"Nights Full of Surprises" by Shadow Master aka Ryley Breen

"Nights Full of Surprises" by Shadow Master aka Ryley Breen

email: ryleyunderscorebreenathotmaildotcom

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material shown herein. They are the rightful property of their individual creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write for my own personal enjoyment and whatever enjoyment the readers experience reading my work.

Note: This drabble will take place in season 4 of BtVS both because that is where Lucinda placed her drabble/short in her X-Xander and… series and because it'll be early enough to allow for a romantic relationship between Nocturne and Xander since his ties to Anya will not be that strong yet. As for which Nocturne this will be, since according to the wiki I am using as source material there are two, I think I'll save myself some trouble and make a third original one. Mostly because in the drabble by Lucinda she talks kinda like Nightcrawler and in the issues I've read of the mainstream Marvel version she doesn't intermix English and German (at least she doesn't in the issues I've read.).

Nights Full of Surprises

Well…another day, another dollar. He thought to himself as he walked out the side door of the Ice Cream Business he'd been working for the last while, Though if Anya's spending habits keep going up, I'm going to need to ask for a raise sometime soon.

While he had come to like the ex-vengeance demon and even considered her, in his mind, to be his girlfriend, she was definitely an expensive girlfriend. It wasn't too much different from dating Cordy but Anya definitely had weirder tastes than Queen C and not quite as much restraint when it came to spending his money. Oh, she expressed some remorse, temporarily, when she went overboard but it often changed to pestering him about getting a better job. On that front he was actually looking but until he found something better, he had bills to pay and costly bills at that. Both his parents did all they could to squeeze every dime out of his wallet and did so every pay day and came up with crappy extra fees the few times he did earn a bonus. While paying for his basement apartment didn't leave him completely broke, it made taking Anya out for a nice dinner and a movie a bi-weekly thing with giving her a nice gift a bi-monthly thing. So far she seemed satisfied with that sort of schedule but he occasionally had to compensate for the dry spots with the best night of sex he could provide. While making and spending money was definitely the most enjoyable thing to the former patron demon of scorned women, the thing that definitely dominated the number two spot was sex. Apparently, as a vengeance demon, she was something of a workaholic, using her work to vent all her displeasure towards the male species for some guy named Olaf cheating on her. That meant that now that she was human again, she had over two thousand years of love making to catch up on.

While some guys might think having a borderline nymphomaniac for a girlfriend was a dream come true, he knew better.

While it was great that she agreed to it when felt the need to scratch that particular itch, it was all the times that she felt like doing it that was somewhat troublesome. He's seen countless scenes on TV and in movies where the wife/girlfriend said to the guy 'not tonight dear' but the only time the reverse happens is in one of…those movies. It made for some rather embarrassing moments in front of the gang when Anya used words like 'sex' and 'orgasms', which caused his stress level to rise. Fortunately none of the other Scoobies blamed him for this because they knew the whole story behind his current girlfriend. In the cases where she did it in front of strangers, though, that was another story.

If my reputation as a freak/outcast/weirdo wasn't established before then Anhn definitely sealed it place after that time in the grocery store. He thought as he decided to cut through the park so he could get home sooner, The only thing that kept that from becoming a complete waste was the fact that the store manager was willing to cut our bill in half just to get us out of the store. Though the fact that they have our pictures posted in the front windows with big Xs through them kinda kills the good side of that day.

Still she was beautiful, the sex was AMAZING and it took the edge off the fact that his friends had all gone off to college without him. It was a sad fact that while he might be smart enough, barely, to get into a college, he didn't have near enough money to pay for tuition or the text books he'd need. Most of the money he'd saved up for his cross country road trip had gone into trying to get the rust bucket his Uncle Rory had given him working again or paying the first month of rent for use of the basement. Even with all the odd jobs he was working to make ends meet, he still didn't have enough to go to college. Add to that the fact that his work schedule and their class schedule didn't always mesh well and there were times he went a full week without being able to spend time with them. It seriously bummed him out sometimes but it also made him do his best to try and treasure the good times even more than before. One possible spot of sunlight on his otherwise dismal week so far was when that odd demon that looked like a cross between E.T and an Ent paid for its ice cream with a golden forearm bracer. While he had been tempted to insist on normal money, he recalled something about this species of demon getting quite violent when insulted so he'd kept quiet. He'd already taken it by one of the local appraisers so he could get an idea of how much it was worth but so far the only thing the member of a neutral demon species could tell him was what the symbols on it said. Apparently the bauble had been inscribed with the word 'Tallus' on the inside of it but neither he nor the demon had been able to figure out what the significance or meaning of the word could be. In any case, the demon appraiser had told him to come back in two or three days and he'd be able to name a price for it.

