A Grey Justice on the Horizon

by Shadow Master

(BtVS/Young Justice/DCAU/Marvel Comics) Ever dress up for Halloween intending to be one thing only to be seen as something else by those that saw you? The Scoobies certainly do because thanks to the chaos spawned by the spell of Ethan Rayne they will become people who are quite different from what they'd intended to be. A difference that will echo throughout the world.

7. New Points and Stormy Horizons

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my work. Therefore it would be greatly appreciated that anyone considering taking legal action against me would put down their phones and forget about it. I can assure you that I have nowhere near enough money to make a lawsuit worth it.

Note: Sorry about the long wait but Real Life and more specifically my new job demanded my undivided attention.

Keystone City, Kansas

A Week Later, Xander's POV

This is either the smartest thing I've ever done or the stupidest, he thought as he continued to eat his meal on the park bench. Hope I don't find out the hard way which one it is.

It had been two days ago that he'd been leaning on his bike trying to figure out where to go next when he'd seen on his map that if he kept going in the same direction he'd been driving that he'd wind up in Keystone City eventually. At first he'd looked for alternate roads he could take since it was a semi-known fact that Keystone, once upon a time, had a Flash as its city savior. Sure, everyone else figured the guy was either dead or retired but his Magneto memories made him think that if the guy was still alive he could still be trouble. Odds were good that the speedsters knew each other, given the name similarities and one of them was a member of the Justice League. He wanted to AVOID bringing them down on his head so the smart move would be to avoid places that were protected by League members or their known allies. However then he'd remembered several movies and comic books that often pointed out that sometimes the best place to hide from pursuers was in plain sight.

Besides, it wasn't like he couldn't keep a low profile if he wanted to.

Really!

He was about half done his lunch when a man that was probably in his late fifties with graying brown hair sat down next to him on the bench. He was a bit curious about what the old guy that kinda reminded him of Giles was doing in the park when the guy pulled out a leather-bound book and began to read it. This only reminded him more of the deceased librarian and the lingering sadness that he'd never be able to call the Watcher 'G-man' again made him force his focus back to his lunch. The librarian had been like a surrogate father to him and cared a helluva lot more than Tony Harris ever had in his entire life. While he'd sometimes felt like a dunce cap was permanently attached to his head whenever Giles began talking about the demon of the week, he really appreciated that the man was willing to work so hard to help them all out in the field. So many memories he'd inherited from Magneto showed organizations treating their people like bullets or arrows, fired and forgotten, so it had been nice to have a 'boss' that cared and showed it too.

I bet if Giles had been the one backing up Bette she'd still be alive. He gave his head a shake and tossed the sandwich wrapper into a nearby trashcan.

"Something on your mind, kid?" the man beside him asked without taking his eyes off his book. "Seems you got pretty depressed after lookin' at me."

"Just… remembering a guy that was like a father to me," he replied honestly due to the surprise of the man's inquiry. "He's not around anymore and I kinda wish he was. Might've made less of a mess if he had been."

"I'm sure you did the best you could," the literate man said before turning a page. "You're young. Youth is for making mistakes and learning from them."

"Mistakes don't usually cost you the life of someone you care about," he said, not really knowing why he was opening up to the guy as much as he was.

"Did you do all you could? Was there anything you could've done different with the information you had?" the man asked, finally looking out of the corner of his eye.

"I… I don't know. I thought I had covered all the bases, made all the preparations but…" he replied, lost in the terrible memories of his last days in Gotham. "…in the end it all turned to crap."

"Language," the man admonished before directing his gaze back to his book. "Kid, I've been around long enough to know that you can prepare for something until you're blue in the face and still lose. No one can predict the future and no one can plan for everything, especially some college student. All a man can do is give it everything he's got and hope for the best. If he can do that then he's got nothing to be ashamed about."

A snippy part of him wanted to growl at the man and say that those were just platitudes and sweet sounding phrases with no bearing on reality. A more open minded part of him thought on what the guy had said and admitted that with the information he'd had at the time he really had done all he could do with the time he had. The only time he'd been able to get anything on Doc Light was from the guy's big threat on TV and what Bette had told him afterwards. With only a week between the attack on Wayne Enterprises and the battle at Flamebird HQ there was no way he could've come up with upgrades to the security system that would've worked on the bastard. It would've taken him at least two to three weeks of concentrated work on new tech to come up with something effective and that was assuming he only had to order out for one or two components. Yet, despite these facts, he couldn't help but listen to the voice of guilt in his mind yelling at him for being so incompetent.

That voice sounded an awful lot like Tony Harris after a six pack or two.

Still, the old guy was trying to make him feel better even though he was a complete stranger and you couldn't help but respect that.

"I guess." He put on his lopsided grin. "So is this your hobby? Giving out sage advice to depressed-looking teenagers?"

"Heh, seems like it sometimes," the man chuckled before turning another page in his book. "Mostly, though, I just believe in helping people who look like they need it. World would probably be a better place if everyone else did the same."

"Probably," he agreed even though he didn't believe it'd ever happen. "Guess that just leaves the rest of us to pick up the slack until the rest of the world wises up."

He'd meant that last part as a joke, or at least half a one, but his fellow bench warmer turned his head fully to look at him before smiling in amusement.

"I guess so," the man said before extending his right hand. "Jason Garrick."

"Xander Lensherr." He shook the man's hand firmly. "Well, it's been nice talking to you, Jason, but I've gotta get going. Got plans for the evening."

"Have a good day, then, Xander," Jason said with a respectful nod.

With that he walked out of the part and back to the hotel where he'd been staying since arriving in town. Yet he felt oddly… different then he had when he'd originally sat down to eat his lunch. He felt… lighter, less burdened, but he couldn't figure out why precisely. It couldn't have been just from that talk with Jason, because those kind of after school special moments where everything is made right by a touching moment with your grandpa or father didn't happen in real life. Issues and problems took more time to fix, like weeks, if not months, and even then there was always a residue of sorts left behind so that you never forgot them.

Still, I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. He began to navigate his way down the streets of Keystone City. Gotta take your opportunities when they come.

The Park Bench, Minutes Later

"I hope you know what you're doing, Kent." Jay said as he heard the approach of a man with a cane.

"When you receive a vision from Nabu and you aren't wearing the helmet at the time, you know to pay attention," Kent replied as he gently set himself down on the bench. "That young man and a few others are wild cards thrown into the mix by Janus to make things 'interesting'. If someone doesn't keep an eye on them they could make the world go down a very unpleasant road."

Jason just turned to look at Kent and raised an inquisitive eyebrow as if to ask 'then why don't we just alert the Justice League and throw them in prison'.

"The reason we don't imprison them for possibly sending the world down the wrong path is because they also have the potential to push back the darkness a full five steps." Kent's tone that made it easy to believe his words. "I don't need to tell you how impressive that'd be. Normally the best heroes like those in the Justice League could do was one step or maintaining the status quo."

"In other words you think it's worth the risk of letting them run free if they can be nudged towards fighting the good fight," Jason said as though he'd expected as much. "So is that what I did with Xander? You were a little vague when you called earlier."

"From what Nabu showed me Alexander has anger deep within himself that burns hotter than sun itself," Kent replied with a far off look on his face. "Part of it belongs to him and part of it belongs to… another. If we'd stood by and let him continue to orbit that one painful moment in his past, his anger would have corrupted him."

"So he won't be corrupted now?" Jason asked, following the line of information he was getting.

"Perhaps. Human beings are as much chaos as they are order," Kent said, returning from his memories. "What we've done is give something that's been running in circles for months the option of doing something different. Alexander will either choose a newer path than the one he was going down or just keep doing the same thing he's been doing up until now. It's the best we can do."

"That's good enough for me," Jason said with a nod of satisfaction. "Do you think it might lead to the others coming back?"

"Anything is possible, my friend." Kent said with a smile that implied great optimism.

Twelve Days Later, Palo Alto, California

Sidewalk Next to the Stanford Shopping Center, Mid-Evening

Xander's POV

I hate to say it but it's nice to be back in California. He walked down the sidewalk with a full bag in hand. It's warm, it's familiar and I'm not on top of a Hellmouth. All good from my point of view.

It had only been a day since he'd arrived in the city but already nostalgia had him firmly in its grip as he remembered how things used to feel in Sunnydale and how similar Palo Alto was. Sure, it was a lot bigger and busier than his hometown but it was similar enough that it felt like slipping on a pair of familiar shoes. It felt good to him and he figured he just might have found a place he could call home since it was close enough to what he'd grown up with but was far away from Sunnydale so it wouldn't be demon central. Sure, there would still be SOME demons and vampires hanging about but not as much as there'd be on an active Hellmouth, so it was still an improvement. He only had a room at a hotel at the moment but he figured that unless something happened to change his opinion of the city he'd begin making plans to set down roots within the week. He'd find a bachelor pad in an out of the way area of the city, fill it with all the comforts he could now afford and then… well, he'd plan for that when he got to it.

He was about to go into a store when he spotted a sight further down the street that stopped him in his tracks and changed his plans immediately.

It had been quick and no one else had seen it but he'd spotted a woman being pulled into an alleyway in a manner he had seen a number of times before.

Looks like a vamp is grabbing his first meal of the night. An old anger filled his veins. Guess it's time I give him the necessary iron his diet's been lacking.

He'd encountered demons and vampires every other week on his cross-country journey and had dealt with them the same way he always had. True, it'd gotten a lot easier after he'd gained Magneto's powers but he would've killed them even if his x-gene hadn't turned on. He could never forgive vampires for killing Jesse and, with the exception of a few species or hybrids, most demons did not have benevolent intentions towards humanity. Thus it was with determination in his heart that he abandoned his previous plans and set course for the alleyway with all the speed he could get away with without drawing everyone's attention to him.

He'd prefer to get in, stake the vampire or vampires and get out before things got complicated like they usually did with him.

