Chapter 6.
It had been close to two months since the first appearance of the mysterious Spartan. Since then the death rate amongst demons and vampires had went up nearly one thousand percent. Every night he would hunt and destroy vampires, demons, and their nests. Since he had arrived on the scene the amount of various demons coming to town had dropped off considerably. The legend was growing and spreading quickly of a new hunter who was much more ruthless than the Slayer could ever be.
Ever since Xander and Cortana had set up in Alpha base they had continued to attempt to build 26th century technology from components of 20th century tech. They had had some successes and some failures but for the most part the equipment needed for them to continue the fight against the demons and vampires of the night was constructed. Cortana as she always thought to plan ahead always made spares and complete doubles of anything that she managed to create. Once she had a fully operation medical facility online she created a double and had it shipped to a secondary warehouse on the other side of the continent where it would remain until such time as it was needed. Other pieces were doubled and sent off as well. If ever Alpha base should fall and they survive they could simply head to the new base and begin the fight all over again no worse the wear save any injuries sustained during the fall of Alpha.
Buffy and Angel's relationship was slowly proceeding on course towards disaster though there was no way for either of them to know of the clause hidden deep within the original spell used to curse him with a soul for the sins of the demon Angelus.
With the massive drop-off in demons and vampires to fight it made for an easier social life in Buffy's life, which she was happy to have but she still resented the fact that she only had the Spartan to thank for that. Though one slight problem had occurred thanks to him, the low level demons might have started running for the hills but that didn't prevent the more powerful ones from coming to Sunnydale looking for a good fight.
They were currently fighting a group of Polgaran demons who had coming looking for the prestige of killing the Spartan. It was just their luck that they ran into Buffy and Angel first.
"Buffy! Duck." Angel shouted as he kicked one of the demons over Buffy's head.
Buffy dropped to the ground as the seven-foot demon flew over her head to crash into the side of a crypt. She quickly regained her feet and staked the polagaran in the head with her stake. Their natural armor prevented her from going for a strike to the heart, if she could even find the heart on them, so she went for the only other exposed sure kill shot. After killing it she jumped back into the fray, the bodies of two other polagaran's were spread around the cemetery but there was still two remaining and they were tough to kill.
Angel ducked under the arm of one to get behind it and swiftly wrapped his hands around the demons neck, snapping it easily with his vampiric strength. The demon slumped to the ground dead; this only left the largest one most likely their leader as well. This one was well over 9 feet tall and his body was covered in scars denoting that he had survived a hell of a lot of fights in his time.
Buffy and Angel circled around the demon waiting for an opening to present itself. The demon watched them warily knowing that these two could kill him if he made a mistake. It was somewhat of a standoff, the two demon hunters were tired from the fight but could still fight, and the old demon knew that he couldn't fight the both of them at once without leaving himself open to attack.
Buffy was breathing quite hard, the fight having taken a lot out of her. These things were quite strong and having to dodge their blades was extremely difficult. She had a few slashing cuts to her new clothes, not to mention to the skin underneath. Angel was no better off having been stabbed a number of times, though since his internal organs were all dead it didn't kill him as it would her.
Buffy was about to charge the demon to see if she could somehow knock it off balance for Angel to kill when it's head simply exploded. The remaining body slumped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Both of them quickly began looking around to see who or what had done that but after a few seconds Angel turned to look at the remaining portion of the demons head. "I think I know who killed him."
Buffy who was still looking around for the new threat answered him without looking at him. "Who?"
"The Spartan, this looks a lot like a gunshot wound. But I've never seen one this bad and I didn't hear a gunshot so that means it's a weapon with a silencer."
"Damn, well I guess that means that he's still here in town then. So much for that rumor that he had moved on to Boston." Buffy said calmly though internally she was fuming that this outsider was still in her town. Ever since Angel had heard of the rumor of a new demon hunter in Boston who used guns they had all thought it was the Spartan who had merely moved on. But since he just saved their asses that would mean that there was another hunter out there that used guns.
Angel stood from his place over the dead body that was beginning to dissolve. "We should go tell Giles this, he'll want to know this as soon as possible."
Buffy agreed with him, not liking the fact that their patrol was cut short, so they both began to walk back towards the library to report on what they knew.
Back at the library after telling their story Giles was a little disturbed to hear of the trend of powerful demons heading for the hellmouth. Something would have to been done about that or sooner or later one of the more powerful demons was going to win. Though there was one slightly good side to this, most of the more powerful demons did not want the return of the Old Ones to Earth, as that would mean them losing their power. So the Hellmouth was in fact a little safer than ever before.
Giles was thinking furiously about the reports of ancient demon burial grounds being excavated and reports of things being sent towards Sunnydale. "I want you two to go back and continue your patrol. I've received some information that someone is attempting to smuggle in ancient artifacts of demonic origins. I want you two to see if you can find out anything or if possible intercept the shipments."
"Giles, its midnight!" Buffy whined, obviously expecting Giles to cave and let her go home. She was in for a rude surprise.
"Yes its midnight which means approximately six more hours of darkness left until sunrise. It's also Friday so I know you don't have anything to do tomorrow. I may allow you to cut patrol early on weeknights but you have a duty to patrol for the remainder of the night to prevent people from being harmed. You should be glad that I do not enforce traditional Slayer hours upon you. Now resume your patrol." Giles stated in a calm voice.
Buffy looked stunned at being talked to in such a voice but still managed to nod before turning to walk out of the library. Angel was following behind trying to find something to cheer her up but failing to think of anything so he remained silent.
