Spark of Genius

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy verse, Girl Genius verse, DC comics or any of the other smatterings of pop culture and literary ideas that I refer to in my story, I just tread through a few other sandboxes. Oh, and several names are made up, some are real, but the facts have been changed to protect the corrupt and innocent equally.

AN: Chapter update. Hope you enjoy. Honestly, when I hear if you enjoyed it or not, and get your thoughts, I tend to update faster. It's not a bribery thing, it's an encouragement thing. I only write when I feel like it. I feel like it when you tell me you like the story, guess what is going to happen next, or give me your thoughts on the story. Cheers!

'Thought'

"Speech"

Chapter 19: A Viking We Will Go

"Always remember to pillage BEFORE you burn"
- Unknown

Plausible deniability is a wonderful thing in many ways. Heck, think of all the dictators, tyrants, government officials and corporate leaders who have been able to protect themselves from legal or physical retaliation due to the lack of 'knowledge' or 'proof' to connect them to their 'crime.' That said, plausible deniability does have a drawback in that because you have to distance yourself from your assassin, spy, terrorist or even location where you sponsor the creation of unspeakable evil, you can't send reinforcements when said 'go-between' gets their ass handed to them. Furthermore, when said 'go-between' is located in a territory that is a signatory to the 'Freedom of Power Treaty', you can't even count on the Justice League to save your asset from being damaged, destroyed, or killed. When you add in the fact that you just pissed off probably the brainiest, most super powered mad genius in the world (who happens to have the largest personal army on the planet) well, there is no other way to say it than "Bend over and kiss your 'ass'ets goodbye, because you're fucked."

Xander was angry with his chaotic life, he was frustrated about his relationships, his vacation had been ruined, and worst of all he had sat on and squished his box of Twinkies when he got home from Las Vegas; planets had been destroyed for less. With all of that, especially the Twinkies, it's a bit understandable that Xander thought that wiping Oolong Island off the map would be a pleasant little form of stress release. Now why target Oolong Island, a small island paradise situated off the coast of China? There were three reasons really.

First, the overheard and recorded conversation between the Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations and his aide specifically stated that Oolong Island was the origin of the Chinese insurgent attack on Romania. Add that to the fact that the Chinese Ambassador had specifically disclaimed The People's Republic of China's involvement in the attack, and Xander was more than happy to tidy up those uncontrolled assets that had gone rogue in China's territory. Xander was just being a nice 'neighbor' by cleaning up China's garbage.

That leads to the second reason; the Island of Oolong didn't just have a simple military base on it. No, Oolong Island held the main research and development location for China. The science facilities on Oolong Island hosted a horde of kidnapped genius scientists, captured Apokoliptian technology, and the facilities to create more monstrosities and abominations than any other location in the world. Under the leadership of the egg shaped scientist Chang Fu, China was creating devices and creatures that would see the deaths of billions if left unchecked. Heck, Xander knew from the comic books that if not stopped, Chang Fu would release the former hell gods of Apokolips, the Four Horsemen, in an effort to destroy Black Adam; an action that if left on its current course would see the deaths of tens of millions of human beings and the destruction of at least one country. Add to that the fact that the Four Horsemen were practically semi-demonic 'big bads,' and you had a target rich environment for Xander nuking.

Which leads to the third reason. Truthfully, no young man needs an excuse to blow something up, but Xander sure had one in the crap that he had been dealing with since he got to this new universe. If it wasn't vampires, it was villains; if it wasn't villains, it was heroes, and when he didn't have to deal with that his own house was messing with him while at the same time he was busy trying to run a world dominating coffee company and a small Eastern European country. Add to that troubles with an ex-sort-of-girlfriend Zatanna and worries about his friends back in Sunnydale, and Xander was left with the choices of blowing off some steam or facing the very real possibilities that his subconscious would start making doomsday weapons while Xander was asleep. The squished box of Twinkies sealed Oolong Island's fate. As far as Xander was concerned it was an omen from the gods of Hostess that Oolong Island must be destroyed.

Thus Xander was madly cackling to himself as he activated the transport system from inside the five hundred foot tall by two hundred foot wide robotics chamber inside the mountain underneath his now colossal multi-mile long super-castle/fortress in Romania. In a flash of light, Xander and his giant craft disappeared and moved halfway around the world in a blink of an eye. It was play time.