Reaching into his pocket as he approached the alleyway in question, he confirmed that he had six of his newest inventions with him and he was confident that that would be enough for his needs. Once he had gained sufficient mastery over levitating and manipulating, he'd taken a couple of long rectangular blocks of wood, sharpened one end and dipped the other end in a liquefied metal he knew reacted well with his powers. Once the metal hardened he had a set of sharp pieces of wood he could manipulate electromagnetically with ease and shoot at a speed vamps wouldn't be able to match. He'd been a bit worried when he'd first chosen to deviate from the classic wooden stake method of killing vampires but, after thinking about it, he found it shouldn't really matter. So long as something sharp and wooden pierced the heart it would be just as good as an arrow or a sharp piece of wood freshly broken off of a tree.

In the end he had been proven right and the fang faces been shocked when he'd used them for the first time.

It was a sight that was firmly in the top ten of his happy places.

Turning into the alley, he immediately began to seek out the vamp and his victim without the caution he'd been forced to use out on the sidewalk. Reaching out with his powers, he detected a living person's bio-electricity further ahead and so broke into a sprint so he could get to her before the vamp took a bite out of her. It was moments before he finally caught up with the duo but it was almost too late as he could see the vamp bending down to bite into the woman's neck. He needed to get the corpse's attention so he figured he'd do it in a classic manner guaranteed to piss off any guy with an ounce of pride in him.

"You know when you take a lady out for a bite to eat you should really pick a place with a bit more class than a back alley," he said conversationally as he made his footsteps a little louder than normal. "I mean, I liked the whole 'Lady and the Tramp' alley scene too but let's face facts: they were DOGS. The owner of the restaurant couldn't let them in without getting hit with a couple of health violations."

Attack a man's choice of dating venues and the desired results you shall have. He thought as he watched the vamp stand up and turn to face him.

"Piss off, meatbag, before I decide to make you desert," the vampire growled in warning as it glared with a single golden eye.

"'Meatbag'? That's the best you can do?" he asked with a bit of incredulity in his voice. "I mean couldn't you have put a little more effort into it? It's a must for all up and coming baddies to have a witty personality and have strong quip fu. If you're looking for a few tips I could probably help but you'd have to let the lady go first. It'll be pretty embarrassing for you starting out until you get the hang of it."

This got an even louder growl from the vampire as he threw his original prey roughly against the alley wall, causing her to fall to the ground somewhat dazed. He didn't see any blood from where he was standing but then the alley was dark so it's possible she was hurt. That meant he had to end this fight quickly so he could get her to a nearby hospital to be looked at just to be on the safe side.

"Fine. You want to get drained first? I got no problem with that!" the vamp growled, clearly showing its game face before charging forward.

If this'd been his first time fighting vamps he might've been in trouble but since it wasn't all the undead maggot had done was make hitting his target easier by coming closer. Using his powers to pull one of his weapons from his pocket, he lined up the shot just like he had in practice and then let it fly straight and true. He smirked as he saw the block pierce the vampire's heart, leaving time for the corpse to put a look of shock on its face before crumbling to dust before his eyes, the demon spirit screaming as it was ejected from the dimension.

With a feeling of satisfaction he walked over to the downed woman who looked to have almost gotten her head completely back together. "You alright, miss? You got thrown up against that wall pretty hard."

"I'm fine…not hurt in the least. I'm more worried about you," the woman said with an odd tone to her voice.

"Me? I'm fine. The walking dust buster filler didn't lay a hand on me." he said, a little confused at the turn things were taking.

"Then…I GUESS I'LL JUST HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT!" the woman yelled before she lashed out at him catching him flatfooted with surprise.

Instinct caused him to push off the ground with his legs but this only caused what would've been four inches of steel to the gut to be reduced to two. Pain spiked on the left side of his stomach as he mentally cursed himself for not sensing the knife the woman had hidden on her person somewhere but, more importantly, he wondered why he'd been attacked. Usually when you saved someone from a vampire attack one of two things usually happened: either the victim ran away without so much as a thank you or they went into shock, unable to comprehend what'd happened. Not once in all the times he'd helped someone had they tried to stab him to death, so this was definitely a new thing that he did not like one little bit.

"Nice! You do this with all the guys that save you from a blood-drained end?" he asked rhetorically as he pressed a hand to the wound.

"Just the ones stupid enough to fall into our trap and lucky enough to dust one of my pals," the woman said, rising to her feet with a distinctly malicious look on her face. "I don't know how you dusted Earl but it's going to take more than a lucky trick to get you outta this!"

Before he could get a word out in reply, the woman let out a loud whistle that he had a feeling would not be a good thing for him.

Eight vampires dropped down from the rooftops above, surrounding him, blocking every possible way out. Frowning in concern, he realized that he might be in a bit off a pinch at the moment because, while he had trained with his new toys to ensure he could hit his target accurately, he hadn't worked out a way to use them in the thick of battle yet. Hitting a set of targets on a shooting range was one thing but trying to hit more than two people when they're doing their best to kick your ass was another. You had to keep a solid lock on everyone in the fight while at the same time evading anything they sent your way and counterattacking all at the same time.

Still, there was one thing he wanted to confirm first before the gratuitous violence started.

"So… the scheme was to play the helpless damsel, capture the good Samaritan who comes to help you and then feed him to your vamp buddies? Is that it?"

"That's about the size of it," a vampire that looked like its clothes were going to fall off given how many tears there were in them said with crooked smile on his face. "With the Justice League doing their thing there's no shortage of wannabe heroes, and assholes like you always want to the limelight for yourselves. Easy pickings for me and my boys!"

"I thought as much," he said as he got confirmation that the woman was the bait for a trap to lure in food for the vamps.

What she got out of the arrangement he didn't know but, considering her personality, he doubted very much it was something worth all the lives that had likely already been taken by the bloodsuckers.

"Hope it was a good thought because PAIN IS THE ONLY THING YOU'LL BE FEELING NOW!" Rags the Lame Vamp declared before the vamps attacked him en masse.

He was about to send his weapons out in all directions before using his powers to pull every piece of metal within reach to him when an arrow dropped from the sky, piercing the heart of Rags. When everyone paused in shock, another arrow came down, dusting another vamp before Rags' remains hit the ground, reducing the number of foes dropped to seven, including the woman.

Deciding to take advantage of the confusion, he brought forth all his wooden weapons and fired them at the vamps he could target with a good chance of hitting. He managed to slam three of his sharpened blocks into three vamps before the unnatural reflexes of the rest allowed them to dodge the rest of his projectiles. He managed to turn them around with his power but, without line of sight, he was relying on sensing them with his powers and he had considerably less practice at that then he needed. As a result only one of them hit the heart while the rest pierced places that'd be fatal for humans but merely a pain in the ass for vampires. Still, the dipped pieces of wood would hinder their movements and increase the odds of him making it out of the situation intact. Looking at the remaining combatants, he was happy to see that the fight would be ending much sooner than he'd originally figured it would.

While he'd been taking care of the foes, the unseen archer had dealt with the others, leaving only the woman who'd played the role of bait in their little scheme.

"Pop quiz, bitch! You're scheme's failed, your back up is either dusted or in no condition to fight and you're facing two opponents, one of whom you can't see," he said, remembering the scene from the movie 'Speed'. "What do you do? Huh? WHAT DO YOU DO?!"

The remaining vamps and the woman seemed to debate this with looks before unanimously turning tail as fast as they could. For a moment he was tempted to take out the remaining vamps but with all his ammo expended and the work it'd take to find suitable replacements, he decided to let them go. He'd be hanging out Palo Alto for the foreseeable future so he was sure he'd cross paths with them at some point, so he'd leave it until then.

Looking about, he tried to spot the archer that'd helped him but it was too dark on the rooftops and he suspected his unknown ally had picked a spot where he or she could shoot without being seen. His ally might even already be gone but he figured he'd at least give talking to them one try before heading back to his hotel room.

"Thanks for the help, whoever you are. I'd have been vamp chow without your 'death from above' move. Mind giving me a name? I'll need to know what to put on the gift basket I'll be sending you."

He heard a distinctly feminine giggle at his words coming from above and to his left so he looked at that particular rooftop. He didn't see anything at first but then his unknown female friend decided to step out from behind the curtain of darkness and let him get a good look at her. Using the fire escape on the side of the building to control her descent velocity she came down from the rooftop before landing in a crouch about a dozen feet away from him.

Okay. Someone's a Green Arrow fan.

Green hooded cloak, green domino mask, laced up green halter top showing some cleavage, hip hugging green jeans with slits on the side and heeled boots straight out of a Robin Hood movie. Add to that the necessary paraphernalia for an archer, such as an arrow filled quiver and a bow, and you had a pretty solid female Green Arrow outfit albeit without the belt buckle shaped like the letter 'G'. Not a bad look in his mind but, unless she added some lenses to her domino mask, it really wouldn't hide anything all that important and it'd make IDing her relatively easy. Still, at least it clearly took into account the weather that was common in California with the light clothing and a cape in case it rained.

"I don't have a name… not yet anyway," the girl of about fifteen years said as she gave him a look over as well. "As for the gift basket, howsabout you just tell me how you did the levitating spike trick and we'll call it even."

"I can manipulate them with magnetic fields. The bloodsuckers never see it coming," he replied answering without giving any real details.

"Cool." She sounded like she wouldn't mind having his power herself.

"So I'm guess since you managed to hit the bullseye every time you know about vampires?" he asked, wanting to know whether he was dealing with an amateur or someone with experience.

"I've known about them for the past year… since they killed my best friend," Arrow Girl replied with an inner anger he knew all too well. "I knew no one would believe me so I decided to take care of the problem myself. Decided to wear the outfit so they couldn't figure out who I was. Even slapped on some hunting spray to cover up my scent so they can't smell me."

"Smart," he said, knowing that vamps had acute senses of smell. "You got any trick arrows in there? Just wondering since I've seen Green Arrow use some and you're outfit is kinda like his."

