Red
Day Two: Fallout
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Buffy quickly opened her front door to admit Xander to the house, and then just as quickly slammed it shut. Fortunately, it didn't quite close as there was a reporters foot in the way.
Sighing to the sound of the anguished yell, Buffy eased the door open a crack so that the reporter could remove his foot and then closed it.
"You'd think they'd learn." She told Xander, heading into the kitchen where there was slightly more privacy from the reporters. "That's the fifth reporter that's happened to since they started camping out."
"How long have they been here?" Xander asked.
Buffy shrugged. "Forever?"
"Do you want me to take Dawn to school or not?" Xander asked.
Buffy glanced at the front door again. "Not." She told him. "It's been pretty rough on her. She's been practically ostracised by the entire school because she was living with a mutant."
"Ouch!" Xander commented.
"How's work?" Buffy asked, pouring Xander a cup of coffee.
Xander accepted the cup gratefully. "After a reporter walked underneath a falling two-by-four I gave my guys the week off. It was impossible to get any work done anyway. On the plus side, Anya says business at the Magic Box has never been so good. People keep coming in to gawp and then she sells them things."
"Well it's good that there's a bright side to life." Buffy said, pouring a glass of orange juice for Dawn as she arrived in the kitchen. "Does anyone know how Tara's dealing?"
"Haven't heard a word." Xander informed her.
"Me either." Dawn said, looking at the phone. The wire had been yanked out of the socket. "Buffy!" She complained.
"What?" Buffy asked. Dawn plugged the phone back in. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Buffy warned. Almost immediately the telephone began to ring. "See." She prophesised gloomily.
"What if it's Tara or Willow trying to get through?" Dawn asked, answering the phone.
"If it's Willow, hang up." Buffy instructed.
"Hello? Um, hang on." Dawn told the person on the other end of the line. "It's The Sun. Would we care to grant them an interview?"
"No!" Buffy exclaimed. "Hang up."
"They're willing to pay." Dawn tempted before turning back to the person on the other end of the line. "How much?"
"Dawn, I said no!"
Dawn named a figure. A high figure. A very high figure. In the middle of grabbing the phone off of Dawn and hanging up, Buffy paused and considered. One interview would clear all of her debt problems and mean that she could go back to college. Two would pay for Dawn's tuition. Three would… Buffy shook off the thought.
"No comment." She told the other person. And hung up. Immediately the phone began to ring again. She pulled the wire out again. "Don't plug it back in." She warned Dawn.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
On the other end of the phone line, a very worried Angel allowed the connection to ring, and ring, and ring. After ten minutes he gave up.
"I'll try again in a couple of hours." He told an equally worried Cordelia.
"Do you think they're okay?" Cordelia asked.
Angel moved out of the office and into the hotel lobby. "I'm sure they're fine. It's Willow I'm worried about."
"Me too." Cordelia agreed. "Do you really think she killed all those people?"
Angel picked up the paper and studied the article again. "If she did, she must have had a good reason."
"I mean, Willow, our Willow, a mutant. Pshaw! Not likely." Cordelia said, attempting to make light of the matter. "Anyway, it's only a tabloid. What do they know?"
Gunn entered the lobby from the outside street, Fred hot on his heels. He brandished a stack of papers at them. "The story's in practically everything except the Wall Street Journal." He informed them.
"But it was a close run thing." Said Fred.
Angel headed back into his office. "I'm going to try Buffy again."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Back in Sunnydale, a very distressed Tara was hiding in her dorm room. Fortunately, her fellow dorm members had banded behind her and were actively helping her hide from the hordes of reporters that had descended upon the college. Of course, it probably helped that she was staying in the main science dorm.
Once again she picked up her phone and dialled Buffy's number…
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Angel emerged from his office. "It's engaged." He told the small group of people waiting for news.
"I don't understand." Fred said. "If Willow's a mutant, how did she manage to hide it? I've heard that in the early development stages, a mutant's abilities are very difficult to harness, and given the average age that mutants manifest their abilities, she'd have been in High School and it's almost impossible to hide anything from fellow students."
"How many times!" Cordelia exclaimed. "Willow's not a mutant! She's a witch."
"But what kind of witch has those kind of abilities?" Gunn asked.
"A very powerful one." Angel told him. "And whilst Willow has the power, she's mostly lacking in discipline. Besides, didn't she give up witchcraft?"
"Did she?" Cordelia asked. "Why?"
Angel shrugged. "Apparently it was felt that she was becoming addicted."