Oolong Island was a peaceful and tranquil place. Ok, it was only peaceful and tranquil if you ignored the fact that it was swarming with guards and wracked with the sounds of the occasional explosion, implosion, or inhuman scream of a test subject. But still, the tropical island had a certain sense of beauty and grandeur to it as the metal and crystalline city in the center of the tropical foliage shined and sparked in the sun.

The first inklings that the tranquil life on the island was about to change was when a roughly football field sized portion of the sea off the island's coast suddenly seemed to drop several feet before a moment later devolving into a choppy torrent as the surrounding water poured in to replace the missing water. A patrol torpedo boat that had been slowly trolling the waters around the island shook and rocked as if caught in the turbulent waters, and Chinese sailors in different stages of dress poured onto the deck to see what was happening. The captain's red boxers with white hearts were especially nice. Soon enough though, the sea quieted back to its tropical perfection and the ocean resumed its steady in and out lapping at the white sand beaches of Oolong. The boat began to move out of the area as the sonar tech on the patrol torpedo boat went back to his station to see if he could figure out what had made the large wake in the ocean.

The second warning sign was more felt than seen, as an earthquake seemed to strike the island; shuddering with a loud boom that rippled across the island and caused several very delicate projects to blow up or disintegrate as the ripples of the earth dislodged items from their counter tops or their positions on laboratory shelves. A few seconds after the first earthquake seemed to pass and settle down, a second boom shook the island, followed quickly by a fourth, and then a fifth and so on and so forth. By this time the guards and scientists on the island were having a hard time staying on their feet as the ground beneath them swayed and shifted, and the ceilings above them began to crack and drop debris down upon their heads. This unexpected aspect of Xander's arrival was a lucky happenstance, for chaos of the earthquakes hid the arrival of clouds of nano-clanks that appeared in halls and closets throughout the city; clouds of microscopic hovering clanks that quickly disappeared en mass into the duct works and crawl spaces of the city before beginning their work of dispersing and seeking out their targets.

Onboard the torpedo boat, the sonar tech's eyes grew large as he began screaming something about a metal monster in Chinese, right as the head of Xander's giant robot pierced the surface of the water. A large metal lizard like head, with glowing yellow eyes pierced the water and continued to grow and tower over the small patrol boat next to it as it continued to move itself out of the sea and towards the island.

Dredged from the depths of Japanese campy horror movies with guys in monster suits, like Gulliver in the land of Lilliputians, Xander's mechanical monstrosity would have been guaranteed to send hordes of Japanese running in terror through the streets of Tokyo. Xander cackled madly as he saw that he was rising out of the ocean, and with that cackle, the giant robot around him responded by releasing an ear splitting scream that sounded like a cross between a king condor and T-Rex. Super-MechaGodzilla had come to Oolong Island.

Xander continued to laugh madly as he lived out every childhood boy's dream of being a huge monster that crushed an army of miniatures. Xander floated in a bubble-like sea of nano-clanks in the belly of his beast, the nano-clanks kept his body cushioned and floating while at the same time oxygenating and maintaining him and giving him full control and senses of the Super-MechaGodzilla. Xander saw the island before him, saw the artillery positions on the coast and the soldiers that stared up at him with awe and fear, and he laughed.

Super-MechaGodzilla's shrill cry split the air again as the robot fully cleared the water and made huge crushing steps onto the sandy beach. Water dripped off his shiny metallic form, blinding the onlookers as the tropical sun almost seemed to be magnified by the reflection off of the crystalline blasters on the robot's shoulders and metallic body. The giant robot's first step onto the shore seemed to wake the soldiers out of their stupor and artillery pieces were swung to face the invader.

Xander stood on the shore as torpedoes and small arms fire from behind, and artillery and small arms rounds from the front struck his robot as the Chinese soldiers on Oolong Island attacked. The barrage that hit Super-MechaGodzilla was as effective as a pigmy headhunter's blow dart gun against a modern battleship, or ants taking on an Abrams battle tank; in short, it did absolutely nothing to Xander's compressed carbon steel armor.

Xander laughed again inside the carapace of his armored robot and let the soldiers continue to fire for a few seconds before deciding he'd given the soldiers enough of a break.

'My turn now.' Xander mentally stated to his nano-clanks as his brain multitasked and his smile grew across his face. With that command, several programs began running and speakers around Xander and on the outside of Xander's MechaGodzilla loudly played the opening strains of AC-DC's 'Thunderstruck.' The song was probably totally lost on the Chinese soldiers, but it made Xander smile.

