Emperor Xander
by Chaoseternus
"Willow, I thought you took that damn thing down?" Buffy's exasperated comment was not the reply Gerard had been expecting, though judging by the oops look that immediately crossed Buffy's face, she at least was smart enough to note the illegality she had just admitted to, inadvertently.
"What," Cosmo asked, "take down as in, you maintain it, or take down as in hack?"
"I claim the fifth?" Willow replied, shrugging.
"That", Cooper replied, "answers that one"
"If you know about that site," Xander pointed out, "then it's a damned good assumption you know what's on the site"
"Of course," Cosmo commented, as Gerard carefully watched, and judged, "why do you think we're here? Something as mad as that we have to investigate"
"Ahh," Willow replied sagely, "newbie's. Let's break their cherries"
"Hey, wait a minute" Cosmo protested, "my cherry was broken years ago, just ask the ex's"
"So not what she meant" Buffy snorted.
"There should be a rising in the eastern cemetery tonight," Giles commented, "a Miss Trachenberg"
"Coolies," Buffy commented, cops who at least know are always useful, hopefully this lot won't do a Sunnydale and stick their heads so far into the sand they come out in Australia
"We aren't exactly known for hiding from the truth," Gerard pointed out.
"I know," the assurance with which Buffy said that told Gerard very firmly that somebody had been doing some background checking of their own, and they would have to have done it before they found the site. Interesting, he mused.
"We still have that MIA team to find," Xander pointed out," a"nd with an unknown in the area, we really need somebody on homeplate to co-ordinate too"
"Well," Giles replied,"" I'll stay here off course"
Xander nodded, "Buffy and I will go break their cherries, Willow, get on the computer and see if you can dig up anything new on SG-1. Giles make a call to the Taskers, put them on alert"
"Of course; and Mr Bond?" Giles asked.
"Busy setting things up for us, give him an updated brief just in case but otherwise, leave him to it"
"Wait," Cooper asked, "what makes you think we are just going to follow you wherever you want? Now, in front of us you have said enough to have you arrested for about fifteen separate offences"
"Okay," Cosmo carefully responded, arms raised in a calming gesture, "we're all friends here, no need for the guns, so just put them away please "
"I think", Xander said carefully, "that until we have proven to you that vampires are real, its best we keep you in sight and under control"
"That's nuts," Cosmo replied, "vampires aren't real, there are no monsters under the bed, no bloodsucking fiends, nadda"
"Of course, then you won't mind coming with us?" Xander gestured with his bolter.
"Say, what kind of gun is that anyway?" Cooper asked," I've never seen one like it before"
Xander smiled, "that's because they don't exist, yet"
"Great, kid really is nuts," Cosmo commented to Gerard, "What do you think we're going to see, some poor smuck they've dug out of the grave?"
"I think," Gerard frowned, "that we are going to see a vampire"
Cosmo shot his boss an are you kidding?' look.
"This", Riley calmly said to the infuriated, but thankfully tied up and gagged Marshall," is a vampire. This particular one, Hostile Seventeen, is also known as Spike, or William the Bloody. The nickname was picked up due to his habit of crucifying his victims with railroad spikes"
"Real nice person" Forrest added slowly, for emphasis.
The ten-thousand watt glare made him cringe for a moment, before it was turned back on Riley, who this time, managed somehow not to flinch.
"Graham, grab her crucifix" Riley said calmly, his finger twitching on his blaster as he tried to resist the urge to blast Walsh just to get away from that glare for a minute or two.
The glare was dialled up to roughly a million watts, and Riley shivered, not envying Graham as he was shot a look that said quite clearly, I know who you are, I know your name, I will find you and you will pay.
Understandably, Graham shot a pleading look to Riley, asking for somebody else to do this but Riley grimly nodded him to get on with it.
The crucifix was removed, and handed to Riley, Graham darting to the far side of the room as fast as he could, away from the enraged woman.
Riley just sighed, and pressed the small silver into the bound and gagged form of Spike. He stepped back, more then a little surprised, as black smoke billowed from the vampires forehead, flames spurting from the faint impression of the cross left behind on the monsters forehead.
"Who did you have this blessed by?" Riley blurted, as the vampire contorted in pain, "the Pope?"
He glanced across at Walsh, but she wasn't listening, her eyes were very firmly on Spike, or more particularly, his suddenly ridged forehead, the glowing yellow eyes, and the sudden appearance of fangs.
"Vampire," Riley commented, not unsympathetically.
The look he was shot said clearly Are you nuts? Hell, am I nuts?'
Riley almost smiled, she would be fine, that at least was one of the mildest responses he had had to deal with so far from people who suddenly found out that the monsters under the bed were real. At least five of the people he had been ordered to brief, including at least one General, were now in asylums because they could not accept the truth.
"This one we caught on our first day in Sunnydale, he and another vampire were attempting to leave the town at speed, she escaped, but this one we caught and sent back for analysis. Unfortunately, analysis wasn't what Walsh... sorry, your sister had in mind. Experimentation was however" Riley looked the Marshall Walsh directly in the eye, "behavioural modification experimentation"
The agent shot Graham and Forrest a warning look, then swiftly cut through the ropes binding the annoyed and pained vampire. Instantly, the vampire looked around at them as if his dream had come true, as if he was about to get a meal and some revenge all rolled up into one.
Riley watched warily, but did nothing as the vampire grabbed him and tried to bite.
"That," Forrest commented, "is one of the things your sister has been working on"
Riley snorted, and kicked the suddenly writhing vampire in the face, hard, knocking the monster out, then reaching for new ropes with which to tie the monster back up.
"He now has a chip in his head which in its early form, just prevents him from harming humans" Forrest shrugged, "you're a bright lady, I'm sure you can figure out how a woman working for a rogue division of a government agency might refine that"
"It's not the worst of it though," Riley commented, tugging unnecessarily hard on the ropes he was binding around the vampire, "she has been experimenting on us, her troops too"
Walsh's eyes widened with shock, her expression clearly saying are you serious, but Riley's return look was uncompromising, dead serious.
"A friend in Sunnydale spotted it; there is a microchip that has been placed without my knowing in my shoulder. Also, whilst the final lab report hasn't come back yet, the initial report confirmed that our bodies were loaded with a cocktail of drugs and chemicals, a cocktail we had not knowingly taken and which included a number of chemicals banned as unsafe"
Riley shook his head, "we didn't know you were at that house, but whilst we had to grab you and run we have tried to be as fair as we could under the circumstances and we hope that you will remember that"
Sighing, he reached across, and careful took the gag from the Marshall's mouth.