It was as he was passing the area of the park that was set up with many tables with umbrella's for people who liked to eat their lunches outside that he heard something. It was faint but it definitely wasn't something dangerous sounding for the most part, but at the same time he couldn't figure out what it was. This led to his inner curiosity compelling him to investigate while his inner paranoia was yelling at him to not even think about going towards the noise. Sadly, without any sort of physical evidence like really sharp teeth or a distinctly malevolent appearance present, his inner curiosity had the advantage. So with paranoia clamped onto his metaphorical leg protesting the entire time, he moved towards the noise with the intent of identifying it. He finally managed to locate it in a primo make-out spot that he'd used once or twice with Cordy when they'd been dating. It was a stone bench that was suffering from a case of severe vegetation in the form of trees that had almost completely obscured it from sight. It had been his personal theory that the city workers had been just too plain lazy to lift such a large piece of solid stone and had decided to leave it there for the trees to claim. In any case, it had been the perfect spot to make out in since as long as you were quiet people would walk right by and never suspect that there was groping going on.

In this particular case, though, whoever was in there was only making a half-hearted effort to be quiet because he could hear the moaning and groaning perfectly.

It was when he realized that he could identify the noise as moans and groans that he felt as though there was something familiar about them. Moving closer, he eventually picked up a second set of moans and groans that were definitely male in nature resulting in his mind providing him with a pretty accurate picture of what was probably going on. However the familiarity he felt when heard the female moans and groans wouldn't let him leave just yet. It wasn't that he planned on watching the two of them make out but rather because…the woman might actually be in danger. Yeah! That was it! After all there were quite a few demons out there that lured their victims in with moments of pleasure before literally ripping their hearts out. So, with the altruistic goal of confirming the safety of the innocent girl, he carefully brushed some of the leaves aside in order to see what was going on.

What he saw froze him completely both from shock and from revulsion.

There, getting stuffed in every available hole, was his girlfriend Anya who wasn't wearing so much as a stitch of clothing. That was what produced the shock in him because not only hadn't he known Ahn was into doing it in public but also because she was pretty much cheating on him. His mind raced to try and recall any sign that he might have missed that she had been dissatisfied with the state of their relationship as a way of explaining what he was seeing. Aside from a few times she'd been a bit put out that he wasn't in the mood for sex, he couldn't come up with a single thing. However if it was the sex that motivated her to cheat on him he definitely did not consider it justified since he was certain that seven out of ten times he was just as willing as she was.

The part of him that was stone still in revulsion was the fact that the guy, assuming you could call the demon screwing his girlfriend a guy, was some kind of tentacle demon. He didn't recognize the species and he could definitely go ten lifetimes without ever seeing another one because of what it was doing right now. What it was doing was thrusting one or more of its tentacles in and out of holes that previously were only used by Xander Junior during love making. Just contemplating and wondering how long this had been going on was enough to make him want to castrate himself just to be on the safe side.

Okay maybe not really castrate but definitely give it a thorough washing with the strongest soap he could find.

In any case, without a…sort of understandable reason for her to be cheating on him, his mind clamped down on the idea that Anya was under some kind of spell or influenced by a potion. With this hope in his heart he prepared to dive in, save his girlfriend and then stomp on every tentacle this demon-thing-guy had before leaving. Sadly, just as he took his first step forward, the tentacle that had been in Anya's mouth was removed allowing her to groan as well as say the one thing that shattered his hope.

"OH THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN SEX WITH XANDER! AH!"

Now he was no expert on potions or spells but that sounded a little too lucid and honest for his taste.

In his mind, spells or potions that messed with a person's head generally changed other things as well. During that spell that had the entire female population after him he had been able to tell in seconds that they were not themselves. When everyone had been under the control of that prehistoric demon, they'd been zombies pretty much. HELL! When everyone had been under the influence of the cursed chocolate bars he'd been able to tell even though he had been under its influence as well. The way that Anya was reacting and clearly enjoying what was happening to her was not showing signs of dramatic personality alterations or inhibited judgment. Instead it sounded like the same old Anya having the best orgasms of her life and not caring one bit that she was cheating on him with a tentacle demon.