No one noticed the small nearly microscopic listening device that was planted under the table which had been placed there nearly two months ago by Xander when he still been a full member of the Scooby gang. Ever since Halloween Buffy had been slightly phasing him out of the patrolling and then after that she began moving him out researching as well. When he confronted her about it in private she said that she couldn't keep protecting him. Xander just walked away after that, not really arguing but not agreeing with her.
Xander was driving around the town looking for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. Though in Sunnydale that was harder than most people would assume. He had been listening in on the discussion over at the library and now he was curious about the mention by Giles of demon artifacts making their way to Sunnydale.
He wanted to find the artifacts and destroy them if possible but he simply lacked the contacts in the demon underworld to do so. Jenny had a few people that she could talk to that would help but she was currently in Europe trying to retrieve help from the clan elders in the form of a copy of the curse on Angelus. So he decided to head for Willy's bar to see what he knew about it, if he knew something then he wouldn't trash the place, and if he knew nothing then the place got trashed.
Willy's bar was back in business after the first meeting with the Spartan. Most of the demons who came here now were the ones of the more peaceful races who wanted nothing to do with the Slayer or various demon hunters out there. They only wanted to be left alone. The door slammed open to reveal the Spartan in all his armor. The room instantly quieted down. No one wanted to take the chance of drawing his attention towards him or herself.
"Willy so good to see you again." The armored hunter said as he walked towards the bar.
Willy standing behind the bar began to get more and more nervous the closer that the Spartan got to him. A natural reaction to a guy who had threatened to kill him more than once. Willy tried not to stutter as he replied. "Ya good to see you too. What do you want?" Hoping to get this over as soon as possible.
"Well I heard an interesting rumor today. Seems you've been holding out on me. Now I thought we had a deal going." The voice was becoming more and more menacing as he spoke. The various demons in the bar bolted for the door leaving Willy to his fate. They had no quarrel with the Spartan but they could tell that he wasn't in the greatest mood by his tone and they weren't sticking around for him to take his frustration out on them.
"I'm keeping my end of the deal! I swear it." Willy blubbered. To his thinking he had been keeping the deal. Anything that he thought was important was passed on, though if the Spartan didn't ask about it he didn't offer it. And now it was coming back to bite him in the ass.
"You're lying. I've heard about the artifacts that are being smuggled into town. You either tell me everything that you know or you die where you stand."
Willy knew that no matter what he did he was going to die. So he spilled the beans. "Its Spike and his nutso woman. They've been bringing these boxes in from around the world. They're supposed to contain a weapon that can kill the entire human race off by itself."
"What's this weapon called?" He asked.
"The Judge." Willy said as fast as he could. Hoping that if he cooperated that maybe the Spartan would give him a head start to get out of town or something.
The Spartan didn't say anything he merely turned and walked out the door closing it as he did so. Willy stayed where he was waiting to hear the sound of a large car leaving letting him know as always that the Spartan was truly gone.
Once back in the hummer, Xander commed Cortana asking her to begin a search through the database on a demon weapon known as the Judge. From the way that Willy talked about it it sounded pretty powerful so there had to be a record somewhere.
Cortana couldn't find an answer in any book or database hooked into her systems. So she made a suggestion. "Xander since I can't find anything I think you're going to have to ask Giles if he knows about it."
Xander mulled it over for a few seconds. "Damn, I was hoping to not have to go to them for help. Guess I have no choice. Ok I'll head on over there; you call Jenny and get an update on when she's going to be back. Also see if she or the Romany know anything about this Judge thing."
He changed directions pulling a sharp U-turn to head for the school. Tonight the Scooby's would find out that he was the Spartan. This would not be a good night for him. So far he had been able to avoid them and not interfere in their patrols other than the fact that he got there first and killed every demon before they did. It only took him a few minutes to drive to the school. Once there he parked as close as he could get to library without driving through the building. He smiled as he remembered hearing the story about how Cordelia had done just that. He quickly lost that smile as he considered the massive shouting match that he knew was going to happen when Buffy found out whom he was.
Giles was the first to notice him. He had gotten up to grab another book from his office and saw him standing there by the doors. A seven-foot tall man incased in futuristic black armor carrying a massive gun in his hands. Willow noticed that Giles had stopped moving and looked up to see what was going on and she saw the armored man as well only she quickly figured it out.
"Of course! Spartan, Spartan 117. Its Xander!" Willow nearly shouted. Both Giles and Oz looked confused at this trying to figure out how it could be Xander in the armor. Oz took a few minutes to mull it over before he remembered one of his band mates was into this game called Halo where the main character was referred to as Spartan 117 and that Xander had went as the Master Chief for Halloween.
Willow rushed up close to Xander and began pummeling him with her tiny fists. "You big meanie. You should have told us it was you in that armor. How could you keep that from us!"
"Willow get away from him, it might not be Xander. You told me that the MJOLNIR armor was green, he's wearing black armor." Giles said as he reached for a crossbow. It was a primitive weapon to use but it was all he had within reach.
The armored figure merely reached up with a single hand to remove his helmet to reveal Xander's grim face underneath. "Hey gang. Willow stop hitting me."
Willow who was still upset about not being told didn't reply to him at all as she went back to her seat. She sat down and crossed her arms looking like a spoiled child as she did so.
"Giles I need your help. I was down at Willy's trying to get some information on demon artifacts and he told me about some new weapon being brought into town by Spike that could wipe out all of humanity known as the Judge. So far I haven't been able to find any info on it, I was hoping that maybe you would know something that I could use to destroy it." Xander stated in a no nonsense voice. He was here on business not pleasure.
Giles was thinking furiously, racking his mind for any mention of a demonic weapon known as the Judge. The word was familiar to him, for it kept tickling the back of his mind trying to tell him something but every time he tried to call up the memory it vanished. It was most distressing that he couldn't remember it. "Hmm, it does sound familiar but I'm unable to remember it offhand. I guess that means another round of research."