As the music started to grow, so did the humming sound around the giant robot as the eyes, the two crystalline blasters, and the gem-like array in the center of the MechaGodzilla's chest all started to glow a golden color before starting to take on hues of white.

Then, with the chant of 'Thunder!' and the pounding of drums, Xander attacked. Lightning bolts as big around as the body of a 747 jumbo jet blasted across the island while the robot's prehensile tail lashed out and disintegrated the patrol boat into splinters. Xander marched his robot onto the island, smashing his feet through the masses of soldiers; his tail whipped through the trees and turned them into wooden projectiles while lightning from his eyes flash fried the troops in front of him. Simultaneously, the two giant crystalline blasters on his shoulders stopped glowing gold, and turned red, right before radioactive plasma heated to almost the temperature of the sun shot towards the city in great globs that melted and destroyed everything around it.

Screw overkill, Xander's attack was the equivalent of using a bazooka to go mosquito hunting. Again Xander thought, 'No such thing as overkill, just open fire and reload.' Xander laughed to himself as he tromped into the city and tried to concentrate on the reason for the slaughter rather than the fun he was having.

'That way lies the darkside, yes, mmmmm.' A Yoda like voice said in the back of Xander's head, but he ignored it as he was busy concentrating on communing with the nano-clank swarm that cushioned and protected him within the heart of the Super-MechaGodzilla robot. With the interface between the nano-clanks inside of Xander and around him, as Xander moved, his robot moved, as Xander thought, his robot obeyed.

'Yes, enjoy the power of this fully operational MechaGodzilla, delve into your feelings and revel in them. Come to the Dark side my apprentice, we have cookies.'The voice of Emperor Palpatine wheezed in the back of Xander's head, but again Xander ignored the voice as he was busy taking out several gun emplacements that were opening up on the roofs of the Oolong Island facility.

Inside the Oolong facility, havoc reigned as ceilings melted, buildings and hallways exploded and scientists, techs, engineers, and guards alike ran in fear. It appeared that the population of Oolong was being slaughtered, as there would be a flash of explosion, and then a hallway formerly filled with life was reduced to smoldering slag. Nobody realized that in the glare of the explosions, flashes of multicolored lights were taking place, making the condemned disappear right at their moment of death.

Up till then Xander had done all he could to not kill the humans if he had a chance. Though he wasn't a hero, he really didn't want to be lumped into the villain group either. Unfortunately, the entire facility and its inhabitants had to go, with certain individuals definitely having to die; namely Chang Fu and the Four Horsemen being the key targets.

Xander crushed a building underfoot while his tail whipped around him to cut down a crystal and metal tower, all the while lightning bolts continued to split the city even as the radioactive equivalent of napalm and thermite melted deep into the subbasements of the liquefying walls of the facility.

Basically, Xander was having fun… but not too much fun, because that would be evil.

Inside the deepest laboratory of the largest building on Oolong Island, where Chang Fu worked, the golden egg shaped super villain used the claws on his mechanical walker to rush through the activation sequences on the bodies of the Four Horsemen. Actually, it was only the three horsemen as the fourth horseman, known as Hunger/Famine, had already infiltrated Kahndaq and the court of Black Adam. That just left Death, War, and Pestilence that could be activated in an effort to distract the gigantic robot that was destroying Chang Fu's city.

Change Fu's mechanical hands and claws flew over keyboards and activation sequences as he cursed under his breath. 'Only two more sequences and they will be activated.' The evil genius thought as he entered the first of the two sequences and waited for the activation buttons before him to glow red. He had perfected the Horsemens' bodies until they were excellent tools for the destruction of Black Adam, that antihero magically empowered thorn in China's side. Housing the spirits of the Old Gods of Apokolips, the Four Horsemen were literally the spiritual embodiments of their named calamity housed in mechanized and synthetic flesh. Just as Chang Fu finished and the buttons before him glowed red, a tearing and shearing sound of metal being stripped apart came from above him as the earth shook him off his feet.

Falling backwards, Chang Fu, aka Egg Fu, stared up in fear as two giant metallic claws stripped the roof clean off the large laboratory, and a giant metal lizard's face and maw appeared above him.

Inside Super-MechaGodzilla, Xander's grin turned feral as he yelled, "Peek-a-boo, I see you Chang Fu!"