"No. Just plain ordinary wooden arrows," Arrowette replied with a slight shake of her head. "I don't know how to make arrows like his and I just chose this outfit out of a costume shop. I was kinda going by the seat of my pants at the time."

"Well, it works for you."

At a bit of a loss as to what to do next he was about to turn away, leaving her only with a goodbye, but an irritating itch from his conscience held him back. As skilled as she was and as prepared as she was, Artemis was still just a normal girl from what he could tell and if she got into a tight spot like he had moments ago, the vamps would eat her alive or worse, turn her. His damned White Knight complex wanted him to help her or at least outfit her with enough gear to give her a better chance of surviving until she was old enough to drink legally. However at the same time helping her reminded him all too much of Bette and what happened to her when he tried to play support person for her career as Flamebird. He'd failed her no matter what other people said. Nevertheless, the question he had to answer was simple: did he have enough courage to try again? To risk failure again?

When he considered the odds of what'd happen to the girl in front of him if he chose to walk away, there really was only one choice he could live with.

"Um, I know this might seem a bit… well, sudden, considering we just met and all, but if you want I could probably whip up some trick arrows for you." He was uncertain about how precisely to phrase his offer. "I have some experience making things like that and it'd probably be a big help if you plan on making this vamp hunting a long term deal. You interested?"

"That'd be great… um, what's your name again?" Arrow Girl asked, pointing out that he hadn't told her his name.

"Alexander Lensherr, but my friends call me Xander," he replied holding out his hand for a shake with his lopsided grin firmly on his face.

What made it special, though, was that for the first time in months it wasn't forced in the slightest.

A definite improvement.

The Apartment of Artemis and Paula Crock, Artmeis' Room, An Hour and a Half Later

Artemis' POV

Cutting it a little close but I don't think Mom'll think something's up, she thought as she closed the apartment door behind her.

She hadn't been lying when she'd told Xander that she'd been hunting vampires in costume for the last year but she'd been forced to juggle schoolwork with a social life as well. As a result there'd been a few close calls and a week of being grounded thrown in every few months due to her missing curfew or not being where she said she'd be. Most people would take how her mother reacted as being overreacting but most people didn't know about her Mom's checkered past or her taste in boyfriends. She knew her mother worried about her going down the wrong path and that was why the woman came down extra hard on her, so she MOSTLY tolerated it.

There were times, however, when it seriously grated on her nerves, such as when her mother tried to get her to wear bright colors and get more involved with girly stuff like cheerleading or shopping. The former she wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole and the latter she enjoyed well enough but not to the extremes of some of her friends.

She'd already stashed her costume and gear behind some leftover bricks on the roof and, if her luck held true, no one would find them anytime soon. Pushing open the door to her room, she prepared to just dive into bed and get some sleep but the fact that her mother was waiting for her with 'The Look' on her face made it clear sleep was on hold for the time being.

"A little late getting back, aren't you?" Mom asked with an unhappy tone of voice.

"There was a line up at the theatre and they had problems getting it started." she replied, remembering her earlier cover story about going out to see a movie.

"Problems that lasted an hour? I would've thought they'd have given you some coupons as compensation and called off the show," Mom said, still not happy with the excuses she was being given.

"They would've but this group from the university totally flipped out and wouldn't leave until they saw the movie," she lied while trying to keep the appearance of someone telling the truth. "I decided to stick around and see if they'd actually manage it."

For a moment she was concerned that her mother wouldn't believe her words but, with a sigh, the woman that'd raised her finally accepted what she was being told. There was likely still some doubt within her but not enough to justify further argument and so her mother rolled her wheelchair out of the room. It hurt her to lie to her mother like that but she knew that the truth would be far harder for the woman to bear if she learned of it. No mother would be thrilled to hear that their daughter was jumping rooftops and killing vampires after the sun went down. The best case scenario would be her mother insisting she get proper training before doing something so dangerous. The worst case scenario would have her Mom forbidding any further hunting and saying to leave it to the police or the Justice League to handle. Neither possibility was to her liking so she kept the truth to herself and hoped that by the time her mother learned the truth she would no longer feel the burning need to avenge her friend.

At least now I might have a way to make that a lot easier, she thought remembering the offer made to her by Xander.

She hadn't told him in the alley but she recognized his name from a news broadcast she'd heard about a guy who'd supported Flamebird in Gotham. She'd recognized him almost from the moment she'd come upon the scene in the alleyway and, while she would've helped him even if she hadn't recognized him, knowing who he was had given her an extra reason to do what she did. She'd been kind of wondering how to ask him to build her some things. She'd read snippits about the tools Flamebird used and could definitely use the tech upgrade given that a couple of vamps had been smart enough to put metal plates over their hearts when they went out on the prowl. She'd still proven capable of staking those vamps but only after managing a head shot to immobilize them, so she could get up close to stake them.

Not an easy thing to do to normal people, much less bloodsuckers who were at least five times faster than a normal human athlete.

It had been something of a burden off of her shoulders when he'd offered to make some trick arrows for her and he'd told her to meet him in the alley in four days since it'd take time for him to get the gear together. She'd agreed and, after they'd parted ways, she spent the rest of her time roof hopping wondering what sort of trick arrows she might have in the near future. She hoped it wasn't something as clichéd as a boxing glove arrow because, while it might work for the archer on the Justice League, the glove would need to be made of lead in order to work on vamps. Maybe an incendiary arrow? That'd be cool… metaphorically speaking since it'd make it easier to dust vamps since she wouldn't have to aim for their hearts. As long as she hit the torso area the flames would do the rest, presuming that the bloodsucker failed to pat themselves down quick enough to put out the fire.

I wonder if an acid filled arrow would work, she thought as she changed into her bed clothes. Hmmmm… holy water would probably be better since I wouldn't have to worry about burning myself or a bystander when it splashed on the vamp.

By the time she'd reached home she'd made up a list of arrows she'd request when they met and hopefully most of them would be scientifically possible for Xander to make. Thinking about their next meeting, her mind brought up an image of the white haired college student looking guy and she wondered where his powers had come from. Her best guess was that he somehow got them the night Flamebird was killed but she couldn't figure out why he hadn't used them to save her. Had he gotten them after his partner had died? Did he just not know how to use them well enough to save her? These were questions that kept popping up but she was smart enough to know it was way too soon to be asking personal questions like that. They'd only just met after all and if the guy wanted their relationship to be pure business, then she had no business prying.

She of all people knew the value of keeping certain personal secrets from getting out.

Still, it'd be kinda nice to have someone to talk to about vampires and hunting them. Even though it'd been a year since she'd started, she hadn't been able to work up the nerve to tell any of her friends about what she did after school when they couldn't hang out with each other. Now, though, she had met someone who was obviously in the know about the oversized mosquitoes and was willing to help her out. Maybe they could compare notes and figure out better ways of taking the fight to the vampires of Palo Alto. She wasn't foolish enough to think that she could turn the place into a vamp free zone but at the very least she'd make sure the bloodsuckers kept looking over their shoulders when they went out looking for someone to drain.

It also didn't hurt that he didn't stare at my cleavage for more than a second or two, she thought as she remembered Xander looking her over. That puts him above just about every guy in my class.

She knew all too well what dominated the minds of most guys when they looked at a halfway decent girl: tits, ass and pussy. Sure, there were some of them who made an effort to care about more than those three things but for teenage guys it always came back to that sooner or later. Was Xander the same? Not if first impressions counted for anything. Sure, he'd looked her over but his gaze hadn't lingered in any of the perverted areas long enough to get the 'asshole' label slapped on him. Was he one of those 'been there, banged that' guys who'd already bedded enough girls that he'd gotten the whole sex thing out of his system? She didn't think so. All in all she just knew too little about him from their one encounter to really define him or put any kind of label on him, so she'd wait and see.

If he turned out to be an asshole, she'd end it right there and never see him again.

If he turned out to be a decent guy then they'd be friends and she'd suggest keeping in touch if it turned out that he wasn't sticking around Palo Alto for more than a few months.

If it turned out to be none of the above… well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

The Alleway Near the Stanford Shopping Center, Four Days Later, Evening, Xander's POV

I hope she didn't forget about this. He leaned up against the alley wall while keeping an eye out for the lady archer he was supposed to meet.

Looking down at the tube he'd brought with him, he wondered at the new approach he was taking with helping Lady Archer (she really needed to give him a proper name) do her vamp killing thing. Normally he'd just make the arrows himself, put them in a quiver and say 'here you go' but something had told him that would not be enough. He wasn't one hundred percent certain that he'd be staying in Palo Alto past a few weeks and, if he left, she'd have to ration what he'd made for her. This way, by showing her how to make them herself, she'd be able to replenish her stock of arrows and get a good idea of how they worked. While he'd kept most of the designs simple to begin with, they did cover all the basics a person would need if they were inclined to make something a little more complex.

Feeling an approaching bio-electric field from above, he looked up and a few minutes later his date (not a real date, of course) rode the fire escape ladder down to ground level across from his position.

"Been waiting long?" she asked with a bit of playfulness.

"Nope. Ten minutes or so, but no biggie," he replied as he pushed off the wall. "I've got a couple of prototypes to show you and some other things so let's get started."

With that he used his powers to open up the large metal trunk he'd brought the items in and levitated out a collapsible table since he'd need to roll out a few of his blueprints and designs. Next came the prototype arrows with just enough metal worked into their construction that he could manipulate them. He'd only made a dozen so far but they would be effective against vampires and maybe a few of the less resilient breeds of demon that preyed on humans. After that he pulled out the plans he'd rolled up and secured with a metal clamp before taking out the final item, which was a small tackle box filled with the odds and ends needed to make the custom arrowheads.

"Now you're probably wondering why I brought all this extra stuff when I could've just given you the arrows. Am I right?" he asked looking at his pseudo-customer.

"The thought had crossed my mind," she replied, looking at the items on the table one at a time.

