Nexus Nevermore

by RogueFanKC

Set in Red Witch's Misfitverse! The Slayers and the Charmed Ones sense trouble brewing, but can the XMen, Misfits, and Joes manage to protect them from the wrath of the Heartless and the Hellfire Club or will the Nexus be lost in the hands of evil forever

8. Nothing Says Bonding Like A Good Danger

CHAPTER 8: Nothing Says Bonding Like A Good Danger Room Session

Despite the gravity of the situation, for the next several days, none of the adults from all three teams could later look back and object and say that the idea of inter-team training wasn't a wonderful idea. On the contrary, it couldn't have been a better solution to introduce the mutants, humans, and Slayers to each other as some extended, ritual-bonding, slumber party.

Except only more chaotic and add an explosion or two along with property damage and several rounds of hysterical screaming.

Immediately afterwards when the X-Men, the Misfits, and G.I. Joe finished their meeting, they waited patiently until dawn before Giles, Xander, and the team that was assigned to investigate in San Francisco gathered all the Slayers staying at the boarding school and assembled them as a single congregation to be addressed and briefed at once about the upcoming Heartless threat and the possible battle with the Hellfire Club over the Nexus of the Charmed Ones. At first, Giles did not wish to inform most of the newly instated and novice Slayers, many of which never even fought at the Battle of the Hellmouth in Sunnydale, and were only awakened via the Scythe without much guidance and preparation. However, Faith and Wood and Willow disagreed, clearly pointing out that they have fought the Heartless and experienced the threat first-hand, and they realized the potential threat it could mean to the Slayers of the world. And they also reminded Giles of the times they had brushed against the Hellfire Club due to its ties with Wolfram and Hart. If the Inner Circle knew about the Slayers and how they could be a potential stumbling block, they wouldn't hesitate to send the Heartless and the Thirteenth Order upon the girls (at this, Hawk and Xavier were stunned at the fact that the Slayers and Scoobies were aware of the Hellfire Club).

In the end, Giles relented, though he made it adamantly clear to the Professor and the General that in no way did he wish to endanger the girls who had been willing to forsake their homes and families in order to learn to deal with the future dangers and responsibilities that came with the mantle of the Slayer. In short, if there was to be a battle in San Francisco, the Watcher and his staff would only send those who were experienced enough to fight and hold well on their own while the rest of the girls must remain hidden and safe from the war until it was no longer a choice. And if the Gathering of Twilight was to be as horrific and bloody as Leomon had hinted, then perhaps, it would certainly no longer be a choice and everyone would have to be involved to prevent the end of the world or die waiting on the sidelines. Thus, the adults all reached the decision that all the Slayers could go through the necessary training using the resources of the X-Men and the Misfits and G.I. Joe, and the capable Slayers and allies would do whatever it would take to help fight and prevent the Gathering.

To General Hawk and Professor X, this was a godsend.

Needless to say, it took a while for all the girls from different and numerous countries to be updated and filled in about the Hellfire Club, the Thirteenth Order, the Charmed Ones, the Nexus, and the Heartless, using Trinity's Telepathic Projector 5000, Willow's magic, and the Professor's telepathy to understand and respond to the lengthy foreign dialects (not to mention Giles' ability to speak in over sixteen different languages). Once they got the message, there was a general understanding but still some dissension. Most of the Slayers were a bit apprehensive about working with mutants, and some were just outright hostile. Yet Giles and the Scoobies patiently explained that they themselves really had no right to choose their allies since a Slayer was just as much as an abnormal outcast and recluse as any mutant. And it was either this or allow the Heartless to conquer the world, unable to protect it (and Willow and Faith had to remind them all that they could barely kill one of the creatures of darkness).

Thankfully, it had been enough to take out the real sting of anything truly upsetting and discordant.

Thus, that was why the very next day, all the Slayers, the teenage X-Men, and the Misfits were training over at the Pit, complete with the mile-runs with the weights, push-up and sit-up drills and precarious military obstacle courses.

"C'mon, hustle everyone! Move, move it, move it!" yelled Low Light as the teens and adolescents just finished their mile run, panting heavily. Faith, Giles, and Wood watched on along with the other X-Adults and Misfit handlers, emotionless but generally approving of the training so far. Amazingly, most if not all of the girls were still fresh and hardly tired from the mile-dash thanks to their Slayer strength. And some such as Althea, Rina, Todd, Pietro, Piotr and Xi still appeared as if they were ready to run a second mile if they truly desired to. Some, such as Ray, Roberto, Tabitha, and Xander were lying weakly on the grass, red-faced and panting and wheezing like they were on the brink of death. And considering that most of the X-Men weren't very familiar to the rigorous exercises of G.I. Joe training, they probably were. And Xander, though he had improved his fighting techniques thanks to Giles and Wood's training, was no athlete (on the contrary, he was getting a bit chubby). And some, like Jamie, Justin, Forge and Andrew were still on their last lap, trailing far behind.

Still, even Giles could admit that the G.I. Joe training was already looking promising. His instincts were barely nagging at him and saying such regimens were huge wastes of time and it was far more organized and laborious than the training over at Sunnydale when the Potentials trained with Buffy.

"Wow, that run was definitely intense!" marveled Rona at Spirit as the Native-American tracker helped her strip off the weights latched around her wrists and ankles, "Granted, it's nothing like us Slayers can't handle, but this isn't some typical and corny exercise from high school P.E. class!"

"Of course not," Spirit murmured as he handed the African-American girl a bottle of cold water, "This is military training, so it is completely different. You use this training for your very survival, and since we usually fight with Cobra and mutant terrorists such as the Hellions and Magneto and the Acolytes, we do this so that we can be sure that the Misfits and Joes and X-Men can protect themselves should they ever need to. You can't imagine how relieved and proud we were when they fought against Trigon and prevailed."

"Still, we can handle it. It's good and we can see the benefits of going through this, but we can definitely handle it, Spirit," Caridad said, breathing heavily as she gulped down her water. Chao-Ahn was trying her best to stand up, but her legs were so wobbly from sprinting with the additional forty-pounds loaded onto her body that it was hard to maintain her balance and the Chinese girl nearly stumbled and fell. Luckily, Fred reached out and caught her.

"You OK, Chao-Ahn?" Fred asked in Cantonese, concerned and the vampire slayer nodded, but then Blob looked up to see a twitching Lina who was staring at the two of them with a restrained look of disturbing anger on her face. Chao-Ahn also noticed this.

"Um…is she all right, Fred?" Chao-Ahn asked hesitantly, noticing the hurt on Dragonfly's face. Fred ignored his friend as he helped the foreign girl stand before he turned to the insect-like mutant and spoke calmly, but nervous all the same.

"Nothing is going on Lina. She just needs help because I'm the only one who can communicate with her," Fred said gently, but with a huff, Lina just whirled around and stomped off. Chao-Ahn then guessed what was the cause of the dissension and awkwardness.

"Is she your girlfriend, Fred?" Chao-Ahn asked. Fred hesitated a bit before he told the truth, blushing.

"No…but, it's complicated because I want her to be and yet…I have no idea if she feels the same way about me or if she and I will even be able to work it out in the future, you know? We've never told each other how we've felt. I guess we're both a little scared and that we don't want to rush it. It's sort of like…well, like you're afraid to play a high-stakes mahjong game. If you play a good hand, you win everything you ever dreamed, but if you play a bad hand, you just lost a lot. And the thing is that I guess I'm a little insecure that she would even want to be my girlfriend because I'm so fat and ugly and hideous. And to tell you the truth, if she ever decides to hook up with Iceman from the X-Men…I really couldn't blame her."

Chao-Ahn decided to not sugarcoat it (since it would have been an obvious lie if she said to Blob that he wasn't fat), and she patted Fred's arm before responding back in Chinese, "That may be, but you're also very sweet and protective when you want to be. People don't love you just because of your outside appearances. But eventually, you need to tell her or else she'll get tired and really will go to Iceman."

Blob wasn't sure how to feel about that one.

Later that day, after a good hour in the weight room and various yoga and calisthenics taught by Cover Girl, Logan and Blind Master decided to see personally how adept each and every one of the Slayers were at hand to hand combat…

"Oof!" grunted Kennedy as she landed on her stomach after Wolverine threw her hard. Both he and the teenage brunette were in the center of a padded, blue, sparring mat, wearing white, loose-fitting gi (karate uniforms) along with the rest of the Slayers, X-Men, and Misfits. And so far, the entire crowd of over three-thousand were watching in awe and wonder as the grizzled X-Man personally went through each and every Slayer Giles and Wood sent from the London boarding school in a one-on-one sparring session. Logan had to admit that these girls weren't weak and were very capable for their age, but still, only a select few such as Kennedy, Vi, and Rona were able to land in several punches via surprise maneuvers. Most of the others couldn't even get close or surprise Logan, who practically knew every trick in the book. Still, Giles and Wood could tell that the X-Man was attempting to do this for the girls' benefits. The sessions worked in two separate duels. In the first duel, Logan would allow the female Slayer to charge him and use whatever tricks she could think of to knock him off his feet within thirty seconds. If she could not succeed in this task, then Logan would easily subdue the Slayer and trip her hard. Then Blind Master and Wolverine, with Giles, Xavier, and Fred helping to translate, would tell the Slayer exactly what she needed to look out for, what she was doing wrong, and how she could improve or take an advantage. Then, after making the female opponent repeat back what she needed to remember, Logan and the selected Slayer would fight again. And Logan and Gabriel were pleased to see that the girls were eager to learn and willing to do whatever it took to improve, their minds and souls eager for the instruction and guidance. And Giles and Wood noticed it as well, pleased.

"I hafta admit, Kennedy, you almost had me there with that feint hitch-kick," Wolverine grunted with some encouragement as he helped the teenage girl back up, "And I'm glad ta' see you remembered to keep an arm free to blow anything that came for your exposed left side when you lunged. Had I been using a sword, you would have died instantly. Just remember to keep guarding your left side. No hard feelings about beating you, darlin'?"

"Are you kidding?" exclaimed Kennedy with the purest fires of determination and fortitude, "If anything, I'm gonna treasure this fight for a while! It's the most exciting duel I've had yet! And you better watch out, Wolverine, cause the next time we spar, I'll beat you yet! Just you wait!"

Wolverine nodded before he called out, "Who's next?"

"That'll be me," spoke a voice, and everyone was shocked when Faith stepped into the ring in her civilian clothes.

"I'm up for a round, if you can keep up with me, old man," Faith continued as she grinned, hitching up the waistline of her jeans before she stepped up to the mat, cracking her knuckles and strutting in a care-free manner. Logan raised an eyebrow, interested but still a bit wary and condescending. Regardless of Faith being one of the two original Slayers, he didn't feel threatened. Not even Althea and Rina had been able to defeat him in a martial arts spar.

"Hate to take anyone like you seriously, Brown-Britches," Logan scoffed, "Shouldn't you try getting out of those jeans and boots and try fighting in something more appropriate like one of the training uniforms like the kids?"

"Never was one for rules. Now, quit talking and come get me…Badger."

Logan twitched, inwardly getting riled up and shooting a death glare at Jake, Rina and Tabitha, all three of whom tried their best to look innocent (but failing miserably). Roadblock turned to Wood.

"I'm beginning to see why you love that Faith so much, Wood," Marvin chuckled.

"She's one in a million," Wood said with a big smile.

