Part 2 Continued:
That night at the meeting at Giles' apartment, Xander felt considerably more relaxed around the Watcher Slayer combo than he had for weeks now. Most of that was in the reassurance that he would no longer present a threat to the general public or them specifically, and now that he was on the way to fully mastering his powers, he would be a bigger help to the team than ever before.
He almost felt like he was safe enough to tell them, when Buffy told them about the sudden lack of activity she'd been having on patrols. And that meant one of two things. The demons were hiding, or somebody or something was making the demons stay in because of a larger plan. AKA, a new Big Bad.
"What do you think Giles?" Buffy asked.
The Watcher looked thoughtful for a couple moments, and then shook his head, answering his Slayer, "Well, until we have more concrete evidence there is not much more we can do at this time beyond react to the situation. But we should all definitely keep an eye out for any…er, weird occurrences or strange creatures about the Hellmouth."
That kept Xander's mouth shut for the rest of the meeting, some irrational fear keeping him from shouting out to the world that he, the normal guy, the Zeppo of the Scooby Gang, had powers and knew how to use them to help save mankind and destroy demons. Buffy, while he loved her to death and enough to bring her back to life, could be heavy on the irrational when in a bad mood or without the whole on the information.
After the meeting, Xander took a walk, needing to clear his head some before heading back "home".
As he was coming from Giles instead of the Bronze, he was forced, or more like needing to take some frustration out, to take shortcuts through several cemeteries. And as luck would have it, he just happened to come across a small gang of vampires.
"Well, well, well, lookie what we got here," Xander said the moment they noticed him, "A bunch of dust bunnies that don't know what they're messing with. Please consider me another helpless victim and attack me, I've been looking forward to this ever so much."
"What? Being dinner?" the "leader" chuckled.
"No, this!" Xander shouted as he 'lit up' as he found himself thinking about it, and immediately formed a solholo rendition that was a very good likeness of Buffy, except being totally white, glowing, and slightly bigger boobs, stake in hand. That all happened in about five seconds. It wasn't until those five seconds were over that Xander looked at the vamps again, and normally even with such a lapse in attention time he would still have enough to duck or scream out.
What he saw…well, it did make him want to scream, but not in terror. The vamps were already screaming, but that was because that those closest to him were already in flames and dusting before their eyes, while the ones not close to him…well, some of them were being set on fire, others were having their flesh char and catch fire while they stared, and the ones in between those, well their flesh was charred, catching on fire, and melting off of their slowly dusting bones.
For all accounts, it was as if they were out in sunlight. The holo-Buffy ignored this and moved to the last standing vampire. It began to have the same effects the others were having at her approach, but "she" didn't give it time to do anything about it, and the moment her 'light' stake punctured its heart it vanished with a grateful scream into dust. The others finally combusted about the same time.
Xander blinked, not even sure what had just happened. He hadn't controlled every move of holo-Buffy has he had the jet earlier that afternoon. That was proven when she turned back to him and smiled, the same way Buffy might have if he had been the one to dust the vamp instead.
Not sure how to handle this, Xander quickly dissolved the solholo and turned his light off. Then he remembered what he had found out that day. He absorbed solar energy, sunlight, and then somehow purified it. Apparently this "purification" didn't do anything for the effect the light would have on vamps. In fact, from the looks of it, it seemed to enhance how the light worked on vampires.
"Too bad demons aren't the same way about light," he muttered as he walked on. He met two more vamps, singly, but didn't waste the energy in making any more holograms and just 'lit up'. Although he would never say it aloud, that's how he thought of it now.
He was almost to his house, just crossing the street that would take him to the residential area when a screech of tires made him pause. He heard sirens quickly coming closer, and the roar of engines sounded like they were right around the corner. And as Xander's luck with the Hellmouth would have it, they were.
A large armored car, very similar to the kind that banks shipped their cash in, took the corner at the end of the street so fast that it almost toppled, but didn't and raced down the street, incidentally straight for him. Right behind it were at least two, lights flashing black and white police cruisers, more than likely with more behind them. They weren't close enough that Xander felt they could stop the truck before it ran him over, so he reacted instinctively. Although, thanks to his "Meta Instinct" in hindsight he felt that wasn't such a good idea, but still unavoidable.
Lighting up so brightly that he knew his face couldn't be recognized, let alone seen by anything but a camera, Xander held his arms up in front of his face when the truck was less than ten feet from him and imagined a wall between him and it.
There was a loud thud and crashing sound all at once and then Xander opened his eyes, surprised to see a large seven by ten foot solid white wall in front of him, and no sign of the truck that he could see. He dispelled the wall, being sure to keep up his light and saw the armored truck right in front of him, slid to the side as though the driver had tried to swerve at the last second before hitting the wall, and as far as the wall went, the only sign that the truck had hit one was a broken headlight that was still casting its light and a very small dent by the fender.
The cruisers screeched to a halt around the truck and immediately at least four police officers, all wearing the uniforms of L.A.P.D. poured out and held guns on the truck. One of them briefly cast a glance at Xander before squinting and looking back at the truck, blinking for a couple seconds afterwards.
Xander watched while one of the officers risked getting closer and flung the door open while the others covered him. The driver, a guy wearing all black and a ski mask rolled up on his head, was unconscious against the steering wheel. Quickly and efficiently, something Xander wished the Sunnydale PD, a subsidiary of L.A.P.D., were more often than once.
Once the guy was handcuffed and in one of the waiting cruisers, Xander knew their attention would turn back to him and he so did not want to answer any questions right now. 'Think Xander, think!' he thought to himself. He had to find a way out of here; preferably in a way they wouldn't be able to follow him.
