Ch 3 – Deals and Gatherings
Jarod and Buffy dove for cover as a sword shot out of the weapons cabinet and impaled itself on a chair. It just missed Buffy as she jumped out of the way at the last second.
Jarod was behind Giles' desk while Buffy overturned the table in the library for cover.
More weapons shot out into the room. There was no real aim and every weapon just shot out in a certain direction.
As a result much of the library was being wrecked.
One of the axes flew out next and turned the table Buffy was behind into splinters.
Seeing as now she had nothing to hide behind, Buffy pulled out the sword embedded in the chair next to her and did her best to deflect the oncoming projectiles.
The weapons cabinet didn't have an unlimited supply thankfully. The attack finally ended when Jarod used a chair to bat away a quarterstaff.
The library was a disaster area. Several chairs and bookshelves were destroyed.
Buffy picked up an axe with a broken handle and wanted to cry. "This was my *favorite* axe!"
"Does this happen often?" A very confused Jarod asked.
The Slayer just sighed.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Humor me."
Before she could answer, Murphy's Law kicked in and Principal Snyder came barging in to investigate the commotion happening in here.
"My God the library!" He turned to Buffy exploding with anger. "You! This is your doing Summers!"
Buffy instantly got defensive. "Wait a sec! I didn't do
this?"
"Oh no?" Snyder grabbed the arm Buffy
was holding the sword in and pulled it up.
"I seem to remember you having an affinity for swords. Now I may not be able to expel you again but
thankfully Mr. Giles isn't here to protect you. You're suspended for a week!"
"But I…"
"No buts! Out! Now!" Snyder barked.
"But…" Buffy couldn't believe this was happening, as the shock was evident on her face.
Jarod tried coming to her defense. "Mr. Snyder please she didn't have anything to do…"
The weasel interrupted Jarod before he could finish. "Mr. Anderson I apologize for her behavior. Don't worry I'll handle this."
"Principal Snyder let me explain."
"There's no explaining Jarod. You know you've been doing a wonderful job so far. Keep this up, and I don't think I'll need to bring Mr. Giles back for the foreseeable future."
Jarod had a look of disgust on his face as Buffy was escorted out of the library. He had seen people like Snyder before. Arrogant bosses who tried to control every little aspect of whatever they could.
"Buffy I'm sorry."
Jarod never found out what Buffy was about to tell him. He had no doubt this was another attempt by Stiletto to kill him. And now someone completely innocent from the matter was paying the price.
After this was over, Jarod was very tempted to go to Blue Cove and deal with Lyle personally.
But as for now the Pretender was beginning to wonder whether or not he could do this by himself.
He pulled out a DSA he brought with him. An old recording of one of the simulations he did for the Centre as a child.
It was his simulation of the Kennedy assassination he did in 1970. He watched himself as a boy, pretending to be the shooter on the rooftop of the book depository. He could feel and experience everything the shooter felt. It was that ability that made him so important to the organization. He had made the Centre millions and been the cause of so many deaths.
On the DSA, Sydney is sitting on a chair out of the way watching what Jarod is doing. The young Jarod aims a prop gun while simulating the encounter. "I can't fire enough shots before the car goes under the overpass. I can't. I can't do this alone. He wasn't alone."
Jarod stopped the video and replayed the last part. "I can't. I can't do this alone."
Sydney had once told him that even with his impressive skills and abilities he was only one man.
This situation, this entire town was different than anything that the Pretender had experienced before.
He didn't get to finish thinking about this though because Xander came storming into the library shortly afterwards and got right in Jarod's face. "You son a bitch you got Buffy suspended!"
Jarod agreed not putting up an argument. "You're right."
"Don't try to deny it you…what did you say?"
"This was my fault. If I wasn't here none of this would've happened."
"Well I've got a great idea. Why don't you leave? Cause there's a lot of other people who won't be happy when they find out about this."
Jarod shook his head. "It's not that simple. Someone very dangerous is in this town. I need to find him and…and I think I need Buffy's help."
"Someone dangerous?!? What else is new…" Xander had this ironic look as he took in Jarod's plea. "Why would Buffy, or any of us for that matter, help you?"
"Just hear me out. After seeing what happened last night I know you people seem to know more than you're letting on about this place."
"Just don't Jarod. You wouldn't understand."
Jarod threw his arms up and angrily yelled at Xander. "Oh please! You've got weapons in a public high school that'd get you expelled anywhere else! There are books in here that would cause an uproar if parents found out about them! I know a hell of a lot more than you think but I need to know more because trust me something very bad could happen! Who are you people?"
"Heh, guess you could say we're just a bunch of kids in hell."
"Great…now is there any way to meet with Buffy?"
Xander turned around and walked a few steps away. His back faced Jarod as the young man went over Jarod's offer. He turned back around and said, "Yeah. Yeah I think I can get a hold of her."
