From the Dairy of A. L. Harris
Chapter Five
15 Aug 1999
Dear diary
I've had an interesting two weeks here at the Institute. Gramps and I have bonded a bit even though he still is a grump, the students here say that he has mellowed out a bit since he got his memories of the last century back, our favorite game together is to double team Scott, he really needs to get laid, hey those were gramps words not mine. Scott is off to Sunnyhell to see Joyce and Buffy, knowing Buffy and dear Sunnyhell, boy is he in for a surprise. The Prof told me that to his knowledge Scott has never met a Vamp, except for me, before. Yes the Prof knows what I am the minute I drove in the gate, and so does gramps he does have the enhanced senses.
Well it took me two days to find out that most off the teachers here including gramps are the Vigilantes call the X-men. Man Willow would be in heaven and in super babble mode if she saw the Tech that the X-men have here, the stuff here is decades ahead of what's out on the market and from what Ms. Munroe told me the military as well. I met the guy that has built the tech that the guys use; he is a Viet Nam vet and a mutant that has a talent for invention, everybody just calls him Forge, Dr McCoy says that he has patents thru Stane International, Stark Industries, Von Doom Industries (before it went bankrupt and was bought up by Reed Richards and renamed Richards Industries) and Xanatos Enterprises.
Connor got back to me on the sixth, he got me 11 million for the swords, minus his fee of ten percent I am now worth 20 million dollar, eat you heart out Cordy, Connor helped me set up accounts in three separate banks and the accounting firm that keeps tract of his accounts world wide is now keeping tract of mine, I also had done some investing on my own, Grandpa Alex's memories and Nick's training are sure coming in handy on how to invest my money.
I may have done something stupid the other night, big surprise, I just hope that the Enforcers, Justicars and the Deathdealers don't come looking for me. What did I do you ask, well I was caught on camera flying in down town New York, of course the X-men, Spiderman, and the Daredevil were caught on the same camera, we were fighting group of assholes calling themselves the Mutant Liberation Front, if you want to know what happened just watch the news. What surprised me is that my whole the shadow invisibility thing works on the cameras as well, I thought it was just a mental thing, Dr McCoy says that like Logan I may have some mutant ability mixed in with my whole vampire thing. Just Great! He thinks that my ability to duplicate the Immortal hide the sword on my body trick is as part of said mutant ability. I personally think it is the hellmouth and all of the magic that I have been exposed to over the last three years, can you get magic poisoning? I now wait for the phone calls from Buffy and Willow, the camera got a full, face on head shot of me, man seeing my eye as solid black with a metallic sheen was weird, as well as my voice.
Well got to go, Gramps wants me to help with the self defense class he is teaching, I think he likes using me as his punching bag.
That same night in a apartment of a man of leisure (out of work librarian) in Sunnydale, the TV is turned to the national news, we see a famous news caster talking about a Video taken by a bystander of the fight between a group of famous or as the Daily Bugle would have you believe infamous Vigilantes, fighting a group of mutant terrorists, that happened two nights ago in New York City. The news caster also tells the audience the tape shows a fight between the mutant terrorist Sabertooth and an unknown Vigilante that appeared to be with the X-men. The tape starts with wolverine flying by the camera and hitting a wall after being punched by the blob and in the distance Spiderman and Daredevil are double teaming Avalanche, the camera pans over to Xander and Sabertooth, Xander is hovering a foot off the ground to be eye to eye with Victor Creed (Sabertooth), Xander turns his head to the camera as it zooms in on him, then he looks back as it zooms out to get both fighters. In the apartment you hear a china cup shatter and a man's English accented voice.
"O Dear Lord Xander"
He watches the rest of the broadcast in a Fascinated, horrified shock with a Dear Lord every so often. The tape continues with sound with Creed talking first.
"Who are you the B team, you don't smell human or mutant but you do smell like you're related to the runt."
"Who's the runt and you don't smell all that great yourself, you do know that there is a thing called soap and man you need a tic tac!"
"The runt is the one that went splat against the wall."
"Oh you mean Gramps, he did mention some thing about a tall tree trunk that needed some trimming."