'Definitely not doing the wings again,' he thought adamantly. He didn't have the time for a jet, and he didn't trust making it appear directly around him until he had a bit more experience. That left…
He heard another engine in the distance. Not coming closer, but it was familiar enough that it gave him an idea. He took all of the light around him, from what he himself was emitting to every light source around and damn near took all of it to rapidly form a large motorcycle that happened to have flapping, flying wings on them. It could never exist if made out of materials, but as it was made out of light, all it took was a little concentration and not only could it exist, but it could fly.
In a near-blinding flash of light, the flying motorcycle came into being, pure white, but also some parts of it looked like high-polished silver, the metal parts of it anyway. Xander had begun to wonder if more went into his solholos than just the image and shape of it, and now he had proof as he cranked the handle and a real engine growl roared from it. Xander just counted his blessings and doing what he knew to do on a real motorcycle, as well as willing his creation into the air, he held on for dear life as the flying motorcycle roared into the night, taking a high speed run before the flapping wings picked it, and Xander, up into the air and higher and higher until Xander was fairly confident that they could no longer distinguish him from the stars.
Moving quickly, and finding that he could control the sound his creation made, and quietly, he "landed" in his back yard and turned off his light and letting the flying motorcycle disappear that way before sneaking down to the basement, and crumbling on his bed with the lights still off. Not that it bothered him.
What did bother him was what he said next was absolutely true. "Guess I don't know quite how to control these powers after all, huh?" he asked the empty room.
He just shut his eyes and prayed for the rest of the night that the whole thing was just a big nightmare.
The next day marked the morning of the last day of Xander's "weekend". He woke up to the sun shining in his eyes from the window, which immediately filled him with energy while also replenishing what he had spent the night before.
Without even a yawn, Xander got up, feeling as miserable as he had when he went to bed, and got out of his clothes from the day before and showered and readied himself for the day. What he would be doing, he had little idea, but he knew he wasn't going to hang around here all day.
Once he was showered, he got dressed in rather plain clothes, worn blue jeans, a white undershirt and a plain red one over that. He didn't feel like being "comfortable" today, which is what he called most of his Hawaiian shirts and plaid pants and sweater shirts. Just as he was getting his shoes, the phone rang. He got to it first and answered with a, "Hey there, Harris residence."
"Xander!" Willow's voice came through sounding very, very panicky. He could tell from an added tremble and a slightly higher pitch that this was not a long forgotten small-I'm-embarrassed-panics Willow had during early High School, but a real trouble, Hellmouth, Buffy-in-danger panic.
"Willow, what is it?" he asked, his voice steady and strong, a sharp contrast to the normal joking exterior he had, but when his friends were in trouble or needed his help, only God could stop him.
"Xander, hurry and get to Giles' place," Willow told him, though in a quieter tone, "Buffy…found something last night on patrol. And please hurry!" The last was a hissed whisper, but said with even more panic than the rest of her speech had been. This was no longer the-world-is-in-danger scared. Willow was scared for him. He was in danger.
"Shit," he softly cursed as he hung the phone up. He knew something like this was going to happen. He only hoped he didn't lose Buffy's friendship out of it.
Suddenly, his eyes hardened. No, nothing could sever his friendship with Buffy or any other of his friends. Her trust in him might be damaged, but their friendship would not end over this. This settled and confident in his mind, Xander walked out of his room and quickly started running for Giles apartment.
He got there in record time, somehow he was barely even sweating by the time he walked up the steps, even though the sun was shining brightly over head. He looked up at it without even squinting. Maybe that was why he wasn't even tired after such a brisk run.
He knocked, and then barged into the apartment once he was sure it was unlocked and quickly entered. "What's the emergency? Willow sounded panicked on the phone!" he exclaimed the moment he was in and found all three of his friends inside.
"Yes, Buffy believes that she saw last night what it was that has been taking out the demons," Giles explained. He stood up and walked over to his bookshelf and removed a volume and carried it back to his seat. "However, I'm having trouble finding any reference to the creature she described, and we have yet to determine if it is, suffice to say, good or the next Big Bad."
Xander nodded, absorbing the information like a sponge and quickly joined the group in the "living room" and sat in a rather sunny spot on the couch. "All right, but that doesn't explain why Willow was so panicked," he pointed out.
In response, Willow lifted a remote control for Giles' new 18" screen TV and turned it on. After a moment, it became obvious that it was on a News program, and normally Xander tuned that kind of stuff out, that is until the main story was announced.
"And our main story of the hour," the female news anchor introduced, "Last night, the infamous "Night Janitor", the criminal responsible for stealing over $500,000 from several banks in the Southern Californian region, by hijacking the armored trucks that bring in the shipments of reserve cash for the banks, was finally caught. Through a sting operation in work for months, the police identified and gave chase to the Night Janitor, alias Jack Nate, escaped felon, spending several hours chasing him through downtown Los Angeles and into the subsidiary community of Sunnydale, which is where the chase abruptly ended. We now take you over to our correspondent in Sunnydale."
The screen suddenly switched to the street Xander had been standing on last night when he had almost been run over by the armored truck. He paled as he recognized one of the officers standing with the white 'preppy' news reporter with the microphone. It was the one that had glanced at him and had been temporarily blinded.
"Thanks Kristy, I'm Colin Feral," the news reporter said into the camera, "and standing here with me is Lieutenant George Michaels. Lieutenant, can you please tell me what exactly happened here last night? How this hour long chase finally ended here on this street."
The microphone was placed under the officer's face, and for a moment they all thought he wasn't going to answer, because he was looking rather disgustedly at the reporter. Finally he looked at the camera and gave his story.
