Spark of Genius

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy verse, girl genius verse, DC comics or any of that, so give it a rest.

AN: I write because I enjoy it. I hope you enjoy what I write.

'Thought'

"Speech"

Chapter 8: World Domination Starts At Home

"What do you want to do tonight Brain? ""The same thing we do every night Pinky, Try to take over the world!" ~Pinky & The Brain

Bruce Wayne was not happy, not happy at all. He worked hard as the Batman, and he worked equally as hard at keeping up the idiot playboy image of Bruce Wayne and keeping that image as far away as possible from any inferences of him being the Batman. To think that both his alter ego and his life as Batman had taken a blow within the last week did not make him happy, not happy at all.

Bruce sat before the Batcomputer with a glare pasted on his face as he tried to figure out what the hell had happened during the last week.

First, somebody had made a fool of Hawkgirl, humiliating her on national TV and broadcasting the entire fight to the world. Hawkgirl and the Green Lantern were not amused and were looking for somebody to blame it on. He'd kept his own copy of the video for his files, simply for official hero business purposes of course; that was his argument and he was sticking to it.

Second, somebody had pranked him, sending the copies of the Hawkgirl video right from the mailbox at his mansion. He had double checked the security cameras and the only thing out of place that he had seen was a small triangular shaped shadow moving by his mailbox and then disappeared out into the night. The prankster even had the gall to post mark the return address as 'Wayne Manor, Care of Bruce Wayne.' This of course had gotten back to Hawkgirl and Green Lantern and they had rounded on him with their displeasure. It was only upon asking them if they really believed that he would prank them, that they relented in their urge to beat the crap out of him. Bruce still didn't know whether to be offended or pleased by the fact that both heroes had agreed that he had no sense of humor, so couldn't really be behind the prank.

Third, the press had tried to connect Bruce Wayne with Hawkgirl. That was something that Batman absolutely couldn't afford to let propagate through the news as his alter ego of Bruce Wayne needed to be kept separate from his hero work if he wanted to continue helping the people of Gotham. His public relations organization had quickly stepped in to quash the rumors of any involvement with any heroes as well as suggesting that Bruce Wayne wasn't the hero type. Again, Bruce wasn't sure if he should be offended at the insult or proud that the image he tried to portray had been successful. A few news stations didn't want to let the connection between Bruce Wayne and Hawkgirl disappear, but he had solved that problem by buying the news stations and firing the reporters who had been giving him the problems; after all, rank and money hath its privileges.

Forth, there was the break in at the Batcave. Anybody who knew that Batman was connected to Bruce Wayne was a serious threat to the continued operations of Batman. There had been break-ins at the Batcave in the past, but never where somebody had stolen such dangerous weapons as the shrink ray and the headless body of Amazo. He was convinced that whoever had worked their way into the Batcave had done so specifically to steal the body and the weapon, but he absolutely couldn't figure out the connection between the two of them. He had tried to follow the path of the mechanical bat that had hijacked Amazo's corpse, but Bruce was chagrined to learn that there were deficiencies in his security camera coverage towards the top of the cavern's roof. This, added to the fact that the mechanical device was an exact replica of a bat, made it impossible to differentiate the path it had taken as opposed to the flights of the other bats. There was no telling what other devices or places the robotic bat had tampered with, so Bruce was forced to do a spring cleaning and inventory every single part of the cave; thank God for Alfred and his ever present assistance. Bruce had tried to get Nightwing or Batgirl to come help him out, but both were busy with their own jobs in Bludhaven.

That led to the fifth problem that Batman was facing. For some reason Superman thought that the stink bomb that had forced the Lexcorp Towers to evacuate had to be connected with the destruction of an old Metropolis junk yard. Superman had pushed the problem off onto Batman as he was the preeminent detective in the Justice League.

No, Batman was not happy at all.

'Why do they always have to give their problems to me to solve?' Bruce groused to himself in his head. 'Don't they know that I have my own problems to deal with?"

