Xander stumbled out of the woods as he tried to reign in his current habit of spitting and snarling, unfortunately his attackers had left a bad taste in his mouth and he found it difficult to quit thanks to his enhanced senses.

Stepping into the clearing, Xander shook his head while he tried to ignore the screaming from the other students as he looked around at the carnage left over from the attack. Thankfully most of the students seemed more scared than injured and the older mutants where busy trying to get everyone calmed down when they caught sight of him and started screaming again, looking down at his bullet riddled and blood stained clothes Xander really couldn't blame them.

"HEY TAZ, QUIT SCARING THE KIDS AND GO HELP KITTY AND JUBILEE FIND PROFESSOR LOGAN" Bobby yelled across the clearing from where he was helping to stop the bleeding of a young mutant that had been grazed by a bullet. Growling at the ice mutant, Xander shrugged out of his bloody over shirt and stomped off into the woods, it wasn't that he didn't agree with Iceman, it just hurt that the kids considered him the monster in this situation.

Taking a deep breath through his nose Xander snorted at the overpowering scents of gunpowder, blood, fear and death that permeated the surrounding area. They would have to do something about the bodies or scavengers would get too close during the night, maybe a layer of ice would conceal the scent enough, he wondered as he shifted through the woods in the darkness.

Due to the scents, Xander literally stumbled over the still form of the professor he had been searching for. Looking him over, Xander shuddered at the massive amounts of damage the body had sustained. He hesitated a moment before shoving his claws into the man's heart and twisting leaving a gaping hole in the older mutants chest before shoving a stake in to take his claws place, perhaps a bit morbid but he really didn't want to deal with someone like Wolverine waking up as he carved shrapnel out of his flesh. Given his history he would probably react badly in such an event.

With a grunt Xander lifted the heavy mutant onto his shoulders and turned back towards camp, he needed some light to make sure he got everything out, and to make sure he didn't carve out anything that might be considered important.

With a sigh, he wondered if anyone else was having as bad a night as this.

--

Riley Finn was having a very bad night, he decided as he dove around a corner as a half dozen spikes slashed the bricks leaving a series of interesting cuts that the locals would have to find an explanation for tomorrow. For a fraction of a second the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent wondered what they would come up with before he shoved himself away from cover and fired a trio of rounds at the snarling porcupine man that was currently chasing him through the closed and empty commercial section of Sunnydale.

The large form was faster than he anticipated and it spun away from his attack and faded into the night. He wasn't naive enough to think it was gone, it had pulled this exact same hit and run tactic twice before. Dropping the empty magazine, he slid a fresh one into place and racked the slide, he knew the thing was getting him to waste his bullets, the problem was he didn't have much choice. Either he wasted the ammo and kept it at a distance, or he let it close where it's speed and needle sharp quills would put him at a severe disadvantage.

Turning, the young soldier sprinted down the street towards the safe house, the other members of his team should already be there and the combined firepower of the team would help put the quillman down for the count. Spinning around the corner, Riley flinched at the scrape of several dozen quills sinking into the brick wall. Ignoring the urge to return fire, Riley took a deep breath and continued down the street.

He was three blocks from the safe house when he literally slammed into the small form of Buffy Summers. The training ingrained in every 'SHIELD' agent proved itself as he managed to spin with the throw the short blonde made and thus only scrape up his elbows and knees slightly as Buffy gasped in shock.

"Ooh my god Riley, are you okay?" Buffy gushed as she rushed towards the downed store clerk.

Looking up at her from the ground Riley groaned in pain before freezing at the sight of the Porcupine man atop a nearby building.

Idly he wondered if anyone was having as bad a night as him.

--

Willow Rosenberg was crying as she sat alone on the bus stop bench, a small collection of items beside her as she clutched the ticket in her hand. There had been screaming, and items had been thrown, and finally the young redhead had packed a small bag and fled the house her mother had returned to.

She had tried Buffy's only to find the house locked up tight, Joyce had left for some art conference in San Diego, Dawn was spending time with her father at some summit in LA, Buffy was obviously out hunting vampires, she felt bad about abandoning Buffy like this. But she would not, could not return to that house.

Sniffling slightly Willow rubbed her eyes as she tried to compose herself slightly, the last thing she needed was some vampire eating her as she sat alone in her own deep blue funk.

"Hey Red,"

Willow gave a short shriek at the voice as she spun in the direction and glared at Faith as the dark haired slayer stepped out of the shadows with a half apologetic grin.

"Sorry didn't mean to startle you like that," Faith said as she stepped around and lounged on the hard bench beside Willow.

Snorting Willow looked at the new slayer "So you meant to startle me in a different way?" Willow snarked as she thought of what Xander would do in such a situation. "Do you want me to pretend as you try again or do we adlib from here?"

"Nhaa, I'll try again later," Faith said with a smirk as she stretched some kinks out of her back and readjusted to a more comfortable position on the hard bench and looked over at the redhead "So, where you running to?" She asked seriously as Willow tightened her grip on the ticket in hand before the redhead slumped in defeat.

"I-I don't know," She whispered as she stared blankly ahead "Everything's just falling apart right now, Xander's gone, my mom did such horrible things to him and then the government just swooped in and… he's gone, I can't find any trace of him and then mom got out of jail on a technicality, I-I just can't stay there after what she did." Willow whispered as she tried not to cry again.

Faith stared at the young woman beside her before letting out a sigh, "You know running isn't going to help, right?" She asked carefully. She didn't want to be pushy, so at the redheads nod she finally reached over and laid a hand on Willow's shoulder "If you need to, you can always crash with me," she offered and smiled at the look Willow gave her before shrugging "Tried the running away thing once myself, didn't work too well and I might as well save a friend from the same mistake," as she helped her friend to her feet and gathered her few items up.

"Besides I want to see Xander's brain melt when he hears we've been sleeping together," She joked and smiled at the chocked squeak from Willow.

Life was good sometimes.

--

(A/N) Sorry it took so long, School is time consuming, as is looking for work.