Xander stood near the table that until a few months ago held many happy memories of nights sitting around joking laughing with the gang as they tried to decipher some ancient riddle to hopefully find the information needed to defeat the big bad of the week. He felt a little flutter deep within him that he was no longer apart of that group but it was quickly quashed by the weight of the Spartan training that he had inherited. He had a greater duty to the survival of the human race. He sighed. "Fine lets get this over with. I'll start scanning the books, Cortana will correlate the data and then I can determine a course of action."
"You will not use that infernal machine to 'scan' my books. Need I remind you of what happened the last time we 'scanned' a book into the computer system." Giles looked mildly upset at the mere thought of scanning council books into a computer system outside of his control.
"Giles if I scan the books then they will be translated, filed and organized in a way for me to better utilize the information in a manner which will allow for easier researching." Xander stated in a no nonsense voice. While Giles tried to come up with a reasonable response Xander merely picked a book up from the table and began scanning.
The others watched as Xander slowly scanned page after page. Since they had nothing else to do they each picked up a book and began reading, trying to find something useful. This would continue on for nearly three hours, no one talking other than to ask for another book or muttered curses as they failed once again to find anything.
At the end of three hours was when Buffy and Angel returned to the library. Buffy came through the swinging doors to see a sight that she never thought to see again. Xander was sitting at the table running some sort of device over the books. The thing that ruined this picture was that Xander was clad in the same armor that the Spartan was rumored to wear. The only time that she had ever seen him was when he wore the robes in that cave the first time. Her mind quickly pieced the clues together of the armor and Xander.
"XANDER! Why the hell didn't you tell me that it was you? And why did you threaten Angel that first night?" Buffy nearly screamed as she rushed across the room to attempt to grab his arm. She pulled her hand back after receiving a massive electrical shock when she came into contact with the energy shielding surrounding his body armor.
"I threatened him cause he is a vampire. A vampire is nothing more than an animated corpse; hence they have no right to life. Angel is a vampire with the soul of a man who should have died over two hundred years ago. That is all." Xander said barely sparing her a glance.
"Giles, why is he here?" Buffy raged. She was used to getting her own way all the time. Her becoming the Slayer had merely increased that.
"Buffy he's here because he heard of a very real threat and he didn't have the resources to find out any information about it. So he came here to ask for my help in researching it. We're attempting to find anything about a demon weapon called the Judge." Giles said as he walked over to the stacks to grab a book mentioned in the one he was currently reading.
Angel who as always was skulking about in the shadows stopped dead at the mention of the Judge. "Did you say The Judge?"
Everyone looked up to stare at the vampire. Giles quickly found his voice and asked the question. "Yes, The Judge. What do you know about it?"
"It was before my time. The Judge is supposed to be an incredibly ancient demon capable of 'burning' the humanity out of you. The legends say that it took an army of thousands to kill him. The body was dismembered into pieces that were buried in every corner of the Earth. Though that's merely the legend." Angel answered as he tried to remember if there was anything else that he knew.
Giles walked back down from the stacks with a book that described everything that Angel had just stated. "That legend is true. An army of knights dismembered the body since they could not kill the demon. No weapon forged can kill it."
Xander was using his neural link to discuss this with Cortana. "No weapon forged huh. Well we'll just have to introduce him to the 26th century. Now where would he be?"
Oz spoke up at this. "Well if he plans on making a body count then there's really only one place to be."
Sunnydale Mall. The crowds were massive this time of year as people rushed through the crowded stores attempting to find that one perfect gift for their loved ones. Of course people were also trying to keep their tempers under control as they pushed and shoved their way through. This time of year was hard on everyone; the staff was extremely tired of answering the same damn questions over and over again. The customers were tired of the crowds and lines and were just wishing to get the hell out of there with their sanity intact.
The elevators opened in to reveal to the masses attempting to get a massive man covered in black armor holding a huge machine gun in his hands. The crowd quickly parted as he moved forward heading deeper into the mall his head moving from side to side as if searching for something.
Over at the movie theatre, barely anyone noticed as a blue creature with small bumps on his head stood at the top of a set of stairs on a landing overlooking them. Flanking him were a half dozen vampires most in game face, though the powerful Master Vampires Spike and Drusilla stayed in the 'masks' that made them appear human. The Judge stepped forward and raised his hands palm down towards the crowd. "And now I shall cleanse you from the very face of the Earth." As he said this a stream of yellowish energy stream shot out of his hands to hit one man and then slowly grow in strength to strike every man woman and child in the room. The energy stream grew in strength with every passing second until it seemed that everyone would burst into flames from the sheer amount of power coursing through him or her. All of a sudden a crossbow bolt slammed into the Judge breaking his concentration freeing everyone from the energy stream.
The Judge contemptuously removed the quarrel snapping it in two as he looked over at the Slayer and her pathetic gang of do gooders standing near the refreshment stand with the Slayer for some idiotic reason stood up on top of the popcorn maker.
"Did you really think to stop me with this. No weapon forged can defeat me!" Boasted the Judge as he began drawing in the power needed to fry the Slayer. A voice that sounded like death itself spoke.
"That was then, this is now. Welcome to the 20th century."
The Judge looked behind the Slayer to see a massive figure in armor aim a tube shaped device at him.
"What is that?"