"Watch it punk, so he your grandpa huh, good he can watch as I strangle you with your intestines."
"Great Grandpa to be precise and let me introduce myself, the name's Van Helsing, Azrael van Helsing."
When Creed hesitated at the name, Xander kicked him in the face and the fight was on, it was fast, vicious and bloody, it lasted for two minutes and at the end Creed was unconscious on the ground with a stop sign pining him to the ground and Xander was standing over him, his cloths in rags and his hat gone, he was holding his right side and he was grimacing in pain and you could see his fangs showing. As the tape ended Wolverine and the Beast came over and helped Xander into the Blackbird as they left the area with Spiderman and Daredevil as the authorities showed up to take who was left into custody.
In the apartment a shaky hand pickup a phone and dialed a number that Xander gave the owner of the hand a week before as a place that he could be reached at. A girls voice was heard when the other end was picked up.
"Xavier's Institute, Kitty speaking how can I help you?"
"Yes can I Talk to an Alexander Harris please?"
"Who may I say is calling?"
"Rupert Giles"
Giles held the phone away from his ear as the girl yelled for Xander, after that he heard an older mans voice scold kitty for yelling as Xander pickup the phone and thanked the Girl.
"Hey G-man what's up?"
"Xander are you all right and how many times do I have to tell you not to call me G-man?"
"I'm fine Giles why do you ask?"
"Oh Maybe because I saw an interesting tape on the news a few minutes ago and you looked like you were in a little Pain."
Xander winched at the sound of Ripper showing in Giles voice.
"Oops."
"Oops what Oops!"
"Did I say that out loud? It's a long story Giles and How is Buffy has she shown Scott all of the interesting sights of the hell we call Sunnydale?"
Xander!
"Sheesh, G-man I'm alright, fit as a fiddle."
"Xander, you were levitating and your eyes, fangs and voice not to mention you were moving faster that I have ever saw Buffy do and you was matching Sabertooth strength for strength and you was hurt, lacerations and some broken ribs and now you are telling me that two days latter you are fine!"
"Breath Giles and actually I was all healed up by the time I hit the City limits when we left."
"Xander what the hell have you done to yourself, do you know the price for your powers, what was the name of the mage that gave them to you, was it Ethan!"
"Giles chill out, no mage, no Ethan, if you will calm down I will tell you please, I really don't want to deal with Ripper right now so Chill! I didn't ask for the powers!"
Then what happened Xander?
"Life Giles Life. Before I answer you questions I have a Couple of questions for you, one what do you know about a man that went by the name of Van Helsing back before the first world war and what do you really know about vampires and I want your personal knowledge not the counsels version OK?"
"Very well Van Helsing was the Vatican's main hunter for their secret supernatural investigation corps called the society, for forty years. He was supposedly died in a fire in London in1930."
"Very Good Giles you get a cookie, but why did the Counsel send a hit team after him and his son?"
"How did you? I don't want to know! The wankers were jealous, they found out that the Dracula that they had been sending slayers and hit teams after for ten years was an imposter, he was a childhood acquaintance of the real Count and when he was killed by Van Helsing and his line destroyed, the Imposter became him."
"And my second Question?"
"Bloody Hell! What isn't taught to the to the watchers and is only known by the counsel and a few field agents is that there are Four main classes or species of vampires, they are the demon vampires called the Aurelius, the ones we fight and the most numerous, the second numerous are the Kindred clans of which the Dracula imposter is a member of, he belongs to the Tzimisce clan, the next are the Nephilim they are the most powerful, their fledgling are as powerful as a 1000 year old master vampire of the other vampire lines and the last and lest numerous is the Corvenus line."