For a moment he considered charging in there and demanding an explanation but since he didn't know what else this demon could do his paranoia finally had a leg to stand on. Slinking backwards he decided he'd confront her tomorrow and give her a chance to explain herself. After all maybe she was under a spell or potion's influence and if that was the case then he couldn't really blame her for this. He'd had enough weird stuff happen to him to know that sometimes there was just nothing you could do when the mojo hit you. He'd even, covertly, approach G-Man after the discussion to figure out how to break the spell or neutralize the potion and then everything would be back to normal.

Yeah! After all the real Anya wouldn't cheat on me like this. He thought as he walked away blocking out the moans and groans every step of the way.

&

The Following Night, The Streets of Sunnydale

"I can't believe she cheated on me like that!" He growled as he stomped towards his destination of the demon appraiser to see what more had been discovered about the gold arm brace.

Just like he'd planned, he'd confronted her about what he'd seen and chose to first ask for an explanation before throwing her to Giles for a thorough mystical examination. Needless to say, phase one hadn't lasted long since the complete lack of remorse followed by her blaming him for her unfaithfulness had pretty much obliterated his patience in one go. While he had been required to do some snappy explaining when he carried an unconscious Anya into his apartment, the ex-Watcher had been understanding enough to perform the requisite examination spells.

Nothing.

Nothing at all amiss with her mind or her body.

Nothing to indicate that she had been influenced or forced to do anything against her will.

It had been during the height of his bitching routine that she'd come too and demanded to be untied. Right then he had been so close to grabbing a nearby battle axe and introducing it to Anya's head but Giles had stepped in. After some heated words where she restated how it was his fault she had to look elsewhere to satisfy her sexual needs, she had stormed out of the apartment destination unknown. Personally he hoped that the demon she was fucking turned out to be evil and literally fucked her to death because it seemed a fitting way for her to die. After some consoling words from Giles he had left saying he needed time to think things through and to not mention any of the mess to Buffy and Willow. He so didn't need their pity or comfort because it would only rub his nose in the fact that he apparently wasn't man enough to keep a girlfriend faithful. In all his dating years, he'd dated two women seriously enough for them to deserve the title of girlfriend and both relationships had ended badly. With Cordy it had been a single mistake that had pretty much shattered whatever chance there might have been of the two of them getting serious and perhaps marrying each other. With Anya, apparently it had been that he wasn't good enough in the sack to keep her from looking elsewhere for a good time. He knew the others would try to comfort him by saying that it was all Anya's fault and that the former vengeance demon didn't deserve him but such words would do little to quiet the voice in the back of his mind. The voice that ridiculed him mercilessly about what a lousy guy he was and just how pathetic his life was at the moment before concluding with a quip about how he'd never amount to anything.

The voice sounded a lot like his father.

Finally arriving at the appraisal shop, he went in and was surprised to see the blue skinned, curly haired, two fingered demon he'd sold a vanilla ice cream cone to a week ago. Wearing jean shorts that showed off her long three toed legs and a short-sleeved shirt that tempted him with what lay beneath it, he completely missed the more obvious thing about her, like her tail swishing back and forth. It was only when both she and the appraiser noticed him and looked in his direction that he snapped out of a happy place his mind had been in the process of forming.

"Ah! You're back Mr. Har—Xander! Sorry! I forgot." The Appraiser said remembering that the boy didn't like being called Mr. Harris, "I've finished looking over that item you gave to me and I think I've got both an estimate and a potential buyer or the bracer. Ms. Wagner and I were just discussing the details when you walked in."

"You are the one who found it, bitte?" Talia Wagner asked with some surprise as she took a step towards him.

"Yep! Some demon actually handed it to me as payment for some ice cream." He said in a somewhat more friendly tone than his earlier mood would have allowed.

Being in the presence of beauty did great things for improving a guy's mood.

"So how much is that thing worth to ya?" He asked figuring that he'd keep the negotiations informal until she either tried to con him or prove she was a cheapskate.

"Would you consider five thousand dollars to be a respectable amount for the item?" Talia asked, making it clear she considered it a substantial amount.