A rocket screamed across the short distance to detonate on contact with the Judge's skin. The blast was more than powerful enough to rip his body to shreds, most pieces no larger than a humans fist. Others were so small they couldn't be seen with the naked eye. The vampires attempted to run, pushing and shoving their desperate scramble to save their miserable lives. Spike and Dru shoved the minions behind them as they dove through the upper level doors into the parking garage. As the doors closed the both of them heard the sounds of automatic weapons fire, a few stray bullets punched through the flimsy wooden doors trying to kill them but they had already ran away from the immediate area.
Back inside Buffy was seething as Xander ordered her and the gang to begin collecting demon body parts. She should have been the one to destroy the Judge. It was her destiny to defeat the demons and the vampires, she had been the one chosen to become the Slayer. Xander had only become a demon hunter after some stupid spell went wrong, and he was probably only doing this to impress her anyway she thought to herself as she picked up a particularly gruesome piece of carcass.
Xander looked around, trying to see if any of the Judge pieces were important looking or if he could find the head. After reading up on the legend he had determined that if he kept the pieces separate then the Judge could not reform itself. So he had decided to attempt to destroy apiece permanently, hopefully an important one like the head or torso. He reached down and lifted up what appeared to be the head.
The Judge's eyes opened and glared up at the visage of the hunter that had destroyed his body. Xander just stared back accepting the glare without flinching in the slightest, of course the reflective visor of his armor allowed him to look away without being seen doing so. This piece would do, a plasma torch or other such device should suffice in vaporizing the demon corpse for all time.
Xander was turning to leave with the demon head when Buffy stepped in front of him. "And where do you think your going mister. We're going to have a nice long chat about why you didn't tell me about you having that nifty suit!" Buffy looked really annoyed as she stood there with her arms crossed and tapping one foot in an impatient manner.
"Why do I have to tell you everything that happens in my life?" Xander asked truly curious as to what her response would be.
"I'm the Slayer and I'm your friend. You should have told me. We could have found a spell to remove all those implant dealies and then I could use the suit and keep you from getting hurt!" Buffy said trying to appear to be reasonable but not quite pulling it off.
Xander just chuckled. "Buffy you do know that if you attempted to remove the implants that it would kill me don't you? And as to the MJOLNIR armor, its fitted in such a way that only the proper wearer can use it and also its tuned to my neural patterns so that means that you can never use it."
Buffy was starting to look more and more annoyed as Xander shot down all of her reasons for her getting control of the suit. "But your just the normal one you shouldn't have to fight. Its my destiny not yours!"
His eyes behind his face shield turned cold and hard, though they couldn't see them they could instantly feel the change in the air surrounding him as he spoke. "Yes, I am the normal one. Normal people choose to fight and sacrifice their lives everyday and now so have I. I will fight this war until the day I die. It is my choice and that is the one thing you cannot take from me, choice!" With that he turned on his heel walking out of the mall carrying the head of the Judge with him, presumably to be destroyed as soon as he figured out how.
Buffy and the rest of the gang watched as he walked away in silence. Though they didn't truly understand it but something momentous had happened tonight that would forever have repercussions on the fate of the Earth.
Xander was driving around town trying to get his raging temper under control before returning to Alpha base. How dare she try to take his right to choose from him? Ever since she had come to town his life had gone to shit. Though he couldn't really blame her, he could blame Angel for pulling his cryptic bullshit instead of standing up and fighting like a man. Because of that his brother in all ways save blood had died that first night, being turned into one of those demonic creatures. He swore that night over the ashes of Jesse that he would fight until every last one of those things was wiped from the face of the Earth.
The sound of his cell phone ringing brought him back to reality. He looked down at the call display hoping that it wasn't Buffy or the gang, it wasn't. The call display showed a number that was burned into his brain since childhood, the number of Jesse McNally.
He picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Xander is that you?" Came the reply from a voice that he knew well. It was Jesse's mother; the woman that he had wished for years was his own mother Nancy McNally.
"Hi, Mrs McNally how are you doing tonight?" He asked as he lazily changed lanes heading back towards Alpha base.
"Well not so good actually. I was wondering if you could help me. I know you're busy but this is really important." The tone of her voice told him that she was really upset about something so he quickly pulled a U-turn to head in the direction of her house.
"I'll be right there, 5 minutes tops. Ok?" He asked as he weaved in and out of traffic picking up speed. The McNally's usually didn't call him ever since he had told them the truth of what happened to their son, Jesse, but after a few months they had slowly grown to accept the truth and eventually apologized for all of the yelling and screaming of that day.
"Ok the door will be open as always." With that she hung up. The desperation in her voice goaded Xander into pushing the hummer to its limits. Expecting the worst he didn't even bother to take the MJOLNIR armor off before getting there. They had known that he hunted demons, so it shouldn't come as too big of a surprise to them that he wore armor to protect himself.
Xander pulled into the driveway of his childhood friend's home at a fast clip, flinging open the door to the hummer even as he slammed on the brakes. As soon as the vehicle came to a stop he was running towards the door carrying the MA5B Assault Rifle in his hands ready for anything that was threatening this home.
Xander nearly tore the front door off its hinges as he charged through it quickly scanning the room for threats. There were none, only Nancy McNally sitting on the living room couch.
"Xander?" She asked, looking a little fearful as this armored creature invaded her home. She hoped it was Xander but she couldn't be sure.
Xander after quickly glancing around and seeing no threats reached up and pulled his helmet off. "Ya, you said you needed my help with something?" As he was talking he latched his assault rifle to the specialized clamps on his back and moved to stand in front of the couch.
"Yes I did. It's about Carolyn. She dropped out of university and has joined some cult group out in Seattle." As she said this she was wringing her hands so hard that Xander could hear the knuckles cracking and popping as she did so. He remembered that she always wrung her hands when she was worried or upset, over the years as he was growing up with Jesse he could remember many times that the two of them had been responsible for her doing just that.