"Thanks Giles that helps. Ok here I go, when I left for my road trip I made it as far as LA when my Harris luck hit I was in a convenient store when it was robbed and I was shot and before you ask I didn't know it was being robbed until I woke up and was informed of the fact that I had been shot in a robbery by the person that saved my life. She was a former cop now Bounty hunter and was told to save my life by Whistler himself and no the order didn't come from the PTB but higher up. What does this have to do with my abilities you ask well she's Nephilim, that's how I'm able to fly, the fangs and strength, healing ability and speed and so on, she and her sire taught me the use of a sword and some hand to hand training and her sire gave me a sword that he couldn't use. As for the eyes and voice well that's a side effect to the fact that by being turned I have full access to all of the memories of the soldier boy from the Halloween thing, he was a real person, his name was Alexander Howlett at the time that he owned the fatigues that I use, he was my grandfather on my mothers side, he was killed in LA in 1990 by a carjacker he was 90 years old and still looked like he was in his late thirties.
"Good lord"
"Oh there's more the eyes and voice come from the fact that from the end of the Viet Nam war to 1985 grandpa Alex wandered the world studying under some of the most secret monks and there fighting skills, it was in a hidden valley in Tibet that he learned the art of shadow walking, hence the eyes and voice. When Grandpa Alex wasn't fighting in a war or wandering the earth he was teaching archeology and linguistics at Berkley, also he had a nick name that the men in his outfit in WW2 called him, it was Captain America."
"Good lord, the British Government wanted to Knight him after saving a platoon of British soldiers during the battle of the bulge but some asshole Senator from California, a Henry Kinsey Killed it saying that since he is an American he should get an America medal."
"Well he didn't get any thing from that, and Kinsey senior would have had a stroke if he knew that Captain Alex Howlett U.S. army was actually British himself, you may have heard of him before 1930 he went by the name of August van Helsing."
"Good lord, then the person that I saw getting punched by that Blob person was really your Great Grandfather."
"Van Helsing himself, but Giles you should know him already since you and Ethan owe him 50 pounds each for the bet you both lost to him when he was going by the name of Patch. You may repeat yourself now."
"Good Lord"
Chapter Six
28 Aug 1999
Dear diary
Well its time for me to move on, thanks to the Professor and his danger room I have a good understanding of what I'm able to do and not do, they couldn't do anything about my thermo chemical reaction to sunlight, except just stay inside or stay covered up. Dr McCoy is still working on it; he finds it a fascinating challenge.
After my little talk with Giles I did give him some things to think about, one I told him about my sword and that Spike is dust, the second just for gee wiz information I told him an unknown fact that I dug up on the current Senator Kinsey or I should say his mom Sara Wilkins-Kinsey, if he knows this it might explain his xenophobia and his hunger for power, His mom was adopted, what I found or I should say the Prof found is the birth certificate for one Sara Joy Creed, the totally human daughter of Victor Creed aka Sabertooth and Raven Darkholm aka Mystique, adopted by Richard Wilkins II, Mayor of Sunnydale California, now isn't that a kick in the head.
O I should mention that after Giles called me to chew me out, so did Nick, Tracy, Natalie and Joyce just told me to be more careful next time, I was able to calm him down, afterwards he admitted that he probably would have done the same thing, he was just afraid of what the Enforces might do. I also asked him If he remembered having a friend called Gabriel when he was in Jerusalem back in 1224, he did, they were friends the whole time he was in the holy land, he was shocked went I sent the picture of Van Helsing that was floating around the school, it was his friend Gabriel. Logan left for New Orleans yesterday to stay with Nick and Natalie; I hope that they can help gramps to remember some more of his past. Maybe I should get a hold of the Paris museum's Roman history curator a Marcus Constantine, Connor says that he is a 2000+ year old Immortal that was a minor general at Masada, and maybe he remembers Gramps. One more thing Gramps and the Prof had a suit made for me, Sabertooth really did a number on the Leather duster that Nick gave me, it looks like Gramp's X-man suit same color scheme and design, but instead of the x across the chest I have a stylized skull, the whole angel of death theme I guess and since I'm an honorary X-man I get the X-man belt buckle too, add the new duster, forget the hat and I just might have the whole dark avenger thing down.
Basically why I'm leaving is that whistler has another package for me to deliver, I think I'm going to like this one.
30 Aug 1999
Dear diary
I can't wait, the package is for deadboy, I have a address for him, exit the Zeppo Xander enter Azrael Van Helsing, let the fun begin.
