This is dedicated to those of you who watched the show.
Sunday, May 10th, 1998 – The First Day of Fumbling – 11 AM
"Well, that didn't exactly go as planned," Alexander Lambert considered as he sat down and Willow wandered over. "But I think I'm starting to get the hang of this."
"Really?" she inquired as he stole a sip of her mocha. She glared at him, "No chocolate thievery, Mister. So what did you change?"
"Um, since it's still morning, but I prevented two hit and runs reported by the police, being daylight and all. The 'Letter' simply adjusted itself to not include 'em. I also removed a board with nails from the road and watched as a report of a tire blow out and accident disappeared."
"You are the bravest man I've ever met," Willow deadpanned and grabbed her coffee back. Xander rolled his eyes.
"I'm just trying this out ad seeing how it all works," he chuckled lightly. "Some of the things involving rescues, police calls and eventual arrivals, morgue receipts, that sort of thing, I can't really do anything about until night. If only we had a way of being able to set up cameras all over town and get pictures of this stuff."
"We could, but it would be expensive, and we'd have to act quickly."
"Oh?"
"There's a bid to replace the current traffic light system with one that is better timed, and has emergency services capability included. The bid's due next Thursday, and I've been debating if we wanted to get involved. Not much margin."
"So how noticeable would cameras be?"
"Well, we could put in an obvious bid with them, then send a duplicate record back to us, and a bid without. Since the EMS (emergency services) stuff is radio and cable based, we could set up some sort of wireless webcam somewhere and just use the traffic cabling infrastructure to get signals back."
"So why haven't we put in a bid? Sounds like our security firm could handle it."
"Yeah, but it's really been hectic, and something like this kinda falls into the cracks. But Selma and I spent a few minutes after opening thinking of ways to expand the already-large amounts information gathered and put into the report without it becoming too big to use. By filtering out the 'unrelated' report stuff, it isn't a problem."
Giles walked in the front door with Jenny and Buffy. They all exchanged greetings, and beverages were ordered. Selma moseyed back to join the discussion. The three who had just entered were floored with Xander's new responsibility.
"Good Lord, Alexander," Giles inhaled and shook his head while exhaling, "I, I know that you are the center of this, but I can't see any reason why we can't consider our different patrol options as part of the report, with projected times a-and such."
Buffy caught on immediately, "Oh, so I can do the one that keeps me alive and lets me dust the most vamps. I might even be able to get a good night's sleep."
Giles smiled, "And if we have you turn in your report before you turn in, it will add more detail to what comes out of this, um, Letter."
Buffy mock-pouted, but looking around at the tech stuff around even the coffee shop, had an idea.
"Hey, can I get a camera and recorder thingy? That way you guys get the 4-1-1 but all I have to do is hand it in."
Everyone exchanged glances, Jenny answering, "That's actually a great idea, Buffy. And if we could add infrared to it, the report could include vamps missed."
Willow nodded, "And if we all wore them, even if not on patrol, maybe we could expand our capabilities. Giles, I don't suppose the Watchers would be willing to sell us information on human-looking demons? Stuff like general temperatures and stuff. I don't remember too much on that, though some had room temperature like vampires."
"Hmm, if you're willing to pay, at the very least they might provide accurate enough guesses, at least a range. And I daresay, it would make Buffy's patrols so efficient that she might even be able to schedule rotating nights off during the school year."
"I'm all over that, Giles," the blonde slayer assured him, "Xander? Wills? Do the camera thingies do buildings too?"
"What do you mean, Buffy?" Willow responded, "Do you mean see inside buildings?"
"Yeah, like those spy movies you and Xander have started to watch the last few months. You can see the, um, heat shadows? Anyway, those. If there's people in trouble or movement and no heat…we know where the vamps are in the day."
Giles smiled at his slayer-surrogate daughter, "Excellent thinking, Buffy. I, I don't know if we're really prepared for assaulting the enemy when they're in their lairs, but it might provide us with an even better opportunity of ambush."
Alexander and Willow smiled as their eyes met; in the last few months their blonde friend had slowly let her natural hair color show itself, choosing a style that streaked blonde with brunette, and so they could only make 'half-blonde' jokes. But she'd also during the course of the expanded group and training allowed herself to apply her functional but underused intelligence openly, and while no Willow, she'd in spite of Slaying moved to the bottom of the honor roll and when around her friends was trying to become passing-fluent in French, Spanish and Latin.
Giles had joked he'd wish she'd add English to her efforts—but after the next slightly rougher training session had wisely left the jokes to the younger people. And Buffy still enjoyed mangling the language in Old-Xanderesque ways just to keep him on his toes.
Xander turned to Selma as the others allowed themselves to talk about more of the same, especially as between the intellectual aspects for most of them, the Slayer in Buffy enjoyed tactical planning to 'beat the vamps twice' by beating them before she even got to the hitting part.
"What do you think, Selma?"
"All are excellent ideas, Captain, but I'd suggest for building-level intelligence you customize an RV or even two. Properly equipped, and large enough power capacities onboard, we could use a wide array, if you'll forgive the pun, of options to determine hostile locations. For that matter, in the unlikely situation of finding human-only crime, we could anonymously report it to police officers known for their tendency to carry out their duty."
Xander Lambert nodded in appreciation of the developing plan. "What we lack is manpower with the training and firepower. But we'll do what we can, maybe raid rather than invade the larger concentrations. Cause them to disperse into smaller groups and then attack the isolated numbers."
"I'm liking the plan, Xan," Buffy called over, Slayer hearing showing itself better than ever. "Is there any hope of getting any of this going before Drusilla shows up?"
"We'll try, Buffy," he smiled at his friend who had grown up so much since Halloween but still remained herself at heart. He watched as a certain broody cat wandered in and then meowed at Buffy, wanting to be petted.