----
The Agency
Bobby and Claire had been called into the Official's office for an emergency meeting.
As the head of the Agency, it was his job to keep everything, and everyone for that matter, in line and running smoothly.
"Now I've had both of you come in here because I think Eberts has found something pertaining to Fawkes' whereabouts." The Official told them.
On cue Eberts, the Agency's paperwork wizard, came rushing into the office.
"Well now that we're all here…" The Official glared at Eberts. "…lets get started."
Eberts began going over the mountain of papers he brought in with him. "Well after what happened last time when Darien went AWOL we decided to put a trace on his credit card. According to the statement I pulled up he's been renting out a room at a Motel 6 in a place called Sunnydale, C.A."
The Official looked at Bobby and Claire. "Perfect. Hobbes here's what I want you to do…"
"Uh sir?"
"Shut up Eberts!"
"Uh…sir…I…there's something else."
"Fine what is it?"
"Well remember what Darien said when he called? That man he was following named Jarod Turner? I did some digging on a hunch and I came up with a profile on a Coast Guard Officer named Jarod Spitz from about two years ago. Compare that to the one on Jarod Turner." Eberts passed both papers around.
Claire looked at the pictures in both of them. "What the? It's the same guy?"
Eberts nodded and handed more profiles on Jarod. "Well not only that. He's here as a U.S. Marshal named Jarod Cody, a Naval Officer named Jarod Forrester and he's in the F.B.I. database with at least three different identities."
"Oh my god. Who is he?"
"You ask me?" Hobbes finally spoke up after staying silent till now. "I'll bet he's probably some deep cover operative for the government. C.I.A., N.S.A. take your pick."
The Official ran his hands threw his head. Ever since Darien had joined the Agency his stress level had skyrocketed. He took a deep breath and said. "This changes everything. Not only do we have to worry about Darien hitting Quicksilver Madness, if this guy Jarod discovers who Darien is he could compromise the entire Agency. Hobbes! I want you and Claire on the first flight to Sunnydale. Get Darien back any way you can!"
"Gotcha." Bobby told him.
"Bobby just a second." As Hobbes got up to leave the Official stopped him.
"What's wrong?"
"I had Claire run a simulation of Darien's gland. Depending on how much he's used it, we've got at most 36 hours before he goes psycho. If you can't find him in time…" The Official paused for a second trying to mentally accept this order he was about to issue. "…I'll have to alert the authorities about Fawkes. We won't have any choice by then."
"Don't worry I'll get him before that." Hobbes assured his boss.
Hang in there partner. I'm comin.
----
Sunnydale, C.A.
"My head…"
Darien had rejoined the world of the living and noticed he wasn't in the alley of the Bronze anymore.
He was sitting in a plush chair in what looked to be a very expensive office.
And as he held the back of his head in pain, Darien saw he wasn't alone. There was a man sitting at the desk in front of him filling out paperwork. He was wearing a suit and a very ugly red baseball cap.
Now I'll admit the last 24 hours had been weird. A followed a strange guy into a strange town with strange things going on. But just when I thought this situation couldn't get any stranger…
"Oh good you're awake! I've meaning to talk to you Mr. uh…" He grabbed Darien's wallet, which was on his desk, and looked inside. "…Fawkes! Yeah that's right Mr. Darien Fawkes of the…Fish and Game Agency."
"And you are?"
"Oh where are my manners? My name is Richard Wilkins III and I'm the Mayor of Sunnydale." The mayor got up and walked over to the front of his desk. "Sorry about your head Mr. Fawkes. How do you feel? You have been out most of the day." The Mayor was acting in his usual cheery self.
"Great." Darien mumbled. "How'd I get here? No forget that. Why am I here?"
"Well you see Darien…you mind if I call you Darien?"
"Yes."
"Like I was saying: I make it a point to know everything that's going on in my town. So imagine my surprise when not one but two mysterious men show up in Sunnydale. First this man named Jarod, who I might add is associating with some rather shady teenagers at our local high school, and now you. So I had my associates bring you here. Now Darien I have to know: Why are you in my town?"
The Invisible Man lied through his teeth. "I'm just here on my vacation."
Mayor Wilkins laughed and pointed at him. "See I knew putting that ad in the new AAA brochure would pay off."
He then produced a printout and showed it to Darien. "Now don't get me wrong but I did a background check on you. And from what it says here, before you became an upstanding government official, you were a hardened criminal! A convicted thief with three strikes against him to boot!"
"You have a point?" Darien was starting to get annoyed. Without even taking into account the fact he was assaulted and brought here against his will this guy was starting to bring up things in his past that he felt were best left unmentioned.
"My aren't we the grouch? You really are uptight aren't you? Darien you should relax a little bit. Get a hobby. You know what I do when I want to relax?"
