Iron Age Politics 2

Xander awoke, yawned, scratched himself, and then winced as his mind reorganized itself. The lethe ward that had hidden Sunnydale was gone and a lot of his memories of comic books he'd read and cartoons he'd watched, resolved themselves into news articles and documentaries.

Magic had seriously warped his perception of reality, turning everything he'd read, seen, or heard about real life superheroes into fictional ones and now that the magic was gone he could see reality for what it was. He chuckled as he recalled Batman and Superman's secret identities or rather what 'comics' had said they were, a Janitor and a bus boy.

He was surprised to find that Tony Stark's home universe had a version of DC Comics much like they had Marvel comics here. Tony had read some as a kid, and though that was long ago he still remembered some of the basic facts and secret identities of the main heroes. Xander wasn't sure those were any more reliable than his memories of DC Comics, but it was possible they were correct.

Dismissing it as unimportant for the moment, he got ready for school, taking forever to get dressed as it was nearly impossible to find anything decent to wear. He had to raid his father's closet for a shirt in the end, but that, some black slacks, and a dress jacket that had been bought for a family reunion, had been deemed acceptable enough to go out in public wearing.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Good morning everyone," Xander said cheerfully as he entered the school library.

"We were just discussing possible after effects of the events of last night," Giles said as the girls stared in shock at Xander. "I take it from your early morning exuberance and new manner of dress, you also have something to share with us?"

"I'll go last," Xander said, pulling out a notepad and pen from his backpack, as he sat next to Willow across from Buffy.

"We already went," Buffy said.

"Yes, but I didn't hear it," Xander said, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Buffy has retained knowledge of French and needlepoint and Willow is corporeal once more," Giles stated. "And yourself?"

"Business acumen and fashion," Xander replied easily. "Being Tony Stark was an eye opener."

"I very much doubt the laws regarding business dealings in a movie will match up with the real world," Giles warned him.

"The laws and rules have always been subject to change without notice," Xander told him. "If you're just treading water you are losing ground in the business world. No, by business acumen I was referring to how to deal with people, not just his knowledge of running a corporation."

"No Iron Man?" Buffy asked.

"Sorry I'm late," Angel said as he came out of the stacks. "The demons who normally control the underground are gone, so there's a fair amount of flooding."

"Unusual to see you here this early," Xander noted politely.

"Giles had some work he wanted me to do, I'm just now finishing up," Angel supplied, not saying anything more.

Xander nodded and resumed writing on his notepad, much to everyone's surprise as a sarcastic comment or biting insult failed to materialize.

"Nothing?" Angel asked as the silence began to stretch on. "Usually you'd have made some comment about me by now."

"My opinion is unchanged," Xander said, "But there is nothing to be gained from restating it, and even though we'll be interacting less in the future, annoying you doesn't benefit me enough to make it worth my time."

Buffy turned to Giles. "Translation?"

"Really?" Giles asked Buffy.

"Well... no, but it would have been funnier if you'd explained it," Buffy said with a grin. Turning to Xander she asked, "You're going to avoid Angel now?"

"The only time we run into one another involves demons and deaths," Xander said. "Now that the Justice League knows about this place I expect we'll see a lot less of both."

"Patrols are going to be dead," Buffy said shaking her head.

"They won't try and reassign Buffy somewhere busier, will they?" Willow asked anxiously.

"No," Giles assured her. "Buffy is considered a guardian of the Hellmouth, residing here the way she does, and the council is forbidden from moving any Hellmouth guardians in anything but the direst emergencies."

"So... I'm retired?" Buffy guessed.

"Not completely," Giles hedged. "Patrols are still required, though they will be more of a formality I suppose. We can expect Potentials and their Watchers to come by for us to talk to occasionally so we can share our experiences with them."

"So I'm semi-retired, I just have to stay in shape in case of emergencies and play nice and give tours to people," Buffy summed up.

"Yes, that about covers it," Giles agreed.

"I thought Slayers lived like six months and died," Willow said stunned.

"Most Slayers spend as many as six months active and then retire," Giles explained. "The wards were warping our perceptions on the matter. Most Slayers either bit off more than they can chew, or finish what they were called for in about half a year and wait for the Slayer spirit to pass on to the next, after a little over seven years has passed on average."

"I don't know how to handle peace and quiet anymore," Buffy said, "Anyone have any ideas?"

"Channel that energy into your scholastic career so you get perfect grades," Xander suggested.

There was silence for a moment before the girls burst out laughing and Giles chuckled softly, while even Angel smiled slightly.

"It's not a joke," Xander said, surprising the group. "Thanks to Stark's memories I can see how easy it is to breeze through school with top grades as opposed to slacking off and just getting by. It takes nearly three times as much effort to slack off as it does just to do the work and turn it in."

"Holy crap, you're serious!" Buffy exclaimed in shock.

"Most of High school is just showing up and regurgitating useless facts," Xander explained. "The few classes that actually teach anything of value, teach it at the lowest level to appeal to the greatest number of people. A few simple mimetic aids to help with rote memorization and you're set."