"Ready…Hajimeru!" yelled Blind Master as he brought his hand down, saying in Japanese the command to begin. And with baited breath, the crowd of the adults and teenagers just watched as Faith and Logan charged towards each other. Faith struck first with a straight jab, and Logan easily caught her fist before grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards him so that he could let loose a powerful punch to her gut, but Faith then easily blocked it with her other hand, catching Logan's wrist. The X-Man then let loose an intense kick at her legs, hoping to bring the Slayer to her knees, but well aware of that tactic, Faith let go of Logan's wrist before somersaulting sideways into the air, wrenching her hand free from Wolverine's grip of steel and catching her foot in a flying kick across Logan's face in the process. Still, Wolverine took the kick before he swiveled around let loose a kick at Faith's back as her body passed by him. Faith took the hit with a grunt but expertly landed onto her feet and cartwheeled soundlessly backward, gaining some space between her and her opponent. It was then that Logan felt some blood drop out of the corner of his mouth. Damn, the Slayer could hit hard…and she drew first blood.

"Nice trick," Wolverine marveled despite himself. Faith shrugged.

"I always use my best shots in battle, Wolvie," she said.

"Good…cause here's mine," and Wolverine roared as he charged before letting loose a riposte followed by a slashing-outward punch, leaping high in the air towards Faith's head. Faith strafed instantly, letting Logan rush by her and aimed a roundhouse kick at Logan's spine, but Logan then did a quite unexpected move as he suddenly placed his hands behind his back and caught Faith's leg deftly before it could connect with the lumbar region of his backbone, and as Wolverine landed forward, his hold on Faith's leg jerked her forward as well, catching her off-balance as she awkwardly pitched her leg forward, doing the splits excruciatingly and unintentionally. Upon the moment of surprise, Logan let go of Faith's leg before he aimed a kick at Faith's head. Like a gymnast, Faith saw the move coming and flattened herself against the floor, allowing Wolverine's foot to swish by her head before she did a sweep kick at the X-Man's feet. The elderly mutant leapt up, dodging the blow before he blocked Faith's cross-punch as the Slayer got back on her feet. Then catching Faith's other arm when she tried to deliver an uppercut, Wolverine pulled her arms and crisscrossed them over one another and pressed down hard, applying pressure and forcing the Slayer to stop at a standstill at the risk of breaking her arms. Still, Logan was surprised to see that despite restraining her arms from punching him, she was far from accepting defeat, her flushed face still as smug and cocky and composed as ever.

"Hmph, you're good, Brown-Britches," growled Wolverine, beginning to like the way his nickname for Faith was already fitting the Slayer's personality.

"You should see me when I'm actually trying, old man!" Faith shot back with her typical humor as she broke the hold on her arms by ramming her head into Logan's solidly, and without even taking a precious instant to recover from the stars flashing across her eyes, Faith let loose a furious left-hook-swivel-kick combination at Logan's head. Logan took the hit but then he delivered a roundhouse kick at Faith's chest followed by a right hook, left elbow, left backhand, and right hook combination, twisting his body in a dance-like pirouette.

"Ouch, that looked like it hurt," Xander marveled as he and the rest of the crowd just continued to watch with baited breath, hardly daring to make a noise as Faith just took the punches without the slightest indication of pain as she continued to just get back up and assaulting him.

"Don't know when to quit, do ya', Slayer?"

"Funny you should mention it, Badger," smirked Faith, "You punch like a girl, and I don't mean a Slayer one either."

And as Logan then tried to deliver a satisfying cross-punch at Faith's head, Faith then arched back and leaned a bit, gathering her Slayer strength and speed and before Logan could even blink, the brown-haired Slayer twisted her body forward before achieving a devastating kung-fu move called the Wing Chun punch. And when a Slayer summoned all of her strength from her powers, she could deliver a blow that even an invulnerable mutant such as Rogue could feel the effects excruciatingly. And Logan was the unlucky target. With a howl, Logan felt the punch connect with his abdominals before the force of the punch sent Wolverine flying out of the ring and landing hard on his back onto the grass. Faith panted, her body sweaty, but she managed to shakily stand back up and declared proudly, "I win."

"Oh my God…" Althea gasped.

"Well blow me down!" Shipwreck marveled as Logan shakily propped himself from his sprawled position with an elbow, feeling his healing factor kicking in from the three broken ribs Faith managed to cause from that finishing move. Still, not willing to look like a sore loser, Wolverine grunted and nodded, accepting the defeat gracefully.

"She…won?" gaped Pietro, his jaw dropping.

"She won! She won! She beat Badger! Way to go, Faith! You go, girl!" cheered Tabitha, jumping up and down with excitement.

"Merde!" Remy gasped in French, his eyes so wide that you could see the sea of blackness all around his red irises. Bobby then grinned to Scott, Jake and Todd wickedly, showing the video-camcorder in his hands and indicating that he recorded every minute of the fight.

"You do realize we're not going to let Wolverine hear the end of this, right?" Iceman cackled.

"I can have Trinity make copies and distribute them across the Pit, the Slayer academy, and the Justice League within half an hour, yo! Think five bucks is a fair price for each copy of the footage?" Todd grinned, showing his teeth and with a glint in his eyes.

Razor's whiskers twitched in his insane grin as he handed Toad a ten-dollar bill, whispering, "Here's enough for two copies, and be sure to include the shots of the close-ups you got of ol' Logan's face when Faith threw him!"

"I'll get you yet, hairball," muttered Logan as he shot Razor the evil eye while Rina and Althea helped the elder X-Man back up. Needless to say, that day was the most euphoric considering that Faith had now gained much admiration from her fellow potential and novice Slayers as well as some of the members of the X-Men and the Misfits. Ray, Jamie, Pietro, and Forge instantly declared themselves to be Faith fan-boys for life, and even Jean, Rina, Kitty, and Althea asked the main Slayer for advice on martial techniques.

The next day in the afternoon, things were actually starting to settle down and feel comfortable, easing into the routine. And though the X-Men dreaded the training with the Joes, the Professor explained that after one more day, the Slayers and Scoobies would train over at the Danger Room with the X-Men. And that, along with the growing friendships they were developing with the Slayers, even with the ones such as Rona who were clearly anti-mutant. Ray entered the recreation room at the Misfit Manor where most of the X-Men were relaxing after a hard morning of obstacle course races and hiking with fifty-pound backpacks.

"Did you guys know that Pietro knows how to say 'Will you go out with me?' in over twenty different languages?" Ray asked no one in particular.

Jean smiled as she looked outside at the commotion on the Pit's training grounds, "And something tells me right now he's learning the universal form of the word, 'no'."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" screamed a very terrified and very fearful Quicksilver in a falsetto voice as he dashed by with a huge, angry throng of red-faced Slayer girls chasing him with various weapons such as swords, knives, and clubs, each and every one of them screaming various profanities and curses in a multitude of different languages. And leading the pack was a very vengeful and murderous Dana, scowling so deeply with her teeth bared, one had to wonder if her face didn't freeze like that.

Apparently, Pietro didn't know when to quit. And he also didn't stop to think how unwise it was to annoy girls who had an instinctive skill to kill and expertly use weapons.

"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!" Dana screamed, brandishing a hacksaw, as the Misfit speedster did his best to dash away with his mutation, but damn if the Slayers could sprint just as amazingly quick due to their powers. Meanwhile, a hysterical and frantic Andrew Wells was chasing Dana and her group as they hunted down the white-haired Misfit.

"Dana!" Andrew yelled, "Don't you remember the last time? You can't hack off a person's hands anymore! It's not a good thing! Remember? We went through this with Giles and Wood in therapy!"

"He goosed me! He had it coming! And I can be excused for a minor relapse, twit-head!" Dana snapped as she continued running after the albino mutant along with the murderous horde of girls.

"Does anyone else feel like getting up and saving Quickie from a gruesome and possibly excruciating death?" Tabitha asked lazily as she watched on.

"No," came the unanimous, apathetic reply from the X-Men surrounding the blond X-Girl, almost instantly. Boom-Boom shrugged, nodding.

"Just checkin'," the teenager clarified as several of the Slayers let loose their shafts from their crossbows at their target for payback.

"Ow, my butt! You got me in the butt!" screamed Pietro loudly enough for even the dead to hear him.

Meanwhile, Spirit, Cover Girl, Storm, and Wolverine were approaching a meeting between the other X-Men adults, the Misfit handlers, General Hawk, Wood, and Giles as the four gave their report during their investigation over in Los Angeles.

"We just came back from Los Angeles, investigating Jubilation's home…or at least what remained of it," Spirit finished grimly.

"Any news to share? We need to know what went on there, and if Phoebe Halliwell isn't behind the murders of Jubilee's parents, then we need how and why the Hellfire Club made it seem her involvement was apparent," Roadblock rhymed unconsciously.

Cover Girl sighed as she said, "The entire house had been reduced to ashes, and though we were allowed leniency to explore and investigate the crime scene along with the LAPD because we're from G.I. Joe, a lot of the cops did not like the fact that we were invading their territory. And keep in mind, it's been more than two weeks when the murders happened and the rubble had just been cleared away, so any traces of the fight are probably in custody of the police department in Los Angeles. We could try obtaining a court order to examine them, but something tells me that they wouldn't be able to do much since this was a magical attack and not some low-down punk who used a gun or a firearm."

"Any scents then?" Wood asked.

"Several, but they were all cold and overridden by the presence of so many cops and officers investigating the arson and crime scene, and add the fact that the fire covered a lot of it with the smell of ashes and smoke. But I could still faintly detect them all, the Firecracker's and her parents. I remember the scent of Mr. And Mrs. Lee when they came to the Institute to pick up their daughter and take her away from the X-Men after the Sentinel exposed the existence of mutants. There was an odor of something dead and not unlike any other living creature that I've ever smelled before, something that was really disgusting and like rotting flesh. God, it was like bacon gone bad," Logan muttered.

"That must have been the Turok-Han," Giles provided and Wolverine nodded.

"But I can say one thing: I can't smell Phoebe Halliwell's scent anywhere. Not even the smallest whiff of it, and I tried. Believe me, bubs, I tried. I wanted to nail her as much as the others. But I must have gone over that entire lot twice and kept searching for that dumb brunette's scent until my damn nose practically bled. And nothing. Her scent isn't there. So if I can't find her scent -"

"Then she wasn't at the crime scene in the first place," finished Ororo, "And that the Charmed Wiccan was telling the truth, that she didn't murder Jubilee's parents."

"So Phoebe is being framed by the Hellfire Club and this Zankou character," Hank murmured in growing realization and shock at the vindication of the Charmed witch. Blind Master was still frowning as he muttered a sentiment that had been in the back of Logan and Professor X's minds.

"Keep in mind, Beast, it is only a hypothesis that Phoebe is being framed. Just because Wolverine couldn't detect her scent at the crime scene does not mean she couldn't have had an indirect involvement as hiring an accomplice to send the Turok-Han to murder Jubilee, and need I remind you that anything is possible with their magic. In other words, this could be the classic dilemma of appearing to be framed and protesting your innocence while at the same time, being actually guilty and manipulating the evidence to point to the likelihood that you're being set up of a crime you actually have committed. This could be a clever misleading ploy."

"Drop it, Gabe," growled Shipwreck uncharacteristically, "You know that it's becoming more and more obvious that the Hellfire Club and the Organization would probably try a dirty trick like this, and if the Halliwells have this powerful Nexus, then I say they're innocent. And you know it just as well, so cut the bullshit and stop harping on them."