"Well for the most part I believe that understanding how your weapon works can pay off so I drew up detailed plans for each arrow I made." He unrolled the plans so she could see them. "You won't need a diploma or anything to figure them out and it'll mean you'll be able to make your own arrows once you get the hang of it."

"You mean you're just going to make a dozen for me and that's it?" she asked, sounding a little disappointed by the amount.

"To start with at least. I don't know if I'm gonna be setting down roots here in Palo Alto so I figure if I do leave you're going to need to know how to refill your quiver without me." He was trying to make it clear this had nothing to do with her. With any luck, it was working. "Now first I'll tell you what each arrow is for and then we'll go over the matching blueprint so you can see how it all works. Sound good?"

With a nod he picked up the first arrow which was your standard arrow made of wood, seventy-five centimeters long with a steel arrowhead and plastic fletching.

"No trick to this but it's fairly easy to make and I've seen it used by the pros. If you want to stick to the normal arrows you've been using that's your choice but consider this as an alternative." He moved on to the next arrow. "Next is the flash grenade arrow. Much like the non-arrow version it's designed to discharge a potent flash of light which can be triggered either by an impact on the incendiary filled tip or by remote.

"The third arrow is one I'll know you'll like because it'll be a nice way to kill vamps aside from wooden tipped shafts. It's the Greek fire arrow." He held up the arrow with a shaft and arrowhead that were a good fifty percent thicker than the other arrows. "Like the name suggests once it penetrates the target it'll inject a stream of fluid that'll have been lit by the impact directly into the target. It won't be much but at least with it internalized the vamp won't be able to slap out the fire."

That one had been a bit of a bitch to put together since he had to find a balance between the proportions of the arrow and the amount of fluid inside. Make the arrow too big and it wouldn't fly far enough to hit the target but put too little fluid into it and it wouldn't do enough damage or would die pretty quick.

"Cool!" she exclaimed, her eyes letting him know she was imagining how it'd work out in real life.

"Yep. Just make sure you're aim is good. If this wound up getting into a human being… not good," he pointed out before moving on to the next arrow. "Next is the blackout arrow and, like the name implies, upon impact two chemicals will interact expelling a plume of black smoke about eight feet in every direction. Good for making your escape or confusing the vamps so you can take them down.

"The fifth arrow is the cable arrow which you can use to scale buildings or, if you're feeling resourceful, you could use it to channel some electricity into your target. Still working on the battery pack for it but both the cable spool and the battery will be attached to your bow or your belt depending on your preference." He held up the topic of discussion. "Now this one is a bit simple as it's your basic TNT arrow with a little something extra mixed in for added bang for your buck. You can use this to make yourself a door or knock a bunch of vamps off their feet or just reduce one to dust depending on the situation. You'll be able to alternate the amount of TNT in the arrowhead so you can control the size of the blast.

He went through a few others ranging from an arrow that had fire extinguisher foam explode out with the same range as the blackout arrow to a gas arrow that could either carry knockout gas or some other gaseous substance. He could tell just by the look on her face that she was pleased with what he'd put together but that happiness was muted somewhat when he began going over the blueprints for each of the arrows. Like most teenagers, himself included somewhat, it was hard to maintain interest when things got technical with the jargon as well as the visual aids. Still, he dropped the odd joke in and, once he opened the tackle box filled with the various arrowhead components, her attention level did go up a significant amount.

"Well, now that we got the boring stuff out of the way, whattaya say we go find someplace so you can see these arrows in action?" he asked, figuring that if this blonde was anything like Buffy she'd jump at the chance.

"You read my mind," she replied with an eager light to her eyes.

"Then let's get back to my rental and we'll head out someplace a bit less travelled." He put everything except the finished arrows back into the trunk.

Levitating the trunk, he walked back to the rental car he'd decided to get when it became clear his motorcycle wouldn't be able to carry the metal box without difficulty. It wasn't anything special, just something that was the right color and looked reasonably cool, but it'd do the job he needed it to do and that was enough for him. Using the electronic keychain to pop the trunk, he manipulated the metal box into it and shut it without ever having to touch it.

Then, like Buffy and Willow had trained into him and Bette had only reinforced, he opened the passenger-side door for his accurate ally and, given the grin on her face, she found his action amusing. It didn't take him long to get into the driver's seat and then off they went for the abandoned lot in a sparsely populated part of the city.

"So… where did you get your powers?" she asked, glancing at him for a moment before looking away quickly. "You get dunked in a vat of chemicals or something?"

He knew the question would pop up sooner or later so he decided to give her some of the truth without letting any personal details out.

"I used to live in a town not too far from here, Sunnydale, and it's something of a hotspot for the supernatural and demonic. A chaos mage came to town looking to have some fun around Halloween by turning everyone into what they were dressed up as." He remembered the night that seemed so long ago. "I'd dressed up as a superhero but turned into something… much different. After the spell ended I had the memories of who I'd been turned into but not the powers. What I remembered of the powers made me afraid I might hurt someone if they ever turned on so I ran away and tried to avoid stressful situations where I could. Lasted a little over a year and then I… lost someone and they switched on. I've been trying to get a grip on them ever since."

"You seemed pretty good with them against those vamps," she said, pointing out their first encounter.

"Not really. I still need line of sight to keep track of what I'm manipulating. I'm still having trouble 'sensing' where the metal is so I can move it without seeing it. If it's in close it's no problem but the further away it is, the harder it is to 'see'."

"Well, you know the old saying: practice makes perfect." She gave him an encouraging smile.

"Yeah… too bad the practicing is such a pain in the ass," he said with a bit of humor. "Reminds me too much of homework and I was never any good at that."

Okay! I can do this! She thought as she followed the group of ten vamps from the rooftops. I've been practicing for two weeks with these arrows. I CAN DO IT!

The gang of vamps represented one of the groups that were under the employ of one of the local drug rings and were used mostly to eliminate problems to the operation. Such problems could come in the form of dedicated cops, troublesome witnesses, customers past their loan's pay date or drug ring employees trying to go straight. In any case they were a problem that, until now, she hadn't had the confidence that she could take them down since her old wooden arrows were too limited. They were only good for precision shots and, for a group this large, too many would be able to moving faster than she could aim. Now, though… now she had new tools and, after working to get a feel for them inside the abandoned warehouse, she now felt confident enough to take them on.

Mostly.

First things first, she thought as she mentally recalled the arrangement of the arrows in her quiver. Need to stop their movement.

That was something that Xander had talked to her about while she practiced with each arrow he'd made: tactics. According to him, when you had more options with your arrows then you needed to expand on how they could be used as well as when they could be used to maximum effect. With normal arrows you used them to pierce something and nothing else but with the trick arrows she now had it was more strategic centered. You had to think about what could be used safely when your targets were alone, when you needed to take them alive or when you wanted them dead. In this case she had the perfect arrow to stop their movement and give her the opening she needed to cut their numbers by half before they could recover.

Pulling back on her bowstring, she took aim at where she wanted the arrow to go and then waited for the perfect moment to let it fly.

With only a faint whizzing sound to mark its passing the arrow struck the ground only a few feet ahead of the lead vampire. The bright light given off by the Magnesium Flare Arrow effectively blinded the vamps, especially since she'd busted the lights along their path for the last five blocks. The bloodsuckers had been so used to the dark that the sudden light was extra painful for them but she didn't sit back to enjoy the show because she now had a limited amount of time to work with.

Grabbing Greek Fire arrows from her quiver, she quickly yet properly set them up, took aim and then fired at the three vamps furthest away from the flare since they'd be the first to recover from the blinding light. She managed to hit them but, due to her lack of practice in firing three arrows at the same time, they didn't all hit the parts of the vamps that she'd been aiming for but that was just her quibbling over details. They still sunk into the bodies of the walking corpses and a minute later they burst into flame before crumbling to dust much to the surprise of their recovered brethren.

Time to move. She slunk away from the edge of the roof to her second firing spot. Can't take the chance that this spot has been made.

Moving as quickly as she could she leapt from rooftop to rooftop until she was two roofs away from where she'd been and then crept to the edge of that roof where her prey would be. Looking over, she could see that they were spread out a bit more as they tried to figure out where their attacker was, with only three of them seeming to have a clue since they were moving towards her previous spot. Evaluating their movements, she knew that if she went with another kill or distraction shot the remaining vamps might just splinter and run for it. She couldn't let that happen. The plan was for every member of the group to die by her hand so that their disappearance would spook their bosses as well as the other vamp teams working for the drug ring.

With a few moments thought she decided on a plan and hoped that she'd have enough arrows to make it work, otherwise she'd have failed the test. Pulling out a sonic arrow she fired it at one of the entrances to the open area she'd chosen as her kill zone and, when it hit, it released a sound that Xander had said would be particularly effective against vampires. She didn't stop with one, though; no, one after another she fired them until every last one she had was used and blocked the most obvious means of escape for the vampires. They wouldn't last long even with the power sources that Xander had managed to rig for them but hopefully they'd last long enough for her to take down the rest.

From there she alternated between her Greek Fire Arrows, her tear gas arrows and her normal wooden tipped arrows to take down vamps as quickly as she could notch and release. Some might assume that she was using the tear gas arrow to assault the senses of the vamps or sow confusion but the truth was far more deadly. The truth was that, thanks to a visit to a local priest, the liquid of the gas had been blessed, thereby multiplying how painful it was for the vampires by an order of magnitude. According to Xan, holy water was like extremely corrosive acid for vamps so she could only imagine how much it must hurt to breathe it in up the nose or through the mouth. It was so bad that the bloodsuckers wouldn't even be able to scream for very long since the blessed gas would shred their vocal chords and damage their esophagus fairly quickly.

By the time the last vamp dropped she was down to just nine remaining arrows but in her mind things had gone very well indeed. All she needed to do now was to retrieve what spent arrows she could from the 'scene of the crime' and anyone who came to investigate would find a distinct lack of evidence to deduce with. Hopping rooftops until she got to one with a fire escape she made her way down to the ground within a few short minutes. Grabbing the silent sonic arrow from the alleyway entrance was exiting from, she slid it back into her quiver before going to gather the arrows. It was a little tedious doing this and she'd made the point once to Xander how leaving the arrows to be found would be kinda cool, like leaving a calling card, but he'd shaken his head in the negative.