Xander Shadow walked in to the offices of Angel Investigations. As he looked around he saw a dark haired man, who didn't smell human and of alcohol, longing in a chair admiring the secretary that was doing her nails by the computer. /What's Cordy doing here, he thought He could feel Angel down stairs so he let Angel feel him.
Angel had just finished his breakfast when he felt the presents of a very old and powerful Vamp up stairs, he raced up stairs to try to save his friends.
Cordy was bored, when the door to the office opened then shut as if something had entered but she had saw nothing, her experiences for Sunnydale said to lookout something Hellmouthy was about to happen, then Angel came running up the stairs looking scared.
Xander watched as a very scared Angel and a confused Cordy were looking around for what ever was in the room with then, the slightly drunk guy in the chair just looked confused.
"Liam O'Malley, Beware the Lawyers from the Wolf, Ram and Hart, they do not like the Champions of the Light."
As the Fang gang was really starting to freak, another disembodied voice, a voice that Angel recognized, spoke.
"Gees kid, don't give the Champion of the PTB's and his crew a heart attack we need then."
"Ruin my fun will you I was just giving him a taste of the whole cryptic guy thing that he pulled in Sunnydale."
"Whistler what the hell is going on" yelled Angel as Whistler appeared from the shadows.
"Just my courier messing with your minds it seems that he has Issues with you Angel. Why don't you tell them your name kid I want to see his react to it."
"The names Van Helsing, Azrael Van Helsing, the Great grandson of Van Helsing."
"Bloody Hell" in an Irish lilt was heard from a very pale Angel as he collapses into a chair, and Doyle passes out. A confused Cordy looks from a very scared Angel to a smirking Whistler and asked "Whats going on?"
"Well Cordy My guess is that they may have heard of the exploits of my great grandfather or maybe deadboy and the drunk have heard the rumors of my fight with Spike or saw my fight with Sabertooth on TV."
Both Angel and Cordy faced were the voice was coming from to see Xander with an evil fang showing grin on his face, wearing his new X-man suit, Leather duster and his sword on his shoulder and his eyes still solid black.
"What do I have something stuck in my teeth?"
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON YOU DWEEB!"
"That's my cue to leave kid your on your own." And whistler left laughing.
"XANDER, SPILL NOW"
Xander eyes normal and fangs retracted using the sword to keep Cordy away from him tossed the small box to Angel.
"Here deadboy this will help you in the fight against the bad guys, the ring has the Gem of Amara in it, we'll talk later, much latter, by." And in a blur of motion Xander was gone."
"HARRIS YOU LOSER, GET BACK HERE!"
While Cordelia raged Angel slipped out the back door and went to the local Catholic Church to test the ring and if it worked he just might go to confession for the first time in 245 years.
31 Aug 1999
Dear diary
Well last night went well, not. I sure as hell wasn't going to stay and fight Hurricane Cordelia, so I wandered the streets of LA for a couple of hours killing time and six vamps, before I ran into Angel coming out of a church looking almost calm. It seems that the ring worked and he went to an immortal priest for confession. When I asked why an immortal priest, he took me to a demon bar called Caritas and over a glass of pig told me. He had met the Priest in China after he had broke away from Darla, Spike and Drusila, during the boxer rebellion, he had helped the Priest with his efforts to get as many refugees to safety, so he knew him and only an immortal could understand where he was coming from and what he had done. We talked for awhile more I told him of my summer so far, he laughed and said "only you Harris, only you", we left not as friends but not enemies ether, who knows some day we might even like each other.
03 Sept 1999
Dear diary
I'm back at Xavier's, hey my car is here, Gramps' time with Nick helped some, he says that he can remember the Eight years he was in the holy land with Nick, just not before or after, I told him about Marcus Constantine in Paris and what Connor told me about him, Gramps said he think about it for now.
Angel and I got Cordy calmed down enough so we could talk to her, so she isn't happy about it especially after she saw the news report on the fight in New York but she promised not to tell Buffy or Willow, I told them that Giles and Joyce knew, if they needed to talk to somebody about it.
Got to go the Prof is setting up a danger room session and I get to be the Bad guy, Woo Hoo.
TBC