"Yes I can. It started when Nate somehow caught wind of us and knocked our undercover agent unconscious and drove off in the armored truck. We gave chase and set up multiple roadblocks in efforts to cage him in. Some of them he just drove right through, but the ones that would let him leave the county were so well blocked that he had no choice but to avoid them. Unfortunately, he somehow made his way into Sunnydale after almost giving us the slip. We continued pursuit until we reached this street here, coming around," he paused and stepped back to point behind him, "that corner at roughly 60 or 70 miles per hour. I was in the lead pursuit car and I noticed that there was a pedestrian just beginning to cross the street right when we rounded the corner. The truck was too in the way so I couldn't make any features out."
"And then what happened Lieutenant?" the reporter asked.
The officer sighed and gave that same disgusted look at the reporter, then looked back at the camera.
"Just before I was sure the truck was going to hit the civilian…a bright light appeared, so intense I could have sworn that a halogen spot lamp had just been lit right in front of my cruiser, it blinded me enough that I slammed on the brakes, as did the other pursuit cars, and once our vision was restored, we proceeded with apprehending the suspect. Only once we were sure he was in custody did any of us turn to check on the pedestrian."
"And Lieutenant? What happened to the pedestrian?"
Again, the disgusted look. "He was all right as far as we could tell…except that he was surrounded in an aura of light so bright that there was no doubt it was the same light that had stopped the armored truck. His features were hidden by the light, none of us could even tell if he was white, black, or what color hair he had."
"He? You sound so certain that it was a he, yet you keep saying that you cannot identify his features, Lieutenant," the reporter observed.
No doubt about it, a look of pure and utter revulsion and anger appeared on the officer's face, looking only at the reporter.
"The build and height were easy to distinguish, and I will admit there is a possibility that the light was so intense it could have confused me to believing a female form to be a masculine one."
"So what happened next Lieutenant?"
The officer looked back at the camera, his face once more professionally neutral. "Once the perp was in custody, I turned to thank the person, but he, or she, suddenly seemed to panic and then there was another intense flash of light that left us blinking for a couple seconds. Then we heard the roar of a motorcycle and by then our vision had cleared enough to see the person being lifted up into the air on a solid white motorcycle, with wings on it."
The reporter had a blank look on his face for a couple of seconds, because it was obvious he had not heard this part beforehand. "Lieutenant, are you saying that this pedestrian that stopped the Night Janitor was…some kind of angel?"
Xander, on the verge of fainting, puking, laughing out loud, or all of the above, put his hands over his mouth and rubbed his face, mostly to wipe the cold sweat off and rub some color back into it. Willow was alternating biting her lip and looking as bad as Xander felt.
"I'm not saying that, I'm just telling you the facts of what happened last night. Although…" the officer looked thoughtful for several seconds, "…I wouldn't discount the possibility. People would have gotten hurt, innocent civilians, if the chase had gone on much longer, as we were dangerously close to several residential areas."
Suddenly the screen switched back to the newsroom. "Thank you Colin," 'Katie' said the moment she was in view, shuffling a set of papers on her desk that hadn't been there a few minutes ago. "We'll have more on this story in just a few minutes, but now the weather and later a brief commercial break." The view switched to another news anchor and Willow hit the mute button and turned back to the others, who had been glued to the screen as she had been.
"Is that it Buffy?" Willow asked, sounding kind of nervous.
Buffy nodded. "I don't know about a flying motorcycle, but yeah, that light thing, that's exactly what I saw last night. At first, not long after you guys left, I was doing a last patrol of the cemeteries when I saw this incredibly bright light, and when I went towards it; I saw something I never imagined. Vampires were dusting in front of it and it had barely moved and only staked one of them. Then it suddenly disappeared and I had to wait a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the darkness again. By the time I could see again, it or whatever was long gone. I tried to follow it, but it's almost like it vanished. Then I heard some kind of racket on Picket Street, which was probably that street on the news there." Buffy pointed at the TV, which was now on commercial.
"I saw the light against the horizon, but long before I got there, something took off from the ground. I tried to track it against the sky, but it came back down too fast for me to see where it might have landed, or if it landed at all," Buffy finished her story.
Xander nodded, feeling stupid for purposely going after vampires when he should have known Buffy would be patrolling.
"Is it possible Giles?" Willow asked, quicker than Xander thought she would have. "Is it possible that what Buffy and those police saw last night was an actual angel? From Heaven and wings and holy light and all that?"
They all, even Xander, blinked in shock over that. A real angel? From Heaven? On the Hellmouth? None of them had ever considered the possibility, and Xander had never considered that he, with his powers, would be mistaken for one. Ever.
"It…is…possible," Giles slowly conceded, obviously doing some heavy and fast thinking. "First of all, it would explain why just standing before it would dust vampires, and the part about the wings and an all-white motorcycle, and the overwhelming light…yes, even I must admit that it fits all the mythos about true angels, but…I don't think in all of the history of the Watcher Chronicles there is even a single mention of a true angel of the Heavens coming to earth…just to…"
"Kill some demons and save the lives of countless innocent people by stopping an escaped felon from getting away, and in a way that was not harmful to the police or the criminal?" Willow interrupted.
Even Giles had to look sheepish at that. Before any more comments could be made however, Willow noticed that they had finally gotten back to the story and she quickly un-muted it.
The female anchor was speaking, "…and now to continue with this breaking story, just a few minutes ago, we received a call in from a viewer who claims to have been rescued by this mysterious angel just a few weeks ago. She is currently a student at University of California in Sunnydale, so Colin is…" she paused as it was obvious she was actively listening to the person speaking in her ear piece. Then she smiled brightly and nodded at the camera before continuing, "We now go to Colin Feral, live, just outside UCS, who is speaking with…Tara Maclay, a Biology major living on campus. Colin."