"Kidnap people?" Darien deadpanned.
"Softball!" The Mayor picked a large trophy and showed it off. "Our team just won the championship in no small part to my game winning double in the bottom of the ninth."
Darien just rolled his eyes. The Mayor saw this and got to the point. "Now I can't allow someone with such a dangerous record to wander around my town. However, I do have need of a person with your specific talents."
I had been going by that phrase 'Don't trust anybody' when I got here. I wasn't about to start trusting this wacko.
"I'm sorry Mayor Wilkins but I'm not in that line of work anymore."
Darien noticed the Mayor's attitude instantly took on a much darker tone. "Well that's a shame Darien. Here I was thinking you'd be a team player. Maybe you need a little while to rethink your decision."
He snapped his fingers and a vampire in a suit came in. "Make sure Mr. Fawkes doesn't go anywhere while I'm gone."
As soon as the Mayor walked out of his office Darien got up. "Alright that's it! I'm outta here!"
The Mayor's goon stopped him and put his game face on. "He said stay here!"
"Dude what's with your face?"
Darien never got an answer. The vampire threw across the room. The Invisible Man crashed onto the desk and fell behind it taking most of the Mayor's possessions on it with him.
"Ouch." It took him a minute to get up as he was in obvious pain.
"C'mon take your best shot!" His undead opponent yelled.
Darien slowly got up and warily approached him. He made an overhead swing and floored the vampire in one hit. Darien shook his hand the quicksilver fell off the Mayor's broken, and now visible, softball trophy.
He dropped it and looked through a few papers on the floor he knocked over hoping to find some useful information about Jarod or this town. One in particular caught his eye.
"Olvikan? What the…great…a bureaucrat with a snake fetish."
Without wasting any more time Darien found his wallet in the mess and got the hell out of City Hall.
The Mayor, accompanied by Mr. Trick, came back into the room a few minutes later.
"My office! And I just had everything the way I wanted!" Wilkins picked up his broken trophy with a look of sadness and found some of the research on the Ascension with it.
The Mayor had to believe Darien had gotten a glance of his master plan. If he relayed that information to the wrong people…
"Trick." He said with the same dark tone he had just showed earlier. "Find Mr. Fawkes and convey to him my abundant displeasure about this."
The Mayor's accomplice just smiled. "Of course."
----
"Ya know your pretty smart coming ta this here bar during the day. There's a lot of bad things that come around at night."
"Don't patronize me." Sydney told Willy. "I've been told you know everything that goes on in this town. Now do you know where I can find this man or not?"
"Well…ya gotta understand. It's kinda difficult rememberin *everything* that goes on here."
Sidney pulled a wad of rolled up bills out of his pocket and put a folded up fifty on the bar counter. "Think harder."
Willy licked his lips and casually made the bill disappear. It wasn't hard since it was so small. "Yeah I know about him. That guy's makin a lot of noise lately. I'll uh…tell ya where ya can find him."
----
That night, after making sure Snyder had left the High School, Buffy, Angel and Giles all snuck back into the school to meet with Jarod and the other Scoobies by coming up through the hidden entrance in the back of the library.
The rest of them had managed to clean up the library to some degree and Jarod had gotten the janitor to bring in a new table and chairs. But the room was still a mess.
Buffy and most of the other Scoobies glared at Jarod. Not trusting this stranger after what had happened this morning.
The three of them came up through the secret passage in the back of the library. Giles was still looking a little green around the gills as Jarod introduced himself.
"Mr. Giles it's great to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you."
"Oh…uh thank you Jarod. Please call me Giles." The librarian looked at the devastation in his room. "Yes that settles it. Buffy I'm never leaving you alone in here again."
Buffy rapidly shook her head in denial. "Hey it wasn't my fault!"
"Yes of course it's always something else isn't it?"
"Darn tootin!"
"I give up."
"Hey Giles how ya feeling?" Oz asked the Watcher.
"If I see another piece of food I'm going to throw up."
As the Scoobies all sat down, an invisible Darien had snuck through the main entrance. After crashing at his hotel room for a few hours he made a beeline for the library, remembering what the Mayor had mentioned about Jarod.
He quietly walked up to the balcony to stay out of the way. Darien wanted to know what was going on just as much as the others.
Willow asked Buffy when she sat down. "How'd your Mom take it when you told her you got suspended?"
"Well aside from slaying I'm grounded for two weeks."
"Wow."
"You have no idea."
Giles spoke up at this point. "Well now that we're all here, Jarod perhaps you can tell us what is going on?"
Jarod surveyed the room and told them. "Someone is trying to kill me."
----
TBC
I kind of figured most people who read this might not know much about the Pretender or the Invisible Man. If you want some background info on the shows check out these sites:
http://www.scifi.com/invisibleman
http://www.enteract.com/~perridox/pretender/