"A lot of that rote memorization is to help turn you into a well rounded person mister," Willow argued.

"The majority of it you will never use in your life unless you end up on a game show," Xander said. "Imagine life is a block of wood, what goes farther, a screw with a sharp tip or one that's well rounded? If you don't focus your energies in one direction you will just spin in place and never reach your goal."

"If you just focus on one goal, you can miss a lot on the way there," Willow said firmly.

"A little detour now and then is fine," Xander allowed, "but switching goals is right out. You have to hit each goal before setting another one."

"A little obsessive but not a bad attitude," Willow admitted.

"Business acumen and fashion," Buffy said with a grin. "I think you got more out of Tony Stark than I got out of lady useless."

"Dress for the job you want," Xander told her, drawing in his notebook once more. "I want to be respected and successful, so I dressed like Tony Stark while you dressed..."

Buffy groaned and Willow decided to interrupt the two before an argument broke out, "What are you drawing?"

"A more modern stake launcher," Xander said. "Tiny sharpened wooden dowels, with iron bands so you can magnetically launch them. I figure you can fit a hundred a clip and use holy water to dampen the tip so they get maximum penetration on demons, while only giving humans flesh wounds."

"I thought you forgot all about Iron Man stuff!" Buffy exclaimed, as Willow stared at Xander's design with a big grin.

"Iron Man armor requires running a billion dollar corporation to afford and materials and technology that just don't exist in the real world," Xander explained. "Tony Stark however was a genius at designing weapons that could be mass produced, meaning clever applications of existing technology using common materials. This is a simple, functional weapon that only really works against vampires, but will work ungodly well against them."

"I'm speechless," Giles said.

"I'm in love," Buffy said drooling over the design.

"If it works, how much will it cost to sell the design to the Watcher's Council?" Giles asked.

"Giles we don't sell it to the Watcher's Council, what we do is we sell a lower powered model to a sporting goods company that can be used for games or some sport so they can be bought cheaply throughout the world," Xander told him. "While we have a low cost way to alter the design for our purposes so a Watcher can equip his Slayer with something the police will write off as a toy that they can easily get anywhere."

"That's beyond brilliant," Giles said.

"But no armor?" Willow asked.

"Not unless you can get me adamantium, vibranium, and a cease and desist order for quantum state irregularities in nano material production," Xander told her.

"What?" Buffy asked.

"Not just no, but no way in heck," Willow translated.

"I need a good patent attorney, which I'd like the Watcher's Council to pay for, because I'm going to have to sell this for way below its actual value to get as many companies as possible to buy it," Xander told Giles. "We want to get total market saturation."

"We'll need to test it first, but as long as it functions as you've described I foresee no problems. We may have trouble finding vampires to test it on however," Giles admitted.

"The latest crop of fledges wouldn't have been touched by Power Girl as they haven't risen yet," Angel said. "There are a couple of graves I've been watching that may get us a test subject."

"That would be very helpful, thanks," Xander said, surprised it wasn't painful to say that to the ensouled vampire.

"How are you going to market it as a game?" Willow asked.

"A target shooter for kids," Xander explained. "The chamber can handle any material the appropriate size, so it can be used with appropriately shaped Nerf darts with little metal rings."

"And the holy water application?" Giles asked.

"Water soluble florescent paint so when they tip of the Nerf dart hits them or a target they can't claim they missed," Xander explained. "With luck we can replace laser tag arenas with them, since physically shooting things is a lot more fun."

"That would do it," Buffy agreed.

"What do you need to build it?" Giles asked.

"About fifty dollars and access to the wood and metal shop," Xander replied. "It's made from easy to find equipment and I can machine the parts and make the ammo myself. The only thing I can't do is bless the water, though I think sanctified grape juice from the catholic church would probably work better and I think I can add pressure to the water reservoir and a 'pressure release valve' above the barrel so you could spray it around in case you were in close quarters."

"Can you reinforce it so I can hit people with it?" Buffy asked hopefully.

"Not in the prototype as we'll be using sheet metal or tin, but it should be pretty easy to reinforce one with a nice strong titanium alloy for your personal use once we've got all the bugs out of it," Xander assured her.

"How long will it take to build one?" Willow asked.

"It's a simple enough design, but without a fabricator I have to make all the pieces by hand so we're looking at about six hours," Xander said with a sigh. At everyone's shocked looks he nodded. "I know, that's practically forever and I can't modify the design on the fly the way I can with a good fab unit, but needs must."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Send in my three o'clock," Mayor Wilkens told his secretary over the intercom.

"On his way," the secretary replied as the door to his office opened and Alexander Harris entered, carrying blueprints for proposed changes to the aqueduct and a low cost desalination plant that should not only solve the town's water shortage problems but should provide a rather large excess they could sell.

"Alexander, my boy, so good to see you," Richard said cheerfully. The very chaotic natures of the young man made the ankh brand on his chest itch, but the improvements suggested for the town's utilities more than made up for that minor inconvenience.

Typing by: Abyssal Angel