Chapter 1

Xander was walking along the streets of Gotham City in the area known as 'The Narrows' which most would consider a fairly crazy thing for anyone to do alone at night. Xander wasn't to worried though, he had spent the better part of the past three years facing off against Vampires, Demons, and other assorted creatures of the night. Things that were usually 3 to 4 times stronger and faster than any human could hope to be.

He hadn't done a lot of patrolling since he started this trip since he was alone and as his friends liked to remind him, the "normal one". He knew that at best he could only ever take 1 vampire at a time, 2 if he really had to, but that was really only that one time and he didn't want to relive the pain of that anytime soon. Even so he couldn't not patrol at least once every couple of days. He knew too much of what was out there and had to do what he could to try and make things safer for the masses that didn't know what was out there.

He had been in town for about a week and sold his car as soon as he got here. Gotham had surprisingly good public transportation and he needed the money to buy a plane ticket home to Sunnydale. He was surprised the car made it cross country in the first place and knew it wouldn't make the trip back. He was just as surprised that he got a thousand dollars for the car from some gear-head that loved it and wanted to rebuild it for his kid.

It seemed as though Gotham decided to be really good to him. Since he had gotten into town he had made a great deal selling his car, bought his plane ticket home that he could use anytime in the next month, and had found part-time work loading and unloading materials for a construction company. He had even dusted 2 vamps all by him self. The only reason he was patrolling again tonight is because he had heard of a weird guy running around in a bat-suit catching criminals, and he was really curious. Besides he mused to himself, it may be a demon.

As he came out from under a bridge he heard a girl yelling and what sounded like a fight. He rushed around the corner and saw 3 guys attacking and toying with a really attractive woman in her late 20's.

"Well damn"… His quiet outburst was enough to catch the attention of the nearest guy and also tiped him off that they were vampires, not people.

"Hey boys, Looks we got even more fun tonight. Good thing too, I was getting really hungry." The other two laughed and as one of them held on to the girl, the other two came for Xander.

"Hasn't anyone told you not to play with your food?" Xander gave a little smirk looking a lot more brave than he actually felt.

The three vampires stopped a looked at each other mildly confused that the little man wasn't worried and seemed to know what they were. They vamped out and started towards Xander again which made the woman freeze up in shock and fear.

One of the vamps decides to charge at Xander and he waits till the last moment pushing his hand out towards the vampires chest. A stake pops out from under his sleeve and dusts the first vamp as Xander ducks under a punch from the second, already running through the still settling ashes toward the third vamp and the girl. Both of the vampires are shocked into stillness trying to process how one of their own just got dusted by a guy just barely more than a kid. While they are standing there Xander pulls a water gun and starts dousing the vampire holding the girl with holy water.

The vamp drops the girl and as it continues to scream he yells "RUN!"

The girl gets about 10 yards before she comes to her senses and stops and spins around. Xander is trying to dust the injured vamp while the other is fast approaching. So far he hit it with the stake once but missed the heart and got several gashes across his chest for his trouble. But this time the other vamp in a blindingly quick move grabs him by the neck and slams him into the nearest wall.

"You just killed my sire you little BITCH! For that you get to scream for days." The vamp was nose to nose and Xander was fairly certain he was going to need an ambulance if he made it out at all, as it was he could just barely get out a horse "run" to the girl who was still standing there facing down what looked like an acid scarred vamp.

No one expected what happened next as the girl brings up her hand with a oddly shaped black box and hits the vamp in the head with a tazer gun. Once again the vamp is screaming and twitching on the ground while the woman is still standing there looking terrified, when Xander takes all the strength he has left and drives his knee into the vamps crotch. He would have had at least a twinge of sympathy if not for the whole almost being killed thing, so he just pulled his spare stake and caught his breath. The vamp he had just kicked recovered just as quickly and Xander was hard pressed to stay out of range of his wild punches and kicks. Luckily the vamp wasn't a great fighter but he was still to fast to leave an opening that Xander could use. Xander's salvation came from the least likely of places. The third vamp finally managed to yank the electrified probes from his face and started swinging wildly as it got up accidentally knocking the other vamp on its back. Xander, not known for looking a gift horse in the mouth jumped on the vamp staking it with all his weight behind him. The only problem with this was that his stake dusted with the vamp and he was left with a little holy water in his water gun as his only weapon. Sensing this the enraged and wounded vamp started beating him mercilessly not even giving him a chance to get up.

Xander knew he was done at this point, he did his best to roll with the punches and soften the blows as best he could but on the ground it didn't mean much. His only hope now was that the woman was smart enough to get out before it remembered she was there.

The vamp got a really good kick in and Xander felt a several ribs breaking under the force. Then a punch to the head almost knocked him out and he dazedly saw the follow up about to put his lights out when suddenly with a slight scream, the vamp was gone. Shaking his head and trying to get to his feet as fast as he could, also looking for a piece of wood, his jaw drops as he sees his rescuer.

Rachel falls to her knees with relief as she sees batman fly into the 'thing' that attacked her and hopefully saved the kid that came to her rescue. She watches the fight intently as she starts to realize that things are off about the fight.

