yeah, well, I'm a Boston girl at heart, and I'm doing my best to teach lil' Wrath to appreciate the finer things in life. Like watching the Red Sox crush the Yankees!" she crowed as her team got another base hit, advancing on home with no outs.
"They'll turn it around, you'll see," Ben grumbled, his voice more gravely than normal, his arms crossed.
"Ugh," Buffy grunted from the rear of the room, paging through a fashion magazine (incidentally the same one that a certain brunette was reading at the same time on the other side of the continent) as she ignored what was going on at the front of the room. "Baseball. Only good thing about that sport is the uniforms, in my opinion. At least with football or basketball I'd usually have something to do to keep from being bored stiff..."
"It's not that bad, Buffy," Susan 'The Invisible Woman' Storm-Richards said as she perused her own copy next to the younger blond. "Besides, if you are really that bored, I'm sure that we can find something for you to do, which wouldn't violate your agreement with SHIELD, that is."
"Meh," the Symbiote-Slayer shrugged. "All the vamps and criminals tend to wait till nightfall to come out and play. Besides, was planning on going clubbing with Flam-bo later on anyway. Till then, not exactly a lot to do around here."
"Oh, sure there is," Susan said. "If you're wanting to improve your skills, or even just work out a little aggression, Reed converted the floor below us into a sort of gym. One that can handle, and even challenge those with super powers."
Buffy chewed on that for a few moments, before shrugging and replying, "Maybe later. Right now I'm just trying not to hurl over the behavior of certain someones that shall remain nameless."
"Bite me!" Faith shouted back, before screaming out as the Red Sox completed a Triple Play, "Oh YEAH! Go baby, go baby, GO! That's how you do it!"
"They'll turn it around!" Ben insisted.
"Uh huh," Susan agreed, neither blond actually looking up from her magazine.
All of a sudden, both Slayers stiffened and came to attention, as though the same shiver of someone walking over their grave happened at the same time. Ben was too caught up in the game to immediately notice, but Susan did as Buffy put down the magazine and stood up, facing the door.
"We've got company," the petite blond announced.
Giving a rumbling sigh, Ben turned off the TV and got to his feet as he noticed the two Slayers on guard. "At least it had gone to commercial," he said, walking over with Faith to stand beside the two wards of the Fantastic Four.
From the open doorway, in walked Johnny 'Human Torch' Storm and an all too familiar member of the costume club of New York City, Spider-Man!
"Spidey," Buffy greeted. "I thought we'd come to an understanding."
"Yeah, about that," the red and blue clad web slinger replied, "it seems that, well, uh, there's a... bit of a situation. And I, uh... well..."
"You need our help?" Faith scoffed.
"To put it in so many words; yes," he shamefully admitted, hanging his head.
"What's the sitch?" the Bostonian brunette asked.
"Well," the costumed hero explained, "it turns out that, apparently, there is this group, or family, or clan or whatever, of inter-dimensional aliens going around draining the life force, or essence if you will, of all those related—even in small ways—to the spider totem. Meaning... me."
"And me," Buffy sighed, rubbing her forehead to relieve the echoes of the oncoming headache she could feel.
"Well... yes," he shrugged helplessly. "Did I mention that they were inter-dimensional? Turns out, I'm not the only Spider that doesn't take this sort of thing just lying around. So, I've been recruited, and I was hoping that you two, being good guys now and all, wouldn't mind filling in for me while I go off to another universe to stop genocidal maniacs from killing all the Spiders of every reality?"
"How did he get that all out in one breath while wearing that mask?" Faith 'whispered' to those around her.
"Ask his girlfriend," Johnny 'whispered' back from his position right beside the web head.
"Nice," Faith gave the New York Superhero a long appreciative once-over.
The whole room could practically feel the blush coming from beneath the webbed hero's already-red mask. Holding back a suffering sigh and eye roll only through extreme effort of conscious willpower, the current holder of the Venom symbiote quickly moved to change the direction of the conversation.
"You need Venom Slayer and Wrath to cover for Spider-Man? In what? Last I heard, you were no longer part of the Avengers, and most of your rogue's gallery is either in prison, or underground. In some cases, literally. There are plenty of other street-level heroes doing the same job you do, Spidey. Why come to us and not them?"