"Leaving them there would give the police and the vamps clues to figure out how you're arrows were made. They could track you down by finding out where all the bits and pieces could be purchased." He'd actually wagged a finger at her. "The only time it's good to leave stuff behind is when it's so commonplace that it'd be pointless to stakeout the stores because there'd just be too many spread out all over the place. That's not the case with these arrows."

She'd been forced to admit that he was right. She wasn't a big time hero like the Green Arrow so the cops wouldn't cut her the same slack they would a member of the League and it wasn't impossible for a couple of them to be on the take. If they ever spotted her out of costume they could attack her when she was defenseless or worse go after her mother as payback. Better to do something tedious now then screw up and have to scramble to think up a way to clean up her own mess.

Crunch.

Whirling around, she looked towards where she'd heard the sound, hand halfway to one of her unused arrows, warily looking for the source of the noise. This area of town was fairly unpopulated, especially the spots where the vamps squatted during the day, but that was one of the reasons she'd chosen this ambush spot. Less chance of civilians getting in the way either by running into the path of her arrows or being used as hostages. She planned on one day being good enough to be so precise with an arrow that all a bloodsucker would need to do would be to was present her with half a foot of exposed flesh to be taken down.

Can't be anyone here. She continued to examine the area around where she'd heard the noise. I went around the entire area for two blocks knocking out lights. No one was there, not even a homeless person.

When nothing happened and no further noises were made she lowered her hand from her quiver and eased back into gathering up her spent shafts so she could head back to 'Sherwood Forest' to tell Xander how well she did.

She got all of three feet before she felt a sharp prick in her right shoulder.

Looking down she saw a small tranq dart sticking out of it but that was all she could ascertain before the world began to fade to black.

How…? She thought in disbelief as consciousness was stripped from her mind.

Sloppy, he thought as he looked at Artemis' sleeping form. She should've looked about for a chaperone before cleaning up.

Turning back to his work bench as he resumed working on making arrows to refill the blonde's quiver as well as making sure the storage drums for each type of arrow were filled. He'd limited her selection for the time being to arrows that he knew would be useful against vampires or random street thugs for the time being but he had a few ideas for other arrows. Vamps weren't the only threat walking the streets of Paolo Alto and Artemis would need to be prepared to face each of them if she wanted to save lives, including her own. Something that'd be effective against magic users would be a must and then there was the fact that there were some super villains that didn't have a defined turf. A lot of them had specific towns or cities that they could be counted on to stick to even after being tossed in jail by the local hero for the thirtieth time. Others, though, seemed to travel the country, going from state to state, only moving on when the heat got too much or the possibility of a Leaguer showing up was high. Therefore the possibility existed and he intended on making sure that Artemis would have an arsenal that'd be effective against them.

To that end, in his spare time, he was making a list of super villains without defined territories whose usual targets were stereotypical banks or jewelry stores rather than the more cataclysmic targets. Bank and jewelry store robberies attracted a certain level of criminal that, in most cases, would be within Artemis' weight class, making it unlikely that she'd be beaten unless she got sloppy like she had tonight. That made making a list of their abilities, their gear and their tactics fairly easy allowing him to devise appropriate counterattack arrows that'd achieve maximum effect. He was also jotting down notes on some of the more common strategies and tactics used for robberies by the robbers so that the blonde girl could potentially get the drop on her targets. Obviously he couldn't account for every possibility, every scenario, but she seemed to have a good head on her shoulders so with the material he'd give her she'd be able to come up with her own sharp ideas.

"Uuhhh…wha…?" Artemis groaned in inquiry as she started to regain consciousness.

"Welcome back to the waking world," he said as he put down his crafting tool on the workbench.

"What happened?" she asked as she sat up on the couch.

"You took a tranq dart to the shoulder."

"Yeah but where'd it come from?" she asked with recollection definitely in place.

"Me," he replied simply as he waited for the inevitable exclamation.

"YOU!? Why?" she asked with confusion and some mistrust.

"To teach you a lesson: never let your guard down." He replied in a no nonsense tone of voice. "When dealing with the supernatural, when dealing with anyone capable of reasoning, you have to be ready for the unexpected. You say you've been hunting vamps for weeks? Time enough for them to think about setting a trap for you or putting a chaperone with their groups that'd lag behind the others a bit to do just what I did tonight. Next time, before clean up, do at least a one block radius loop around the battlefield looking for anyone suspicious."

"Isn't that a little paranoid?" she asked, sounding a little skeptical of the necessity of the final loop.

"Better paranoid than dead or worse, turned," he replied with utter conviction behind his words.

She nodded in agreement with that though she was probably wondering how paranoid was just the right paranoid and how much was too much. Honestly he didn't know where to draw the line himself but it was a safe bet that when you started wearing tinfoil hats and refused to go to the dentist because you didn't want a beacon filling that you'd crossed the line.

"I'll see about cobbling together some goggles capable of night vision, infrared and a few other spectrums over the next few weeks," he said as a way of soothing her scuffed trust in him. "It'll help separate the vamps from the humans and make seeing in the dark easier. Plus, with a little tweaking, I might be able to make it so that it'll replace your current mask entirely without them looking like welding goggles. It'll take time though."

"No problem. I'm young. I can wait," she said with an approving smile.

Problem solved.

"You did pretty good against the vamps," he said, deciding to give her praise where praise was due. "You thought things through, used your arrows strategically and none of the fang faces even got close. Still, remember that you've only got a set number of arrows in your quiver. Always keep a mental head count of how many you have left and what they can do. Nothing worse than being in a serious pinch only to find yourself out of ammo."

"I still had nine arrows left," she pointed out.

"Can you tell me what each of them can do?" he asked, testing her to see if she could remember.

"The cable arrow, the blackout arrow… the… the…" she replied starting strong before falling flat.

She was obviously annoyed that she couldn't remember what the remaining seven arrows were and didn't like that she'd failed such a simple test.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. This was your first night out with the trick arrows. It'll get easier the more you use them."

"I guess. So's there anything else tonight?" she asked, probably wondering if they'd be heading back out.

"No. Tonight was just a trial run to see how easily using the trick arrows came to you." He replied with a shake of his head. "You did so consider yourself free for the rest of the night."

"But it's not even midnight! I can reload and do a patrol of the neighborhood!" she protested, obviously not understanding why they should stop after one sting.

"Or you could get home at a reasonable hour and make your mother less suspicious about your evenings out," he pointed out, remembering the blonde saying something about her mom giving her the third degree the previous night. "It's kinda tough to do the superhero thing if someone's watching you like a hawk twenty-four seven. Unless you plan on letting her know the truth, you gotta be willing to jump through a few hoops and put on the act of being a trustworthy young woman."

"Telling her the truth ain't an option," she said resolutely as though there was nothing to discuss. "My mom… she worries a lot about me. If she knew I was doing this she'd totally freak out and never let me leave our apartment."

"Then make her think she's got nothing to worry about by working in your patrols to match normal activities. Movies, sporting events, parties and stuff like that." He remembered another blonde who had a similar position on telling her mother and how well that had not worked out. "Sure, you might need to ask a friend to cover for you or pretend you're someplace you're not but, if you're smart about it, she won't suspect a thing."

"And if I screw up?" she asked, sounding like she expected that to be the case sooner rather than later.

"Then you might want to rehearse a few believable excuses that, while making you look a little guilty, would be better than telling her the truth." He gave her his usual lopsided smile. "Letting her think she's hearing you confess the truth will keep her from digging deeper and the more you rehearse it, the less it'll sound like something you made up on the spot."

"You sound like you have some practice doing that," she said, sounding interested in learning more.

"Me and some friends lived in a town that had some vamp problems of its own. The cops were clueless so we decided to work together to do what we could to keep the body count down." he replied, keeping things general and non-specific. "Kinda hard when your parents are part of the group not in the know so we'd cover for each other when we had to. Told our parents we were sleeping over at a friend's house while they told their parents that they were sleeping over at your house. Didn't always work but we were lucky that our folks were quick to write it off as the usual teenager stuff instead of the truth."

"Sounds like it was fun… working with friends." She had a slightly longing look that vanished a moment later.

"It was. Sometimes I wonder where they are now," he said, wistfully remembering the days when the Scoobies were all together in the library.

"Have you ever tried looking for them?" she asked, sounding like she'd be willing to help him with that.

"I try every other month but they're either living off the grid or they're using aliases. Probably ran into some vamp trouble and want to wait until the heat's down before coming up for air."

He couldn't tell Artemis the truth that Buffy had disappeared from the media spotlight, Willow hadn't made a big enough name for herself to be mentioned online and Cordy, while still dipping into her bank account, was never in the same city twice. He'd tried a few times to guess their aliases but without a picture to go with them he'd been unable to make a positive ID on any possibilities and, since he didn't possess the hacking abilities good enough to get into any government databases, he was stuck. Still he was fairly sure Willow would make it big soon enough thanks to the bits of Emma Frost's mind that, when he'd left, had taken root in her mind.

He just hoped that she wasn't too far gone mentally that they couldn't be friends anymore.

"Well, let me know if you need any help," she said as she got to her feet and made for the exit to the warehouse he'd set up shop in.

"I will," he said as she walked through the door and closed it behind her.

With all distractions gone he went back to work determined to finish in time to catch some late night television then he'd go straight to bed.

"Report," he ordered his subordinates in charge of his various information gathering venues as they knelt before him.

"As you commanded, Master, we have searched with all the resources that we have to locate Alexander LaVelle Harris, aka Lex Lensherr," the first one stated with reverence in his voice. "Through the various economic institutions we attempted to track the transactions made through any accounts connected to Forge Industries. There were some large withdrawls from the account however they were in different cities. It is likely that the one you seek removes as much money as he can in one day then frugally uses it until he has no choice but to make another large withdrawl."