"I'm just trying to take in every possibility, especially concerning that spiteful, little shrew called Piper! So you quit harping on me, Shipwreck! Out of all of us, you're usually the one with the dumbest idea and theories, so quit trying to act smart!" Blind Master thundered, his baritone voice so animalistic it could have rivaled Leomon's grunts and roars. It was then suddenly clear why the African ninja-master was so biased towards the Charmed Ones.

Spirit laid a strong hand on the fuming Blind Master's shoulder as he said sternly, "Gabriel, stop this. You can't let your emotions cloud over your judgment, especially not with anything concerning the Gathering of Twilight or the Heartless."

The ninja whirled on Spirit angrily as he growled, his voice acidic, "You're one to talk! You let Trinity have the itching and dissolving powder to attack Iceman after he exposed Lance's abusive past to the other X-Men!"

Spirit looked like he was starting to become angry as he heatedly clarified, "Establishing payback is one thing, turning away from the truth is another! And despite my feelings for Bobby Drake at the time, I wouldn't have heartlessly turned my back on him if his life was in danger! I would be willing to help him!"

"Easier to say it than actually do it, Spirit!" shot back Blind Master, and Hawk instantly barked out an order.

"Spirit, Blind Master, stand down, both of you! Or the two of you get sent to KP duty, and Lance and Justin can join you in your punishments!" General Hawk shouted. That was enough to shut the two Joe soldiers up. Wood looked at Roadblock and Shipwreck.

"Well, now what do we do? We've hit another brick wall."

Giles then added, "And perhaps we should try tracking down Ms. Jubilee to ensure that she would not endanger herself or the Charmed Ones. And if this Leomon character is still residing in the shadows of San Francisco, there may be a possibility that he may pose a threat to your former student as well. Is there any way you can detect her, Professor X?"

Xavier shook his head as he explained, "Unfortunately, that would be incredibly difficult. Even if we could find Jubilee, she is too hell-bent on achieving vengeance on the Halliwells for the deaths of her parents to come willingly to us. Despite our evidence that may point to the Charmed Ones being framed, she would most likely not believe our word, and I cannot force her to come with us against our will. I do not approve of kidnapping in any way, even if it would be for her safety and well-being. And since it has been several days since we have last ran into her from the Heartless battle, Wolverine has already informed me that her scent was left cold and faded enough so that he cannot effectively trace her. And I cannot use Cerebro to hone on to her movements unless she is using her mutant powers, but considering that she would most likely wish to hide and remain clandestine in the general public along with not allowing us a chance to intervene and stop her, she would not be as foolhardy as to do such an act. Thus, there is nothing I can do to help her or the Halliwells."

"What about Supergirl? Did those potions Paige gave to Batgirl help her in any way to recover from the strange coma?" Low Light asked, and Hank sighed, shaking his head.

"I am afraid it is a negative on that situation as well. Even with the potions and after our available magic users such as Margali Sefton, Raven from the Teen Titans, and Agatha Harkness have looked and tried to break the enchantment, none of these possibilities have wielded any positive results. Supergirl still resides in the coma, and Batman has reported to me that she is steadily declining in her health, bit by bit, and if we cannot convince the three sisters to use their magic, then it is most likely Supergirl may die. And we have no other magical leads other that Piper, Phoebe, and Paige," Beast murmured solemnly.

It certainly was a foreboding thought, and one that reminded all of them that they were on a very tense and decreasing time frame.

Still, it wasn't completely depressing at the G.I. Joe military base. Later that night, there was quite a joyous commotion in the Joe's kitchen galley. The Joes B.A. and Roadblock along with Fred were cooking up a storm, enough food to feed a regiment, much to the infinite delights of all the training army of Slayers who devoured every morsel of food like bottomless pits. When Xavier, Giles, and some of the Joes had been able to translate that the Joe kitchens had more than enough food to feed all of them and that Roadblock was a gourmet chef (and Blob was his apprentice), many of the girls were ecstatic. The only ones capable of cooking were Giles, Xander and Andrew, but even they couldn't cook home-cooked meals to satisfy every distinct palette and cultural preference. Thus, more often than not, each and every one of the Slayers at the London Academy had to eat bland and dull food fit for any boarding school, and many of the girls from other countries such as the Mediterranean, Zimbabwe, Nepal, and Saudi Arabia weren't readily pleased to be eating English cuisines such as kidney pudding, sausages, and beans. If it was hard to leave your family and home because you needed to train for the duty and responsibility of a Slayer, it was nowhere as uncomfortable as eating food you were not readily used to. Yet it was completely different once Fred, B.A., and Roadblock got cracking…

"Cabbage rolls, fish colbasa and babka puff, hot from the oven!" yelled Blob, smiling as two Russian Slayers eagerly took the tasty dish from the mutant's hands with grateful appreciation, eager to dig into their favorite meal that they've missed having since leaving their town, Ivanovo last year for their Slayer calling. One winked and blew the obese mutant a kiss which caused the Blob to blush slightly, flattered at all the attention and friendly looks he was getting from many of the vampire slayers. As he was giving a Moroccan girl a dish of Carthagenian flank steak and black-bean hummus, a brown-haired girl from Ireland named Ciara eagerly went up to the Misfit.

"Got any more of that Irish stew, Blob?" she grinned suggestively in her thick accent.

"Again? That's your third helping, Ciara," the mutant teenager said with jest as he ladled another big, piping serving. Ciara rolled her eyes good-naturedly before she took her bowl.

"Hey, when there's good food around, I'll take advantage of it when I can, thank you very much. There's only so much sandwiches and packaged Ding-Dongs and Twinkies a girl can take back at the Slayer school, don't you know? And to be frank, Giles, Andrew, and Xander aren't the best cooks in the world."

Meanwhile, the small and round chef named B.A. was delivering his umpteenth dish to the many tables in the mess hall, jammed pack with girls of different ethnicities and religions, the room warm with chatter and contentment of good food, his serving tray piled high with plates and dishes.

"Spinach soba and tofu in broth and pickled seaweed! Here ya' go, girls!" B.A. chuckled as he set a dish in front of three Japanese Slayers named Naoko, Hikaru, and Kimiko who were seated at a table, their eyes shining and soft with delightful appetite as they murmured "arigato" and began feasting. It was not much of a wonder that B.A. was especially sought out by many of the Asian Slayers to cook their meals considering that seaweed recipes were the portly dwarf's specialty. And B.A. was also hit on the inspiration to set up some heating plates and pots of broth placed at many of the tables in the cafeteria at different intervals to be used to feed them shabu-shabu, oden, and Chinese, Thai and Korean hot-pots. These instantly became a huge hit; even girls who were unfamiliar of such dishes like Rona, Vi, and Shannon learned to enjoy the food immensely. Yet it was Roadblock who took it upon himself to handle most of the requests and cooking duties; he felt these girls didn't truly live until they tasted his cooking.

"Who ordered the bratwurst?" yelled Roadblock encouragingly as he handed a pile of the succulent meat-sausages (homemade and seasoned by the Joe machine-gunner himself) to an eager Slayer from Germany, nodding excitedly.

"Babakanoosh and falafel?" the Joe called out before an shy Arabic vegetarian tentatively raised her hand before she gingerly accepted the hot plate of steaming food, her stomach growling.

"Couscous and tablich?" called Marvin as he ladled a vast serving of the beans and cooked zucchini skillfully and expertly into four trays before handing them out to four dark-skinned girls from Egypt. Then Roadblock grinned to his long-time friend, Wood, who was sitting on the kitchen counter nearby before handing the Watcher a plate of waffles and fried chicken.

Wood smiled, already feeling at home; it was one of his favorite dishes as a kid.

"Can't believe you remembered after all these years, Marvin," Wood chuckled as he bit into a chicken leg.

Roadblock was just as nostalgic as he handed another Slayer a serving of fried chicken, saying, "Hey, you haven't lived until you've had my cooking, and judging from what the other Slayers tell me, you can't live off just canned food and take-out all the time. But honestly, after this whole mess with the Nexus is all done and over with, I'd be happy if you could come to the Pit for a visit."

Wood exhaled, recollecting that his duties as a Watcher would never really give him much free time, especially with so many new Slayers needing to be trained properly. Still, he gave his friend a tired and hopeful beam, replying, "Maybe, Marvin. Maybe, when this madness is all done and over with."

Meanwhile, some of the X-Boys and Pietro were just watching this scene with horrified disbelief.

"I don't believe it," Roberto murmured, giving himself a pinch to ensure he wasn't dreaming as several of the Slayers gave Blob some giggling and flirty looks, "I don't believe it. Here we are, in a military base that is now ninety-percent teenage females, and the only one male they actually like is Fred. Fred. The fat one, the unattractive outcast of high school, the one Misfit whose picture of him being shirtless on 'X-Men TV' caused some people to sue us for sudden cases of hysterical blindness and needing the months of therapy. I just don't believe it! All the girls absolutely love Fred!"

"I guess what they say is true," Ray murmured, "The way to a woman's heart is through her stomach."

"Not all of them," Bobby pointed out as Remy was flirting with two Slayers from France, causing them to giggle and shyly allow the Cajun mutant to kiss their hands and whisper flattering praise in his native tongue, "Remy's pretty happy with the girls being around."

"And Rogue isn't," Ray emphasized as Remy heard his girlfriend screech furiously behind him as she stomped over towards the X-Man, ready to tear him limb from limb for being caught in the act.

"SWAMP-RAT!" Rogue hollered, her pale face now red and her left eye twitching madly.

"Remy just being friendly, cherie," Gambit weakly protested.

WHAM!

"Ouch, that left a mark," Bobby winced at the scene, glad and grateful he wasn't in Remy's shoes, watching the scene along with Ray and Roberto with some amusement, "Think Lifeline and Dragonfly will be able to extract Gambit's head from the table once Rogue quits beating him with his staff?"

"Ow, ow, ow! Chere, - ow! Remy didn't – ow! Remy – ow! Just being friendly, chere! Ow, ow, ow! Femmes just can't resist – ow! Cherie, that last one hurt!"

"Good!" snapped Rogue as she continued her assault.

During all this joyous and exuberant occasion of feasting and pigging out, one lone Slayer just sullenly isolated herself from the rest of the merry teammates, and Dana just moodily brooded by herself at a corner table, grimacing to herself as she sipped her cup of hot tea.

"Why aren't you joining your friends, Dana? You're missing out on a great dinner," a voice piped up, and Dana looked upwards to see that the Misfits, Scarlet Witch and Lance along with the Joe, Low Light, sitting down next to the scarred Slayer and attempting to keep the isolated girl company. Dana just growled and gave them all the evil eye intently.

"Just piss off and leave me alone, you little freaks," she muttered. Wanda and Lance raised an eyebrow at the irony of that statement, especially coming from a vampire slayer.

"You know, if you wanted us to leave, you could have asked nicely," Wanda retorted dryly.

"And that would have made you leave me alone?" hissed Dana.

"No, but you could have at least made the attempt and try to act nice, especially since it's not going to do you any good to just retreat inwardly to yourself and keep away from everyone. You're not going to get over your hurt and fear if you don't at least try to bond with us and see that no one here is going to hurt you," Lance murmured, and instantly, at those words, Dana was alarmed, feeling her instinctive defenses spring up as she snarled like a wild animal.

"And how the hell would you three know what I've been though?" Dana snapped, her voice cracking along with her anti-social façade, "You mutants don't know anything about what I had to go through as a kid! You think you mutants have it bad because you were hated and feared by society and had terrorist groups and Sentinel come hunt you down to kill you? Ha! As if you nimrods could ever know what it's been like to go through what I've been though! I bet you never been to an insane asylum in your entire lives!"