"A few reasons actually," he answered. "And not just to help with the street-level crime. I can say, with reasonable certainty, that you are one of the few people in the world that know... a fair number of my secrets. You're also one of the extremely few that I actually trust with them. These... whatever they are, I don't know how much they know about me already, but... I need somebody that I know can handle them—and whom I trust—to, well to protect my... my secrets."
"Y'know, I'm probably the only one in here that doesn't actually know," Faith spoke up. "So if it'll make things easier, I can just leave the room or close my eyes and start humming real loud with my hands over my ears or something..."
"I need you to protect my family," Spider-Man stated plainly. "And, if these creeps actually come to this dimension before me and the rest of the Spiders can stop them, then I'm trusting you, and a few others, to hold the line here. I..." He took a deep, shuddering breath and seemed to be gathering strength for a moment. "I can't do what I need to do if I'm worried about what is going on here at home. Please... Venom—Buffy, can I count on you?"
There was a heavy pressure in the air, as though the whole world were waiting for the blond hero's choice. She just smiled at him and shook her head. "All you had to do was ask, Spider," she answered. "Yes. Go, do what you need to do. We'll take care of things here. Besides, I'm connected to more than just the spider totem, and Faith isn't even at all. After all, you said that they're targeting other Spiders, nothing about other symbiotes, like Carnage, Toxin, or the others?"
"No, only Spiders," he confirmed. "And only Venom if Venom happens to be, well... me. So, here's hoping you're right."
"Right, so once you're gone," she deduced, "there shouldn't be anything left in this universe to draw them here. Just keep the 'location' of your home universe to yourself and we should be all good. But, if these... Spider-vamps show up for any reason, we'll take care of them. No problem."
"And seein' as these twos're our responsibility and all," Ben added, folding his orange-rock arms across his massive chest, "They'll have plenty 'a backup. Don't you worry 'bout a thing, Spidey."
"Thank you," Spider-Man acknowledged.
"So, what are these bozos called, anyway?" Faith asked as they all turned to escort Spider-Man toward the exit, in this case the roof.
"Well, I only found out about this whole thing about an hour ago myself," he confessed with a shrug. "But I was told by 'Superior' Spider-Man," he made air-quotes as he identified this alternate, "that they're calling themselves the Inheritors. Of what, nobody is quite sure. Just that they go around different universes and drain the life force of said universes Spider-Men, or Spider-Women as the case may be. I'm planning on finding out more as soon as I can. And hopefully from a more reliable source than an alternate Otto Octavius possessing my body!"
The whole room did a collective 'WTF-Blink!' at that and took a moment to process and let it sink in.
"Yeah," he agreed, "And that isn't even the weirdest one of them."
Sanctum Sanctorum
(Exact Location Unknown)
Felicia and Johnny stepped through the doorway Doctor Stephen Strange had opened for them, only to find themselves in the main sitting room of the good doctor's pan-dimensional home, which was supposed to be somewhere in Greenwich Village in New York City. What made this so startling was that the door they'd just walked through had been at the center of a former-vampire-owned mansion in Sunnydale, CA!
At present, Felicia had her mask off, though she was still wearing the rest of her 'Black Cat' costume, minus the gloves, and Johnny was still 'Johnny', seeing as it was daylight and being in the Sorcerer Supreme's home meant that there was little chance of any 'evil' being nearby. They'd left Frank behind to keep an eye on the kids while the two with the most supernatural experience out of the three of them went to speak with Doctor Strange about the prophecy they'd received just a week prior.
"This, astral projection," Stephen said as he took a seat in his chair and gestured for the pair to sit, "she claimed to be from the future, and that she was my apprentice? My heir apparent as it were?"
"She was from the future," Felicia confirmed. "And yeah, she claimed that she was the 'current' Sorceress Supreme, citing your death. She gave us a bunch of warnings, but part of the message was garbled near the end. We were hoping that you might help us make sense of it. I set up a recording while we were waiting for the librarian to get there. Here." She set down the portable holo-projector and allowed the whole scene to play from start to finish.
Stephen only interrupted once, when she showed Giles her 'proof', telling them to pause it. After examining the image for himself, the good doctor had to agree, the red haired woman wearing his cloak was indeed from the future. Other than that on instance, he remained silent and watched the rest of the recording with rapt attention.
