Summary: Giles gets a clue at the start, and trains Xander and Willow somewhat.
Crossover: King of Fighters
Disclaimer: I own naught but debt.
Feedback: Why not?
Pre-fic Comments:
Okay, Hatten, I'll hold up my end :)
* * *
The threesome immediately went to find out what had happened to the student 'Mitch'. The Ugly Man had started with beating up random people -- they weren't about to let another one get started. Buffy grabbed the gurney that Mitch was lying on, bleeding, to question him.
"Mitch, what happened?"
"I don't know. I, I heard something. I tried to grab a, a bat...," the jock trailed off. He laughed slightly, as he continued. "That hit me."
"Bat bat, or baseball bat?," Xander joked.
"The baseball bat! By itself, the thing was floating, it knocked me out, wiseass."
The paramedics, not terribly happy with people who randomly stopped them to question their patients out of a morbid curiousity, moved on.
"I'd better check out the scene," Buffy said aloud.
"Want a hand?," Xander asked.
"Nah."
The would-be detective was stopped in her tracks by the five foot nothing Principal. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Um, Mitch wanted me to get his comb," Buffy improvised, realising just how pathetic the excuse was the minute she said it. "He, he likes his comb."
"I don't think Mitch needs his comb right now," Snyder drawled nastily. "I think Mitch needs medical attention. And you need to stay away from the crime scene. Always sticking your nose in."
"Sue? What did you say? Mitch was gonna sue the school?," Willow asked loudly, spinning lies for all she was worth.
"Sue? Who?," Snyder asked, panicking as dollar signs in his wallet grew wings and flew away.
The Slayer mouthed a thank you to Willow and Xander, moving quickly to the scene of the crime to case it out.
"Well, his dad is the most powerful lawyer in Sunnydale," Xander glibly lied. Mitch's dad worked as a sanitation engineer.
"Hold on," Snyder said. "What have you two heard?"
"His dad, the lawyer. You haven't heard of him?"
"Other lawyers call him 'The Beast'," Willow added.
They managed to make Snyder very, very pale before he sent them off to class.
* * *
Later, at the cafeteria, Buffy reported that the word 'Look' had been painted onto one of the locker doors.
"'Look'?," Willow asked. "That's all it said?"
"Look at what?," Xander asked. "Look at Mitch?"
"Maybe," the Slayer muttered. "All I know is it's a message."
"And...," Xander trailed off.
"Ah, here you are," Giles said. "Xander, Billy Kane and a friend are back if you are interested."
"And monsters don't usually send messages," Buffy continued, ignoring Giles' segue. "It's pretty much crush, kill, destroy. This was different."
"I'd have to say you're right," Giles said, mentally moving on to the mystery of Mitch. He'd caught the tail end of their conversation as he'd approached.
"I love it when he says that!," Buffy smiled. "Any theories?"
"Uh, I'm, uh, it's a bit of a puzzle, really," Giles said as he took a seat. "Um, I've never actually heard of anyone attacked by a lone baseball bat before."
"Maybe it's a vampire bat," Xander punned, badly. "I'm alone with that one, huh?"
"Well, assuming the bat itself is not possessed, uh, there are a few possibilities that bear investigating," Giles thought out loud. "Uh, someone with telekinesis, uh, the power to move objects at will, uh, uh, an invisible creature, um, or possibly a poltergeist."
"Or someone hit Mitch /really/ hard," Xander interrupted.
"Quite."
"A ghost?," Willow asked, latching onto the most unsettling possibility.
"Yes, and a very angry one," Giles said.
"Yeah, I'd say," Buffy confirmed. "The locker room was a real scene."
"If it's a ghost, then we're talking about a dead kid," Willow reasoned.
"I guess so," Buffy shrugged. "You know, why don't you compile a list of dead or missing kids? It's probably a good place to start."
"And, uh, I'll research all the possibilities, ghosts included," Giles said. "Uh, Xander, Kane and his friend Iori Yagami are waiting to see you in the Library."
Somehow, Buffy managed to avoid doing any work.
"Billy?," Xander grinned. "Coolness. I wonder if he got me one of those segmented staffs?"
"He did bring something," Giles confirmed.
"Cool!"
* * *
Post-fic Comments:
This part was probably pretty weak. Sorry.