Bruce hit a few more keys on his computer, trying to link together the happenings on the Hawkgirl situation with what had happened to his Batcave. If somebody was targeting the members of the the Jutice League, then that villain would become priority number one for not only him, but the rest of the league as well. Bruce still couldn't figure out the motive for the attack on Hawkgirl or the subsequent video; other than the video's possible resell value on the celebrity sex tape market. Everything that the computer told him was that both the Hawkgirl attack and Batcave break-in were totally separate, his computer also added that the random actions of the robot's combat were opposite of the break in and the incredible precision and timing that it would take to get in through the bat shutters and hijack Amazo. The sheer magnitude of different obstacles to surmount in a robbery of the Batcave made it almost impossible for somebody to just happen across the android with the right tool to hijack it, get into the Batcave while calling Batman away from it, all while doing so without leaving a trace other than a giant hole in the ceiling. The snatching of the old shrink ray didn't make sense either. To top it off, there had been no encrypted communications relayed during the entire endeavor, nor had the system picked up any radio transmissions out of the norm. The professional, or professionals, who had robbed the cave had even destroyed the artificial tree that had surveyed the back of the mansion; leaving a swath of destruction through the woods behind the Manor.

"Whom ever did this is a certifiable genius and had way too much knowledge about the inner workings of the cave." Batman stated to himself as he picked up the phone to schedule the confidential repair of the ceiling of his cavern; as well as the installation of even more security gear for the cave. He made a mental note to review his files on the security and construction debartments of Wayne Enterprises that he hired for work on the cave, to make sure that they hadn't provided any inside information or been involved in the robbery.

"Absolutely nobody could ever be lucky enough to have pulled this off on the fly." Batman said to himself.

Xander had been incredibly lucky to pull off the heist of Amazo and the sample of the chemicals from the Lazarus Pit; both would be invaluable to his efforts to not only survive this crazy new dimension but to also thrive in it. The whole invasion of the Batcave from start to finish had been a series of fortunate, or unfortunate, events that all added up to what Xander considered an absolute success. One voice in the back of his head, however, said that it wasn't as successful as it could have been in that he didn't grab the Nth Metal. A second voice in his head said that it was the right decision as he didn't want Batman to put two and two together and figure out that the person who had robbed his cave was also the one who had framed him for filming the battle with Hawkgirl. The second voice continued to argue that had Xander given into the temptation to take the Nth Metal brass-knuckles that it wouldn't be long before Batman put two and two together and figured out that it was related to the fact that Hawkgirl's mace was also made out of the rare ore Nth Metal. The third voice in the back of Xander's head told the other two voices to shut up, as it was busy trying to hold Xander's bladder.

Xander's truck convoy hadn't stopped driving west since they had robbed the Batcave. That was a whole twenty hours of driving without stop. The nice thing about having self powered robotic trucks is that, A. You don't have to do the actual driving, you can just tell the trucks what to do, and B. You don't have to stop for fuel. There are a few inherent problems with having a semi-sentient truck. Namely, A. You don't get the excuse of stopping to get gas, and B. Xander hadn't installed a bathroom in Optimus's crew cab; even robots get pissed off when they get pissed on. So it was that at the twenty hour mark Xander had run out of coke bottles to pee into and was in serious need of a pit stop.

It was then that as he was trucking along the two lane back road highways in the mountainous portion of Montana, he came over a pass in the mountains and saw a quaint town down in the large valley below him.

Xander questioned to himself whether he was far enough away from Gotham to take a break, but the fact that Mother Nature was screaming at him, i.e. his bladder was threatening to explode, made the decision for him; he really didn't want his epitaph to be 'Death by Burst Bladder.' Pulling off the road, and into the quaint little town, Xander focused in on a little café that would probably have a bathroom he could use.

'A little human company wouldn't be too bad either.' Xander thought as he hopped out of the truck and made the quick walk towards the café's doors.

Xander walked through the doors of the small Montana cafe and immediately tripped over his untied shoelaces. It was lucky for him that he did so, as the shotgun blast that would have hit him in the head missed Xander by a foot.

Time slowed for Xander as he turned his trip into a roll, the time it took him to hit the ground and roll forward showed him that the shotgun wielding leather wearing motor cycle gang member who had just shot at him was standing next to the cash register on the opposite side of the café.

As Xander came out of his roll, time continuing to move in slow motion, Xander saw the punk with the shotgun trying to track his motion so that the punk could get a second shot off at Xander.

Xander's eyes took in the full layout of the café in that second, as information detailing velocity of the aiming shotgun, the geometry of the arc angles and the distance between the shotgun wielding thug and Xander all calculated through Xander's head. Even with time seeming to slow down and Xander moving at incredible speeds, he didn't think he could cover the distance before the punk's discharge pattern from the shotgun would either hit Xander or the other patron's sitting behind him at the café's booths and tables.