"Actually…I have," Wanda said, her voice soft and looking down at the table surface, her face dark. That stopped Dana's tirade as she looked at Lance, Wanda, and Cooper, caught off guard. She did not expect that answer, and the confirmation made her light-headed. The scarred Slayer looked into Wanda's face to see if she was lying, but that one look of repressed and painful memory latched with hate, anger, and sorrow was genuine…and a look Dana herself had seen in the mirror so many times back at the Slayer Academy.

"What?" Dana whispered, not sure if she was going to believe it. The goth with black and red hair looked up, her eyes deadly serious and as cold as steel.

"My father sent me to a mental institution when I was five," Wanda said, "My own father. And I was his only daughter. He sent me to be committed against my will because my mutant powers to cause things to go haywire due to chaos energy were too uncontrollable, too wild for my father to be willing to endure. So he just sent me to a psychiatric ward and let the doctors take me away, crying and screaming for my father as he just stood there and watched me get taken where I would grow up to be medicated and living in a padded room in a straight-jacket for a good portion of my adolescent life. You still think I don't know what it's like to grow up in a mental institution?"

Dana then growled with tears in her eyes as she shot back , "Yeah, but I bet you've never been abused, been sexually raped and held prisoner against your will like some unclean and dirty animal!"

Lance then spoke, his voice solemn but strong thanks to his sessions with Psyche-Out and Spirit, "Actually, I have molested too when I was a boy and living under my adoptive parents."

Another stunning, emotional blow. Dana was speechless, shocked at how Lance could so relatively speak about such an act with ease. And yet…he too wasn't lying. She could see it, the haunted look of pain on his face, the scars of shame and regret and trauma.

"Who…who was it? An uncle? A…a grandfather? A burglar who broke in and raped you while you were asleep in your bedroom?" Dana shakily asked, a hot lump of guilt growing into her throat. Lance looked at her directly into her eyes.

"My own adoptive parents," Lance said concretely. The hot lump grew even more as Dana just stared at Avalanche, not sure what to say and feeling a bit sick. As bad as her own plight was, her parents, as much as she could recollect, did love her before they were murdered by her tormentor, Walter Kindel. Lance continued, never faltering in his gaze.

"When I was a kid, I jumped from foster home to foster home, where I had to endure a lot of beatings and physical abuse. But then on the last one, the couple took me to the basement and forced me to drink beer until I passed out. And then eventually, I realized that they got me drunk so that…so that they could both sexually molest me."

There was a pause.

"Even now, I still have nightmare about them touching me, groping me in places I didn't wish, waking up screaming and crying whenever I recollect how grimy and cold the basement was, how much I felt so unclean and that I deserved it, that I deserved to be raped because I was a problem child, that no one really loved me, that I was nothing more than an animal to be used and thrown away. Even a hug from Kitty or the smell of wine brings it back like someone hit me in the back of the skull with a sledgehammer, sudden and unstoppable. So believe me, when I say that I know what it's like to be a victim of rape. And like you, I was held against my will…and molested repeatedly."

Dana felt her hands shaking, hearing Lance's testimony bring up her painful past as she placed her hands on her lap. Still, she tried one last time as her face now was completely devoid of the angry look and replaced with only the look of a scared and hesitant child, alone and lost. It was amazing how much Dana's demeanor changed in those precious minutes.

"But…but you're nothing like me. None of you are as horrid and disgusting and abominable like me! I killed people when I escaped the asylum! Don't you get it? I killed innocent people when I broke out! I'm no better than a murderer, than a serial killer! That's why I don't want to hang out with the other Slayers, because I know they wouldn't want anything to do with a soulless monster like me!"

Low Light then took off his red sniper goggles, looking at Dana directly in the eye before he rumbled sternly with a touch of understanding, "Kid…I killed my own father and mother. What does that say about me?"

Dana blinked. This was just the night for surprises. Low Light then softly and slowly reached out and gently touched Dana's chin, forcing her to look upwards at his clear blue eyes, and though she was being touched, Dana could admit that she didn't feel threatened nor endangered but rather…as if she was being touched by a soulmate, a fellow brother, a person who knew and walked the very path of murderous destruction she had before.

The G.I. Joe sniper then continued, "You heard me correctly, Dana. My father was an abusive bastard who would beat me as soon as I found look at him funny, and there were times he left me in the middle of a dark junkyard at night and wouldn't allow me to come back in the house until I shot twenty rats, saying he didn't want a coward and a wimp for a son and didn't care even if it took days and nights for me to do the job. And I've been afraid of the rats and the dark ever since, Dana. And when my father tried to kill me and my sister, Una, with a shotgun, the police chased after him, and in a car pursuit, he drove too fast and crashed his car, dying in the wreck."

Dana was silently crying, the tears running down her cheeks as she just stared at Low Light, frozen, as the sniper continued, "But it didn't end there. My mother blamed me for the death of my Dad, even though he was as cruel to her as he was to me and my sister. She told me that I should have never been born, and I told her I wish she was never my mother. And when I came back the next day to apologize…I found her body on the bed and that she committed suicide by overdosing on pills. Everything she said to me, I had to live with. And everything I said to her, I can never take back. Both of their deaths were caused by me…and I had to live with that ever since. And to make matters worse, when I joined with G.I. Joe, I was captured by Cobra and experimented on like a lab rat, activating my dormant X-gene and it caused me to turn into a mutant, a freak."

Dana wanted to look away, but she couldn't and she just stared at the sniper. Low Light's eyes softened as he then gently brushed away the Slayer's tears, his hand as warm and gentle as a summer breeze, so reminiscent to Dana of the loving manner her father held and cuddled her when she was a baby.

"Still think I'm a monster, Dana? Do you think Lance is a monster for killing his parents for sexually abusing him? Do you think Wanda is a monster because she went to a mental institution?" Low Light asked softly.

"No…" Dana whispered. Wanda then looked at Dana.

"So what makes it any different from you?" Wanda asked sincerely.

The point hit home.

Dana wiped her face and nose with her sleeve as she just sat there, shaking softly, for several minutes, but none of them spoke a word or moved.

They just waited.

After a few minutes, Dana shakily got up from her seat, turned, and began walking towards the table where Kennedy, Willow, Caridad, and Shannon were eating. Halfway there, Dana turned back to see Lance, Wanda, and Low Light still watching her, neither encouraging nor disapproving, but supportive nonetheless. And to their satisfaction, there was the faintest trace of a smile on Dana's face as her lip slightly curled upwards. Then taking a deep breath, Dana continued walking until she was at the table, causing Caridad, Kennedy, Willow, and Shannon to pause as they looked up at their fellow teammate.

"Can I…can I eat with you guys?" Dana asked, her voice quaking and frightened, afraid that the four would reject her or turn her down. But Caridad smiled as she rose and hugged Dana gently.

"Sure, honey, take my seat," she said sincerely, and as Dana sat down, Kennedy, Shannon, Caridad and Willow instantly piled her plate full of piping-hot, luscious food.

"You have got to try this couscous! They're totally out of this world!" Shannon encouraged.

"And Wood scored us some homemade fried chicken. Heck it's better than the 'Kentucky Fried Brands'," Kennedy said warmly as she placed a wing and a drumstick in front of Dana. Willow just smiled as she poured a glass of lemonade for her friend.

"And this is mint-lemonade Fred made from scratch. I asked him to make some since it's one of the few sweet drinks you'd be willing to take. Would you like a glass? It's really good!" the Wiccan encouraged, and Dana smiled, breaking her shell bit by bit.

"Think she'll be all right?" Wanda asked softly as they watched Dana willfully integrate with her family and friends.

Low Light said noncommittally as he put back on his goggles, "It's a baby step…but it's a step in the right direction, Wanda."

After dinner, Althea was showing the Slayers, Caridad and Vi, a tour of the Misfit Manor along with Ray and Remy, and when the two girls spotted Althea's younger brothers, Claudius and Beak, they went completely nuts.

"They are soooooo cute!" squealed Vi as she picked up Beak.

Caridad's eyes were glowing stars as she tenderly tickled Claudius on his belly, cooing in full mollifying-mode, "Cootchie-cootchie-coo! Cootchie-cootchie-coo! Cootchie-cootchie-coo! Are you just an adorable little guy? Yes you are!"

Vi giggled as she rocked Beak gently back and forth, "I bet you two are hungry. Wanna go share some graham crackers with us? Huh? Would the little cutie-pie like that? I'm sure we can find some treat-treats in the mess hall."

Barney and Claudius absolutely loved the attention, and indeed, their affection for the red-headed and the Filipino Slayers only increased at the mention of treats and goodies. Gurgling happily, the two mutant babies hugged Caridad and Vi, resting their heads against their bosoms and playing the cute-act for all it was worth. Beak even dropped his wiffle bat as he laughed at Vi cuddling him. Remy and Ray were shocked to say the least.

"Goo-goo-ga-ga!" laughed Beak in Vi's arms.

"Swayer…swayer…" drooled Claudie with a finger in his mouth, trying to say the word "slayer" in the cutest baby-speak possible.

"They are just so precious!" squealed Caridad and Vi. Gambit and Bezerker were watching this with a deadpanned expression of shocked and cheated disbelief.

"You know, if Remy didn't know any better, Remy'd say that those two are enjoying this," the Cajun X-Man muttered.

"Lucky goobers," grumbled Ray as he glared at Barney and Claudius being carried off to the Pit's kitchen by Vi and Caridad. Althea just smiled and waved off the two X-Boys' resentments.

"Ah, don't take it personally," the Misfit leader smirked, "And besides, these Slayers are starting to earn some big respect points from me. It's not every day that we run into people who Claudie and Beak completely adore."

---

The next day, it was the X-Men's turn to grace the Slayers and Scoobies with the privilege of the Danger Room. The Joes and the X-Adults along with Giles, Wood, and Faith were watching from the control room to the training grounds from above. The rest of the teenagers were down below, wearing their respective battle uniforms and gear, and even the vampire slayers were wearing black, specialized-polymer, black jumpsuits with gloves and boots.

"I'm never going to get used to this. I don't know how you X-Men can stand running around in these clothes while fighting. Normally, whatever us Slayers are wearing at the time can act as sufficient battle clothes enough," Caridad spoke to Rogue and Jean Grey, both of whom shrugged.

"You get used to it enough, sugah," Rogue replied, "And besides, the stuff we're wearing can be helpful in protecting you against blows and scratches and other typical brawl injuries. Or at least that what Cyclops claims."

"This does feel kind of weird," Rona murmured as she picked at the fabric that uncomfortably clung to her like a second skin, and indeed, it wasn't every day that one got to dress up from head to toe in spandex-like clothes.

"Are you kidding? This is so cool! I feel like I'm actually on the X-Men team as a fellow hero!" Vi exclaimed as she and Andrew admired their costumes. Cyclops grinned as the simulation began.

"Good, because you all are going to see what it feels like to actual be in the X-Men's training for a day," the X-Men field leader stated as the room lit up to display a huge red platform at the other end of the mammoth chamber with the word, "Finish", "X-Men, Slayers…and Misfits, your objective is to cross the room and reach the other end of the platform where the finish line is before time runs out!"

"That's it?" one Slayer piped up incredulously, disdainful, "Heck even Andrew could do that one!"

"Well, word of warning: the room might not let you cross," Cyclops said, grinning smugly, and instantly, the room became alive the instant the teenagers stepped forward.