An effort to make tracking him difficult or is there some other reason? He thought as he considered the information.

"I attempted to locate him by monitoring purchases of materials consistent with what he used when he supported the deceased superheroine Flamebird," the second subordinate said with his eyes directed to the ground. "I focused on small purchases delivered to locations that did not match businesses or companies that might have normal use for such materials. I regret to report that I failed to find the one you seek."

Not surprising given the lack of news regarding a new vigilante making an impact, besides which what he knew of Alexander so far suggested that he would be wary of aiding a new hero given what happened to the previous one.

"Have any of you found ANYTHING promising?" he asked, making it clear he did not wish to hear of further failure.

"I do have one lead, Master." The last subordinate in line held out a photograph to him. "Using our access to various camera networks across the United States, I initiated a facial recognition program using the photograph acquired from the Gotham hospital where he received treatment for injuries sustained from his confrontation with Doctor Light. In addition to that I assigned as much of my staff as could be permitted to sift through the images just in case the program missed something. This is the result."

His right-hand man and the one that acted as a bridge between himself and his forces strode across the space between him and the seekers, took the photograph and then return to give it to him. Looking at the photograph, he was disappointed at the quality but the person it focused on did bear a strong resemblance to Alexander Harris. He didn't even bother wondering if the image could be enhanced further since his people were trained well enough that they would know to do so before bringing the results to him.

"Where was this image taken from?" he asked, deciding to act on the best lead thus far.

"Paolo Alto, California."

"Dispatch five scout teams to Paolo Alto." he ordered with the authority he possessed. "Make sure that they commit Alexander's face to memory and equip them with the means of detecting anomalous electromagnetic disturbances."

"It will be done, Master," his right hand man replied with a bow.

"As for the rest of you, resume your duties." he said, dismissing them from his sight.

Watching as they left along with his right hand man, he waited a moment before addressing the only person left in the room.

"What is your appraisal of the target?" he asked without looking away from the photograph.

"Young, inexperienced but with a sharp mind." she replied in the manner she had been taught since she was a child. "If he is as powerful as you suspect he could become a valuable ally or a dangerous enemy given enough time."

Indeed.

He had already had his scientists run simulations to determine precisely how much electromagnetic energy would be required both to devastate the Gotham warehouse district as well as generate the phenomenon the League detected in Salem. The results were impressive and the fact that they came from a living being rather than a machine only made it that much more impressive. Assuming that this power Alexander possessed was still growing just as he was, then certain measures would have to be taken one way or another.

Either to aid him or neutralize him.

I look forward to finding out which it turns out to be, he thought as he steepled his fingers in front of his face.

"You sure about this intel?" Xander asked, looking more concerned than he usually was when it was time to patrol.

"As sure as I can be considering I couldn't just walk up in my street clothes and ask them what they were doing," she replied with a shrug, recalling what she'd stumbled across earlier in the day.

It'd been three weeks since her first night out with the trick arrows and as she'd walked home from school she'd noticed a trio of black vans going down the street. She hadn't paid much attention at first because, contrary to what the movies would tell you, all black vehicles didn't necessarily mean government agents or black ops people. However when the lead one turned right, allowing her a momentary glimpse into the front seat, her concern jumped a level as she recognized one of the VIPs of the Paolo Alto drug problem, Bobby Yen. Yen had been in business for almost seven years now after ousting the competition in a bloody turf war that'd caused a lot of people to stay indoors whenever possible. Since then no place was off limits to the punks peddling the man's product and the local P.D hadn't been able to do a thing either because they were on the take or because Yen was just that smart. When she'd donned her outfit for the first time it might've been to avenge Kate but after that she'd decided to go one step further and stop victims from being made in the first place. After that it hadn't taken long to figure out that the local fang faces either worked for or ran the local drug operation, with Bobby Yen being one of the major players.

Before Xander came along with his trick arrows she'd been forced to content herself to picking off the strays and small time vamps.

Now? Now she felt like taking on something a little further up the food chain.

"Then we're going," he said as he moved off to the sectioned off part of the warehouse he'd converted into a bedroom.

"We?" she asked, a little surprised that he was directly involving himself.

"If this Yen guy is as high up the chain of command as you say he is, then he's not just going to have the rank and file with him. He'll have bodyguards or subordinates with him." He entered the bedroom and closed the door behind him. "Add that to the fact that the building you saw those vans drive into was either where they make the drugs or store them and it's going to have security as well as a lot more bodies. You've come a long way in the last three weeks but this time you need backup and it might as well be me."

Grudgingly she had to admit that the college boy had made some good points plus she was kinda interested in finding out what he was changing into as well as what he could do with his powers. Since his first initial demonstration the night they'd first met she'd seem a few little things like pulling a screwdriver from a toolbox on the other side of the room but nothing to indicate that it was the upper limit of what he could do. Was he as powerful as some of the members of the Justice League or was he more at the side-kick level of power? Was he as skilled with his abilities as he sounded or was he more of a talker than a doer?

She'd find enough soon enough she guessed.

Five minutes later when Xander emerged from the bedroom, she would've preferred something a little less tent-like but she didn't completely dislike the costume. A cape was always good for drama and the helmet would help keep his face hidden from Bobby Yen and his people, so that was two points in his favor. She also caught a glint of something metallic on the inside of the cape that she was hoping was some kind of armor plating. It'd help when the bullets started flying even though she'd heard that even if a person wore a bulletproof vest it'd still hurt to get shot there and still leave a nasty bruise.

"So what should I call you when you're in costume?" she asked, looking over the red and purple number.

"Magneto. Not the coolest name but it still fits," he replied before reaching out with his right hand.

Looking to see what would happen, she watched as a rectangular metal plate about the size of painted free throw lane of a basketball court lift up off the wall it'd been leaning against and float towards them. She wasn't sure how much it weighed but from the looks of it she'd put money that normally it'd take two full grown men to lift the plate and Xander was doing it with ease. Once it was within two feet it reoriented itself until it was hovering parallel with the floor but that didn't explain what he was doing with it unless…

"NO. Not going to happen. N O spells NO," she said as she realized Xander intended for her to ride the metal plate to their destination. "I am not getting on that thing. I'll get there on my own."

"You forget that I don't know where this place is. I'll need you to give me directions," he pointed out, sounding a little sarcastic. "Besides riding on one of these with me is perfectly safe. I'll be in complete control of it at all times and I'll keep it horizontal the entire trip."

She had to admit that she didn't think that he'd purposefully do anything to cause her to fall off but, still, the idea of being in the air riding on something with no seatbelts didn't thrill her. She much preferred to go with what she knew which was roof hopping and keeping to the shadows since at least those had proven to be safe. She had no experience flying on a metal plate controlled by a friend's power of magnetism.

"No… I think I'll stick with what I know." She she moved to the skylight from which she'd start her trek to the building she'd seen Yen go into.

"Suit yourself," he said even as dropped the plate on the ground and moved to follow her.

Once they were outside she hopped to the neighboring rooftop but looked over her shoulder to see what he'd do to follow her. She was surprised to see him lift up the ground and fly through the air, keeping a close distance behind her at all times. Seeing his cape flutter about and his helmet cast his face in shadow, he looked more like an intimidating force of nature than a person not even out of his twenties. Keeping the pace swift she began to consider how best to handle Yen and the rest of the drug dealers once they arrived. The building was only one floor so that worked to their advantage in that their targets would be all in one place rather than spread out in rooms. It went against them, though, because it meant fewer places to hide or be sneaky from and both were tactics that would've been nice to use to their advantage. She didn't know what the interior of the building looked like, whether it was an assortment of tables or if there'd be some crates scattered about, so if possible she'd like to get that bit of intel before the fireworks started.

If there was little or no cover to be had inside the building… she'd have to see if Xander could make some using his power.

They arrived about a block shy of the destination building half an hour later, thankfully a location chosen to make an unseen approach impossible but one that also gave her a clear line of sight to scope out the nighttime setting of the building. From what she could see there were people patrolling the outside but whatever weapons they might have looked to be small and concealable since her eyes didn't spot anything obvious like an AK-47 or a MP5 in their hands. They were even positioned so that, unless you KNEW that they were guards for a drug operation, they'd just look like random strangers out for a stroll.

"Here. Finished it last night," Xander said, handing her what looked to be a mix between sunglasses and high tech shades. "Keep in mind it's a prototype so there might be a few glitches."

Taking the warning for what it was worth, she gave the gadget a quick once over before slipping them on and pressing what she figured was the power button. Instantly her view of things changed and it was like night had become day, letting her see into shadows that'd been impenetrable a minute ago. It wasn't green colored like the night vision goggles you'd see in the movies or on TV but she wasn't going to complain about lack of accuracy. She could see better and that was all that mattered.

"Sweet! Any suggestions on how to do this without getting turned into maggot food?" she asked, wanting to hear what he had to say on the matter before voicing her own plans.

"Well we don't know how many people are in there or how many of them are fighters. Some could just be slave labor who'll run or hide at the first sign of trouble," he replied, looking at the target building with an evaluating gaze. "We need to take away their numbers advantage while making sure we know who to take down and who to ignore. We'll do a two pronged assault: I'll move to take out the power and any electronics inside the building while you use your explosive arrows to spook the guards into retreating into the building. If they think they're under siege they'll likely get the non-combatants out from underfoot leaving us room to operate."

"Or they could use the workers as human shields."

"That'll only happen if they know who they're up against and figure that's their only way of winning. We play this right and they'll be too busy dealing with us to even think of using human shields."

It wasn't a bad plan and, if it turned out that there weren't any workers inside, the risk of human hostages would be removed from the table making things a lot easier on the two of them.

"Sounds like a plan." She pulled a concussion arrow from her quiver and notched against the bow string. "What'll be the single to start shooting?"