Xander's hand whipped towards the right and snagged a saucer out from under a cup of coffee that was resting on a table, grabbing it so fast that the coffee cup didn't even have time to spill before Xander was already flinging the ceramic saucer at the thug with all his might.

The flying saucer left a 'zinging' sound as it blurred across the room and left a sick squelching sound upon impact.

The shotgun totting punk only had enough time to realize that something didn't feel right, before his body tilted forward, and his head fell off backwards.

Blood spurted from the stump of the gang member's stub of a neck as the falling body twitched and discharged the shotgun into the wall above Xander's head.

Time seemed to speed up as the patrons who had been held hostage merely stared at the falling corpse with open mouths; a waitress holding a carafe of coffee didn't even think to move as the blood spurted out of the body and soiled her shoes.

However, before anybody could begin to act, a second black leather wearing tough walked out of the bathroom, took one look at the headless body of his buddy, and went to reach for the large pistol that was in a holster on his hip.

Xander wasn't about to let any of these innocent towns folk get shot, let alone himself.

Xander's left arm blurred as he swept a fork out of the hand of one of the dining patrons and flung it at the second bad-guy.

The fork went flying, tines first, across the room, driving into the moving hand of the second biker and nailing the biker's hand to the bathroom door behind him; making a nice twanging sound as the handle of the fork vibrated from the force of the impact.

Everybody in the café looked at Xander. Then they looked at the headless corpse. Then they looked at Xander. Then they looked at the biker who was silently crying and attempting to dislodge his hand from the bathroom door. Then they looked at Xander and stared open mouth at him.

They stared, and stared, and stared. The second waitress who had been pouring coffee for another patron continued to stare as well, unaware that the cup she was pouring coffee into was overflowing; even the man who was having hot coffee poured on his lap was totally oblivious to the situation.

Every patron and staff member in the café was silent as they stared at Xander; somewhere in the back of the café a cricket chirped.

"Um, if this is a bad time, I can come back later?" Xander cringed and pulled his hand up to rub the back of his neck, this was a little uncomfortable.

At Xander's statement, all hell broke loose.

Women were crying. One cute blonde waitress hugged Xander as she cried with relief, shaking from the adrenaline rush as the men got up and started beating the crap out of the thug who was stuck to the door. People were coming up to Xander and shaking his hand while the blonde still clung to him, and one old granny walked up to the headless corpse and spit on it.

"You're welcome. Yes, you're welcome too. No madam, I don't do this often. Your welcome sir, glad to help." Xander replied to all of the well wishers, the blonde still in his arms was now nuzzling his neck, making the situation that much more surreal.

The thanks and kowtowing to Xander were getting a bit extreme, and Xander was starting to get a bit weirded out by the instant hero worship of the towns folk and the nuzzling from the waitress.

"Ok, you're welcome. Ok, ok people… That's enough!" Xander started out polite, but got fed up and just yelled at the end.

The reaction from the townsfolk was again interesting as they all immediately quieted down and gave him their immediate attention.

'Ok, so that's just a little bit freaky.' Xander thought to himself as he looked out over the crowd of eyes all focused on him.

"Soooo." Xander dragged out, "Just what the hell was going on around here before I interrupted on my way to a bathroom break?" He questioned.

The response was immediate as everybody in the room started to speak all at once, it reminded Xander of how his clanks acted when they all wanted to serve him at the same time.

"Wait! One at a time!" Xander settled down the crowd. "You sir, yes you with the cane and the hunched back, just what is going on here?" Xander demanded.

"Well," The old man explained as he moved his focus to gaze deeply into Xander's eyes, again freaking Xander out just a bit. "This is the town of Hetdin. And what you interrupted was some of the punks who work for the bank president doing the bank president's dirty work."

Xander nodded for the man to continue speaking, while semi-forcefully situating the waitress in his arms onto an available café stool.

"Ya see, this here city and the surrounding hundred miles or so are something of an anomaly. The founder of the town back in the 1800's, Dr. Hetdin, had been something of an inventor and adventurer and had moved out here with a band of people who he had originally rescued from slavery to the Barbary pirates."

Xander smiled and nodded, but all the while his thoughts were screaming at him that this entire situation was outright crazy.

The old man took Xander's nodding to mean that he should continue with his story, rather than the real meaning of Xander's nod which was 'smile and nod at the crazy man.'

