The Mind Reader – Part 4
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Abandoned House – After Jonathon gets to Clocktower.
Xander was definitely getting bored. Faith had come and gone. Right at this moment he was supposed to be helping the Scoobs find the killer. The only good thing about being here with the vamps and demons was that neither gave off any of their thoughts. The vamps had a kind of mirror that blocked him out and the demons had no thoughts or a brain for that matter.
The only one that had given off any thoughts was Faith.
'Speak of the Devil.' Xander thought as Faith entered the house followed by a fatherly looking man who Xander recognized as the Mayor. The mayor looked at him with no odd looks, probably because his head was in the shadow of
"So this is Mr. Harris." Mayor Wilkins said as he extended his hand. Xander stared at him from the shadows as if he was crazy. The Mayor looked at his chained hands and could only smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
Xander looked at the Mayor as his head came out of the shadows. "If you call being chained to a wall, and being watched by things that would rather drain me dry rather than look at me a pleasure, then yeah, it is a pleasure."
The Mayor's eyes widened in fear and surprise as he looked at Xander's hair and eyes. "Y...your Brood!"
Xander smirked at the look on the Mayor's face. "Oh, well the jig is up. I guess I'll be on my way then, huh?" With a calm ease Xander calmly snapped the chains that held him. 'Thank You Giles for showing my Brood strength.'
Faith eyes opened in surprise. But for her, more were to come.
"Kill him." The Mayor ordered.
The vamps and demons charged Xander without care. He was after all, only one man.
Xander mind immediately wanted to choose the Force gene, but before he could think on it the Mayor's and Faith's thoughts hit him like a ton of bricks, causing his vision to blur for a moment.
A Brood here on the Hellmouth...
How did X break those chains?
...my plans could be ruined.
He's going to get himself killed.
Xander's vision cleared in time for one of the big demons to sucker punch him in the jaw. He flew into the waiting bear-hug of one of the larger vamps. 'Ahh fuck.' Xander thought. 'I got to get rid of this mind reading thing. It's like a fucking disease...'
Xander's thoughts trailed off as something Giles told him came back to mind.
*Flashback*
Giles reached for the book he had shown Xander the night they had discovered what he was.
"Ah here it is." Giles answered excitedly. " The Eldritch gene grants a magical form and gives the strongest elemental magic to any elemental gene it is spliced with. It's powers are as follows: Remedy which can cures all status changes, poison and the like; Restore can heal heavy wounds on a single victim; and Vitalize can heal medium wounds on numerous victims."
"Ahh, magical abilities, gotcha." Xander said with a smirk. He noticed that Giles was turning the pages of the book before finding what he was looking for.
*End Flashback*
'The Eldritch gene might cure me' Xander thought as he felt the vamp trying to crush his bones, while the rest of the demon's cheered him on.
Xander emptied his head and looked at the violet gem that was the Eldritch gene. He chose it and then on a whim, also chose the Force and Flame genes. 'Here goes nothing.'
"Accession!" Xander shouted. The lightning struck him and he felt the vamp that had him in a bear-hug explode into dust.
As the sphere of energy enclosed him, he couldn't help but grin at the looks of surprise on the faces of the demons and vamps.
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Xander watched as his blue hair turned into a dark red. His already naked torso turned a pale red as did his arms and feet turned talons. He felt the tearing of his shoulder blades as two leathery, blood-red wing exploded from his back. His pants changed to the same color. He felt his spinal cord extend and with a sickening crunch, his pale, red tail shot out behind him. Finally he felt two the sides of his head, right above his ears, tears and two white, curved horns came out of his skull,
He watched as the energy sphere disappeared and prepared himself for battle.
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The Mayor looked at the sphere of energy sphere as it disappeared. His eyes widened as he watched a newly transformed Xander come out of the sphere. His cold green eyes the only other color than the red covered his now reptilian body.
The Mayor looked at the blue-skinned rhino like demons, Yakin's, that he had hired. Each had a look of fear and knew what they were facing.
"Oh shit." Faith said.
The Mayor turned to her and grabbed at her arm. "Come on, my dear. We may need to rethink our plans a little more." With that both left the house, Faith throwing one more glance to someone who she didn't think she knew anymore.
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Xander watched the Mayor and Faith leave, but his attention turned back to the remaining vamps and demons. He smiled a smile that made him look incredibly sinister in his new form.
"First things first." Xander said as he closed his eyes and concentrated. His eyes snapped open and h e held his clawed hands up and said, "Remedy!"