"Thank you Katie," the screen rapidly went to a rushed looking reporter standing with a timid blonde girl dressed in form-hiding earth tones. "I'm standing here with Tara Maclay, who called the station just half an hour ago when she caught our news broadcast on what happened last night. Tara, would you mind answering some questions?"
"N-n-no, I-I, I w-wouldn't mind at all," she appeared to be even more nervous and fitful than Willow had been when their nightmares were made real. At least she was talking.
Xander had paled the moment the screen had switched, however he carefully kept his expression frozen to the way it had been. He just hoped he could keep it up.
"You said that you had encountered the person that Lieutenant Michaels said single-handedly stopped an on-rushing armored truck, is this true? And when and where did it happen?" the reporter rapid-fire asked.
Tara seemed to shrink back from the abruptness and forward nature of the reporter, but at the same time it was quite obvious she was committed to having her say. "I-it hap-pened about t-two weeks ago. I, I was walking home, a-aft-er dark; I had b-been going to the st-store. Suddenly I…I was attacked by three very large men. They, they dragged me into an al-alley, a-and I, tried to fight them, b-but…"
Tara looked down. When she looked back up, a steel-like resolve was shining in her eyes as she finished her story.
"They would have killed me. Or worse. Before they could though, I-I heard someone else enter the alley, and-and, and then this amazing light blinded all of us, eve-even m-me. I c-couldn't see what was going on, b-but I heard what sounded like a fight, and when I could see again… This man, he was surrounded by this amazing white aura, shining brightly all around him. It hid his face, but I could feel such, such warmth and concern coming from him. A-and when he-he smiled…it was like sunshine on my face. I mean that. I felt light and warmth on my face, like the sun was, was really shining."
The reporter seemed awed by this, so Tara finished her story. "I-I asked him who he was. He laughed, and told me, "I'm just your friendly neighborhood white knight milady" and then he bowed. He looked at the men, who I saw were unconscious on t-the ground, and he told me to go and call the police. I-I did, and by the time they arrived and I took them back to the al-alley, we found all three of them hanging by a glowing pure white rope. When the police got near them, planning on getting them down somehow they told me, the rope suddenly disappeared."
The reporter seemed to shake himself slightly before clearing his throat, away from the mike, and he asked, "And, uh, what happened to these men that assaulted you?"
Tara flushed again and returned to her timid shell, but still answered, "I w-was t-told that it was not their first offense on such charges. The officers taking the information for his report, later on, s-said that they w-would be imprisoned for a short while. He also said I d-did a good thing, calling the police when I did. But…he didn't believe me about the man that saved my life."
"Ah…well, yes, thank you very much for your time Miss Maclay. Uh, back to you in the studio," the screen cut back, but Willow turned the set off after that.
"White Knight?" Giles repeated.
Xander chuckled, "Probably just a joke G-man. I mean, what are the chances that this is the same guy, or thing? Two weeks? If it were a demon, there would have been more appearances, wouldn't there have been?"
"Well…it could be that he's just laying low, or he usually does…whatever he does, where no one can see him," Buffy suggested.
"But what about the differences in the stories?" Willow asked. "This…Tara, she definitely identified it as a man, and while the police officer said he thought it was a man, he said the light was so bright it could not be completely identified, and Buffy couldn't even see a person, only the vamps dusting and the light."
"It could be he, or it, is getting more powerful," Buffy pointed out. "Two weeks ago, it's light or whatever, couldn't hide his body entirely, but now it can, and not only that, he or it can stop a very fast armored truck so that no one else is hurt. Plus it seems to be focusing on criminals. First a group of would-be rapists, then a felon that could hurt innocent bystanders if allowed to continue. Could it be some kind of demon that gets off on punishing evil?"
Giles had been in a thoughtful pose during all of this and was slowly nodding his head in agreement with Buffy's question.
"Perhaps, but something about "white knight" keeps ringing through my head," he said. "I'll need to do some more research, unfortunately through my sources rather than my books. But it is quite possible that this is indeed some kind of powerful demon or wizard that has a vendetta against other evil."
"Wait a sec, if it's hating and punishing all this evil…why do I get the vibe that you think its evil too?" Xander asked.
Giles looked at Xander. Buffy gave him a pitied look.
"Xander, it's a demon. And demons…well, are evil. Although it might be kinda like Angel, with a soul or whatever and that's why it's killing all this evil." Buffy rationalized.
"No Buffy," Willow almost heatedly disagreed with her roommate. "It, or he, or whatever, isn't killing. Sure, the vamps dusted, but it only staked one of them, probably in self-defense too. The rest, well its mere presence caused them to die. Or its light or whatever. But it didn't hurt any of the humans, except to stop them from hurting others. He restrained the muggers, and that Janitor guy was said to only have a light concussion, and no other injuries. Who or whatever this is isn't evil in the slightest Buffy."
Buffy frowned, but after a minute or two of thought, her eyes blinked rapidly and she nodded. "You're right Will. But…an angel? A real angel? I find that…kinda hard to believe after all this time. I mean, if they exist at all, why haven't they, or he, shown up earlier? And why now of all times?"
"Maybe something big is coming," Xander said, a dark tone to his very serious voice. "Something so big that we need a little bit of help." That gave them all something to think about.
"Well, whatever, I've got class," Buffy suddenly said, getting up. "I'll be back before I go on patrol Giles. Let me know what you come up with."
"Yes, of course, and keep your eyes open Buffy," Giles said as the Slayer departed.