He did his best to contain his glee at the amount offered and instead looked to The Appraiser since the demon would probably have an accurate idea of the true value. The demon's movements were subtle but he seemed to be indicating that the item was worth more than what was being offered. Looking back at her he tried to figure out from looks alone just why she wanted the item because if she wanted it bad enough he could feasibly up the price and she'd agree to it. However if this was just a passing interest to her the amount offered might actually go down instead and he didn't want to lose the potential five thousand buckaroos he could get for the golden bracer. At first glance she looked like this was just a professional business transaction to her and nothing else but somehow by looking into her neon yellow eyes, he felt there was more to it. It seemed…it seemed like she felt this Tallus thing was vital to her somehow and that if she had to she'd take it from him by force. Considering he still couldn't identify what species of demon she was and the fact he didn't have anything beyond the basic anti-vamp kit with him, a fight would not be a smart thing right now. So in the end he figured the best move would be to string her along a bit further, see whether she would budge on her offer while at the same time try to figure out why she wanted the arm bracer so badly.

"How about I get the thing from our mutual acquaintance here, go down to this out of the way Italian place I know nearby and you tell me why you want this thing?" He asked, sounding completely professional with only a sliver of his Xander charm present, "After all, this is Sunnydale and for all I know, this things is some sort of super magical doo-hickey that'll bring about the next apocalypse. I want to make sure I'm not indirectly killing myself by giving it to you. Fair enough?"

Looking at it he could tell that she was considering his offer and probably wonder if he was trying to come onto her romantically. He figured it was pretty much fair payback for that time she sorta flirted with him while he was selling ice cream. He had no real intention of starting anything with her since the wound from Anya's betrayal was still fresh in his mind. Plus he knew enough about dating while on the rebound to know that it almost never worked out and more often than not backfired big time. Besides, he'd learned his lesson from all the women who'd flirted with him turning out to be Incan mummies, vampires or some other type of demon. While he might not be the smartest guy around, even he learned his lesson after so many empirical lessons. So the odds of this being anything more than a business dinner to discuss the potential payday he'd have as well as the assurance that he wouldn't screw up and cause Armageddon were slim.

Right?

&

One Hour Later, Little Mario's, Nocturne's Perspective

Well this has definitely turned out to be a better assignment than I'd thought it'd be. Talia thought as she enjoyed her Italian dish sitting across the owner of Tallus, Still I can't let a good time distract me from what I came here for in the first place.

It had been a little over two months ago that her boss, Doc Strange, had called her up and informed her that his moderate arcane senses had detected an unusual event occurring someplace in southern California. She'd done a few jobs for him in the past, milk runs mostly, mixed with a few infiltrations, but for the most part she made it clear that she didn't want to get too involved in his work. What was his work? Well the guy apparently saw himself as some kind of Sorcerer Superhero working to keep the planet safe from demonic and supernatural threats. While she didn't think he was quite the Sorcerer Supreme he often proclaimed himself to be, she'd seen him in action enough times to know he had the chops to back up his boasting more often than not. ANYway, he'd sent her here to locate something that he believed may have arrived on Earth as a result of the unusual event he'd detected. He wouldn't give her a whole lot of specifics about what it was in the beginning but he had given her a magic bauble that could act like a compass directing her to her target. It had only been later that he'd managed to narrow things down a little thanks to a vision showing him where the item would appear and roughly when it'd appear. He'd told her to go to the small town of Sunnydale and wait in the low rent district for an ice cream truck of all things.

Still, she had done as he had asked and had been somewhat convinced when not three days into her stay an ice cream truck had come through the neighborhood selling delicious treats to both human and demon alike. That was probably another reason why Strange had selected her for this particular mission: her appearance was so like a demon that she could blend in with the crowd. As per her usual M.O, she approached the ice cream truck the next day and was surprised to find a young man her own age who didn't immediately recoil or show a sign of disgust at her inhuman appearance. To him it seemed she might as well have been human and she found that strangely refreshing but when he didn't flirt back, she'd pretty much put him in the 'taken' column.

Then, of course, on the one day she had chosen to sleep in it happened.

The item she'd been sent there to acquire had been passed from the claws of some demon to one Alexander LaVelle Harris. She'd wanted to go right over to the kid and steal the thing from him when his back was turned, since it'd be easier than trying to bargain for it. However the Doc had said that this particular bauble didn't change hands by chance and that trying to take it from Harris by force could lead to some shocking repercussions. So, despite her better judgment, she'd followed the guy ever since she learned he had the arm bracer both to learn what he planned to do with it and to learn more about him. After all if she was going to have to bargain with him to get it knowing more about him could only make her job that much easier. Thanks to her ability to wall crawl and fur that allowed her to blend with darkness fairly well, she was able to follow him without being spotted. While she had been somewhat taken aback when the poor guy stumbled upon his girlfriend doing it with a demon she'd decided to use his emotional state to her advantage. The stud wouldn't be thinking straight for at least a week after that park-hosted peep show and with a few well-timed nudges getting Tallus from him would be easy.

