"Statistical Anomaly" by A Gentleman of Leisure.
Disclaimer: See Part 1.
Part 4: "The Morning After The Night Before"."Hey, Buffy! What happened?"
"We jumped them before they were able to bite him. Angel grabbed the guy and dragged him out of the way while I went for the two vamps. Tried to stake the nearest but I missed my aim. Unfortunately I didn't get a second chance".
"And?"
"Why not?"
Both questions came simultaneously.
"They vanished. Ran for it. Vamoosed. I chased, they ambushed and tripped me, and then they pulled the old invisibility number on me and just disappeared. I was left sitting on my butt in the dark feeling stupid".
"Oh, surely not", said Giles, and Buffy gave him one of her pained looks.
"You mean they didn't stay and fight? No knock-down-drag-out-chop-socky action?"
"No Will, not even any hair pulling or name calling. Angel said it looked like they'd made a strategic withdrawal. My guess is they ducked down into the storm drains that we know run under the cemetery".
"How very intelligent. That doesn't sound like your usual run of the mill vampires", Giles said thoughtfully, and took his glasses off to polish them. "I suppose that must be the FBI training. What about Agent Mouldy, I mean Mulder? What happened to him? I hope he didn't recognise you".
"Oh, I doubt it. I'm pretty sure he didn't get a chance to see much of anything. He'd knocked his head on a grave marker and been stunned, but he seemed OK. Anyway it was all pretty dark. Angel said he'd dump him back at his motel - his car keys were in his pocket".
"I guess that's why they're called headstones", Xander observed.
"God, that is so lame", Cordelia said. "Do you always have to joke about things all the time? Angel could have knocked his brains out".
"Would we notice if Angel had knocked his brains out? Oh, I see, you mean this Mouldy guy's brains. I say again, how could we tell?"
"Yes", Giles said slowly, not really listening to them. "I'm just a little bothered about what you heard him saying to these other two. Are you quite sure they were talking about aliens and flying saucers? I mean, it's all rubbish, you know. Complete nonsense. Everyone knows there are no such things".
"Giles, I don't think we can really say that. Not for certain", said Willow thoughtfully. "After all everybody knows there are really no such things as vampires and demons. Don't they?"
-----
Mulder woke suddenly with a splitting headache. For a moment or two he couldn't remember anything, even where he was or why he was there. Then the events of the previous evening came filtering back and he sat up. Perhaps a little too quickly.
When the room had more-or-less stopped spinning erratically round him, he discovered he was still fully dressed, with even his shoes on, and had been lying across the bed in his motel room. He wondered how he'd got back there the night before.
His cell phone was chirruping in an irritatingly optimistic manner - that must have been what had woken him. Annoyed, he picked it up, intending to hurl it through the window, but it seemed less effort to put it to his ear and mutter hello instead.
"Mulder? I've been calling you for half an hour. Where have you been?"
It was Scully, of course - who else? Her voice pierced his brain like an ice pick, and merely intensified and enhanced his headache.
"Here Scully. I think. I've only just woken up. I'm not sure how I got back here last night". He paused as a memory floated into view. "I think someone drove me, but I'm not really certain. I know I got a bang on the head, but..."
"Are you OK? What happened? Are you hurt?" She sounded genuinely concerned.
Mulder took a moment or two out to assemble his thoughts. He needed to be sure of his memories of the previous night.
"No permanent damage, I think. Nothing a mild analgesic won't take care of, or anyway a strong one, ". He hesitated. "And I think I've found our missing agents", he added, "but..."
He paused again, and on the other side of the continent Scully bit her tongue and waited. After a moment or so the small voice in her earpiece resumed.
"...Something seems to have happened to them, Scully. Something very strange. It was a really weird experience. I know we've come across some unusual things while investigating X-Files cases, but this might just beat the lot of them, hands down".
"You found them? So where were they?" she asked.
"I met them in a cemetery, of all places - I think they'd been following me. They kept in the shadows and I couldn't see them properly. They said they were on the run".
"What, both of them? They were together?"
"Yes. We talked for a couple of minutes. Then one of them came closer, into the light, and - now I think this is the strangest thing I've ever seen in my whole life - I swear as he did so his face started to change, Scully. One moment he looked exactly like the picture I was given, then the next his features just seemed to melt into this... strange, ugly, alien creature".
"It melted?" Scully obviously couldn't quite believe her ears.
"That's right, melted. You know - dissolved. Changed. Morphed. I don't really know how else to describe it, Scully. It was like something out of a horror film. One second I was looking at a human being, and the next there was some sort of alien with a peculiar, lumpy face and great sharp teeth, coming towards me, and then... Well, I don't know exactly what happened after that".