"Yow, electric boomerangs!" yelped Andrew as he and Multiple ducked to avoid the whirling projectiles. Wavedancer calmly took out several ninja stars from her belt before she let loose on the flying weapons, instantly taking several of them out.

"Well, don't just stand there! Take 'em out, you guys, and move!" the Misfit leader shouted and immediately, everyone acted at once, making sure to watch out for their surroundings and their friends' backs at the same time.

"I got one!" yelled a Slayer as she narrowly deflected one boomerang with her axe.

"Here's another one down!" yelled Xander as he effectively parried his sword against another returning, electrified disc, the metal shattering into two useless halves the instant it cleaved itself against the sharp edge of Xander's blade.

"And we got the rest!" yelled Shannon as she and fifty other Slayers used their crossbows to effectively take out the rest of the boomerangs, each a clean and accurate shot thanks to their sharp archery skills. Unfortunately, this cleared the way for another obstacle…

"You guys! Turok-Han! And they're coming our way!" yelled Dragonfly as she spied upon a horde of them approaching their way, weaponless but still just as deadly with their super-strength and claws, snarling as they charged.

"Then let's show these uber-vamps what we can do!" Tabitha yelled as she let loose a time-bomb, causing it to explode and send several of the vampires flying messily. Or at least what looked like vampires…

"Hey!" exclaimed Kennedy as she used her twin swords to decapitate one Turok-Han, only to show a smoking headless body with electronic machinery and metal, "These aren't vampires at all! They're robots!"

"Well, duh! We like can't actually use real vampires in a Danger Room session, right? I mean, that would be like way too dangerous!" Shadowcat yelled back as she phased two Slayers out of danger, allowing them to mace and club their opponents into a useless pile of junk.

"Then let's take them out! Everyone, aim at the heads! The heads of the Turok-Han are the weak-points!" yelled Willow as she invoked her magic to send a fireball directly at several of the robotic vampires, and despite the number of robots and obstacles they had to face, the Slayers along with the mutants managed to beat all of the bionic threats with their powers and weapons. Unfortunately, they failed to reach the finish line before time ran out.

"We failed?" blurted a astonished Kennedy, "We failed because we ran out of time? That's not fair! We're just not used to this!"

"Regardless, this Danger Room trial run was extremely effective in showing your inability to adequately strategize your battle times and coagulate everyone as a coordinated and structured team. And frankly, it is disappointing. If we have this much trouble destroying an army of robotic Turok-Han in a training exercise, I can only imagine the disasters that would arise if we come face to face with the real Turok-Han and the Heartless. I can clearly see that we shall definitely need more of the practice with the X-Men in their exercise simulations," Giles spoke sternly to his Slayers, wards, and fellow Scoobies.

"More practice?" Xander, Vi, Rona, and Shannon cried out, aghast and besides themselves with disbelief as they and the other Slayers were pretty much bruised and had their uniforms torn and smudged and dirty from the grueling fighting. Andrew whined.

"I don't think we're going to be able to live that long," the blond teenager moaned.

Still, after that morning, the X-Men and the adults decided that enough training was done and that everyone could have the afternoon off to bond and explore the X-Mansion along as bonding with each other, which the mutants and Slayers did enthusiastically. The Slayers were especially amazed at the plush life the X-Men had at the Institute for the Gifted, and after the training at the Pit, all the girls were eager to just relax and hang out with the mutants.

Meanwhile, Lance was sweaty and exhausted from his training spar with Spirit and Blind Master, so he decided to head over to the kitchen for a drink of water, but the instant he set foot into the room, there was some trouble.

"Oh look, if it isn't Leomon's number-one, groupie fan-boy," sneered Ray's voice disdainfully just as Lance went to go open a cabinet for a glass. Lance's body stiffened as he glanced over his shoulder, and he shot the evil eye at a disdainful Scott, Piotr, and Ray. His face was burning and he felt his body struggling instantly with the desire to punch their respective lights out.

Scott couldn't help rubbing it in, "What, you're afraid to yell because your boyfriend, Leomon, won't let you? Are you a dog on a leash or just so pathetic that you need Leomon's permission and praise in order to fight? It's really sad, Alvers, to watch you sink and lose your dignity like that, all because you're so clingy to that lion."

Piotr then said the most harshest thing as he joked, "Boy, it's no wonder Kitty left you. You love Leomon more than you ever cared about her, but then again, Leomon's nothing more than a furry little hood and upstart, so it's hardly surprising that you two get along so well."

Lance stomped off, fuming though God only knew how much he wanted to use his mutant powers right then and there. But before Piotr, Scott, and Ray could snicker and relish the moment…

"YOU GUYS ARE ABSOLUTE JERKS!" shouted a girl's furious voice from behind, and Ray, Piotr, and Scott turned around to see a fuming Shannon, her face flushed and her body quivering. Behind her was a white-faced and docile Kitty, her eyes showing hurt and shock at the scene the two had witnessed. They had heard every word of the three X-Boys teasing. Piotr felt a bit embarrassed while Scott and Ray just weakly protested.

"It's just a joke! It's not like we hurt Alvers' feelings! And besides, he's said a lot worse things to us!"

The Slayer then left, following Avalanche's paths, as she then heard Kitty starting to scream and rant at a very meek and weakly defensive Piotr.

Shannon went out worriedly, looking around until she saw that Lance was brooding outside in the garden patio of the Mansion, right outside the doors that connected from the dining room to the porch. It was a cold night, cold enough for a jacket, as the sky was clouded with puffs of black and red, extinguishing and hiding the stars. Lance took no notice of the cold as he frowned darkly at the Institute's front gardens. Shannon coughed, getting Lance's attention as the mutant turned to the Slayer.

"You OK, Lance?" Shannon asked.

Lance just shrugged noncommittally as he leaned against the banister, guarded and not exactly willing to share his thoughts with Shannon, unsure if she was going to mock and laugh at him for his views on the Digital warrior like the other Misfits and X-Men. Shannon then continued.

"Still, it was pretty big of you to not lash out at them for ganging up like that. I'm glad you just decided to ignore them and just walk away."

"Are you kidding? If Spirit didn't warn me beforehand to not cause a fight because we need to establish good relations with everyone for the upcoming fight with the Hellfire Club in San Francisco, Summer, Russkie, and Ray would have found themselves buried alive under the remains of the X-Geek's kitchen," snorted Lance.

There was a slight pause before Lance then added a postscript, grumbling.

"Besides, Althea, General Hawk, and Cover Girl said that if started anything again during this time, they'll see to it that I get KP duty for the next month along with babysitting Claudie and Beak and helping do office work for Beach Head, of all people. That last one was enough to make me shut my mouth."

"Oh…" Shannon trailed off as she then understood. Lance didn't walk away because he wanted to avoid a fight; he walked away because he didn't want to get punished and was already warned of the consequences by the others. Still…it was commendable at least. After a few minutes of silence, the girl tried again, asking a question that was on her mind.

"Lance…please don't think I'm being nosy of offensive when I ask this. But why do you support Leomon so much? I'm not making fun of you. But I just want to know why you think Leomon isn't a bad guy or that he's not trying to manipulate us into fighting the Gathering of Twilight."

Lance hesitated before he replied, "I guess because I feel that deep down, he's like us, caught in a war he doesn't really want to fight and that despite what it looks like, Leomon's a good guy. He saved Spirit and me from a fire Heartless in Jump City, and we didn't do anything to deserve it. Heck, we didn't even know him at first and yet he still helped us, complete strangers. Yeah, his mission was to destroy any Heartless, but he didn't say he was required to help and protect people from getting killed. But he chose to help us anyway. And I guess I kinda feel sorry for him too. He's all alone, because his world was destroyed by the Heartless and the Thirteenth Order. He confessed to us that he's the last of his kind, and I guess I feel bad for him. No one should fight a war alone, especially when you've lost everything. And despite it all, I still feel I owe Leomon. I'm not going to be ungrateful to him because he saved my life and my Dad's life. That's a huge debt I have to…no, I want to pay him back, and if no one is going to stand up for the lion that's helped us a lot by now, then I'm going to have to do it. After all, Leomon needs to see some sort of appreciation and know that not everyone hates him."

There was a pause before Lance admitted, "Sound weird, huh?"

Shannon smiled as she placed a hand on Lance's arm, not in a romantic sense, but certainly in a supportive and encouraging manner.

"Actually…it doesn't. Keep in mind that Leomon saved me too. It's not weird, Lance. Not to me, at least. And if anything, when it turns out that Leomon really is a good guy and that he is on our side, I'll help you do your I-told-you-so speech."

The young geokinetic hesitated a bit before he offered the Slayer a smile and said, "Thanks…I needed that."

"Anytime, Lance. We're friends now, right?" the brown-haired girl giggled, and as the two managed to reinforce the bridge of trust and confidence between themselves, they didn't notice Kitty spying on them from the distance behind the cover of a curtain, her face betraying emotions of discomfort, relief…and regret.

Later the next night, after the Danger Room sessions, Althea, Rona, Vi, Tabitha, Amara, Caridad, Lina, Xander, Willow, Sam, Bobby, Kennedy, Rina and Hank along with the dragon Lockheed were sipping mugs of hot cocoa and eating tangerines in the Institute's kitchen, chatting animatedly and already beginning to warm up to each other. Lockheed was in the center of the table's surface, chewing on marshmallows and absolutely loving the time the Slayers and the Scoobies were spending at the Institute. He had never gotten nor received so many tummy rubs and back-scratches in his entire life, so not surprisingly, the baby purple dragon fawned over the strange girls like a puppy. And of course, the Slayers repeatedly played with the pet of the X-Men, thinking that the dragon was absolutely adorable.

"Wow, I've never been around so many people in my entire life," Bobby said as he peeled a tangerine, "Seriously, so many guys would kill for a chance to be surrounded by so many girls in one house."

"Reminds of this one time in band camp…" Willow chuckled, and then she stopped when everyone just stared at her with disturbed, peculiar looks on their faces (including Hank).

"What?" Willow asked innocently.

Sam sighed as he peeled the rind off his second fruit, saying, "You know, the more we hang out with you, the more I wish the X-Men had normal lives like you Scoobies and Slayers do."

There was a general spit-take as most of the Slayers choked on their mouthfuls of hot cocoa, sputtering and Xander was actually wheezing, trying not to choke on a marshmallow. They stared at Cannonball, trying to determine if he was joking, but one look told them that the Kentucky X-Man was quite serious. And the faces of the other X-Men and Misfits nearby were nodding and agreeing with Sam as well.

Caridad's face was registering pure disbelief and surprise as she blurted out, "Let me get this straight: you guys, the mutants, think that we, the Slayers…are normal?"

"You're jealous of our lives? Whoa, that's a first…" exhaled Xander, his good eye rolling up the ceiling, still amazed from the bolt from the blue.

"Yeah, we are," Lina said sincerely as she indicated to her wings on her back with a nod of her head, "I mean, even though you deal with the paranormal, you don't have to grow up looking like a bug or having your body going through really odd physical changes."

"Oh please!" Rona snorted, "You mutants are the lucky ones! Living in a nice place like this, not having to worry about the First sending his goons to kill you off, not having to worry about the fact that taking the powers of the Slayer means you become an automatic target for any supernatural baddies. It is seriously not harder to be a mutant than to be a Slayer!"

Rina then snorted, "Try being an experiment. I was a clone of Wolverine developed as the ultimate assassin for a terrorist group named Hydra who was put through the Weapon X project when I was ten years of age, conditioned to kill first and never question my creators and superiors."