"Well, to make a long story short. Dr. Hetdin got out here to the west so early that the later settler's took him and his dark tanned followers to be a semi-peaceful Indian tribe. He didn't see the harm in correcting them at the time, and now this part of the state is similar to an Indian reservation in that it is sovereign territory. And the new bank president, well he is buying up all of the land or using his gang of thugs to terrorize the people so that he can control everything around here." The old man continued.

Xander stood there thinking for a second, parts of the old man's story were right out every western movie that he had ever seen, only this was real life with a weird twist and a side order of crazy.

Xander gathered his thoughts for another second before addressing the old man. "Ok, I get it. Before we continue, what's your name? I can't really keep having a conversation with a guy that I mentally refer to as old man."

"Oh, well nice of you to ask. My name is Ian Gore." The hunched old man stated as he offered his hand to shake.

Xander did a double take as he was almost sure that the man had said that his name was 'Igor', but Xander covered his mental gaff by shaking the man's hand and smiling.

"Ok Ian. Not that I'm much of a hero. But my name's Xander and I do happen to be a gentleman adventurer and a bit of an inventor, sounds like I'm a bit like your Dr. Hetdin." Xander explained. "Is there something I can do to help fix up the situation you folks are facing?" Xander questioned.

When Xander mentioned that he was both a gentleman adventurer as well as an inventor, a gleam seemed to flash over the eyes of the towns' folks, and a big smile grew across the face of every one of them. The waitress that had previously been hugging Xander seemed to shudder for a second, and then looked up at Xander with a dreamy expression across her face.

Once again, the crowd of people all started to talk at once, but this time Ian, or 'Igor' as Xander thought of him, raised his hand and the crowd stilled.

"Yes sir, there is something you can do for us. Ya see, we have been without leadership since Dr. Hetdin passed away some 50 years ago due to a freak lab accident. Seeing as we are a sovereign state, if you could help us out, then we may just be able to work something out with you." The smiles of the people took on an eerie twist at this final statement.

Xander continued to smile and nod at the slightly crazy man, all the while his brain was going a million miles a minute.

'Ok, these people are a bit weird, but either way, I'm not going to leave these innocent people to be beat on and terrorized by gun toting thugs and this bank president.' Xander's thoughts were prefaced by the sound of a boot repeatedly silencing the moaning thug who was still pinned to the bathroom door; leaving the thug laying unconscious and held up only by the fork.

'On second hand, maybe not so innocent. However I still have to do something about this bank president and his gang of thugs.' Xander thought, finishing nodding his head and then vocally answering the people.

"Alright folks, you all stay here and I'll deal with the thugs and their boss. We can talk about what to do next after that." Xander answered.

The people were all smiles, and Ian nodded at Xander's statement. "You'll find the bank manager at the large compound at the top of the hill." The man explained.

Backing out the door, Xander turned and walked towards Optimus, Xander's bathroom break could wait till after he dealt with this latest crazy situation that was before him.

"Optimus, unlock the side armory, I think I need the Boom-stick and the shrink ray." Xander stated as he walked up to his truck.

A five foot by four foot section on the side of Optimus's crew cab extended out of the truck and towards Xander. When it was a full foot telescoped out from the side of the truck, the five foot by four foot section split down a hidden middle seam and hinged to the sides.

As the hinged sides moved out of the way, blue florescent lighting illuminated the armory that was displayed inside.

The first thing Xander looked over was the guns of all sizes. Shotguns, pistols, ray guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, marshmallow guns, and a weird double-tube shoulder fired gun were all neatly presented in holding slots throughout the display. In addition to the guns were wooden stakes, silver coated stakes, sharpened silver crosses, and even a few bottles of holy water and a chain whip like device. Xander first pulled out the shrink ray that he had stolen from Batman and then pulled down the double-tube shoulder fired gun, aka the Boom-stick.

Stepping back, Xander rested the Boom-stick on his shoulder and slid the shrink ray down the back of his jeans; he really hoped he didn't trip and shrink his buttocks.

The buildings in the town of Hetdin looked to be a mix of Bavarian and old western make. The street was cobbled and weird gargoyle like lampposts lined the cobblestoned path. Xander couldn't figure out why, but this whole situation was really giving him a sense of Déjà vu. He couldn't figure out why it felt so familiar, as this looked absolutely nothing like Sunnydale California.

Not waiting to watch the armory retract back into his truck, Xander began to walk up the cobble stoned main street of the town towards what looked to be a newly constructed concrete gated compound; built around a series of trailer homes and one prefabricated home that were parked outside of what looked to be a large stone medieval looking chateau. The old chateau and the newer looking wall sat on a hill that was perched over the town and would give a good view of the valley surrounding it.