She was still internally debating whether or not to give the guy a little 'extra compensation' along with the five grand that the Doc gave her.

"So what do ya think?" Xander asked bringing her out of her trip down memory lane, "Does this place make the best Italian food you've ever tasted or what?"

"It's definitely better than anything you'd find in one of those big chain Italian places." She replied honestly since she really did find the food good, "So, do you want to start with the Q&A?"

"Okay. Question 1: Why do you want this thing so badly?" he asked his laid back appearance vanishing to reveal a solider, "Because if you're planning on using it to end the world, then I'm afraid our discussion ends right here."

"Oh, and I suppose you know all about things that could end the world?" She asked with some skepticism concerning how much the young man really knew.

"I live in a town where demons frequently visit, cause carnage and give grave diggers financial security for the rest of eternity." He replied completely serious as he looked her in the eye, "We have literally end of the world situations hit us almost every year right around when high school lets out for the summer. So I'd have to go with a 'yeppers' on that question."

While her first reaction was to think he was joking with her, she had to admit that there was some evidence that he knew about the darker side of the world. For one thing he apparently sold ice cream to demons on a regular basis without batting an eye. Another hint was the cross and bottle of holy water she could see he carried with him at all times and finally the person he'd asked to appraise Tallus had been a demon. Still, that only meant that he wasn't as oblivious as the rest of the world when it came to magic and the demonic. It didn't mean that he did anything about it or actually fought against it like some of the people Strange worked with. Still she supposed she could give him the Reader's Digest version of it all and hope that that satisfied him.

"There's a guy out east, in New York City, who I do work for occasionally." She replied casually while being mindful to keep certain facts to herself, "He's fairly good with the mojo and sensed something big happening in this area and sent me to find out what was going on. Took me awhile but I eventually figured out that it was that arm bracer you have that set off the buzz in the Doc' head. I guess he wants to take a closer look at it himself to make sure it's nothing dangerous."

The truth of the matter is that Strange had a theory about what had come through the disturbance he'd sensed and was already preparing to nullify its threat via various spells or potions. According to what he'd told her over the phone, the item had something to do with an inter-dimensional location referred to in his texts as 'The Crystal Palace' and someone simply referred to as Timebroker. He'd said that he would research more and get back to her with any pertinent details as soon as he could. While she hadn't inquired any further and didn't know anything besides the basics when it came to the supernatural, she didn't like the idea of something inter-dimensional staying in this dimension too long. She knew about the 'Balance' between good and evil that kept things from going out of control and she didn't want to see what would happen if Tallus knocked things off balance.

"What's his full name?" Xander asked without losing his no nonsense tone of voice.

"Stephen Strange." She replied impressed a bit that he'd asked the right question.

"So, he give you anything more about this something big might have been or what this thing could be?" He asked sounding like he sensed that there was more than she was telling him.

"Nothing you need to worry about anymore, boy." Came a new voice to the conversation, causing both her and Xander to look in its direction.

Walking towards them in outfits that looked like a cross between military outfits and roman gladiator armor were six men and none of them looked friendly. They didn't look like they were armed at all but at the same time something told her that these guys were dangerous beyond what usually lived in this town. Moving her hand close to a sealing talisman Strange had given her just in case she waited to see what move the six unknowns made before she made her own move.

"And a great howdoyado to you too, Lurch." Xander said sarcastically before standing up, "Care to explain what you meant by that oh so vague statement?"

"Give me Tallus now and I might let you live, kid." The man, who was obviously the leader based on his fancier get up, demanded without really answering the question.

"And if I don't?" Xander asked taking a step to two away from his chair.

With that question a malevolent smile appeared on the leader's face that definitely didn't improve the situation any.

"Then you DIE!" the leader said with eyes that suddenly glowed bright orange.