"I've got to go too, but I'll see you later Xander, at the coffee place," Willow said to her friend with a meaningful look at him. Xander just nodded, while saying in his normal voice, "Sure thing Wills, catch ya later!" They waved bye to each other and that just left Xander and Giles.
"Well…" Xander looked around him at the stacks of books that he knew would get larger much too soon if he stuck around too long, "…I'm off. See you tonight G-man, and let me know what you tell Buffy!"
Xander quickly left to go and do some heavy thinking.
He knew Willow wanted to meet him, and he almost didn't go, and then he went back over the conversation, and can't honestly remember promising to meet her at the coffee place this afternoon. Besides that was yesterday afternoon when they went… Oh.
He caught Willow just outside one of her classes, and saw Oz heading towards her direction as well, but it seemed he hadn't seen her as yet. Quickly, Xander grabbed Willow and pulled her into a corner before creating an illusion around them that the wall just continued for another couple of feet before becoming a corner.
"Xander?! What…?" Willow started to ask but he quickly put his finger on her lips. Surprisingly, he didn't even feel the temptation or the need to remind himself of the fluke. Willow for all accounts and purposes were truly his "sister" in his eyes.
"I might be able to hide us in an illusion, but I can't do a thing about sound," Xander whispered to her. "Now why do you want to go back to the Lab?"
Willow smirked at him and he felt that she too now only saw him as a brother in her eyes. "Took you long enough to figure it out. Instead of going to the coffee place, just hang around the back of the Science building and then you can jet us there instead. I've got an idea that I need to test, about hiding your identity and avoiding a manhunt at the same time." Willow whispered back.
"Great, I'm all ears," Xander said enthusiastically.
"Well," suddenly Willow looked nervous.
"What is it Will?" Xander asked, now more concerned than enthusiastic.
"Well, it, you, that is to say…the only metas that are truly and widely accepted by everyone in the world are the innocents that can do no harm and will do no harm with whatever they can do…and superheroes." That clinched it.
Xander blinked rapidly and shook his head, almost losing the focus needed to maintain the illusion. "You…want me…to become a superhero?" Xander asked weakly.
Willow frowned and nodded, backing it up with, "It's the only logical thing I could think of and it would clear up this mess with the media, and you wouldn't have to do much, just show up in a costume a few times. You've already got the reputation of saving people's lives…"
Willow was interrupted by Xander suddenly giving her a bone-crushing hug.
"Ever since I got these powers, no heck, ever since I was 6 years old and read my first comic book, I've wanted to be a superhero Willow!" he told her quietly. "And ever since we started helping Buffy, I know what its actually like to help people, and now I know how to use my powers I can actually do that!"
Willow started laughing, but stopped herself in time when she saw through the haze of light around them, Oz, looking for her. "OK, I've got an idea for the costume, both practical and identity hiding without following your normal fashion sense."
"Hey," Xander whisper-warned.
"Science building, I'll be done with classes by 2. And remember the safety belts this time! Now would you mind," she gestured at Oz. Xander looked and muttered, "Oh, sure thing." Then he concentrated and created a holograph of Willow, walking away from where Oz was, just over twenty feet away. Oz turned and called out "Willow" and started to give chase to the holograph.
Xander took one last look around and then dispelled the illusion, they reappeared in a flash of light as the wall became slightly shorter and Willow quickly caught up to Oz while Xander got rid of the other illusion. Then he quickly made his way to the science building, just via another route.
Luckily he found a couple of benches there and seeing that he had at least a couple hours, he laid back on them, enjoying the sun, and took a brief nap. He woke up shortly after a cloud had covered the sun, casting him in shadow, and grumbling to himself, seeing he still had a lot of time, went into town to get some food. After eating, he returned just in time and making sure no one was around, reconstructed the jet, remembering to make more comfortable seats with safety harnesses. Willow walked around the corner just as he'd finished the steps leading up to it.
Smiling she quickly ran over and cried out, "Top Shot Gun!" and raced him up the steps until she was in the front seat.
"Oh come on, I'm the pilot, I should be up front," Xander whined. Willow just stuck her tongue out at him. Squinting, suddenly Xander smiled as he did something he had only experimented with in private, manipulating an already formed solholo.
"Hey! What the…!" Willow suddenly cried as it was almost as if the sides had turned to jelly and she was sliding backwards, already strapped in, until she was now in the back seat, a new front seat forming as hers absorbed and took the place of the back one.
Xander smirked as he made to get into the front, when Willow glared at him and muttered, "Not funny."
He just shrugged and answered as he got in and was automatically strapped in, "May not be funny, but I did have a point about the whole pilot thing." With that, he willed his creation to go straight up. Hovering, without moving an outward part, it did exactly that, then he turned it in the direction of S.T.A.R. Labs and "hit the afterburners". Something to be said about wasting function with design as he compared his ability to simply will the hologram in any direction or path he decided, and his other holograms that used wings to fly.
Before too long, they were setting down behind the bus stop, making sure no one could see them land or the plane disappear in the afternoon light. They quickly repeated the other day's sojourn into the lab, although Willow still had the access card and Xander had a much easier time of it, getting past the deactivated laser security system.
Not thirty minutes after they'd left the Science building, they were alone in the lab, with the frozen light illusions in front of the cameras, and Willow was hurriedly typing away on the computer station, searching the database for something.
"Uh, Wills, what exactly is it that you're looking for?" Xander asked after several minutes looking over her shoulder, which he knew she couldn't even tell was happening she was so far into the computer.
"Something I saw a couple years ago, and no nothing classified, just something that got discontinued. Not enough funding," she answered absently, her eyes never leaving the screen.