Immediately after he uttered those words, a large green and blue flashing light began twirling around his head in circles. Xander watched as sparkling purple raindrops fell from the light and landed on him. They left a cleansing feeling in their wake and Xander felt the annoying little buzz from the faraway thoughts disappear.
He looked at the demons and smiled once more. He raised his hand and made the universal 'bring it on' gesture. The vamps and demons replied by charging all at once. As the first group of demons neared him, he through a punch to the air followed by yelling, "Aura!"
A ten foot version of him self appeared in front of the oncoming demons and killed six of the vamps and one of the demons.
Xander laughed, and decided he had to end this. "Sorry guys, it's been fun, but I got a killer to find." He reached in his mind and found the new fire attack that had been added to his dragon spells. He jumped three feet in the air and extended his wings. "Inferno!"
A ring of fire surrounded the group of demons and they felt their feet being burned. But then to make it worse, pillar after pillar of fir rose from the ring dusting and burning the demons to nothing more than dust and burning chunks of blue flesh.
Unfortunately, Xander forgot that he was in a house and watched as they entire roof fell on top of him.
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Under the wreckage of the house a human hand shot out. It was followed by the dust-covered body of Xander Harris.
"Note *cough* to self *cough* *cough*," Xander coughed out the last bit of dust. "Never do that in a house again."
As he slowly got to his feet, a glare being reflected from s part of the destroyed house. Xander stood and walked towards it to find a grey sphere.
Inside the sphere was a turquoise, diamond-shaped gem with a blue double arrow in the center. He could here the voices of the ancient Brood calling to him repeating the name of this gene over and over again.
"Reverse."
"Reverse."
"Reverse."
"Reverse."
Slowly Xander reached out his hand and touched the sphere. He felt as the gene became a part of him, just as the Eldritch gene had. He smiled and then turned his attention to the populated part of town. He took off at a brisk sprint towards his destination. Sunnydale High School.
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Sunnydale HS, Newspaper office
Freddy Iverson was seated behind his desk when Oz, Willow and Cordelia barged into the main
door. Freddy tried to slip out the side door, but was stopped by Buffy blocking his final exit.
"Ohh..kay... Oz." Freddy said, turning to Oz. "You got me. What are your friends gonna do? Hold me down?"
"You better believe it buster!" Willow exclaimed. "You can't threaten a big murder without getting us pretty *darn* ticked!"
"Murder?" Freddy asked, surprised. "What 'murder'? You're not here about the review?"
Oz looked confused. "The 'review?'"
Freddy hands Oz a copy of the school paper. "Yeah... last Thursday?"
"Dingoes Ate My Baby played their instruments as if they had plump polish sausages taped to their fingers..." Oz read.
"Sorry man." Freddy apologized.
Oz paused and thought for a second. "Nah, its fair."
"I just get a lot of hate mail..." Freddy explained. "A-and I thought you were gonna come and deliver some personally."
"Then that means..." Willow began.
"We're back to square one on the killer." Buffy completed.
"We have *no* shot..." Cordelia summed up. "The killer could be anyone. We lose."
Xander entered the room, covered in a little dust but none the worse for the wear. "Come on guys. We still got a few minutes"
"Xander!" Willow yelled excitedly.
"You're OK." Oz commented, but then paused. "Can you hear thoughts?"
Xander shakes his head 'no'.
"OK, here's the new plan." Xander began, looking at Buffy for her approval at taking control. At her nod, he continued. "We're gonna get the troll to evacuate the school, and just hope the killer's not waiting outside for an ambush or something."
Cordelia begins reading from a letter she found on Freddy's desk. "By this time tomorrow you'll all know what I have done. I'm sure you understand that I had to do it, and that although death is never easy... its the only way. *God*! Doesn't anyone write in to praise the cheerleaders? We are *so* unsung!"
Willow grabbed the letter from Cordelia, looking at the name of the writer. "Jonathan! Uhh! I had him in my grasp... slippery weasel!"
" Let's split up. Find him!" Buffy ordered.
They all took off in different directions.
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Sunnydale HS, Clocktower
Jonathan snaps the stock into place.
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Sunnydale HS, Classroom
Oz runs into a classroom and looks around briefly, then leaves.
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Sunnydale HS, Clocktower
Jonathan slides the bolt action into place.
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Library
Willow runs into the library, looking around frantically. "Jonathan? Are you in here?"
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Sunnydale HS, Clocktower
Jonathan picks up the barrel of the rifle.
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Sunnydale HS, Cafeteria
Xander runs through the doors of the cafeteria. "Jonathan...! Jonathan!