Nancy watched Xander's face carefully as he remembered all those memories. She smirked a bit as she continued her tale. "I know that your really busy these days hunting those things that took Jesse from us but I was wondering if you could go and try and talk some sense back into Carolyn. Joseph already went out to Seattle and tried but he couldn't get through to her."
Xander looked a little pained as he replied. "Are you sure you're not overreacting. It might not be a cult, it could just be a few college kids having a good time before they get on with their lives."
"Xander I know I'm not overreacting. It's a cult that's brainwashed my little girl. There leader is some nutcase that thinks he's a god and wants all his followers to be prepared to fight in the upcoming Celestial war to reclaim the Earth for him. It's all bullshit, but I want my daughter out of there. Joseph tried to get her out but they SHOT at him and he had to run for his life."
He had been patiently listening up to this point, trying to not jump to any conclusions but when he heard about the God bit he started to get a little worried. Xander could remember years ago when he was playing with Jesse as a kid, when he had a huge crush on Carolyn, of all the fun that the three of them had over the years. It would seem that this cult was the real deal and he should probably investigate it. If it did turn out to be brainwashing people then he would shut it down no matter what.
"I'll take a trip up to Seattle and I'll see if I can do something. Is Joseph still up there?" Xander was already making plans on what bring with him and to try and figure out a way of deprogramming someone who had been brainwashed.
Nancy was looking extremely hopeful at this point, she remembered Xander's crush on Carolyn though it had faded over the years as he began to regard her more as a older sister than as a potential girlfriend and had counted on it to get him to agree to help out. Though he would have probably helped out anyway she knew that the mere mention of Carolyn in a cult would have had him up in arms ready to help her. "Yes, Joseph is still in Seattle. He's been trying to get the town sheriff to help him get Carolyn out but he's had no success yet. Thank you so much for agreeing to help us!"
"Don't worry. I'll bring her back home safe and sound." Xander replied as he placed his helmet back on his head. After saying goodbye he left to get ready for his trip to Seattle in the morning.
After arriving back at Alpha base Xander quickly began packing equipment and weaponry. Cortana noticed this.
"Um just what the hell are you doing?"
"Got a mission. We're heading up towards Seattle to go rescue a childhood friend of mine. Carolyn McNally is the sister of Jesse, probably the best friend I ever had, he was like a brother to me. I won't let some crackpot who thinks he's a god get her hurt or killed. So get ready to go, call Jenny and tell her we'll be out of town for a few days and put the base security on autonomous mode and get yourself ready to go as well."
"And what exactly should I pack. Its not like I have a body so I don't need clothes." She replied sarcastically as she carried out the tasks assigned to her.
"I don't know and I don't care. Just pack yourself up and get ready for a long drive to Seattle." Xander barked as he walked over towards the armory and began sorting through weapons and equipment that he wanted to bring along with him.
Cortana's voice emanated from a nearby wall-mounted speaker sounding a little annoyed. "You do realize that driving in a military grade armored Hummer down a state highway is going to result in your getting pulled over right? And I can't wait to see the reaction of the cops when they see what your hauling in the trunk. What do you plan on doing about that hmm?"
"I don't know, how bout lie?" He replied sarcastically as he weighed the options in his head about bringing the rocket launcher versus the sniper rifle. He took the rocket launcher; you never know when you might need to make a new door.
"Besides with all the little 'upgrades' you've made to the hummer I doubt any hick town cop is going to catch us. Probably too damn busy stuffing his face with donuts anyway." That last bit was send under his breath showing his extremely low opinion of cops in general though to be fair up until today all he had to compare cops against was the Sunnydale police department which was legendary for failing to do anything resembling police work.
Cortana was busy shutting down the vast majority of her programs only leaving the automated defense subroutines running at Alpha base. The others were that important at the moment anyway. Most were to deal with how to introduce 26th tech into the 20th century world without totally collapsing the economy. Just because the Covenant hadn't been found in this universe didn't mean that they weren't out there somewhere. She had decided that she would do everything in her power to ensure the survival of the human race from all foes, demonic or alien.
Xander quickly removed the MJOLNIR armor and packed it up into a set of specially designed luggage. After it was all secure he began loading of the equipment into the cargo section of the Hummer. He wanted to be on the road as soon as possible. Though it would still take damn near twenty hours to arrive in Seattle and a few hours after that to find the compound that Carolyn was being held in.
"You ready to go yet?" Xander yelled as he came back into the main room to grab a large ammo box for his weapons. It never hurt anyone to have too much ammunition, though he was bringing well over three thousand rounds. Hopefully he wouldn't need that much.
"I'm just starting to pack my clothes, but I can't decide. Do you think I should bring my summer wear or should I pack for winter?" Cortana replied. Sometimes she just loved to tease the hell out of him. He made it so easy sometimes. Cortana remembered his reaction to Jenny telling him about how she was transformed into an Arabian belly dancer for a night. He had turned so red that she thought for sure that he had ruptured a blood vessel in his face.
"Ya ya yuck it up smartass. You're time is coming!" Xander retorted as he grabbed the chip that contained Cortana and went back out to the garage. "Did you install that computer in the hummer like you promised last week?"
"Its installed and running perfectly. Just insert my chip into the center console like you were loading a CD. With the new upgrades that I put in I should be able to navigate to Seattle while you sleep." Cortana said as she began to take control of the Hummers controls. With the new tinted windows no one would be able to tell that no one was actually sitting in the drivers seat without coming extremely close to the vehicle.
Cortana pulled the vehicle out onto the road and began driving in the general direction of the highway. "Seattle here we come!"
