Family
Chapter Eleven: Getting to Know You
Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.
Spoilers: to the end of season 7 of Buffy (I'm not including the season 8+ comics in this continuity), general spoilers for Batman and mild spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1.
Author Note: the version of the Batman that will appear here draws from several versions. And the X-Men jails from the X-Men: Evolution cartoon, although I'm not above drawing from the comics.
A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.
I wish to give thanks to JediKnight for betareading and general creative input.
Wayne Tower Penthouse
Once they exchanged some pleasantries a silence fell on the group until Buffy tried to break the ice.
"Well, Jean told me about mutants and everything, so what can every one of you do?" she said, and then quickly added, as the Professor was about to speak, "Well, except the Professor, Jean already told me about your mental powers."
Kurt looked at the Professor, who nodded, and then pressed a button in his watch, switching his appearance to his real furred and tailed self.
"I'm pretty agile and can teleport short distances." he said, making a jump to the higher part of a pillar, before teleporting in a cloud of sulfuric smoke back to the ground.
"Is that Sulfur? I thought that I smelled a bit on you back in the airport." Buffy said.
"Ja, every time that I teleport, I leave a cloud that smells like that." Kurt said, still wary of her.
"On my part I can control weather." Ororo said as she held her hand and a small white fluffy cloud formed over it. She made a small gesture and it changed to a grayish color, before starting to rain. With another gesture the cloud quickly dissolved.
"So that's how you are so good with the weather." Dawn said, remembering the weather prediction back when they had stopped in the manor, when no weatherman had been able to predict until it had been almost over the East Coast.
"In part, but I have always a sense for the weather." Ororo said, "And it's true that I grew up in the savanna, with my sister." she looked through the windows, "I stayed for a while with a tribe that saw what I could do and considered me a Goddess, until the Professor found me." she considered for a moment telling them about her time in Cairo as an street thief under the Shadow King, but she dismissed it reasoning that it didn't have much relevance to the matter. "I have been helping him since, first to set-up and then to run the school. We've met other mutants, some friendly, some... not."
"And there have been fights, I assume with those 'unfriendly' mutants." Buffy said, with a bit more of sarcasm that she intended.
"Unfortunately." The Professor said, "You have to understand that the awakening of mutant powers is sometimes a traumatic event, and coming on top of most mutants discovering their powers during their teen years..."
Buffy winced, and thought back to the events of Sunnydale High School. While the general atmosphere of the Hellmouth had helped things going far, far worse that they should, a lot of stuff that happened came down to teenagers being teenagers. Thinking back to some of the stuff she had done those years... was she better, or just luckier?
"And I assume that you are not the only adult mutant, and that their agendas can be very different from yours." Buffy said.
"Exactly, " Xavier said, surprised at the insight that the young woman showed, "My objective is help mutants to master their powers in order to integrate peacefully in society, so when it comes in the open..."
"You can point at them as productive members of the society and not ticking bombs, I understand." Buffy said, while mentally making the comparison with some demons, like the Brachen.
"Correct, but others have... different points of view." Xavier said.
"And they are charismatic enough to impress an angry and disoriented teen with their world view." Buffy said, "I have seen it before. Sunnydale had a problem with gangs that preyed on highschoolers."
She was proud of having managed to say that without snorting or outright laughing. It was technically correct, but the preyed part was more literal than metaphorical. A tense silence followed this, only broken by the ringing of the phone. Buffy answered, and after a few words she hung up.
"I had forgotten that Uncle Silas was coming." she said as an explanation.
"That would be Silas Wayne, isn't it?" the Professor said, "I know him, from a few social occasions Thomas invited me to."
"Thomas Wayne, I suppose." Buffy said, with a bit of chagrin, suddenly remembering what she had to say to Scott, and the reason why Silas was coming to visit, if Alfred was right, "Scott, can you come with me? There is something you should know and I had planned to tell you earlier, but with the entire mutant thing it totally slipped my mind."
A cave, close to Slaughter Swamp
Blackout followed the woman, the vampiress, deeper into the cave. She had helped him escape the cops' ambush, and then she had offered him a job. They had been waiting in a car, inside the mouth of the cave, until she had told him to follow her inside.
After a while they saw light before them, and soon afterwards they walked into a circular space with a bonfire in the middle. He looked at her quizzically, but she smiled and gave an ear-piercing whistle.
A bat flew down from the ceiling, before transforming into a man with a hooded red robe. Correction, a vampire in a hooded red robe, as his glowing yellow eyes could be seen inside the hood, which hid most of the face.
"Neat trick. You are the first vampire that I have seen that could do that." Blackout said with a smirk that showed his steel teeth.
"It's not a skill easy to learn, not to speak of the cost." the hooded vampire said with a shrug, speaking with a faint New Orleans accent. He motioned Blackout to follow him through a passage that looked like a dead end, only for the wall at the end to disappear, showing a chamber that was set up as an office and bedroom, with a single king-sized bed, a ladder that gave access to a trapdoor in the ceiling, a couple chairs and a sofa.
He sat down on the sofa and the woman sat to his side, leaning on him on a way that suggested that they were more than friends.
"So, ...ah, what do I call you?"
"Monk. It's not my real name, no more than yours is Blackout." he said, "And I want you as insurance. I have an operation going on in Gotham, and I had some cannon fodder ready, just in case. But I had really underestimated the Bat, especially given how he seems to have secured the aid of a Slayer." he said, "Not to mention that there is more than one now."
"Sorry, but you haven't been living as a part of the supernatural world for a few years, have you?" Blackout said with a snort.
"No, we haven't. This little project has taken a lot of our time." the woman said, "I assume then that it is not a recent phenomenon then."