"OK, that one is original, I have to admit…but us Slayers are more abnormal than you guys!" Rona said.

Hank raised a skeptical eyebrow as he remarked, "As much as I respect the word of the Slayers, I do rather find that difficult to believe."

"That's hardly fair, Mr. McCoy!" Caridad protested good-naturedly, "In fact, I'm willing to bet that whatever you X-Men, Misfits, and G.I. Joe have gone through, it's nothing compared to what we've been through!"

"Very well," said the blue-furred mutant as he took off his glasses and looked at each one of the Slayers and Scoobies in the eye before continuing, "Ever heard of a super-soldier created during World War Two by the name of Captain America? He was given powers similar to those of the Slayers except through human experimentation only to be frozen cryogenically in a deep sleep due to the procedure causing his body to break down unnaturally. Then was he only to be resurrected by Trinity but he was cured by a serum the Triplets developed from Wolverine's blood only to have Captain America defeat the still-surviving Red Skull who turned out to be nothing more than a bitter, cantankerous and shriveled man in a robotic suit?"

"Oh yeah? How about the fact that we had to endure werewolves, ghosts, and vampires attacking our high school on a daily basis, anything ranging from ancient mummies to scientific fish caused by steroids to a boogeyman terrorizing kids and stealing their life-force at a hospital? Trust me, I'd doubt anything you X-Men and Misfits went through was just as bad as one of those baddies that arrived because of the power of the Hellmouth that was underneath the Sunnydale High School! Heck ,I even saw my best friend become a vampire on the first night me and Willow met Buffy!" Xander exclaimed.

Tabitha gave a dismissing wave of her hand as she ridiculed, "Pah! Kids stuff! You want to hear real suffering and torture? How about a three-parter adventure of babysitting, camping, and fighting against terrorists in Washington D.C? Scott and Jean had to stay at the Mansion to baby-sit Trinity, Claudius, and Beak which resulted in a chase across town and damage to various restaurants that resulted in a sexual harassment lawsuit from the Mayor of Bayville? And while Scott and Jean were watching them, we had to endure roughing it up in the cold forest and wilderness where we set half the woods on fire, watched our supervisors go skinny-dipping, and then when we got over that trauma, we had to endure going to jail after fighting some Cobra soldiers in a cave and inadvertently caused some rocket fuel to explode! And in addition, the Professor and Beast had to try to make an argument for mutant-rights in Capitol Hill while trying to stop Cobra soldiers and the Dreadnoks from stealing an artifact from the museum but only to result it in getting support from the National Committee of Cross-Dressers and mooning Senator Kelly on national TV!"

"Oh yeah! I remember that last one! I ordered a copy of the video!" chuckled Xander.

"I got one!" Caridad exclaimed, "Faith told us that in Sunnydale, there was a government agency called the Initiative that was trying to harness to power of demons and supernatural baddies through experimentation to form the ultimate demon named Adam. Unfortunately, Adam took over the Initiative by corrupting it from the inside and turning the captive demons loose on the fellow scientists and soldiers! And the Initiative wanted Buffy dead because they thought she was a threat to their mission, but in the end, she ended up killing Adam and saving the captive humans! How's that one sound?"

"Oh yeah? How does this one sound: a weird fat alien by the name of Mojo who could have used several good rounds of liposuction traps us all in his alternate dimension where he made clones of us and tried to put us all on live TV shows with spaceships and dinosaurs so that he can make money off filming our adventures and disasters like a deranged reality series. And then when we escaped, some of the clones of Avalanche and Colossus followed us and wrecked our home trying to fight over the Kitty that lives in this dimension!" Amara retold in a smug voice.

Willow snorted as she said, "You want to hear problems with alternate dimensions? I had an incident when my alternate-self came to this dimension, but it turned out she was a vampire and a servant of evil and a dominatrix to boot! Although…now that I think about it, I kinda have to thank her. It was one of the things that helped me realize that I was a lesbian."

Kennedy and Xander had to ponder that one for a bit before smiling. Xander grinned lewdly and he chuckled, "Oh yeah, I quite remember the leather outfit that the vamp-Willow had on while she was here."

This earned him a well-aimed smack upside the head courtesy of the red-haired Wiccan.

"Now that I think about it, it's sort of like a trend, really. I mean, Angel and Buffy, Spike and Buffy, and then Willow and her homosexuality…boy, I'll say one thing about vampires: they really help you get your priorities straight in your love life," Kennedy remarked.

"OK, I have to admit having an alternate version of you from another dimension turning out to be a vampire is kind of weird," Amara admitted.

Sam then said, "OK, how about this? One time, Dr. Strange's apprentice named Benny Barumpbump accidentally came to our school to find three fairies that escaped his dimension and somehow released two demons on our front lawn on the day we got our Institute inspected by representatives from the school board! And in the end, we had a demon wedding, two of the inspectors ran off together, and Kitty got chased by the Sweet, Sugar, and Syracuse because of her love-triangle with Peter and Lance!"

"Syracuse?" Rona repeated, not sure if she heard right.

Tabitha explained, "One of the three fairies. She had over two-hundred sisters, so by the time they got to her, all the good names were kinda taken."

"Please!" Vi groaned, "You X-Men and Misfits think you had romance problems with love triangles like the ever-so infamous one we were told five times by your various teammates about the disasters between Lance, Peter, and Kitty? Try this one! The original Slayer, Buffy, had a romantic relationship with a vampire named Angel who actually had a soul, so though Angel was a good vampire, Buffy fell in love with a creature she was fated to kill! And when she and Angel went home run all the way, Angel lost his soul and became evil and started killing everyone! And when Willow gave him back his soul too late, Buffy still killed Angel in order to close up some demonic portal! Only for Angel to come back from the dead and cause some more ruckuses when Buffy fell in love with Riley, a soldier of the Initiative who was being enhanced by chemical experimentation by a scientist named Dr. Maggie Walsh who wanted Buffy dead because she was a threat to the Initiative! And then after the Initiative was destroyed by the Adam-Project, Buffy and Riley broke up because their relationship hit the skids, and then she went on and off again between Angel and another evil vampire named Spike! And Spike even tried to rape her! And when Spike was killed in the Battle of the Hellmouth in Sunnydale in order to destroy the Turok-Han, Buffy declared that she couldn't trust Angel anymore because he ended up to work for an evil firm called Wolfram and Hart and now she's currently dating some guy named the Immortal while living in Rome! Try topping that one!"

Althea then said, "Easily. Not only have I been training with ninjas since I could walk, but I have to grow up and raise three psychotic and deranged triplet genius sisters who got control of a tank and made their first explosion out of building blocks, apple juice, and a Cabbage Patch Kids doll when they were only two years of age. And Daria, Quinn, and Brittany have done enough damage and acts of terrorism to make them and any invention they invent easily one of the greatest threats of human society and declare them as hostile invaders in over thirty three countries, including the U.S."

There was a loud explosion followed by maniacal giggling of Daria, Quinn, and Brittany as the Aquain tank-submarine rushed past the kitchen window outside in the front yard with Shipwreck, Low Light, Wolverine, Storm and Razor chasing the runaway vehicle as fast as they could.

"TRINITY!" roared Logan, "BRING BACK THE AQUAIN THIS MINUTE OR YOU THREE WILL NEVER LIVE TO SEE DAYLIGHT AGAIN!"

"How did they pick through the lock?" Ororo yelled as she took off to the skies.

"They must have stolen the keys from my room after they blew up my vault underneath my bed with that dynamite!" yelled Jake.

"Girls, when we get our hands on you, you three will be grounded until you're all twenty-one!" yelled Low Light as he pursued heatedly after them.

There was a small pause as Willow, Kennedy, Vi, Rona, Caridad, and Xander looked back from the scene of chaos to the Misfits and X-Men, pondering this latest revealed fact.

As crazy as their lives were, they didn't have anyone like Trinity in their ranks.

"You win," Kennedy admitted to the X-Men and Misfits, deadpanned.

"It's so nice to know that despite what we've been though, there are people who have gone through a lot more weirder and insane stuff," Xander remarked idly with some sarcasm as he sipped from his mug.

"Thanks for rubbing it in," Sam griped good-naturedly.

Meanwhile, Rogue, Wanda, and Dana were conversing privately to each other when they stopped to see Toad, Andrew, and Xi conversing softly in the study while writing something down…

"Hmmm…do you three know a word that rhymes with 'Slayer'?" Andrew asked Todd and Xi who were both busily crossing out and scribbling on their pieces of paper.

"How about prayer?" Todd suggested.

"Blessed be, lead to me?" Xi muttered, "No, I don't think that sounds right…"

Todd's face was scrunched up in concentration as he whined, "Aw, man! I need a word that rhymes with 'soul', yo!"

"Uh, do you have any idea what they're doing?" Rogue asked Wanda and Dana.

"No, and frankly, we don't want to," Wanda said shortly as she, Dana, and Rogue continued on their way. Dana snorted as she gave the doorway to the study a disdainful glare of contempt.

"As long as it is anything that concerns that blond, whiny, wimpy science-nerd, I couldn't care less," the scarred Slayer muttered. But then she noticed that Rogue and Wanda were giving each other knowing looks before smiling back at her.

"What?" Dana asked, frowning deeply, getting defensive.

"You like Andrew, don't you?" Wanda asked, but from the tone of her voice, it was as if obvious, and Dana felt her cheeks burn as she suddenly became hostile.

"I am not! Who could ever like a techno-geek? No one! That blond twit couldn't be a Watcher to a bowling ball! Only a complete idiot would actually think that the puny, little shrimp could actually be of use to anyone!"

Rogue and Wanda just smirked to each other as Dana continued ranting and complaining and griping.

"In denial," Rogue said.

"Big time," Wanda chortled.

"OH SHUT UP!" Dana snapped, overhearing the two mutant girls.

The next night, Faith, Wood, Roadblock, and Shipwreck all decided that keeping the kids cooped up was not going to do any good, so they proposed that they use the Mass Device to teleport all the kids to New York for a fun night of dancing and partying and clubbing, with the four of them acting as chaperones. Though sending Shipwreck was indeed dubious considering he wasn't the prime choice for a responsible grown-up, the other adults agreed that the four could take all the kids for a field trip to New York at might, provided that they each wore communicators and kept close watch. And since the Mansion was now abandoned, Razor felt it was best to start work on the glovatrix Xander had been begging the kat to build for him ever since they met at the Pit (and coincidentally, Xander was a huge SWAT Kats fan). And that was how the brown kat found himself in the empty living room, dutifully working with his tools, while the Professor was in a meeting with the rest of the Misfit handlers and Beast was in his laboratory. Jake sighed, his mind suddenly drifting back to thoughts of his former life in Megakat City…and Chance.

"Just like old times, huh?" Jake murmured sadly to no one in particular as he worked, screwing in a component to the apparatus.

"Um…do you always talk to yourself?" a tentative voice spoke behind him, and the kat jerked, his fur standing in end in the jolt, before he turned around to see the Misfit, Whitelighter standing behind him. Apparently, Justin was still at the Institute.

"Um…why aren't you with the other kittens and Slayers clubbing in New York City?" Jake asked, a bit nervous as if he had butterflies in his stomach (though he had no idea why). Justin gave a rueful smile as he settled on the couch behind Jake.

"Me and Pietro drew the short straws to watch Claudius and Barney, and I thought at first Jamie and Trinity could use the company with me and Pietro since he's too young to go clubbing with the others," the chubby boy said.

"'At first'?" repeated Jake, his whiskers twitching with some puzzlement. Justin's smile grew a bit more rueful and exasperated.