"Uh Cortana we just need to make one stop before we hit the highway." Xander commented as he remembered something.
"It's too late. You should have gone before we left."
"Oh grow up. I don't need to take a piss. I just remembered that I have the head to the Judge in the trunk. We should find a crematorium so I can destroy it." Xander said.
Cortana's face appeared on a little LCD screen built into the dash. "And just why do you think that would destroy him. Those books that you scanned into my database are pretty specific that no weapon forged can harm him."
"Ya, but what about the forge itself?" He replied with a self-satisfied smirk on his face thinking that he had outwitted her.
"And the furnace for the crematorium was created how, by wishful thinking? It had to be built by something. Though I guess it is worth a shot. If it doesn't work I guess we can always bury the demon head at the bottom of a pit surrounded by concrete as a secondary plan." Cortana commented as she changed directions heading for the nearest funeral home that did cremations. With the amount of death in this town it wasn't a surprise for a lot of funeral homes to specialize in cremation to help keep the vampire population down.
As soon as they arrived at the funeral home Xander hopped out carrying the Judge's head. He quickly found the blast furnace that cremated the bodies of the dead. It seemed that no one was on duty tonight so he just chucked it right on in and turned the furnace on full blast. It took a few minutes for the furnace to get up to full power but once it did it made short work of the Judge's head. No more invincible demon and with that Xander went back out to the hummer, after switching off the furnace of course, to head for Seattle.
101010101010101010101010
Cadet Jennifer Hailey was day dreaming in class, remembering what happened to her a few weeks ago when she first met Major Samantha Carter who introduced her to a whole new universe.
A few weeks ago at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs Major Samantha Carter was giving a lecture on wormhole physics and the different relationships of the ten dimensions of hyperspace travel. Most of the students are bored out of their skulls by this information, a few are trying to covertly study the aerospace text books that they smuggled in inside their binders to try and buff up for the upcoming test next week.
Though not everyone was ignoring the lecture entirely a few dedicated and extremely intelligent cadets were copying down notes as fast as they could write them out, others were memorizing the equations thanks to them having damn near perfect memory recall. One cadet in particular, Jennifer Hailey, was doing both. Though she had already found a few flaws with Major Carter's theories.
Major Carter was just wrapping up her presentation when a young cadet asked a question about exactly how many dimensions she was referring to in her equations written on the board behind her. "Yes ten dimensions. I know that many of these concepts are a little bizarre and that many of you cadets would rather be somewhere else right now. Jump school, flight training believe me I know. I used to sit in those same seats wondering when the hell class would finally end. But on the other hand, the aerodynamics that are one day going to allow you to fly an F-22 started out as squiggles on a chalkboard just like this. These calculations are the key to opening up the entire universe; wormholes and hyperspace may seem like science fiction right now. But take my word for it, the future is a lot closer than you might think."
Professor Monroe stood from where he sat at his desk on the stage and walked over to the podium clapping lightly. "Thank you for that extremely interesting discussion on the future of astrophysics. Class there will be a paper due on this in two weeks, five thousand words on what you learned today. Class dismissed."
The cadets groaned as they began shuffling out. Most hadn't been paying that close attention to the lecture and now they had a massive paper due on it. Guess it was time to start sucking up to the brains in the class to try and figure out what to write.
Cadet Hailey stayed behind as her fellow classmates stampeded out the door. Something about those equations written on the board was troubling her. It took her a few moments to see it but it was pretty damn obvious, at least to her, once she found it.
"This is wrong." She said as she looked at the equations.
Professor Monroe looked up from where he was talking with Major Carter. "What's that cadet?" He said reproachfully.
"I'm sorry sir but the calculations are incorrect."
"I admire your enthusiasm but maybe you should wait till you graduate before you start criticizing the work of a leader in the field of astrophysics."
"Yes sir, of course. My apologizes ma'am." Cadet Hailey said as she tried to contain her temper at being talked down to by someone who couldn't even see a simple mistake staring him in the face. She then turned and walked out the door, telling herself that she was right and that they were wrong.
Major Carter just nodded her acceptance of the apology. She was too busy starring at the whiteboard trying to find the mistake that Cadet Hailey had said was there. Now that she looked at the board there was a mistake and it was starring her right in the face. How could she have missed something so simple? Carter looked over at her old professor.
"Who was that?"
"Jennifer Hailey. Very intelligent but difficult personality." He said as he began putting his files away in preparation going home for the day.
"Well she's right." He looked up at this. Major Carter pointed to a section of the complex equations. "These two variable's should be reversed."
"I didn't even notice."
"Neither did I." Carter just starred off into the direction that the young cadet had taken. She would have to do a little checking up on that one. Someone with that kind of mental prowess could be just what the Stargate program was looking for. Assuming of course that she passed all the required security checks and actually graduated from the Academy.
A little while later Carter was busy reminiscing with the Commandant of the Academy about her own journey through these hallowed halls. She discussed Jennifer Hailey with him for a few moments but couldn't really get a good picture of the cadet. From all reports that she had read so far, from the cadet's file, it seemed that cadet Hailey was on the verge of being expelled from the Academy.
Major Carter even talked with Hailey for a few moments but it was hard to get around that damnable superiority attitude that Hailey seemed to project from herself. It seemed that nothing she could say would get through to that girl. Hailey believed that the Air Force was just another dead end for her, since she couldn't automatically be the best at everything and that her peers didn't defer to her in all things.
After the incident with the training cadre Major Carter used a little bit of her influence to prevent Hailey from being tossed out into the street on her ass. Carter was hoping that this would be enough to get Hailey back on track so that she could steer the young girl in the direction of the gate program but even after this the young cadet was thinking of leaving the Academy on her own. Carter thought for a few moments and before she could talk herself out she acted.