As Xander walked up the street, his truck convoy slowly followed behind him by about fifteen feet, slowly rolling up the street.

The day was nice and sunny and the walk towards the concrete gated structure seemed to be going well, that was until he walked by the town's saloon.

Parked in front of the bar were a row of motor cycles and several dirty scruffy looking guys wearing leather pants, chaps, jackets, and vests.

Now Xander didn't have any personal problem or disrespect for motorcycle clubs, however this group of guys looked to be up to no good for as soon as they saw Xander walking up the street they all got off of their motorcycles, and the porch of the bar, and moved to block the width of the street.

"Guys, I'm not here to deal with you at the moment, I'm going to talk to your boss." Xander preempted any comments from the motorcycle gang.

One fat motorcycle gang member wearing nothing but leather pants, an open leather vest, and his fat belly hanging out over the top of his leather pants, moved forward to confront Xander.

"Well the boss don't want to talk to you, and you ain't getting through me and the boys here. So get lost before we have to kick the shit out of you." The fat guy threatened.

Xander sighed, "Guys, I don't have time for you, and you really don't want to meet my little friends." Xander explained exasperated.

"Oh yeah! You and what little friends?" The fat guy jeered, breaking the beer bottle in his hand and pointing the jagged end towards Xander.

Xander's eyes gleamed and he smiled evilly back at the biker gang. The smile made a few of the smarter members of the motor cycle gang take a step back as they realized something wasn't right about that look. Unfortunately for them, it was too late.

"I was hoping you would say that." Xander cackled. "Say hello to my little friends!" Xander finished the last part with a shout.

With that, a swarm of a thousand little clanks launched themselves off of the roofs of the buildings from both sides of the street, dive bombing the gang members. Hundreds of additional clanks charged out from underneath the trucks or flew off of the tops of the trucks; they even climbed out of Xander's pockets to charge across the distance to the beer bottle wielding thugs.

The swarm of thousands of little clanks washed over the motorcycle gang members, systematically beating the ever living shit out of the people who had dared to threaten their creator.

Xander merely enjoyed the show as a myriad of bronze clanks with glowing red eyes helped add a bit more of the color red to the cobble stoned streets of Hetdin.

"Hey guys, don't kill them. We'll let the townsfolk deal with them after I get done dealing with their boss. Let's see if the other gang members can be reasoned with." Xander stated, his evil smile painted on his face for all to see.

The clanks reply was to pick up the unconscious gang members and throw them through the plate glass window of the bar. The clanks then poured into the bar, where the sounds of a new battle arose.

Xander merely smiled and began to whistle to himself as he continued his stroll up the street towards the concrete and steel gated compound.

Behind him in the windows lining the street, evil grins were painted across the towns' folks faces, perhaps their time had finally come.

Xander had walked about another one hundred feet before he felt that he was at a proper distance from the compound to see if the boss felt like talking.

Hoisting the Boom-stick to his shoulder, Xander looked through the targeting scope and depressed the trigger.

"Knock knock." Xander stated, right as the double tubes of the Boom-stick disgorged two blue glowing balls of energy that rapidly twisted and spiraled around each other on their path towards the compound's steel doors.

Right as the balls were about to hit the gates to the compound, they seemed to merge together, and there was a brief slight sucking sound, as if an industrial wind tunnel was set to reverse.

Less than a second later, the combined mass of the glowing blue energy made a gigantic 'BOOM' sound, and a twenty foot spherical cross section of the ground, gates, and walls simply ceased to exist in this dimension.

"Bwa ha ha ha." Xander chuckled under his breath, "It worked!" He finished.

Xander again rested the Boom-stick on his shoulder and began to whistle a tune that he recognized as something from his Heterodyne memories.

Walking down into the crater, and starting back up the other side, Xander saw approximately thirty thugs charge out of the trailer homes, guns a blazing.

Time slowed down, and Xander dived to seek partial cover behind the lip of the crater, simultaneously dropping the Boom-stick and pulling the shrink-ray out from the back of his jeans.

In the instant it took him to drop prone, he had noted the position and movement of the shooters as well as the trajectory of the incoming bullets.

Xander's instantaneous reply to the barrage and charge of thugs was a to allow his body to take over, as he rapid fired the ray gun so quickly that the individual 'zapping' sounds merged into one long drawn out ZAP.