"Wait a moment, Mulder. Were you actually attacked? "
"Yes, I was. Well, at least I think so. The creature was speaking to me as its face was changing - and then someone else (a third person I think, not the other agent) rushed at me and threw me to the ground. I hit my head on something, possibly a gravestone. I was stunned, and it was dark, but I'm reasonably sure I could see some sort of fight going on. There was someone else, a woman - small, blonde I think - attacking the two agents - aliens. Hell's teeth, I don't even know what to call them, Scully".
Three thousand miles away Dana Scully frowned. Mulder almost never swore, hardly even a 'damn'. He sounded shaken, and somewhat confused. Not that surprising, she supposed. If he'd really just encountered, face to face, one, no two, of the beings he'd spent years trying to prove actually existed, then the experience might possibly have affected him more than he realised.
"You mean another, fourth person was attacking them? A woman? Could you see who she was? Or do you think you could recognise her if you saw her again?"
Mulder remained silent for a whole minute, replaying the scene in his mind's eye. Scully waited for him, though she was hardly able to resist the instinctive urge to speak, to hurry him up, to prompt him to reply.
"You know", he said slowly, "I could swear it looked like that girl I told you about. Buffy Summers. You remember I said I'd met her and her friends and that teacher of theirs when I was driving in from the airport yesterday? Well, I bumped into her again last night, less than half an hour before all this happened. She was downtown in the shopping mall, looking in a fashion store window".
"Did you see what happened? What about the guy who knocked you down? Did you get a good look at him?"
"Not really. I've only got a rather vague impression of a tall heavy man, about six foot, in a long dark coat. Short hair. Very strong. That's all, sorry. Not much of a witness this morning, am I? ".
"But you're OK?"
"Oh, I think so. Arms and legs still bend the right way, eyes still focus, no blood. Ow!"
"What?" Scully exclaimed anxiously, her voice tinny and distorted in the phone earpiece.
"A big lump on the side of my head. I don't think I'm concussed, though. Do I still sound as if I'm making sense?"
At that Scully just couldn't stop herself from laughing out loud.
"What's so funny? What did I say, Scully?"
"You know I'm the only person you could safely ask that question, Mulder".
Despite his headache, Mulder had to smile.
"I guess. So why did you ring me up, Scully?" he said. "Apart from missing the sound of my voice, of course, or maybe just not wanting me to oversleep".
"Well, I've been checking up on these people you asked about. It's really rather interesting. This Buffy Summers of yours seems to have a history of psychiatric problems from when she lived down in LA. She was in a clinic for a couple of weeks, on a voluntary basis, when she was fourteen. And she apparently burned down her high school, Hemery High, or at least part of it - the gym. She claimed she was fighting vampires. She was expelled - no great surprise there, really, in the circumstances. Then her parents split up. That's why they moved to Sunnydale - just about a year ago".
Now it was Mulder's turn to laugh out loud.
"Vampires? Everyone knows there are no such things as vampires, Scully. People's belief in things like that is just a way of rationalizing their fears of the unknown. Creatures of the night don't really exist - while we know that alien visitors do. And that they're here. And now I've actually met two of them".
"Well, there was something else that was strange as well, Mulder. Or rather, two things", Scully continued. "I checked in our files to see if there was anything more about Sunnydale, and it turns out that some agents were sent up there from the LA office about six months ago to collect a recruit for a special project. There weren't any details, just the name Marcie Ross. And guess which two agents were part of that operation? Our pair of lost sheep".
"Really? Hm, very interesting. And the other?" Mulder asked, intrigued, his headache almost forgotten.
"The teacher you met. Rupert Giles. English. The school's librarian, I think you said. You thought you'd met him somewhere before".
"Yes?"
"There's a file on him, but it's black-flagged. I don't know what that signifies - I've never come across one of those before - but I wasn't able to get into it".
"Hm. That is very strange. Was there any trouble when you tried to open it?"
"Well, yes, there was. Walter Skinner came down in person about five minutes later and wanted to know what I was doing. I explained I was doing some follow-up research for you, and he ordered me to leave it strictly alone. Again, no explanations".
Mulder stared at the wall, thinking.
"Shall I tell him you've found the missing agents?" Scully said eventually.
"No. Not yet", Mulder said slowly. "I think I want to find out some more about what's going on here. Particularly about this Mr. Rupert Giles".
"OK then. But I'm going to get permission from Skinner to fly out and join you - you obviously need backup. I'm beginning to think you're right - something strange does seem to be happening there, Mulder, though you know my opinion on the subject of aliens. Anyway, no matter what Skinner says, I should arrive this evening", Scully said firmly.
Mulder thought about that for a moment or two. Although he wouldn't admit it, even to himself, he was missing Scully, and he would certainly prefer working with his partner to being on his own in this peculiar little town.
"OK", he said, and smiled again. "Just don't talk to any strange men".
END OF PART 4. TO BE CONTINUED...