Batman, aka Bruce Wayne, was doing his last sweep of 'The Narrows' for the night when he heard the sounds of a fight. As he got to a neighboring rooftop he looked down and saw Rachel looking like she was attacked, and two guys fighting nearby while she just looked on in horror. Quickly jumping off the building eager to help his friend he grabs his cape to slow his fall and hits the guy who is beating the person on the ground. When he gets a good look at the guys face inwardly he is shocked. Outwardly no one noticed since he continued beating the crap out of the guy. 'Gordon wasn't kidding, this mask thing took off really quick. Plus this guy must be on drugs he's insanely quick and strong for just a street thug, and he should have gone down a while ago.'

As fast as the vamp was, Batman was able to dodge every attack with just the slightest bit of movement. Efficiency of motion and brutal would be a good way to describe the way Batman was moving, but Xander noticed that nothing was doing much damage until it seemed batman came to the same conclusion and started breaking bones. The vamp threw a right hook at batman's head and almost at the same time batman grabbed the wrist of the arm and spun dropping the elbow over his shoulder breaking the joint and kicking back and low knocking the vampire to his back.

Xander seeing his chance grabbed a piece of broken 2x4 he saw and plunged it into the vamps heart dusting him. He was feeling fairly proud of himself and was about to say something when the batman grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed him against the wall. The pain of his broken ribs knocking the air from his lungs and causing him to cough up a little blood and fighting to catch his breath.

"What are you, and what did you do to him!" Batman yelled into Xander's face. To say that he was intimidated was a bit of an understatement, but at the same time he was also in a lot of pain at the moment and not very happy about it.

"Get off me you wonder prick…cough if you haven't noticed I just saved her over there, gasp and made your life a lot easier." He stoped to take a couple shallow breaths and spit out what he hoped was the last bit of blood in his mouth and lungs. "I may have gotten beat down and got a few broken ribs for my trouble, but at least I did it without tights." He figured it was probably a bad idea to insult the guy that just saved his life, especially since it may be a psycho in a bat costume, but he was never accused of being too smart.

Stunned that anyone would talk to batman like that, batman stood back and let him go saying the first thing that came to mind. "It's body armor, not tights."

Xander chuckled a bit as he slid down the wall, he didn't really have the strength to stand now that the adrenalin started to leave his system. "Well well… defensive are we?" Xander just shrugged and tipped his head towards the ashes, "By the way, you've just had your first encounter with vampires. So now that everyone's caught up, could someone call me an ambulance?"

At this Rachel just rushed over to Xander and started to check him over while pulling out a cell phone. Batman just took another step back and thought things over quietly for a moment while Rachel call 911.

"What's your name?"

Xander just looked at him for a second then replied, "Xander Harris."

Batman just nodded and said, "I think I believe you but we'll talk later I need to know more." As batman turned to disappear Rachel quickly snapped her phone shut and spun, "Batman!..." batman paused halfway into the shadows of the alley they were next to. "Thank you." Rachel said quietly. Then he just disappeared into the shadows.

Xander started mumbling to himself before Rachel turned back to him, "Yea I save the girl and the cryptic gothic guy gets the thanks, I hope this doesn't become the running theme of my life."

Rachel turns back with a small smirk on her face having caught most of his comment, "Thank you" she said as she knelt next to him again. "So, do you make it a habit of saving the girl?"

Xander blushed a bit and looked down at that, "Sorry, I really don't do this for the thanks, but I have a small issue with cryptic guys that disappear into the shadows. But, I think I can make an exception since the guy did save my life." With his standard lopsided smile, though it was a little weak considering the state he was in, he added, "And yes I try to save the girl at least once a week, in fact I'm lucky you happened to be here, it's Friday and I've had a slow week." He chuckled a bit then winced and grabbed his chest, which made him wince again since he forgot about the large gashes there.

Rachel paled a little bit as she noticed his pain again and started checking him over again, "By the way, I'm Rachel Dawes, assistant DA here in Gotham."

"Xander Harris, Ending a cross country road trip here." He noticed she was shaking and pale as she checked him over. "are you ok?" he asked.

Rachel looked him in the face and gave a small, hopefully reassuring, smile. "I think I should be asking you that question…" she paused to take a deep breath, "but I guess I'm ok, just… Were those really vampires?"

She saw a great deal of caring and sympathy when she looked into his eyes as she asked.

"Sorry, but yea they really were. I know it will take a lot of getting used to, but you should try not to think about it, there isn't really anything that the law can do, and there is a system to take care of things that go bump in the night. Just be really careful at night, carry a cross or holy water, they'll help you get away, and don't invite people into your house after dark, just hold the door open and gesture. They can't come in without a verbal invitation."

She didn't seem to reassured, but there wasn't anything more he could say. They waited in silence until the ambulance arrived and he explained that she was attacked by a couple of thugs and he jumped them and scared them off. She seemed to accept that, or at least didn't argue the point and he told her to get home as they loaded him into the ambulance, reassuring her that he would be fine. She quickly went back to her car a couple blocks away after getting the name of the hospital he was being taken to, and quickly went home though she was sure that she wouldn't be sleeping anytime soon.

Batman watched all this silently from the rooftops before following the ambulance to the hospital and finding out his room number. He was going to have to stop by and talk to this Xander Harris, but not tonight. Regardless of his misgivings that the man was on the level, he couldn't come up with any other plausible explanations for what happened tonight, and he had saved Rachel nearly sacrificing himself to do it. He would give him a chance to recover a bit before he confronted him. With one last thought he swung off into the night.

"I'll definitely be seeing you soon."