He stops, seeing something and moves to investigate. He comes upon a tray with a container of Jell-O. "Oooooh. Jell-O."
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Sunnydale HS, Clocktower
Jonathan tries to attach the barrel to the rest of the assembled rifle.
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Sunnydale HS, Clocktower
Jonathan snaps the barrel into place with a loud click.
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Sunnydale HS, Courtyard
Buffy runs out into the courtyard. Shading her eyes, she looks around but doesn't see anything.
Suddenly, as a glare catches her eye, she looks up into the clocktower and can make out Jonathan standing by an open window a rifle is visible in his hands. Throwing her secret identity to the wind, Buffy reaches the stairs, but jumps onto the concrete handrail and runs up the 45 degree incline. Students stop to gawk and watch as Buffy reaches the top and leaps 5 feet into the air grabbing the edge of the school roof. Swinging her legs forward, and kicking off the wall, she does a back-flip onto the roof.
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Sunnydale HS, Cafeteria Kitchen
Xander is strolls quietly through the kitchen, looking for a snack. Faith and her demon pals had failed to provide any type of food during his brief stay.
He spies a tray full of red Jell-O squares, and grinning happily, raises one to his mouth. Before he bites into it, he raises his eyes and sees the lunch lady pouring a giant sized box of rat poison into the stew pot.
He looks at her, she looks at him, both of them frozen for a brief moment. Suddenly, Xander bails. The lunch lady drops her poison, picks up a meat cleaver and gives chase.
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Cafeteria
Xander comes running out of the kitchen yelling, "Rat poison...rat poison! There's poison in the food..."
Xander begins overturning tables and knocking food trays from the hands of the students, much to there surprise. As he heads for the exit, he slips on some of the food that he spilt, ironically Jell-O,
on the floor and falls flat on his back.
He opens his eyes to find the stocky lunch lady stands over him, bringing her cleaver down to strike his head.
Xander's hand shot out and gripped the lunch lady's wrist. "Ok, come on. Why don't we talk about this?"
"Vermin...," she said with distaste. "You're all *vermin*...! You come in here and you eat, and you eat... FILTH..."
Xander sighed. "I don't see this being settled with logic."
Xander flipped to his feet and slams the lunch lady's hand to the right, then to the left, forcing the
cleaver to slide across the floor. The lunch lady throws a punch, but Xander easily ducks. He punches the lunch lady twice in the gut, followed by a kick to the head and finishing with a high kick to her face.
The lunch lady flops backwards onto a student, knocked out cold. Xander glances behind him and sees the rest of the gang, along with a pale Jonathan watching him. Buffy and Cordelia both give him an appreciative look.
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Sunnydale HS, outside, the next morning
"How are you?" Giles asked Xander as he walked with the young Brood, outside of school.
"Gotta say, lovin' the quiet! That Eldritch gene works faster than Aspirin. Nobody in here but me." Xander said tapping the side of his head.
"God help us all," Giles quipped before becoming serious. "Jonathan? How's he?"
"Pretty crappy." Xander answered. "Buff said his parents are freaking, he got suspended, and toting a piece to school not exactly winning him a place with the in crowd."
"Well, it would be good if you or one of the others were to check on him from time to time.." Giles suggested.
Well, its nice to be able to help someone in a not killing them way. Except he's starting to get that look when he sees Buffy... You know, like he's gonna ask her to prom?"
"Well...," Giles said, "it'd probably be good for his self-esteem...if she...,"
He was rudely interrupted by a storming Buffy. "GILES!"
"And that's my cue to leave," Xander said, a grin appearing on his face. "See ya G-man."
Giles was confused by Xander's grin and turned to a steaming Buffy. Thinking she had had some problem during patrol he asked, "Feel up to some training today, Buffy?"
Buffy smiled evilly as she began to walk with the confused Watcher. "Sure. We can work out after school. You know...," Buffy paused, her smile growing meaner. "If you're not too busy having sex with my *mo-ther*".
Buffy walked on as Giles walked straight into a tree. Looking at the retreating form of Xander in the distance, Giles could only growl out with a hint of the Ripper, "Bloody American teenagers."
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Sunnydale High School Hallways.
As Xander walked through the halls, he could not keep, the image of the raven haired Slayer out of his head. He had decided that the gang didn't need to know about the way she captured him for bait, what good would it do them.
So as he walked towards his first class of the day, one thought went through his head. 'There's still some good in you Faith. And I swear that I'll save you from that pit you've gotten yourself trapped in. I swear.'
The End of Part 1
So what do you think of part 1