"You can see where things get... less than clear," Felicia remarked, moving to pick up the projector, but a silent gesture from the Sorcerer stopped her.
"You should not have shown this to me," he said gravely. "She explicitly warned you against seeking my counsel. That much is made clear, if only from her expressions!"
"Why do you think we waited a week before finally coming to you with this?" Johnny snapped at him. "We all saw it, same as you. The words might've been garbled, but it was, as you said, clear that she was telling us 'Don't get Doctor Strange', even if the words came out as 'strange', 'get', 'doctor'. Ultimately, it was decided to at least get your advice, and just... not introduce you to your supposed future apprentice."
"Well, despite the future already having been changed," Stephen said, "there is a simple enough means of getting the whole message. And no, I don't mean that we contact them. I'll merely pull the memories from your minds and we can reconstruct the scene magically, which will allow me to—pardon the expression—enhance the image however we wish. Even if there was no sound heard, it is little enough difficulty to read her lips, even towards the end where she is fading away, there are means of still being able to see her until the final moments."
"Do you need everyone that was there?" Felicia asked.
"No, no," he shook his head, raising one hand towards the blond and crafting the needed spell on the spot, without even needing to get up from his chair. "No need. Your perspective will be enough, I think, my dear Felicia. Not to worry, you won't feel a thing. Ah, there we go!"
And just like that, the sitting room around them transformed into a super-imposed magical image of the Sunnydale High Library, the magical illusion frozen on the moments right before the future-Willow had begun to fade away.
Using both hands now, Doctor Strange began to more directly manipulate the illusion, changing none of the content, merely enhancing some aspects while allowing others to fade away, until it seemed that the astral projection of the future Sorceress Supreme somehow appeared more real than anything else, even themselves. He then made one final change and glowing gold letters began appearing over the red haired woman's head.
"There, that should do it," he concluded. "The subtitles should help just in case we miss anything, but still pay close attention to her lips and expression. Someone in my position does not do something like this lightly, and if they do, they have to make sure that it counts. Every nuance could have meaning. Are you ready?"
"Play it," Johnny said, while Felicia merely nodded.
Stephen merely made a gesture and the memory began to play out again, but this time the lost words were there for them to read.
"One last thing. There is a threat on the horizon. A wizard will be transforming into a First Circle Demon on Graduation Day. He is Richard Wilkins, the Mayor of Sunnydale! You need to recruit more help like the heroes. I don't have much more time! You'll need to get specific heroes to help, oh no you can't hear me anymore! LISTEN! GET MORBIUS! GET BLADE! GET THE CHARMED ONES!" Here she started shaking her head, a look of warning and fear on her face, "AND GET DOCTOR STRANGE! He's needed most of all! He is the one that gets me off the dark path I'm headed down! I'm out of time! Doctor, when you see this message, please you have to come to the Hellmouth and help us all! You're our only . . . hope . . . " The memory stopped there.
"Right then," Doctor Strange got to his feet, and the other two heroes were quick to follow. "Felicia, that door will take you to the main hall, you'll be able to get to the front entrance in New York from there. Please locate and retrieve both Morbius, the Living Vampire, and Blade the Dhampir Vampire Hunter as soon as possible and bring them back to the Sanctum. I fear that we may already be short on time as it is. Mister Blaze and I shall return to the Hellmouth where I shall introduce myself to my new student. Wong!"
The Asian wizard appeared as if by magic, pun intended. "Yes, Doctor?"
"I will be away for a few days. Please keep an eye on things, and when Miss Hardy returns with our other allies, if you would show them the correct path?"
"Of course Doctor," the man acknowledged. "I look forward to meeting your new apprentice when she arrives."
"Yes, well, that may take some time, as I fear I have a lot of work ahead of me," the Sorcerer Supreme remarked.
"Indeed," Wong commented as the heroes made their departure.
(AN: Been a while since this has been updated, but then, been a long while since anything was even written for it! Used to be a back-and-forth between me and the fabulous Australian author "Doc4", link to his Author page is in my "Favorite Authors" List.
HEY DOC! It's Your Turn! Check your GoogleDrive!)
ENJOY!