"Maybe that's the reason." Fred mused. "Maybe using witchcraft somehow depleted her powers, so that it was a while before they appeared. Which is why she killed those people." She registered the killer glares she was getting from both angel and Cordelia. "By accident."
"Willow's not a mutant." Cordelia told her. "I don't care what anyone says. It's not possible."
Wesley arrived on the scene. "Any news?" He asked.
As one the group shook their heads.
"There's still no answer from anyone in Sunnydale." Angel told him. "I even tried Xander."
"You were desperate." Wesley remarked.
Angel nodded gloomily. "I'm going to try him again. Anyone coming?"
The gathering in the lobby moved into the office.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
In a secluded clearing on the outskirts of Sunnydale a small aircraft touched down smoothly in a perfect landing.
Inside the jet, Cyclops glanced smugly at Wolverine.
He was looking nonchalantly at his fingernails. A little too nonchalantly.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Lorne strolled down the Hyperion Hotel stairs, sea breeze in hand, and into the lobby. Finding no one there, he picked up a copy of a tabloid paper someone had thoughtfully left out for him on the desk and glanced at the front page.
His sea breeze hit the floor.
Alerted by the noise, Gunn stuck his head out of the office. Seeing Lorne, he walked over to join him.
"Sucks, don't it?" He commented with a meaningful look at the paper.
Lorne was still staring at the front page in shock. "How did Willow wind up on the front page of a tabloid for killing vampires?" He asked.
"Huh?"
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
As per instructions, the X-Men were dressed in casual clothing, all the better to blend in with their surroundings, although their uniforms were back at the jet, in case they needed to change. The team consisted of Cyclops, Jean Grey and Wolverine; still crippled by her infected indecision, Storm had had to remain behind at the school.
Together they approached a newspaper stand with the intention of discovering what they could of the previous events here in this quiet town.
"Local paper." Wolverine grunted at the seller.
"Sold out." The man informed them unhelpfully.
Cyclops glanced at his watch. "It's not even twelve."
The man shrugged. Wolverine looked ready to unsheathe his claws in order to 'persuade' the man to be more considerate of his customers so Jean stepped in instead.
"Would you happen to have a private copy we could borrow?" She asked, using all her power to convince the man. "Just to look at."
The man handed over his copy of the paper without demur. The X-Men moved slightly further away so that they could talk without being overheard.
"That her?" Wolverine asked Jean, pointing to a convenient photograph.
Jean mentally compared the photo to the image of the young girl that the Professor had shared with her and nodded an affirmative.
"The entire front page is about what happened." Cyclops commented incredulously.
Jean pointed to the by-line. "Should we go talk to this Saul Robertson?"
"Maybe." Cyclops said. "If we can't discover what really happened in any other way."
"Don't like reporters, huh?" Wolverine commented.
Cyclops shrugged. "They tend to be biased."
"This one certainly is." Jean said, turning the page. "The majority of the article is devoted to abusing all lesbians and mutants…"
"Story must be right up this guy's alley." Wolverine remarked.
"Aha!" Jean exclaimed triumphantly. "We have a name and an address. Wollow Roseburg, twenty-one, student at the local university, lives in Revollo Drive." She folded up the paper and returned it to the newspaper seller. "I don't suppose you could tell me where Revollo Drive is?" She asked him.
The seller grinned. "You mean Revello Drive. That Robertson dude is always misspelling stuff." He gave them the necessary instructions. "You reporters?" He asked.
"No." Wolverine told him curtly, and they moved on.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Angel stared intently at the newspaper photograph as Fred and Gunn filled Lorne in.
"Lorne's right." He judged. Lorne smirked. "The guy in the far left is definitely a vampire." Angel continued. "I can't see the other's faces, but there's a profile of the guy that Willow set on fire, and it looks as though he's one too."
"I can't believe we didn't see it before." Cordelia lamented.
Angel glanced at her as she peered over his shoulder. "Do you know how off-putting that is?" He asked her.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
The X-Men stared at the media circus in front of them.
"That has to be the house."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
A/NOkay guys, that's it for this chapter.
A BIG shout-out goes to Spuffy the Witch for the encouragement, my anonymous 'Add' person who kindly requests that I 'add', Seiod, for making me one of her favourite authors! *bounces up and down in glee*, Obsidian for realising that I'm evil, The Sleepless Dreamer for the encouragement and being the first person to make me one of his favourite authors, and angeleyes for always reviewing each chapter and continually finding nice things to say about them! *hands out chocolate to everyone she's mentioned!*
I'll update soon!
Love, Kennie
P.S. Hope you like the longer chapter!