"That doesn't tell me what," Xander pointed out.
"It would take too long to explain. I have to find it first then you can read about it yourself while I figure out how to get it here. Don't worry, it's not like a robot suit or anything like that," she added after a brief uncomfortable silence. "Ah! Here we go…" she trailed off as she read a screen that had just popped up.
She began to rapidly type and multiple screens were appearing and disappearing on and off the screen so fast that Xander began to wonder how Willow did it. Her eyes never once blinked and it wasn't long before she began to smile, a sure sign that Xander knew Willow was getting what she wanted out of her hacking.
After another ten minutes, that Xander spent pacing instead, Willow finally declared triumph and waved Xander over to her. He quickly hurried, but stopped short at what he saw on the screen. A rotating digital image showed, in great detail, a solid black suit that could easily be mistaken for some kind of full body armor, except that there was no head, so quite obviously this was just to showcase the suit.
Right next to it in another window was a security layout of what looked like the building they were currently in. Showing a blinking yellow dot that actually did say "You Are Here" with an arrow and everything, and then a red dot on the other side with a serial marking next to that dot.
"Uh…Wills, what exactly am I looking at here?" Xander asked.
"Your new costume. They actually have one here in the facility. Unfortunately it's going to take some doing, but we can get it two ways. We go and get it…or bring it here to us. As unbelievable as it is, it's riskier to have it brought to us," Willow told him.
"Yeah, I get that, and we'll come back to it I promise, but what am I looking at?" Xander repeated, placing special emphasis on certain words.
"Oh, it's an experimental body armor, meant for SWAT and police forces. Unfortunately it costs about 2.5 million dollars to make an entire suit, and that's at cost," Willow told him, knowing he knew what 'at cost' meant. "It's constructed out of several materials, including at least one alien fabric that we humans have been able to manufacture. The basic concept though is that it works pretty much the same as kevlar, except that it's almost a million times more resilient. For real, here are the test results, it actually came pretty close to a million times of anything that kevlar couldn't survive through. This particular model is also equipped with bio-sensors, since it's one of the 25 prototypes made, as well as a couple other bonuses."
"This one can be folded down into a one by one by two inch space, it also, once in its compacted form, the moment you activate it to full size, automatically puts itself on you, molding to your body for the perfect fit immediately. Hey! The one at this facility even has pockets!"
"Hip, hip hooray," Xander sarcastically quipped. "How does this help me keep my identity secret?"
"Well, so far your light powers are what's kept your identity secret. How difficult would it be for you to make some kind of hologram face cover? What this," she pointed at the screen, "is about is keeping you safe. From like bullets and stuff. We can discuss that part later. Now how are we going to get it?"
"You said something about bio-sensors?" Xander asked. "How will we know that all my bio-data isn't going to some secret underground government bunker that still has the receivers for those things?"
Willow rolled her eyes. "Because their short-range sensors, they stop working outside of one kilometer. Or at least the receiver would have to be within one kilometer to pick anything up, and I can fiddle with the frequencies so that only I will be able to access the data. Now stop worrying about that, and how we get it. Because we snuck back in here, and I'm not even on the schedule until tomorrow, and it would be pretty pathetic if we did this much for nothing. The armor works Xand, the only reason it's not being used is because it costs too much to make!"
Xander sighed. "How much riskier?" he finally asked.
Willow looked thoughtful for a moment before looking him in the eye and said, "Riskier than going through thirteen levels of high security and a vault that not only do I not have access to, I shouldn't even know it exists."
Xander sighed. He considered everything. If they went and got it, and somebody walked into that vault or wherever it is and saw it missing when their records showed it still in there, there would be serious repercussions if it was suddenly found out that Xander, the new superhero in town was wearing it as job attire. But if their records showed that it had been taken out, for whatever reason…
"Bring it to us," he said finally.
Willow took a deep breath and turned back to the computer and began typing vigorously and very fast. He no longer saw a smile on her face, only an intense look of concentration.
At least one hour later, Xander had lost track after he started exercising just to pass the time, a noise came from the computer terminal, but Willow and her expression didn't change. Xander slowed down and finally stopped and went over to check on her.
"How you doing?" he asked.
"Could use a mocha, but can't have everything," she absently commented. "The biggest problem is convincing, and keep convincing the system kernel, watchdogs, and computer security analyst that I have the proper access to be requisitioning a robot carryall to unload the armor from its storage point and drop it off in this lab with no questions. So far…" She stopped talking after that, and Xander stopped checking up on her.
Another hour after that, Xander had done every exercise with every exercise/testing equipment in the lab possible, twice even, and in fact was just coming back from the vending machines down the hall. He took a 'Student' pass with him so nobody questioned him being there.
An hour before sunset, Willow finally stopped typing, and when Xander looked up, he saw an amazed look on her face. "Willow?" he asked, concerned, "What is it?"
"I…I-I did it," she said, her voice coated in pure awe.
Xander wasn't the least bit surprised. When she put her mind to it, there was nothing that his Wills couldn't do. "Way to go Wills! When can we expect our delivery?" he congratulated her.
Willow slowly shook herself back to the real world and answered, "Uh, right about…now," she said just as a set of steel doors that Xander thought were always locked opened and a machine that looked like a forklift without the driver seat and painted beige and blue came in with a vertical silver and glass crate. Behind the glass, hanging up exactly as it had been on the screen, was the solid black armor, looking for all intents and purposes like a spandex body suit, on the outside anyway. As part of the suit, aside from boots, were gloves, but they weren't gloves, it was like the sleeves just didn't end with the arms and covered the hands too. Xander imagined the neckline would go to just above his collarbone on him. That is if it would fit him at all, it looked like it was made for Arnold Schwartzeneger.