"When the lights go out that'll be your cue to shoot." He rose into the air and flew away, quickly leaving her field of vision.

Focusing on the goons patrolling the outside of the building, she began to pick and choose her shots based on what'd scare them into retreating the most as well as which ones were vampires. While it'd be nice for the obvious sign like the bulging forehead and sickly yellow eyes she'd learned quickly that life wasn't often as convenient as that. Instead she'd taken into account everything she knew about vamps and used that to draw up a rough list of physical and mental tells to separate them from human beings. Things like not needing to stick close to a heat source during winter because their undead bodies weren't affected by the cold as much as a human would be. A lot of them grew out of the 'remembered' practice of breathing once they realized they didn't need air for anything other than talking. Then, of course, there was her personal favorite of how all of them couldn't help but look down on human beings, whether they were 'buddies' or just coworkers. Using these tells she was able to separate the human guards from the vamps pretty much but, just the same, she'd stick to non-lethal arrows for all direct hits.

Just when she was beginning to worry that something might have happened to Xander she watched as every light in the target building and the area surrounding it flickered once then went out. Not hesitating, she let the clarity of sight afforded by the tech shades she had on guide her aim and began to rain down arrows on the guards. Humans got arrows meant to knock them on their butts, with a few near misses with some of the heavier artillery, to make the danger seem real rather than let them clue in that it was all a ploy. For the vamps, though, them she dusted and this had the effect of making the survivors even more frightened since it meant something higher up the food chain than the bloodsuckers was on the scene.

That was a scary thought for a bunch of dumb street punks.

Once she was sure that they'd all fled into the building she began to move in herself, doing her best to keep her approach from being followed or at the very least predicted. It wasn't easy by any means but with a little luck those inside would be too busy preparing their defenses to pay much attention to her movements on the outside.

The window of opportunity wouldn't last long so she had to hurry.

The second she was within range she pulled out her cable arrow and connected the metal line to her belt, firing it at the edge of the target building's rooftop. Once she was sure that it would hold she pressed the button that would reel in the cable and felt herself yanked into the air almost quickly enough to cause her to cry out in surprise. She climbed over the edge of the roof once she got there and was unsurprised to see that Xander had managed to deal with what few roof guards there'd been quickly and efficiently.

"Nice fireworks," Xander said, his usual smile partially obscured by his helmet. "Near as I could tell all the patrol guards ran back in thanks to your arrows and with the lights out their visibility in there should be minimal. Now for phase two of the plan."

"Phase two?" she asked. What 'phase two'?

"I make with the dramatic show of power by going in through the ceiling, making them focus their attention on me while you snipe targets of opportunity as needed. Focus on those with the guns or groups larger than two. Lack of light's made them weaker, not defenseless. Taking away their firepower and breaking them up will take'em down even further."

"Why don't I go in with you?" she asked, an annoying suspicion in her mind.

"It's not because I don't think you can handle yourself," he replied, sounding like he'd known she'd object to that part of the plan. "They'll have guns in there and you're not bulletproof. My powers make bullets pretty much a non-issue and same thing for explosives. Besides, firing from the roof through the hole is like the ultimate high ground and that's always a good move strategically speaking."

"Oh. Makes sense," she said, realizing that she'd made an assumption and nearly made an ass out of herself.

"I'll save Bobby Yen for you. It was your city before it was mine," he said before rising off the roof with his powers. "Count to thirty then start letting the arrows fly."

"Gotcha," she said, pulling out one of the new shock arrows that Xander had made.

It released a jolt of electricity comparable to most civilian tazers and it released it all at once, making it highly likely to either incapacitate the target or temporarily remove them from the fight. With the arrow notched, she looked up at her partner and watched as he came to a stop about fifteen feet above the roof but it was what happened after that caught her complete attention. Reaching out with both hands to something she could not see, he began to pull something heavy upward but it wasn't until she felt the roof begin to shake and metal begin to groan that she understood. With all the suddenness of an explosion a section of the roof was torn away, leaving jagged edges as well as a fucking large hole in the center. A negligent wave later and the collection of metal and wiring was cast out into the open area that up until a couple of minutes ago had been filled with patrolling guards.

Then he descended into the building, almost immediately coming under fire but, instead of being turned into a bloody slice of Swiss cheese, the bullets just stopped a good two and a half feet from his body. He eventually left her sight but, seeing as how she hadn't heard him cry out in pain or perceived a thump to the floor, she presumed that he was okay. Beginning her count to thirty, she listened as more and more gunfire filled the air without the corresponding exclamation of pain and, when it was done, she darted to the edge of the hole looking down for her first target.

She almost froze at what she saw.

There were over thirty people in the room and most of them had guns they were hopelessly trying to use to kill Xander but all they were doing was adding to the rapidly growing collection of bullets suspended in a loose sphere around the young man. The force of nature comparison was looking more appropriate by the moment but, when she noticed them in the process of loading fresh clips into their weapons or backing away to the doors, she snapped out of her awe. Going for some rapper wannabe heading for the door, she fired her arrow, striking him right in the chest, causing him to cry out as the electricity went through his body to the ground. She didn't stop to watch him collapse before she pulled an Incendiary Arrow from her quiver and fired it at an obvious vamp, catching him in the stomach. It took less than a second for the bloodsucker to catch on fire and two more before red-laced dust was falling to the ground. Seeing a thug begin to raise his semi-automatic in her direction, she pulled out an arrow she was sure was useless but decided to give it a test drive anyways.

One amazing shot later and the criminal's weapon exploded in his hands since the barrel had been expertly plugged by what Xander had called the Glue Arrow.

She didn't know what kinda glue to harden quick enough to work or stand up to a bullet but she was grateful it had.

From there things got intense but she wasn't afraid.

They'd won.

It just hadn't sunk into the minds of the drug dealers yet.

Who the hell were they!?

That was the question that Bobby Yen kept asking himself even as he ran for a crate kept in the corner of the room that he'd ordered put there for emergencies. Throwing it open, he took out the RPG-7 and quickly loaded it just like he remembered being shown before turning to aim it at the sorcerer that was attacking his operation. Unlike a lot of the nuts for brains idiots that ran drugs in the gang he was no stranger to the supernatural and the demonic so he knew a magic user when he saw one. Sure, people had seen news reports on TV of the superhero Zatara but a lot of people just figured it was tech meant to imitate the effects of sorcery. He knew different. Sorcery was real. Demons were real. Vampires were real. It was kind of hard to ignore that last one when your superior had you working with them almost every day of every week. That was one of the reasons why he'd put the heavy ordinance here along with the off chance that a member of the League showed up.

Time to see how his preparation worked out in real life.

With the pull of a trigger the rocket flew towards the caped threat and, when it exploded, he let hope rise within him at the prospect of doing away with his enemy. That hope suffered a bitter death when the smoke cleared and showed his foe to be unharmed and now directing his intimidating gaze his way. A gesture was made by the sorcerer and, before he could do more than turn his head, something slammed into him, robbing him of coherent thought for an indeterminate period of time. When he recovered he found that he was now bound to the wall, a strip of metal pinning him tightly to the concrete, pinning his arms to his sides. He struggled against it but found it to be pointless as the metal was too strong and buried too deeply into the concrete for him to free himself.

He was helpless to watch as the caped sorcerer and his archer ally strike down one of his people after another until all the vampires were dusted and all the humans were unconscious on the ground.

"Now that I'm certain we won't be interrupted, Mister Yen, I think it's time that my friend had a little chat with you," the caped sorcerer said as he floated down to land on the ground a few feet away.

"I won't tell you ANYTHING!" he said both out of genuine defiance and because he knew what'd happen to him if he ratted out on the rest of the organization.

"Don't be so sure, Mister Yen. My lady friend can be quite persuasive when she wishes to be," the sorcerer said ominously even as a blonde girl dressed up like Robin Hood lowered herself through the hole in the ceiling. "And where she falls short… I pick up the slack."

He didn't like the sound of that.

He'd seen some sorcerers in service to his boss do some pretty nightmarish stuff, stuff that'd had him wishing he'd been ANYWHERE else, but he tried not to let that shake him. The young man before him had power but had only killed the vampires not the humans like him, so that could mean that he was playing by hero rules.

He could work with that.

"You're a powerful guy, Bobby. Not at the top of the food chain in Paolo Alto's drug trafficking business but definitely in a different league than the street pushers." The blonde girl walked up to him confidently. "That means you probably know when the next big shipment of this crap is coming in and where. I want that information."

"Fuck you!" he growled out, defiantly refusing to give up any tidbit of information.

"Wrong answer," the blonde said and, before he could do more than yelp, she fired an arrow that just nicked his right ear before burying itself in the wall. "Want to try again?"

"Shoot all the arrows you want, bitch!" he declared with false bravado. "You think you scare me?! You ain't NOTHIN'! You got nothing on the bosses!"

"I'd worry less about your bosses who aren't here right now and more about the young lady who is here with a decent number of arrows still in her quiver," the sorcerer said, leaning against one of the intact tables. "You answer her questions maybe we let you go to find a hole to hide in. You keep giving us lip… well, you'll still answer our questions, but I just won't be able to guarantee you doing any kind of walking for the rest of your life."

"Ain't no place safe enough to hide from the bosses!" he fired back, deciding to educate the mojo thrower on the facts of life. "If they don't find me the lawyers they work with from L.A will."

"Lawyers from L.A?" the sorcerer asked sounding curious.

This college kid could use magic and didn't know about the lawyers?! Either the caped creep had been taught by a hermit or wasn't powerful enough for those soul sucking suits to take a direct interest in.

"If you don't know about'em, you will soon enough," he said with a malicious grin. "They got connections with all the paranormal shit that goes on up and down the west coast. If they ain't behind it then they work for the people who are. They find out about you and you'll either be on their payroll or in an unmarked grave someplace."

"They're welcome to try but let's try your luck first." The sorcerer turned to his blonde lady friend. "How about we work on your precision?"