"Pietro, Trinity and Jamie snuck out of the Institute's grounds a half-hour ago with a spare teleporter watch, and someone needed to stay behind for Claudie and Barney's sakes, to make sure that they don't wreck the Mansion. I just put the stereo to play 'The Martian Hop' song on a continuous loop, so they won't be willing to leave the pen as long as they have that to entertain them. Plus, I added a few squeaky toys as a bonus to make sure they'd be too distracted to try anything. As long I check up on them every so often, it'll be okay."

"Ah," Razor murmured in response as he continued working on the glovatrix. There was only a general silence before Justin then decided to say one thing that wasn't as clichéd or meaningless. He knew whom Jake was still grieving about, and as foolish as it was, the Misfit didn't want to let Jake wallow in his sadness in brooding quiet.

"I wish I had an opportunity to meet Chance. He sounds like a wonderful person, and even though I never watched the series much about your adventures, a lot of the X-Men and Andrew told me that Chance was the type of kat who could be the best friend you could ever wish for," Whitelighter said softly. Jake's eyes warmed a bit in memory before he opened up.

"The X-Men weren't wrong in saying that," the kat said, "And that's what makes it all the more painful for me right now. I mean, don't get me wrong, Whitelighter. I love the kittens now like my brothers and sisters and being a teacher and mentor gives me a better sense of purpose than a SWAT Kat does most of the time. Heck, even the Badger can stand me if he and his psychotic clone aren't busy trying to make me life a living hell. But…I still long for the day when I have someone who I can have a deeper connection to. If not like the brotherly bond I had with Chance, then maybe…a more intimate one."

"Like Callie?" Justin asked, and then he let out an irk as he blushed, realizing he just placed his foot in his mouth and blurted out the question rather thoughtlessly. Justin looked really embarrassed as he hurriedly apologized in a panic attack.

"Eeek! I mean - ! I didn't to - ! I…yow. Jake, I didn't mean to be so nosy. I'm sorry!" Jake chuckled, not the least bit offended and thinking that the rather agitated and apprehensive state of the teen was a bit endearing.

The ex-SWAT Kat shook his head as he said easily, "Nah, don't apologize, kitten. I'm not offended, especially since a lot of the X-Men have asked me that question in the past after watching my adventures with Chance back at Megakat City on the DVDs. And unlike you, some like Xander, Andrew, and Remy were less than blunt and shameless about their questioning. Remy even told me that he wouldn't have minded going on a few dates with Callie had they stayed longer in Megakat City. Unfortunately, Rogue overheard him at the second he said that."

Still, Jake's eyes glazed a bit with some regret as he continued to fixatedly work on the new glovatrix, saying as he worked, "I…I'm not sure how to best describe the way I felt about Callie…but I was never really in love with her in a romantic sense. I loved her as a close friend and she has helped me and Chance multiple times whenever we fought evil and we would have trusted her with our lives and secrets if it had been necessary. But if I wanted her as a girlfriend or future lover and wife, no. I knew she had feelings for me ever since we first ran into her, and yeah, I can admit I was flattered and thought about the idea of the two of us being in a relationship, especially since it was set up perfectly that Chance had feelings for Felina Feral and I could be set up with Callie. But…I just didn't feel that way to her in the end. Though I did care for her, I meant it when I told her that there really wasn't anything in Megakat City worth staying for. I'm sorry that I hurt her, but I couldn't lie about something like that, especially since I can't fake my feelings. And it's better for Callie that I did this in the longer run."

Justin gave the kat an unreadable look, but he forced himself to remain calm and non-eager as he said, trying to sound casual, "I see…"

Jake then clarified, "I guess what I could really use is some sort of way to see Chance one last time, to know that he's all right with me getting on with my life and that he didn't blame me for leaving Megakat City or not being able to do more to stop him from getting killed. Unfortunately, that probably won't happen in this lifetime."

Justin felt even more pained. He then realized just how much Jake blamed himself for Chance's death and for bearing the weight of survivor's guilt, and though he had no way of comprehending it, Whitelighter guessed that it was still hurting. After a long pause, Justin silently got up to go check on the babies but before he left, he turned to Jake who was still working on the new glovatrixes.

"And Jake?" Justin stated, "Thank you for sharing. And I won't tell anyone."

Razor's body went still for a brief second before relaxing, and though the brown-furred kat didn't turn around or look up from his work, Jake smiled as the Misfit left, "And thanks for listening."

At the same time in New York, Shipwreck and Roadblock weren't exactly pleased to learn that Pietro, Daria, Quinn, Brittany and Jamie had snuck out of the X-Mansion to go party with the other kids at the dance club. But Faith stuck for the two teenagers, saying that after all the chaos, worry and training that they had been enduring for the past several days, they deserved to blow off some steam and frustration as much as anyone. And she also pointed out that if Quicksilver, Trinity and Multiple were mature enough to fight enemies all over the entire world, then they were owed a chance to relax and have fun like any of the older kids.

Thus, in the end, Jamie, Trinity and Pietro were allowed to stay and dance their troubles away. Pietro was already living it up as he tore across the dance floor under the flashing, multicolored lights with three of the Slayer girls (who didn't mind his annoying tendencies for once in the euphoria). Andrew and Xi were already trying to break-dance with Daria, Quinn, and Brittany acting like complete, musical maniacs. Jamie was happily enjoying the beat of the loud music as he sipped on a soda, having one of the best times of his life and all thanks to the Slayer that was chugging a beer next to him on the couch.

If Multiple had been awed of Faith after her spar with Wolverine, it was nothing compared to the level of fawning the mutant adolescent had for the brunette Slayer as of now.

Jamie was purely euphoric and ecstatic as he exclaimed with pure admiration and delight, "You are so cool! You're the coolest Slayer and grown-up ever! None of the adults back at the X-Mansion would ever let us party like this! You are so cool!"

But before Faith could answer, a voice was sneering behind her.

"Oh look, if it isn't one of the X-freaks. I remember you, kid. You the one with the lame power, the one named Jamie, aren't you?" a familiar male voice, and Faith and Jamie looked up to see Duncan Matthews along with a small group of men bearing regalia and clothing bearing the symbol of the Friends of Humanity.

"Duncan…" Jamie said with a disgusted face. Faith felt the need to deal with this annoyance as she stood up to defend the young adolescent.

"Why don't you leave him alone, jackass?" she growled.

"Why don't you mind your own business, mutie-lover?" Duncan snapped, and Faith pretty much did the only reasonable thing she could do in this situation. She flattened Duncan and sent him to the floor with a swift hook to the chin.

"Get her! Take the kid and scram!" Duncan yelled, spitting out blood. Faith immediately started punching and kicking, but she was quickly overwhelmed as two men grabbed Jamie and dragged him out of the rear exit of the night-club, but before Faith could be subjected to a painful beating, Shipwreck, Wood and Roadblock came to the rescue.

"BANZAI!" they yelled as they tackled the group off Faith, and Jean helped by lifting several of the men and tossing them into the bar with her telekinesis.

"Shall we?" Lance grinned suggestively to Fred, Pietro, Sam and Remy who all leered back mischievously.

"When in Rome…" quoted Fred as he picked up one FOH member and tossed him out the window. Upon seeing this, a large group of burly men rushed at the four boys with switchblades in the hands and ready to do some intense damage, but in their fury, they didn't realize that they were pushing their way and running past Vi, Rona, and Amara. Sharing a look, the two slayers and the mutant shared a unanimous nod before Amara and Vi stuck their foots out right before the leading men could lapse by. With a yell, the two men fell flat on their stomachs, dropping their knives, and upon the sudden and makeshift blockade obstructing the path, several of the Friends of Humanity members also tumbled and fell on top of the first two. And for several seconds, there was general cursing and shoving as the tangled bodies tried to push and free themselves. However, there were a leftover of three men still standing and ready to murder Vi and Amara for their interference. Unfortunately, they didn't see Rona and Tabitha from behind as she adroitly picked up a pool cue and twirled it a bit before she smartly whacked one of the bigots upside the head, breaking the stick upon impact and sending him reeling to the floor. Tabitha took care of the other man with a swift kick to the groin.

Faith yelled as the rest of the men from the Friends of Humanity fled, "They took Jamie! That creep named Duncan took him!"

The X-Men and Misfits rushed out…only to see Duncan Matthews waiting for them with a group of a hundred men, each one of them armed to the teeth with guns and automatic rifles. And Jamie was being held hostage by two burly guys who seemed oddly familiar…

"That's her! That's her!" yelled one of the men holding Jamie, pointing at Faith, "That was the one who beat us up when we insulted her dyke friends! She ain't normal! She beat us up real bad last week!"

"Duncan…"growled Scott. The blond bigot sneered as he pointed at Jamie.

"I wouldn't move if I were you, Summers, not unless you want the kid to get a bullet in the gut," Duncan threatened, but with a blur, Jamie suddenly felt himself get carried out of danger by a moving force before he found himself back alongside the X-Men in Pietro's arms. Quicksilver sneered.

"I'm sorry, what was that? Something you were saying about not moving?" the speedster grinned.

"Shoot them all!" Duncan yelled to his men.

"Ahem…" a voice coughed from behind, and the small battalion sent from the Friends of Humanity turned to see a very smug and eagerly-violent Kennedy, her arms crossed over her chest and with her was Willow and the rest of the Slayer girls Wood and Faith encouraged to go clubbing from the London academy. And from what Scott could best estimate, there had to be at least five-hundred, a good outnumbering for the relatively small mob of one-hundred sent by Graydon Creed.

"Word of advice, buttheads," grinned Kennedy as she cracked her knuckles, "Don't mess with the friends of the Slayers."

The men then turned their guns instantly on the group of girls, ready to shoot and kill, but divine intervention by Jean and Willow settled that threat quickly.

"I don't believe you should ever turn a gun on a lady, you creeps. It's very rude and quite disrespectful, you know. But seriously, I mean, it really does wonders when you get a proper course of etiquette because then maybe you wouldn't be so anti-social and stuff," Willow said with a touch of her trademark uncertainty and nervousness as she and Jean telekinetically lifted the weapons and firearms out of the startled soldiers' hands, hovering them out of reach and high into the air. Now the goons from the anti-mutant union party were left with absolutely nothing to defend themselves except their bare fists…which probably said jack compared to the might and strength of a vampire slayer.

"Get 'em!" yelled Kennedy, whooping the battle cry as the Slayer girls, the X-Men, the Misfits, and Xander charged. Andrew tried to slink away, but he was grabbed unceremoniously by the collar thanks to Todd and Xi and they dragged him into the biggest fracas of Andrew's life.

All in all, everyone could admit later that it had been a thrilling and uplifting experience. After all, nothing brings friends and allies together than a mutual and cohesive butt-whooping on a common enemy who certainly deserved it. And all the Slayers, the Scoobies, the X-Men, the Misfits, Roadblock, Shipwreck, Andrew, Xander and Wood were exhilarated by the high levels of adrenaline and the rush of pride from fighting a good brawl.

Unfortunately, back at the Institute…

"YOU FOUR DID WHAT?" the remaining Misfit handlers, the X-Adults, and Giles bellowed altogether in unison as they literally shouted loud enough for half of the town of Bayville to hear them as they glared at a sheepish Wood, Faith, Shipwreck and Roadblock.

"We destroyed a club and caused many men from the Friends of Humanity to be sent to the hospital for the serious but non life-threatening injuries they gained from the fight," Wood shrugged. Giles placed his hands on his hips, annoyed beyond disbelief.