After several jerky movements, the automated forklift sat the armor case down and then backed out of the room, the metal doors slamming shut behind it.
"Quickly!" Willow rushed forward and keyed in a code into the vertical case. "It'll be back in five minutes to retrieve the crate. We have to be gone before that happens!"
"I don't have to take my clothes off, do I?" Xander asked, worried as he helped Willow manhandle the suit, which amazingly only weighed about 5 lbs, out of the crate. He had expected, since it was armor and all that, to be much heavier. And to not actually feel like spandex.
"Are you sure the reason they didn't give these to cops is because it cost too much, or is it maybe because they thought the cops might quit when they're given spandex to wear as a uniform?" Xander gruffly asked as they got the suit over to a dressing area, where one might put on a hospital robe for instance.
Willow ignored him, but she did grin at the joke.
"All right," she said, out of breath, "to answer your first question, no, just the red shirt, or button it up or something. Then I'll key this thing to be set for a new user and it'll loosen up so it's like real spandex, except a lot bigger and looser. Put it on and once its around your shoulders and your hands are in the hand parts, it'll adjust itself to you automatically, and then begin taking user data, like DNA, clothing size and all that. It takes a couple minutes, and it might be a little weird, but don't worry. This is not dangerous."
"Hurry up, I've got to get the receiver that's still inside the case!" Willow quickly went back to the case after she had turned the armor into a pile of spandex pajamas. Xander had taken his red shirt off and to be sure, stuffed it inside Willow's purse. Then he started to get the suit on.
It took him a few moments to figure out how to orient it, but by the time that Willow came back with the receiver, he was just pulling the loose black fabric up over his waist. He fit his hands into the sleeves, and that naturally put it up on his shoulders, and the moment his fingers fit inside the glove parts, he felt something turn on around him.
The receiver in Willow's hand immediately came to life and began to beep and blink with lights. Xander didn't really notice as the suit was tightening all around him until his civilian clothes were pressed tight against him, and then it kept tightening until it felt like his clothes were either being formed into his skin, or the armor was just dissolving them away so that it could rest against his skin. Finally, it stopped and after a brief minute of the thing vibrating around him, it was finished and Xander was standing there in skintight black latex from just below his neck to everywhere else on him.
It didn't mold to him, like he had been expecting, and it didn't create fake muscles either. It just showed him, in something skintight, and black.
"Wow," Willow drooled.
Xander glared at her and using all the spare light in the place immediately made a holograph of Oz as they had seen him earlier that afternoon. Willow shook her head and shrugged at her best friend. "Sorry, female hormone reflex. Thanks though."
"No problem. Now…don't we have to get out of here?" Xander asked.
"But…your face…and head! People might recognize your hair! I think you might actually need a whole helmet. But I can't think of any that…"
"I've got it covered Wills, this is quite enough, thank you very much," he said the last sincerely.
Willow blushed and nodded. Then she looked back at the steel doors and quickly began to gather up everything that would show that they had been there, and then triple checked, and once she was satisfied, Xander turned the both of them invisible, and only after the forklift robot had taken the case away and the doors closed did Xander removed the illusions in front of the cameras and then they made their way, invisibly, to the bus stop, and Xander didn't even hesitate in making the jet and they both climbed in and were off before a full ten minutes had passed.
"You need to do something more than just wear the black armor like that Xander," Willow said mid-flight. "Come on, you're the one that said you wanted to be a superhero, think of something! Use your imagination. Maybe turn it white?"
Xander laughed and did a corkscrew. Willow screeched and he replied after done, "I'll leave it black, but I think I can add some…enhancements to it. And I've already got the face thing covered Wills. Now, you said this thing can go compact and the moment I activate it, it automatically puts itself on me?"
"Yeah, but I have to reset several things first. It'll take most of the night. Leave it with me, and you go to the meeting tonight while I take care of it." Willow answered.
"No, Willow, you don't have to…" Xander started to say.
"Oh stop it! I'm not doing this out of any obligation to you or anyone or anything else," she snapped. After a brief silence, "I'm doing this because I want to. And while you always wanted to be the superhero, I always wanted to be the person behind the heroes, like Professor X and that guy that helped the Punisher."
They didn't say anything the rest of the short trip, but both were smiling.
At the meeting, no new information was presented, except that Willow had some homework to finish and that Buffy hadn't seen anything else, and Giles hadn't been able to find out anything else either. So, Buffy went on patrol, Giles went back to research, and Xander waited until Buffy was long gone before heading towards where Willow was working on his costume, his basement home.
"Hey, how's it coming?" he asked after he'd closed the door. The suit was sprawled out in its loosened form on the bed while Willow tinkered with the receiver.
"Surprisingly fast," she told him cheerfully. "The frequency settings weren't that hard, I just had to pick one, it was easy to change it. From now on, only I, on my laptop alone connected to this receiver or any other one I specially improve, can receive the data being sent by the sensors in the armor. There is also no way that it can be tracked. At least you can't on this particular model. There were some made that could be easily traced no matter what, but thankfully this isn't one of those."
"And what about the compact mode?" he asked, going to sit beside her.
Willow smiled and quickly finished up the last of her fiddling and then she looked at the suit, and then frowned when it did nothing for several seconds. Then, suddenly, as they watched, like tearing wrapping paper on Christmas morning in reverse, the suit shrunk until it was a small rectangle of black material. And it was actually smaller than Willow said it was to be. It was about one centimeter length and width, but a full inch and a half deep.
"Cool!" Xander exclaimed, picking up the piece before Willow could. "How do you get it to come out again?" he asked.