"Not at all. The Slayer was based on the California Hellmouth for a while, but six, no, almost seven years ago..." Blackout started to explain about a second Slayer in the Gulf and Central America, who had disappeared around more than five years, only to be replaced by another in the East Coast, a real psycho, this one, and then in the last half year, teams of Slayers had been appearing out of the blue all over the world. He left out that some of his family was seriously considering summoning grandma Lilith to address the situation, that some of the supernatural heavyweights were starting to get a bit cheesed off with the Slayers, or that the Masters of the Mystical Arts seemed to be somewhat involved with them of lately.
Wayne Tower Penthouse
"...And that is it. We are no more related by blood than two random strangers." Buffy said, in a rather sparsely decorated studio.
"It doesn't matter." Scott said, "You and Dawn have been more family to me yesterday that Hank had been in the last years. Being family doesn't only mean sharing blood, although that helps..."
"I know, believe me, I know." Buffy said, thinking about Willow, Xander, Giles, even Faith and the late Anya, "My friends in Sunnyhell, they have become very close to me, like a family. We have had problems..." she said, thinking back to the events that ended with the fiasco at the vineyard, "...but we have endured... This brings me to the guy that is visiting, Silas Wayne."
"One of the Gotham Wayne's, I presume." Scott said.
"Yeah, Bruce great-uncle. Well, I suppose that he is also my, well, mine and Dawn, great-uncle, too." Buffy said, "I don't know anything about him, and his brother was the responsible for mom leaving Gotham, so be on your guard."
"And you?" Scott said.
Buffy's only answer was a smirk as she went toward the living room.
"I have told them," Dawn said when they came back, "About the Waynes."
"Then, you already know." Buffy said, "We still don't know what we are going to do about that."
"Yeah, that's right." Jean said, "That man is coming, Silas Wayne, right?"
"Yes, Silas Wayne, he was Thomas Wayne's uncle and Bruce Wayne's great-uncle." Professor Xavier said, earning a look from Buffy, "I know him. Thomas presented us, shortly before his death. A pretty interesting man, but, it has to be said, more than a bit cranky and opinionated. "
"Wonderful." Buffy commented sarcastically, just as the buzzer rang.
She went to open the door, showing a frail white haired man riding a motorized wheelchair. The man stopped when he saw the people gathered there, and smiled wryly before addressing the other man in a wheelchair.
"Hi, Charles, and these must be students on your school." the old man said, talking in a snobbish tone, belied by the smile in his face.
"Actually Ororo, whom you have already met, is part of the faculty now." Charles said, unfazed by the tone in the other man's voice, "As well as my right hand, as you well know. That was good imitation of your brother, by the way."
"Yes, Patrick grated on everybody nerves." the man answered in a more normal tone, "Anyway; I came to visit my grandnieces... You don't seem all that surprised."
"I just told them... Ahm... How do I address you?" Buffy said.
"Uncle would be nice, but I would settle for a simple Silas." Silas Wayne said, "And can you introduce me to your visitors?"
After introducing everybody, Silas looked at Scott with special attention.
"Scott Summers? Any relation with Hank Summers?" he asked with a frown.
"My uncle. But I haven't seen or heard of him since two years ago, and even then it was because I was looking for him." Scott said, and then looked down, "It went... poorly." He gathered himself quickly, and looking to the old man eye to eye... well, eye to sunglasses, rather, he added in a challenging tone, "Whatever the blood relation, to me, Buffy and Dawn are family."
"Good." Silas said with a smile and then turned to look at Xavier; "You have a good one here, Charles." he turned back to Scott and said, "In that case, I hope that will forgive this old coot if he considers you family too."
"Ah... Thanks?" Scott said.
"Don't thank me yet, kid." Silas said, with a smile "I can be a terrible nag at times, as Bruce can probably tell you." He took a deep breath, and turned to Buffy, "As a said, I came to visit you two. I didn't expect a full delegation of Xavier to be present."
"We were discussing Dawn enrollment in Xavier's school, actually." Buffy said, "They have an opening, and Dawn isn't happy in her current High School."
"Interesting. Do you need any help with tuition, or...?" Silas said.
"No, even before we knew about the money that Thomas and Martha left us, we had enough." Buffy said.
"And you, Buffy? What are your plans for the future?" Silas asked.
"...I don't really know." Buffy said, "The last years in Sunnydale were so much of a nightmare, that I never had time to think about what I wanted to do with my life."
"That bad?" Silas said, arching an eyebrow.
"You have no idea." Dawn said, her hand, unconsciously, going to her abdomen.
Silas noticed the gesture, but decided to leave it for the moment. Instead he focused his gaze on both Summers sisters and he didn't like what he saw. He prided himself in knowing what made people tick, even if his grandnephew baffled him on occasions, and there were hints of things he had only seen in war veterans.
He decided that he had to research Sunnydale in depth as soon as he could, because if things were as bad as he suspected from the sisters demeanor the city destruction had been a blessing in disguise, for everybody involved.
"What do you think?" Dawn said, which brought him back to the present, realizing that in his introspection, he had missed a chunk of the conversation.
"Sorry, what were you saying? I was woolgathering" Silas said with a sheepish expression.
"Scott had suggested that Buffy could go back to college here in Gotham..." Dawn explained
"Yes, Gotham University has a great reputation. The Psychology School in particular is one of the best of the country." Silas said.
"Really? I studied Psychology on UC Sunnydale." Buffy said, interested, "But with my work in the NGO, I don't know how much I could go to class."
"I could always talk with Hugo to see what can be done."
"Hugo?" Buffy said, "Sounds like a fashion designer."
"Maybe, but I'm talking about Professor Hugo Strange. A good friend and he is the dean of the School." Silas explained, missing Xavier's frown upon hearing the name, "I'm pretty sure we can hammer an arrangement about your classes."
TO BE CONTINUED...