"Well, I certainly hope you enjoyed making a fool of yourself, Robin! And Jamie was not even supposed to be there in the first place! How can you possible think that exposing ourselves into these kind of dangerous and perilous situations is even beneficial for the kids?" Giles snapped.

"Are you kidding?" cheered Sam from the background, "That was so cool! I can't wait ta' tell my pa that I got into my first bar fight!"

"Why would your Dad be proud of that?" Tabitha asked, giving her boyfriend an odd look. Sam's grin grew even wider.

"Dad always said that when a boy gets into a good rumble in a bar, that's one of the first testaments to being a man! Heck, any time you can give it to some jerks good in a bar is fine and dandy to us! Yeah, he's scold me and ground me, but Pops'll be pleased when he learns I sent that one FOH jerk flying into the dumpster in the back alley! Still, hope he's all right. From what I heard from the paramedics, he's gonna need physical therapy and a wheelchair for the next several months…"

"Considering he was trying to mow us and the Slayer-girls down with that AK-47, I think we can let that one slide," Boom-Boom retorted with an exasperated roll of her eyes at her boyfriend.

"I wonder how Graydon Creed's taking the fact that a lot of his men got beaten up by Slayers?" Brittany mused out loud.

At the same moment, over at the Friends of Humanity headquarters in downtown New York City…

"YOU WERE WHAT?" screamed Graydon Creed at a heavily injured Duncan Matthews (unluckily chosen as the messenger) from his main office, his voice so piercing and sharp that any human being from a mile radius could register the tone of humiliated, shocked fury, "YOU WERE DEFEATED BY GIRLS? MY MEN HAD BEEN BURTALLY BEATEN, PANTSED, GIVEN WEDGIES, AND SENT TO THE HOSPITAL AND EMERGENCY WARD FOR BROKEN BONES, CONTUSIONS, AND CRACKED SKULLS BY A GROUP OF HUMAN, MUTIE-LOVING GIRLS? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Apparently, the only thing that could have been more humiliating for the Friends of Humanity would be that if they had also been consecutively beaten brutally by a pack of Brownie Scouts.

---

The next morning, after the fifth Danger Room session over at the Institute…

"Ugh, I'm never going to get used to these Danger Room sessions," Chao-Ahn moaned to Fred in Cantonese, "I swear, fighting and staking robots isn't the same thing as killing an actual vampire."

"This is absolute torture," Rona groaned.

Kennedy however was pretty jubilant, saying, "I don't know about that, Rona. It seems to be doing us a world of good! And I've already asked Scott for blueprints of the Danger Room so that we can try constructing a magical one back at the Slayer Academy where it could really be put to good use! And I can just imagine the sessions we'll be able to do with our Danger Room if we can get it off the ground!"

Ray shot a look at Scott, complaining in a brittle, sarcastic tone, "Congratulations, you succeeded in making yet another clone of yourself except only this time, it's a Cyclops as a lesbian! This is really going to go well in the history of the X-Men, knowing we just created more Danger Room fanatics in the world! "

"I wouldn't say that," Pietro leered, snickering, "Especially since it looks like Jean wouldn't mind being in a threesome or playing on the other side of the fence. Hee hee hee – ow! Ow, my butt! My butt! She shot me! And in the good cheek this time!"

"Thanks for letting me borrow it," Jean smiled a wicked grin as she handed Shannon back her crossbow as Pietro kept hopping up and down in agony amid the laughing Slayers, Misfits, and X-Men with Dragonfly and Whitelighter trying their best to pull and heal the wound caused by the crossbow arrow embedded deeply into Pietro's rear end. And Scarlet Witch was taking pictures of the memorable event with her camera.

"It was a public service, and I'm beginning to see why it's so much fun to pound the silver-twerp," giggled the brown-haired Slayer.

Unfortunately, at that moment, the good times of the past several days came to an abrupt end…

Batgirl then suddenly appeared right in front of the group, instantly yelling urgently before anyone even had time to yelp in surprise at her sudden teleportation via the Mass device, "You guys! There's trouble!"

"What's wrong?" Cover Girl asked, instantly alarmed. Batgirl gave the female Joe an incredulous look.

"Haven't you guys been watching the news?" she demanded in disbelief. The mutants, the Slayers, and the Joes all looked back blankly at Batgirl and each other before shaking their heads.

"We just got out of the Danger Room and have been training since five o'clock early this morning, so we haven't even had time to turn on the TV or eat breakfast. Why? What happened?" Jean asked. Batgirl just worriedly rushed over to the recreation room while the curious and slowly dreading Watchers, Joes, and the teenagers followed and stood all around the masked vigilante, crowding the room as Batgirl turned on the TV with the remote control and exclaimed with a mixture of anger, disbelief, frustration and dread.

"THAT'S what happened!" Batgirl yelled. And to their collective and growing horror, the X-Men, the Misfits, the Joes, the Slayers, and the Scoobies saw what was unfolding live on CNN right before their very eyes.

"Welcome back to CNN, with our continuing coverage about the now-infamous Halliwell witches, also known as the Charmed Ones," the woman in the sharp, red business suit spoke in a slightly fearful but nevertheless controlled and professional voice, "As you may have known, we have received confirmation from the Department of Homeland Security and the San Francisco Police Force that this is not a hoax and that indeed, witchcraft does exist and have been plaguing the world for the past several centuries. Agent David Keyes of the Homeland Security had been quoted that this was not a hoax and indeed, the coverage we have received is indeed real, citing that the Halliwells have been investigated as paranormal threats for the past years under his investigation..."

"Oh no!" Jamie blurted out, his jaw dropping.

"Mein Gott!" Kurt exclaimed in terror as he held his hands to his head, "It can't be!"

"And it's not the only one!" wailed Quinn, guessing immediately that this could only result in a media frenzied, wild-storm as she snatched the remote control from Barbara's limp fingers and started wildly changing the channels, only to find that her assumption was indeed correct.

Click.

"The Halliwells have been reported to come from an existing line of Wicca blood that has been apparently prevailed veer since the colonial times during the Salem Witch trials, a trio of three sisters destined by Fate to fight demons and warlocks and bequeathed by their ancestors a multitude of spells by a Book of Shadows…" a gray-haired man spoke for MSNBC.

Click.

"Could this be the next growing threat for the world and for humans, especially after the panic and fury caused by the invasions of aliens and mutant-kind? Could the Charmed Ones be the newest threat to be exposed since the outing of the mutants? We asked Reverend Stryker, Pat Robinson, and Graydon Creed for their input…" another young male anchor spoke from Fox News.

Click.

"And it is exceptionally a wonder that the Piper, Phoebe, and Paige Halliwell have established ties to the mysterious groups of G.I. Joe, the Misfits, the X-Men and Batman of all people. If these women have such powerful and influential bonds with heroes of high places, then it is safe to assume that the Halliwells sisters are indeed not normal people and very powerful magic users…" Summer Gleason reported from Gotham City News.

Click.

"I used to have the power to generate fire before I lost it, You see, a while back, I fell in love with a half-demon named Balthazor, and in my love, I turned a blind eye and abandoned my sisters to become his Queen of Hell. Though I repented later and killed Balthazor to save my sisters…I had the fire powers when I used to be evil," quoted Phoebe as they saw an image of the middle Halliwell sister talking with a group of the resentful X-Men, Misfits, Joes, and the Slayers, replaying a very familiar scene. Scott's eyes widened immediately behind his visor.

"That was when we were talking with them at their house!" Cyclops exclaimed in shock, "This was exactly what happened when we went to the Halliwells' house to determine what was their role in Jubilee's parents' deaths with the Turok-Han!"

"They must have had the Charmed Ones under surveillance then while we fought against the Heartless! The CNN chick said that the Department of Homeland Security had been investigating the Charmed Ones for the past several years, and they must have captured our discussion on video! Oh damn it all to hell and back, the federal government has this footage on tape! They have evidence!" Low Light swore as many of the Slayers and mutants started whispering fearfully and worriedly to one another. This was now spiraling out of control and out of their hands…

"And it gets even worse! Look at this! They have the footage of when we fought against the Heartless!" Cover Girl moaned as she pointed at the TV where Quinn stopped at the next channel of the BBC network, and indeed, what Courtney said was true. There, on display for possibly the entire world to see was the ferocious battle as the Slayers battered at the hulking, black monstrosity with the crossed-out heart symbol on its chest with their weapons while the X-Men, Misfits, and Joes blasted it with everything they got. As the video then showed the mighty Leomon blasting the experiment of darkness with his attack, a woman with a British, cockney accent was speaking in the background, narrating her report while hundreds of thousands of people in the United Kingdom watched on.

"The federal government of the United States have classified from their intelligence reports that the creature you are witnessing is called a Heartless, and apparently, from the surveillance that was captured in the city of San Francisco at the Halliwell residence, General Hawk of the G.I. Joe military command has said they are an instrument of a demonic force sent by a mysterious group called the Thirteenth Order hoping to doom the planet Earth in a ritual referred to as 'the Gathering of Twilight'. Though there is no word from General Hawk or those of the military, Agent Keyes says that this further proves that the Charmed Ones are a viable threat and necessary action must be taken immediately. Already, the Task Force and the S.W.A.T. team along with the various police forces in San Francisco have been rumored to be grouping together at an inevitable showdown at the Halliwell residence…"

Wood felt his heart drop to his feet as he said slowly, trying to maintain his calm demeanor while bridging the possible problems that would additionally arise if they managed to clear the Halliwells out of danger, "And not only that but the public is now aware of the existence of the Heartless and the proposed end of the world. This won't get any easier for the Charmed Ones, or us even if we do live through this. And we can't erase their memories about the existence of witchcraft and Wicca and the supernatural now that this has been going on for a while. We don't even know how long the Department of Homeland Security has been holding this information nor do we know who they told."

"Hey, you guys! Look at the bottom of the screen! The logo!" Kennedy exclaimed loudly, bringing the conversation around her to a standstill as she pointed at the television set. There, in clear white lettering, were the words "Property of KTSF station and Lexcorp Media".

"Lexcorp? And the KTSF station? Oh damn it, will this cause a lot of frustration!" Roadblock swore, his face hot and flushed and dark with a scowl. Ray turned to the G.I. Joe machine-gunner, lost already.

Bezerker asked, "Why? What's the deal with Lexcorp and KTSF?"

Spirit explained with a grimace, "Lexcorp, Ray. Lexcorp. It's one of the many lucrative enterprises and businesses owned by the multi-billionaire tycoon, Lex Luthor."

Piotr blurted out the answer as it sunk in for everyone else, "Oh no! Lex Luthor! That means that the Hellfire Club is behind this then! That's how they got the footage and that's why they're exposing this to the world! So that they can turn the public against the Halliwells and steal the Nexus!"

"Oh shit…" Faith cursed.

"Oh my stars and garters," Hank breathed in horror. But then Batgirl summarized the fact that their worst fears had been confirmed.

"It's too late," Batgirl said, panting heavily with loss, "The Charmed Ones have been exposed…"

Author's Note: Before I say anything, I will say this about the future story-line: THINGS. ARE. GOING. TO. GET. WORSE. Next Friday, in "Stand-Off", things get intense for the Halliwells as they are left under the mercy of the mobs, the police, and the federal agents planning to invade their home, but can the X-Men, the Slayers, the Scoobies, the Misfits, and the Joes stop this madness before it goes too far? Find out next week, and until then, read and review! And I'm so sorry this chapter came a little late! I didn't plan it on being so long!