"There should be a button you can feel with your finger through the material, kinda like those touch pads on toys. Oh, and a bit of a warning, make sure that when you activate it, its not like in your pocket or something. And it might feel a bit vigorous at first, but you'll get used to it," she assured him.
Xander nodded and felt around for a bit until he finally found the button in it, along one of the inch and a half sides. Taking a deep breath, then he looked down and rapidly removed his red shirt again, having put it back on before the meeting, and then he held the piece of material in his right hand, and pushed the button. For about half a second, nothing happened, until it was like a jack-in-the-box going off in his hand and he felt a soft breeze and tugging all around him for about two to three seconds and before he knew it he was in the black armor. "Cool," he said again, taking in his appearance.
He smiled at Willow. "Now," he said, "for the enhancements."
Taking a breath and closing his eyes in concentration, he lit up and immediately began to form what he wanted in his mind from the light around his body onto his body. First, solid white, but looking like high-polished steel, were the leg guards. They were smooth and went all the way around his calves, front and back, topping off at just below the knee with a soft point.
Then, the thighs received a plate of solid white armor on each thigh, covering the front and outer parts of the leg. At his waist a solid ring of white formed, connecting to the chest and back plates. The back were white also, but only covered the top half of his back, ending where his lungs did on his back, but also going with the smooth curve, a single straight seam where his spine was. The chest plates were three interlocked panels of the white metal-like armor, two large square ones over his chest area, and the third connecting with the 'belt' between the two panels and it over his abdomen.
On the back of each hand, another, small panel appeared, and then seamless white bracer's covered his forearms, and curved, shoulder-enhancing shoulder plates connected with the chest and back plates. The last piece of it, Xander paused for several seconds before looking towards his closet and after a very brief digging through a single box, he revealed a solid black, which matched the black portions of his armor, 5-foot long scarf. He quickly wrapped it around his face, it was long enough that he could actually wrap it around his head several times so it covered both his hair and his lower face, leaving his nose and eyes open.
Willow could tell he was smiling with the way his eyes crinkled around the edge as he briefly glowed brighter and held his hands out in front of him. In a flash of white light, a helmet appeared. Willow blinked. It wasn't exactly a historical style of helmet, but rather, as they were talking superheroes here, an amalgamation of numerous comic influences.
The overall shape of it was a reminder of Magneto's helmet, smooth, curved, and covering the entire head. The mouth guard however was more like Cobra Commander's helmet from G.I. Joe. But that was where all similarities ended, as there was a place for the eyes to look out, but not curved, a straight line above the eyes. Xander put it on over his cowled head, and Willow gasped as she watched something happen to the 'visor' of Xander's helmet, and she could no longer see his face, just a deep black, and his eyes were actually comic book white, and glowing too.
Then Willow stood up to take in the whole picture. If she didn't know and help pick out the costume, she would never know or have guessed that this was her oldest and life long friend. It was further confirmed when Xander spoke, "Well, what do you think Will?"
The scarf masked his voice so well that even if he were trying to convince her he was really him with his voice, she would never make the connection unless he told her. She couldn't have dreamed of a more perfect disguise.
"It's perfect," she answered. "How'd you do that thing with your eyes?"
"You mean it worked?" he asked, sounding surprised. He walked over to the mirror and looked at himself. "Well I'll be blessed and called a saint," he muttered. Even he could tell the difference in his voice, and looking at this image that was he, but at the same time not, it made him feel more confident, so he spoke more confidently. No one, not even those that knew him best, would know that it was him!
He turned back to Willow. "Seriously though Willow, what do you think?" he asked again.
Willow blinked and seriously inspected him again. She nodded. "Are you sure you want to do this Xander? I mean, just being a Scooby is hard enough. Are you sure you want to go solo?"
She got the impression he was smiling at her, and she could have sworn she felt sunlight shining on her face. "But I'm not flying solo. You're the person behind me. None of this would have been possible if not for you Will. You're my Professor X. And yeah, Prof, I'm very sure."
Willow blushed slightly at her new nickname. "Well then, I support your decision, and suggest you start as soon as possible. But…stay away from Buffy. She might…you know…"
He nodded, a very interesting sight in the helmet. "Yeah, no prob Prof.. I was planning on starting off in LA anyway. More for me to do as a crime fighter there than there is here in Sunnyhell. And I'm not just talking about demons Will. I have to focus on more than just that. I'm not about to ignore all the other crimes going on just because of demons being around."
"Sort of a triple life; normal guy, Slayerette, and 'angelic' superhero?" Willow teased.
Xander chuckled.
"Not to mention you can take out vamps without even trying now, and who knows what you can do to demons," Willow added and Xander nodded.
"All right, if I'm going, I have to go now," Xander finally said. "I'll see you tomorrow Will, Giles suggested we wait a few days before meeting again, until something else comes up, but Buff can fill you in later. Now go have some fun with your boyfriend."
"Yessir, angel sir!" Willow giggled and gave a civilian's salute.
Xander groaned. "If I get named "angel" anything I'm suing the first person that comes up with that name and demand that I get something better to be called."
"Well, the news media usually handle this, except for the cases of wannabe superheroes who already have their 'names' so I think its best to hold off on calling yourself anything. If anybody asks, do like you did for that girl in the alley, and say you were just glad to help out or something like that," Willow advised.
Xander nodded, filing the information away. "Thanks again Wills, I'll see you tomorrow."
With that said, he walked out, and as it had been a while since he'd gone skateboarding, he created a solid white equivalent of a hover board, jumped on it, and took off into the night sky, a white streak against the dark blue heavens.
A hero had been born.
End Part 2