"Ooohhhh I LIKE that idea," the blonde said before pulling another arrow from the quiver on her back. "Right side, below the armpit."

"Wha-!?" he asked before she let loose the arrow and successfully stuck the arrow beneath his right armpit… missing said armpit by half an inch.

"Top of his head, dead center." Another arrow was notched.

Before he could even open his mouth the arrow was released and, with a bit of air displacement and a tug on the hair on top of his head, he knew it'd hit its mark.

"You're being too easy on yourself," the sorcerer said with a chiding tone. "Try something that's not so easy to shoot. Like say… between the legs without castrating him in the process."

This succeeded in getting his composure to break, if only because he didn't want to find out the hard way if the girl had a lousy record of hitting something she couldn't see. He might not have been a stud in the eyes of the ladies but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy screwing some choice hoes during his down time. That would be somewhat difficult to continue doing if blondie wasn't as good a shot as she seemed to think she was.

Question was: did he care enough about his future screwing enough to outweigh the trouble he'd get in from the boss?

Hearing the twang of the string and feeling the arrow tear through his pants to nick his ball sack, he decided that, yes, he did care about his future plowing playtime more than his boss.

"Alright! ALRIGHT! I'll talk!" he said as the blonde psycho chick aimed another shot at him. "The shipments either come through the docks or through a landing strip outside of the city. I don't which it'll be this time, I swear! We never know until two hours before they arrive! It's to keep the cops from organizing a bust!"

"Oh, c'mon, Bobby boy!" the blonde said with threatening casualness. "You've been in the biz long enough that you have to have SOME idea when the next shipment is due to come in. You gotta know when your stock's running low."

"I'm not some desk jock, bitch!" he growled at her in order to cover his lack of answers. "I just crack the whip on the cannon fodder and report any problems up to the bosses!"

"Then you're not really worth talking to anymore, are you?" the sorcerer asked rhetorically with a note of finality to it.

"No, he isn't." came a new voice but then he knew pain and then he knew nothing.

On reflex he used his powers to throw up a force field around both himself and Artemis, saving them from suffering the same fate of Bobby of getting a shuriken half buried between the eyes. The timing was perfect because a barrage of shurikens impacted the field that would've turned the two of them into pin cushions. Looking about, he tried to get a grip on who the attacker was only to find out that he should have been thinking in the plural rather than in the singular. Coming out of every shadow and through every method of entry he could see were ninjas, honest to God NINJAS, armed with everything from the usual weaponry to black ops armaments. They numbered about twenty in all and, while he wasn't quite worried about how things would turn out, he was still surprised that they'd been able to get this close without him knowing about it. He'd been training himself off and on since his powers had activated to sense the bio-electric field that living things gave off, specifically focusing on human sized bio-electric fields. He'd be lying if he said that he'd mastered it but he thought he was close enough to mastering it that sneaking up on him shouldn't have been possible without some kind of abnormal edge.

If they had an edge on one thing, they might have an edge on others.

"Artemis! Get down!" he ordered before he reached out with his magnetic powers to seize every metallic weapon the ninjas possessed.

He'd hoped that whoever these ninja guys and gals worked for they had come there targeting Bobby and his crew rather than him and Artemis. If that was the case then round two would be over relatively quickly since he could disarm them with a flick of his wrist and knock them all out with another flick. However, much to his concern, he found that he could only grip about half of the weapons on the persons of the ninjas with the rest made of something he could sense but not get a solid grip on with his power. The odds that they'd arm themselves with weapons that did not react well to a magnetic field, thereby negating his ability to manipulate it without knowing precisely who they were up against… yeah he had a better chance of winning the lottery or something. If they did come here specifically to deal with him or at least ensure he wouldn't be a problem, then the threat level just jumped because someone with the resources for that kind of prep work was dangerous.

Still gotta work with what I've got and stop whining about what I don't got, he thought as he yanked the metallic weapons out of the hands or sheaths of the ninjas.

An idea struck him as a possible way to resolve the situation and not hurt anyone too badly so, after he discarded any metallic blades in his magnetic grip, he began to spin the remaining weapons around him like they were tied to him by a rope. Like a giant sized weed whacker, the various implements of pain spun about him, impacting on those ninja not quick enough to evade them, with some being KOed by blows to the head while others were merely injured by cracked or broken bones. Whether those injuries would be enough to remove them from the fight or just reduce their individual threat level he didn't know but he knew he'd be a lot happier once every ninja was knocked senseless. It was looking less likely as time went on, though since those that evaded his first dozen spins of the weapons had learned how to evade every other spin. Plus, whether it was shoddy construction or just the force of the blows, the weapons he'd grabbed were breaking or being seriously bent out of shape.

No sense using a trick that's stopped working. He let go of the weapons he'd seized, allowing them to fly into walls or out windows. Time to try something a little more dramatic.

With an exclamation of exertion he expanded the force field he'd been using to protect him and Artemis out in every direction as fast as he dared considering what he wanted. As a result anything solid got hit and hit hard before being pinned to the walls of the building or flung out of the windows and the hole he'd made in the ceiling. It completely trashed the furniture in the place and probably added a few more bruises to the thugs they'd taken down before the ninjas showed up but, since no human bio-fields had winked out or were dying, they'd live. Retracting the force field back so that it just shielded him and Artemis, he watched as the ninjas he'd caught with it fell to the ground, with none of them looking like they'd be getting up again sooner than half an hour or so. Still, all this commotion was going to bring the police here sooner or later and he'd rather not answer the questions of the boys in blue, especially since Bobby Yen was dead.

"I think it's time we get out of here before any more trouble comes our way."

"You'll get no arguments from me," Artemis said before looking at the unconscious people surrounding them. "What about all of them?"

"With the noise we made someone's bound to have called the cops by now." He wrapped an arm around her waist. "And there's plenty of evidence here to cause the drug traffickers headaches for the next few weeks. Now hold on!"

Without waiting he took to the air, going through the hole in the roof and ascending high over the city of Paolo Alto.

"AAAHHHH!"

"Tone it down! You're fine," he said, glad that his helmet muffled the scream a bit., "I've got you."

She still screamed for a bit but it was when they were about halfway back to the warehouse he'd made into his home that the screams of fright turned into screams of exhilaration. Turning his gaze toward her, he found a smile he remembered being on his face more than a few times when he was on an adrenaline rush that wasn't induced by threat of death or pain. Deciding to see just how far he could take things, he began to do loop-de-loops, barrel rolls and some zig zags without increasing his speed at all. This was apparently met with approval as Artemis whooped even louder and this made him smile as they continued on their way.

It didn't take them long to finally arrive but Artemis was still riding the adrenaline rush as she bounced about the living room a bit before falling backwards onto the couch.

"Hahahahahahahaha! What a rush!" Artemis crowed as she dropped her bow on the floor. "If I'd known flying was that fun I'd have asked you to take me EVERYWHERE!"

"I am to please," he said with a grin of his own given that the girl's amusement was contagious, "but there was another reason why I had us leave by air like that. Whoever those ninjas worked for had them equipped to counter my powers of magnetism. It was luck and some quick thinking that let me get the better of them this time. I needed to be sure they couldn't follow us back here to the warehouse and that meant travelling at a height they couldn't follow us at."

"What about tracking devices?" she asked going with the next logical possibility.

"I kept the force field around us until we were well outside the range of any thrown or shot tracking devices. Even if they had managed to put one on me my own natural electromagnetic power would've shorted it out in seconds," he replied confident that no piece of tech could stand up to close to proximity to his power. "I still plan to go the extra mile, though, and up security here just in case."

"Up it how?" she asked, sounding mildly curious.

"I can set up a localized communications blackout zone around the warehouse that extends a little over fifty yards from the doors. Should disrupt teamwork of any ninja groups," he replied, coming up with a few good ideas. "Sonic and harmonic emitters spread out like mines inside and outside of the warehouse should shake up those who don't mind not being able to talk to their bosses."

"What's the difference between sonics and harmonics?" she asked, sounding like she couldn't figure out the difference on her own.

"Sonics screech in your ears while harmonics send out vibrations," he replied, putting his Magneto know how to use. "An emitter putting out the right vibrations can seriously throw off a person's natural biological processes, makes their bones hurt and sometimes knock them out just like sonics could at the right frequency."

"Sounds nasty. Nice, but nasty," she said, sounding mostly in favor of the idea. "How long'll it take you to put it all together?"

"Considering I don't have school and have enough money that a job isn't strictly necessary I can work round the clock and have them made in the next day or two."

"Sounds good. Now, if you don't mind, I got a math test tomorrow and I can't fail it or my mom will have my head. See you tomorrow night?"

"I'll be here."

As soon as he saw her go he immediately went to the supply room where he'd stockpiled various electronic components, some of which were meant for Artemis' arrows while others were for more ambitious projects. He'd made the mistake of only making stuff as need required with Bette. He was NOT going to make the same mistake with Artemis. He'd always intended to start building stuff like this but he'd thought that they'd have more time before real trouble managed to find them. Obviously he needed to shake off this lazy attitude of his and start working overtime to bring the warehouse up to MAGNETO's level of security.

By the time I'm done, anyone looking to attack the residents of THIS place will wish they hadn't even conceived of the idea.

She watched.

This was her task since being assigned to the scouting teams sent to Paolo Alto to locate and assess the target Alexander LaVelle Harris. It hadn't taken them long to locate the warehouse but, rather than initiate the assessment immediately, they had been ordered to wait. Then her team had been ordered to proceed to another locating while she remained here monitoring the warehouse that the blonde archer and the target operated out of. Once both the target and the archer were gone she had followed her orders and entered the building, planting hidden microphones just like she'd been taught to by her father as she grew up. They were put in places where they would not be seen unless someone was specifically looking for them and had been trained by her father.

She didn't try to evaluate what the microphones had picked up just now.

That wasn't her job.

She would wait to be relieved and then deliver the recording to her father, who would pass it on to the Master.

That was her mission.