Major Carter went down to the registrar's office to get a copy of cadet Hailey's class schedule. Quickly checking it over she say that it said that Hailey was currently in aerospace design class over the Randall building. She changed direction to head over to the building. Once she found the correct classroom she simply walked in disrupting the professor who was leading the class in a discussion about the differences in wing design over the past twenty years.
"Can I help you Major?" Professor Hynes asked, just a little annoyed at the disruption to his class. He liked things to proceed in a timely matter.
"This will only take a moment." She responded as she glanced around the classroom to find cadet Hailey sitting alone in one section trying to write out a new equation that could result in the creation of a true fusion power plant. "Cadet Hailey front and center."
Hailey jumped to her feet, grabbed her books, and quickly walked over to Major Carter. "Cadet Hailey reporting as order, ma'am."
"Cadet come with me. I'm taking you on an assignment." Carter said cryptically as the rest of the class watched in shock as the two women walked out of the room. Most were thinking that Hailey had stepped in it one time too many but some thought that Hailey was being put into a different class level since she was so intelligent. Neither side could even begin to imagine how wrong they were.
Hailey walked alongside Carter in silence as they walked out to the parking lot and got into Carter's car. A few times she tried to start a conversation.
"Um, ma'am. Where are we going?" Hailey asked after twenty minutes of silence.
"We're going to Cheyenne Mountain and after that its classified. You will not discuss anything you see on this little trip with anyone, ever. Do you understand that?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Upon arriving at the entrance to the massive mountain complex both women were ordered to identify themselves and go through the numerous security checkpoints in order to gain access to the mountain stronghold. This was probably the most heavily defended location on the face of the Earth and that was reflected by the amount of security guarding it.
The two women took one of the elevators all the way down to sub-level fifteen where they had to undergo another security sweep before boarding a second elevator that would take them to sub-level twenty-seven. Hailey just tried to absorb as much as she could without looking like she was doing so. A few minutes later she along with Major Carter was escorted into a conference room with a large plate glass window, which strangely enough only showed a blast shield on the other side, where she was ordered to wait.
Major Carter went into General Hammond's office to discuss the matter with him. He was not pleased in the slightest that she had brought a cadet back to the base.
"Major do you mind telling me what that cadet is doing here. This is one of the most heavily guarded military installations on this Planet." He asked while glancing out to see said cadet avert her eyes from looking in his direction.
"Sir I know she's just a cadet but she is a perfect candidate for the SGC."
"Her file says otherwise." Hammond retorted indicating said file on his desk. It having been sent to him when security informed him that cadet Hailey was on her way down with Major Carter.
"Sir, if she can get just one glimpse of her possible future then she will graduate at the top of her class and become an officer worthy of serving under your command." Carter defended her choice with every fiber of her being. She was a little shocked herself at that but she felt that Hailey was a younger, and smarter though she was a little loathe to admit it, version of herself.
"Very well. You along with Cadet Hailey are to report to M4C-862 and rejoin SG-1 for the remainder of the mission there. I hope your right. Dismissed." Hammond ordered as he mentally crossed his fingers. SG-1 was possibly the best team to ever be created at the SGC though they certainly exceeded all the other teams in creating headaches for him, he just hoped this didn't come back to snap him in the ass.
Major Carter saluted and acknowledged her orders. Once that was done she left his office to collect Hailey and get her down to the supply room. Hailey would need a set of BDU's for the upcoming mission.
Hailey followed Carter through the tunnels of the base watching everything that she passed; she passed areas where heavy construction was taking place. Marines and engineers were digging out new tunnels and rooms with some sort of tunneling device that she had never seen before. Hailey would have loved to stop and examine it but Major Carter just kept on walking.
Once down in the supply room Hailey worked up the nerve to ask a question. "Ma'am, uh why are we drawing equipment for a mission. We're nearly a thousand feet underground. How could we be going anywhere?"
"I'll show you. Just get changed into some BDU's and carry this pack. Its not a combat mission so you don't need a sidearm. Give me a shout when your ready." Carter said as she quickly changed and grabbed her normal mission gear. Cadet Hailey nodded and began slowly changing. Her mind was going a mile a minute trying to figure out just what the hell was going on down here. The security systems that she could plainly see were numerous and state of the art, though that was expected in a place buried beneath NORAD. Once she had all of her gear on and strapped into place she went out into the corridor to find Major Carter. She was almost run over by a group of Marines walking down the corridor carrying heavy weapons and crates of supplies.
"Ready to go?" Carter asked.
"Um, ya I think so ma'am." Hailey responded as she watched the column of Marines continue. There had to be damn near a hundred of them, all dressed in full battle dress. Why would so many front line soldiers be assigned to a deep space radar telemetry station? For the life of her she couldn't figure it out. Carter fell in behind the soldiers.
"Well lets get going then. Follow me cadet." Hailey quickly fell in behind Carter as she walked through the tunnels. A klaxon began to sound further down the corridor, though since no one was running around it must have been a normal part of the operations of the base. The marines marched off into a branching corridor and Major Carter walked over to a blast door where a soldier was standing guard. The guard just stared at them as if daring her to become a threat.
"What your about to see is probably the best kept secret in the world." Carter said trying to impress just how important this place was to Hailey. Jennifer responded in a slightly nervous voice.
"You're making me nervous."
"Good, cause from here on out everything that you thought you knew about the universe is about to change." Carter said. Then nodded towards the marine. The marine swiped a pass card through a special slot beside the door, which opened the blast door so the two women could walk in.