Less than a second later, Xander found himself being pelted with a smattering of dust particles and charged by a horde of four inch tall midgets wearing biker leathers; as all of the incoming projectiles and hostiles had been effectively shrunk.

Xander smiled.

The biker midgets 'Eeped' and tried to reverse direction.

Then it was Xander's turn to live out his fantasy of being Godzilla in downtown Tokyo.

Many midget bikers lost their lives that day…

After kicking in the door to the prefabricated house, Xander again proceeded to shrink and squash several more bikers before he found who he assumed was the bank manager; the man was hiding in a closet.

After pulling the man out of the closet, some manhandling, and a squashing of a midget biker as an example of what could happen if the president didn't agree to everything that Xander mandated, Xander was now the proud owner of his own bank as well as all of the land and assets that the former bank president had owned.

Xander still shrunk and squashed the bank president as Xander didn't really feel right about letting a guy who had tried to kill him live to attack him sometime in the future. He'd read way too many comic books where the 'hero' shows mercy on the villain, only for the villain to come back and try to kill the hero later. Besides, it was standard Scooby practice to slay the big bad before moving on to the next apocalypse.

With that, Xander exited the prefabricated house with a smile on his face, only to be shocked to see the thousands of town members from Hetdin crowded into the walled area surrounding the medieval looking chateau and packed the streets for as far as Xander could see.

The towns folk were silent, all of them staring hungrily at Xander from their places around him or from their perches on the top of the buildings.

Xander gulped for a moment at the perceived pressure of the eyes upon him. He was unnerved by all of the people staring at him, and didn't know what to do until he saw Ian waving at him to come over to the front door of the large mansion.

Xander moved away from the prefabricated house, and the crowd between Xander and the stone chateau parted like Moses and the Red Sea, providing a clear path for him to proceed forward, but nowhere to really escape too.

The faces of people were stoic, but a strange almost cheery glow seemed to issue from their eyes as Xander walked down the aisle they had made for him on his way to join Ian in front of the chateau.

Xander finally reached Ian, and realized that the formerly open path through the crowd behind him was now clogged with townsfolk.

"Um, Ian, I've dealt with the bank president and his gang of thugs. They shouldn't give you any more problems, and you will find a few more of them housed at the bar in the middle of town. You can do with them as you like." Xander stated, a bit weirded out by the reaction of the town's people.

"That is good, and don't worry about the biker gang, the members at the bar have all been… taken care of." Ian explained with a toothy smile.

Xander was even more weirded out than earlier as Ian stared at him, not blinking at all.

"Now Xander, Gentleman Adventurer and Inventor as we can lay testament to, we would like to have that talk with you. But first, one last favor we ask." Ian stated, turning and drawing Xander's attention to the large blood-red door of the mansion.

"Simply open the door, and we can talk inside about your reward." Ian stated with a manic smile.

Xander wasn't sure if it was a friendly smile or not, but directed his eyes towards the door of the large chateau. What he saw immediately made him go pale.

There on the door, in the middle where a family crest was embossed, was the seal of a golden trilobite, the crest of House Heterodyne.

Xander was shocked, he quickly looked at Ian, who merely smiled and motioned towards the door.

Xander took a step forward, hesitantly looked at Ian for a second before swallowing and reaching for the gold lion shaped door handle in order to open the door.

Pain. The moment that Xander pushed on the lever of the door, the lion's head of the handle came to life and chomped onto his fingers with sharp metallic teeth.

"Son of a Bitch!" Xander cursed, as he tore his fingers away from the now slowly opening door. He stuck his bleeding fingers in his mouth and sucked on the rapidly healing digits as he rounded on Ian.

"Why you son of a…" The curse died on Xander's lips as he turned and saw that Ian was on his knees bowing to Xander, head lowered to the ground.

Looking up, Xander realized that every single person in the crowd, the population that had previously hemmed him into the front of the chateau, was now on their knees prostrated to him.

The crowd was all face down, bowing to Xander.

"What the hell!" Xander shouted, swinging around to take in the vast crowd of thousands that were all bowing to him.

"Blood will tell." Ian's muffled voice from below Xander stated. "We live for the Heterodyne, we bleed for the Heterodyne, we serve the Heterodyne."

In response, Xander fainted.

AN: It's late, but I was on a roll and wanted to write out this chapter while it felt like it was flowing. I figured that Xander needed a base of operation; we shall learn more about it as the story goes on. Hope you enjoyed it.