This was all she needed to hear and, with speed and agility, she leapt over to Xander, grabbed him around the waist and then leapt as far as she could away from the menacing men. It was only half as far as she usually went but, considering the extra weight she'd been forced to carry, it was still respectable enough as far as she was concerned. With a second leap she carried both herself and Xander to the entrance of the kitchen with neither of them hesitating to seek cover inside. Bringing the sealing talisman out in front of her, she muttered the chant that Strange had taught her and, like magic, the trinket transformed into a sword. Smiling at the feel of her favorite weapon in her two-fingered hand, she decided that it was time to trim the numbers a bit before both she and Xander fled the immediate area. Turning towards him she was surprised a bit to see a butcher knife in his hand and eyes that spoke of an inner debate of possible course of action.

"Don't even think about it, cutie." She said sternly as she heard the six men advance towards the kitchen doors as the other restaurant patrons stampeded in the opposite direction towards the front door, "I don't know what sort of experience you have but something tells me that laser eyes are a bit out of your league."

"And they're in yours?" Xander asked challengingly, clearly unhappy at his past being belittled.

Rising into a low crouch with sword at the ready she replied "Oh yeah!"

&

The Restaurant's Kitchen, Twenty Seconds Later, Xander's P.O.V

MAN! Can that she-devil move! He thought as he watched Talia pinball around the room using anything and everything to change direction and evade the attacks of the six sorcerers that had come after the golden arm bracer in his hands.

At least he thought they were sorcerers since he didn't see any physical signs that they could be demons and definitely nothing resembling a vamp's game face. In any case, Talia was managing to keep the sick spell slinging sickos off balance were her acrobatics but he didn't think it'd last for much longer. At the moment distracting them was the best she was able to accomplish since every time she tried to get close enough to use that sword of hers she was forced to break away in order to avoid getting scorched. Definitely a problem when facing baddies who had eyes that could give Superman's heat vision a run for its money. The closer the blue skinned she-demon got, the harder it'd be to evade a blast and, from the looks of things, every one of the six mercs could do the heat vision thing. As such, sooner or later Talia would tire or make an error in trajectory and it would all be over except for the dying on both their parts. He knew that he had no hope of beating them himself so his only chance of survival was to provide an opening or six for Ms. Wagner to slice into the enemy ranks.

Putting the arm bracer on a steel table in the kitchen, he looked around for anything he could use to distract the enemy without exposing himself to fatal assaults. Spotting a rack of cooking knives, he quickly grabbed them and began looking for ones of similar shape and size to the ones in Giles' weapons locker. Unbeknownst to the Scoobies, he had tried practicing with just about every one of them at one time or another before deciding to settle on the more standard issue gear. While he had shown some talent with certain bladed weapons, the one that showed the best results for him had been small throwing knives. He'd set up a dart board on the railing of the library and then began to practice throwing blades at the center from varying distances. Six out of ten times he managed to hit near the center with only one actually hitting the center, but he considered it pretty good since he'd never officially been taught. Quickly discarding the ones that were either too heavy or not pointy enough, he picked up the five remaining ones and peeked over the only opening between the kitchen into the restaurant proper. Talia was still doing her pinball imitation but if the near misses were any indication, the six scumbags were getting her tempo down.

Time to make my move! He thought as he threw one blade after another at the baddies with each sharp implement aimed at a different enemy's vital point.

While two of the six baddies were able to deflect, if not vaporize, the blades aimed at them, the others hit their marks with a surprising degree of accuracy. Even the one aimed at the leader hit its mark embedding itself in the left shoulder an inch or so. Then, as he'd hoped, Talia took advantage of the shift in the enemies focus from her to him to lunge into their midst to deliver a pair of slashes to their ranks. While this succeeded in killing one and seriously wounding another, the ground gained was quickly lost as a shockwave of energy was released by the rage of the surviving members. It knocked Talia to the far wall and from the looks of things disoriented her to the point where it'd take her a few moments to get her bearings back. Time she might not have as the surviving hired thugs removed the blades he'd thrown from their bodies and turned to face him.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that they planned on taking advantage of Baby Blue's disoriented state and focusing their efforts on their primary objective.

Ducking down just in time to avoid eight beams of deadly heat, he might not have seen them impact the microwave in the kitchen but the explosion that followed as a little hard to miss. It was then something caused him to look up and he saw the golden arm brace about to fall off the table he'd put it on. A workable plan entered his mind, one where he'd take this thing called Tallus and flee with it, and with desperation born of limited options he chose to go with it. Reaching out as quickly as he could for the object as it fell, he soon watched as in a moment of odds defying improbability his hand went through the center of the bracer rather than grabbing it by one of its sides. In seconds he found himself wearing the thing instead of holding it firmly in his hands and that was when the weirdness went way up for him. Seconds after the arm bracer known as Tallus settled on his forearm, it began to glow with a light that seemed a bit off to be magic.