Hailey followed behind Carter and saw for the first time the massive metal ring that dominated the center of the room. It was close to 20 feet in diameter with a rotating inner track. She could feel its presence in her bones; it spoke of ancient power and times long forgotten. This was something magical and truly wondrous.
"What is it?" She asked
"It's your future. It's called a Stargate." Major Carter said in a soft voice. It was obvious to all that were watching that Hailey was nearly overwhelmed by the sheer presence of the Gate.
A voice came over the intercom. "Chevron Seven Locked!"
With that a massive out rushing of what appeared at first glance to be bluish water came extremely close to them before falling back into the interior of the gate. The gate looked like a horizontal puddle of water with small bubbles forming on the surface with an extremely bright white light being focused through from the other side. It was beautiful.
Major Carter stepped up onto the ramp leading to it; Hailey followed her but at a slower pace. "Your looking at the event horizon of a wormhole connecting this gate to an identical gate 42,000 light years away. That's where were going."
Hailey was trying to understand this but it was just so overwhelming to even begin to contemplate but she asked a good question. "How are we getting there?"
"That's the easy part." With that Major Carter pushed Hailey into the gate then stepped through herself.
The ride through the gate was like being on the most powerful and exciting roller coaster ride in the history of mankind. Though every single scientist that you talked to would insist rather emphatically that you could not possibly see anything while in the gate wormhole every single person who had traveled it stated that they saw stars shooting by as the flew down the tunnel generated by the gates.
On the other side of the galaxy Hailey was attempting to catch her breath after coming out of the gate. It was an unbelievable rush going through the gate. Carter stepped out of the gate behind her and she looked up in time to watch the wormhole dissipate.
Before Hailey got to ask any questions on just what the hell happened she was stunned to see a vision of a massive gas giant dominating one whole section of the sky. Also visible were several other planetoids, probably moons, orbiting the gas giant. She was really no longer on Earth. Hailey turned back to ask a few questions when she saw a man in US military fatigues come around a bend in the path through the forest in front of her. Her keen eyes rapidly sought out rank insignia, a full colonel, and she quickly came to attention.
"Hey Carter, thought I come be your guide back to camp" He said.
"Thank you sir. How are you doing today?"
"Good, though my knees are starting to bother me a bit again. You know?" He started.
Carter interrupted him before he got going on one of his rants. "Sir, I'd like you to meet Cadet Hailey. Cadet, Colonel O'Neill."
"Cadet welcome to 862. How was your trip?"
"It was, uh.. It was a trip sir."
"It always is Cadet." O'Neill smirked as he returned her salute. The three of them made their way down to the base that was built into a small natural clearing. It offered a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside. It became clear soon that this moon held a life form unlike anything that they had ever encountered before. A creature composed entirely of energy, made it look a little bit like a over bright firefly, albeit one that could phase through solid matter.
Though this energy bug turned out to be hostile quite quickly though most people were divided on the reasons why they became hostile. Some like Hailey believed that their behavior was linked to the gravitational fields produced by the gas giant that they were orbiting, and the others thought it was a reaction to one of their own being imprisoned.
After O'Neill made his run to open the gate and drive the creatures back to allow the scientists to escape, Hailey stood on the steps leading back up to the gate. She thought to herself that this was but one of many possible worlds that the gate connected to, and just one of many thousands of adventures that she would have. Have to start doing better at the Academy if she wanted to get back here she thought as Major Carter came up to stand beside her.
Hailey turned to her smiling as she asked. "Is always this exciting?"
"No sometimes it gets really exciting."
"Will I ever get to find out which one of us was right?"
"If you stick around long enough, besides there will always be other planets."
"It's a moon." Hailey pointed out.
"Ok your right about that." Carter laughed as she walked through the wormhole with Hailey back to Earth.
"Attention on deck!" A voice shattered Hailey's daydream and quickly brought her back to reality where the rest of her class was snapping to attention. General Kerrigan and a few other high-ranking officers were marching down towards the podium at the front of the classroom. Hailey was immensely shocked to see that she recognized one of them. Colonel Jack O'Neill was there in full dress blues beside General Kerrigan.
Kerrigan stood behind the podium. "At ease. Colonel O'Neill has some orders to deliver here so remain standing until he's finished." Kerrigan turned to O'Neill and with a wave of his arm that encompassed the entire class said "There all yours Colonel."
O'Neill merely said. "Thank you General." He reached into a briefcase that he carried and extracted a small slim jewelry box along with an official looking letter bearing the seal of the Air Force. O'Neill cleared his throat before speaking again. "From the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, in recognition of her brilliance and courage in a hostile combat zone, I hereby authorize the immediate promotion of Cadet Jennifer Hailey to the rank of Lieutenant. Cadet please step forward."
To say that the entire room was stunned would be an understatement. The room was shocked, when the hell was she ever in a combat zone was what they were thinking. Though from the look of surprise on Hailey's face she was nearly as stunned as they were. She quickly walked over to the stage to stand near Colonel O'Neill.
"The United States Air Force has recognized that you have fulfilled tasks and duties well beyond the responsibility of cadet. It is with great pleasure that I bestow upon you the responsibilities, respect and the rank of lieutenant." While Colonel O'Neill was speaking General Kerrigan was removing her cadet rank pins and replacing them with the insignia of a full lieutenant.
"Thank you sir!" Hailey damn neared beamed as she saluted the two officers.
"Lieutenant, you are no longer a cadet at the Academy. This is in lieu of a graduation ceremony. At the end of today you are to have all belongings packed and ready to ship out. Here is a copy of your official orders." O'Neill handed her a sealed envelope as he spoke and saluted her one last time. "See you on base Lieutenant Hailey."