"New commander confirmed. Scanning for vital statistics and saving to internal memory." Spoke the device in an artificial tone, "Warning! Foreign energy signature detected. Signature is of unknown type but conflicting with commander's natural abilities. Initiating countermeasures and attempting to rectify."

Vertigo unlike anything experienced by anyone on the face of the Earth overtook him with none of his five senses or his mind working right for several seconds. When all was said and done, odd could not begin to describe the new sensations and feelings he was experiencing. He felt much lighter, as though up until now he'd been wearing weights all his life, and for some reason his hands felt slightly off to him. Looking down he almost freaked out right then and there to find that his pinky fingers were now missing leaving him with only his thumb, pointer, middle and ring fingers on his hands. However he was not given time for a proper freak out because right then two of the four remaining thugs entered the kitchen with eyes smoldering with potent power. Pushing his hands against the floor he was surprised when instead of simply moving into a sitting position he wound up throwing himself backwards. However this was later counted as a good thing since moments after he moved the tiles below where his head had been were turned into boiling plastic. However slamming into one of the refrigerators was definitely not of the good as it was quite painful.

"Commander! The boy has become the bearer of Tallus!" Yelled one of the flunkies looking at him while the other glared at him like they were bitter enemies.

"Meddling boy! A change of plans my brothers." Growled the leader from the restaurant proper, "We're taking him with us. Take him!"

"Sorry guys but you're not taking the Xan-man anywhere!" He said as he grabbed the nearby fire extinguisher and threw it at the men in front of him.

Surprise was on his side since the two twits didn't blow the container up until it was almost right in their faces and by then it was too late. He hadn't expected it to actually make contact with the two idiots but rather to obscure the vision long enough for him to dive through the opening into the restaurant where the other two were as well as Talia. He had only moments to act before the leader of the band of six and his closest subordinate opened fire but thanks to his newly reduced weight and his experience with fighting demons moments were more than enough time to evade them. Tempering his movements so that they were not a repeat of the accident that had occurred in the kitchen, he leapt to the side sliding along a long table before sliding off the end. As this table had been erected for only temporary use that night it tilted upward once he reached the opposite end providing him with some cover from a second assault. It was only when two steak knives bounced off his shoulder into his right hand that he realized something hinky was going on.

Either someone is watching all this and making sure I'm catching a few breaks or something's thrown the Harris luck into reverse. He thought before he made sure he had a knife in each hand.

Whatever the case turned out to be it was probably the only way he'd make it out of here in one piece. Hearing the ones in the kitchen cursing and getting closer he knew he had to make a move sooner rather than later or else he'd get stuck in a four-on-one situation. Looking over in Talia's direction he could see that she had almost recovered but, judging from the way she was rubbing her head, she might have a concussion. The one bright spot though was that he saw a clear line of sight to the front door and Ms. Wagner was right next to the most direct route to the exit/entrance. Taking a deep breath, he surged around the table he'd been hiding behind and threw the steak knives he'd procured into two different directions. The first was aimed at the fire alarm switch while the other was aimed at the seriously wounded goon that up until then had been stayed out of the fighting. He didn't event bother to make sure the two blades successfully hit their targets before he charged for Talia who appeared to be taking in the situation for the first time. Bending down to scoop her up on the run he then ran for the door like the devil himself was after him. Given the heat blasts the four morons could fire from their eyes he wasn't sure if he was entirely mistaken with that idea.

"Xander? What's going on?" Blue Girl asked with some confusion since she still didn't have all the blanks filled in inside her head.

"Well basically I'm making like the heroic swashbuckler saving a damsel in distress before making with tactical retreat." He replied with his usual lopsided smile as he arrived at the ten foot mark from the exit/entrance.

"My hero!" She said with a great deal of humor but some honest mixed into her voice.

It was as he was no more than five feet from the exit/entrance that he felt the arm brace grow warm for a moment and he feared another bout of vertigo. He was both in luck and out of it for, instead of personal disorientation, a white doorway opened up in front of him and before he could stop himself both he as well as Talia passed through it. When he finally managed to come to a stop, he found himself in something that resembled Superman's Fortress of Solitude given its crystalline appearance. Both he and Talia looked around with the same question floating around in their minds.

What the HELL have I gotten myself into this time?