What Chang Fu heard though was a shrill monstrous roaring screech at point blank range; a roar that could shatter eardrums and splinter glass from a mile away. Under the point blank sonic impact, the shell of Chang Fu, the egg like villain, shattered and exploded; and all the kings horses and all the kings men wouldn't be able to put Chang Fu back together again.

Super-MechaGodzilla's face jerked backwards slightly as the robot got egg on its face. Activating the beam weapons in his robot's eyes, Xander successfully burned away the egg and had the added benefit of burning through the chests of both Death and Pestilence. But as often happens around Xander, the now decapitated head of Pestilence popped up into the air from the force of the blast, ricocheted off the ceiling at an angle and flew towards the now egg yolk covered activation controls, neatly impacting the activation buttons for the remaining figure; War was awakened.

Xander only had a moment to think, 'Oh Shit!' before the missile launchers on the shoulders, and arm cannon on the house sized Rogga, the Horseman of War, pointed at Super-MechaGodzilla and let loose.

The head of Xander's robot was shot backward due to the explosive impact from War's weapons; going from zero to mach 3.5 as Xander and his robot were launched into the air by the force.

The landing crushed the last remaining structure that stood over one story tall on Oolong Island, and the resulting earthquake shook the few remaining fleeing survivors off their feet. Inside the mechanized Godzilla robot, Xander shook his head at the damage report information flowing to him regarding his robot's eyes and the damage to its head, and he made a quick mental note to work on inertial dampeners and to install that force field tech into his machines ASAP.

Rolling over and standing up, Xander had his robot rise to its full height and used his decreased sensors to tell him what was going on while mentally ordering the nano-clanks throughout the robot to quickly fix the damage done to his visual sensors.

Xander's aural and radar sensors informed him that War was crawling out of the ruined laboratory, and Xander began to receive a hazy image of the head of War clearing the wreckage as Xander focused his efforts on getting his robot's sight repaired.

"Futile mortal. Rogga comes bearing gifts: blood and bone and sorrow. Such is war. Did you think us unaware? Did you think we would not know the very device by which we were summoned? Did you not think we would not act? Know war, mortal. Know ecstasy." The Horseman of War stated, once again firing a salvo of weapons at the momentarily blinded Super-MechaGodzilla that housed Xander.

Xander and his robot where pelted backwards, the explosions of War's weapons pock marking the armor of MechaGodzilla and driving Xander back towards the sea.

Inside the armor, Xander was struggling to keep his robot standing and balanced as he was rocked by the attack.

"Damn-it, I'm getting my ass handed to me by the big bad! And not only that, he's freaking monologing while doing it! Fuck! This! Go go gadget nuclear missile fingers!" Xander finally yelled.

The flailing Super MechaGodzilla pointed its arms towards the general area of where Xander knew Rogga was standing and let loose with ten fingers worth of tactical nuclear missiles.

"Close works in horseshoes, hand grenades and nuclear explosions fucker!" Xander yelled as the entirety of what used to be Romania's secret nuclear arsenal blanketed the island around Xander in mushroom clouds of doom.

Xander and his robot were buffeted back by the force of the blasts, forcing Xander to dig the claws of his robot into the earth like hydraulic crampons in order to not be thrown back into the sea as the both the shockwaves and vacuum from the explosions attempted to knock his mech off its feet. The nano-clanks around Xander informed him that the radiation level on the island had reached a deadly level to unshielded life, and the EMP and the dust from the explosions had hazed over the now almost fully repaired optical sensors on the Super MechaGodzilla robot. Fortunately Xander was mostly protected from the radiation by the yards of solidly compressed composite armor and the sea of nano-clanks that circulated around him in a large ball. Even still, small bits of radiation damage were requiring Xander's healing factor and internal nano-clanks to do repairs; he would need to end this and get off the destroyed island soon.

As the shockwaves passed, Xander marched back towards where War had last been, his passage causing winds which cleared the dust enough for Xander to see through it. Earthquake like tremors shook the earth as Xander unlocked the mech's crampon claws and crunched across the smoldering island, the once pristine sandy beaches were nothing but radioactive glass after Xander's full salvo of nuclear fury.

Xander moved up to the crater where Chang Fu's laboratory had once stood, and stared down into it at the corpses of Death and Pestilence and the almost fully paralyzed form of War. Rogga, the Horseman of War was a wreck.

Servos sparked and oozed as the sinthetic flesh and metal was melted where once mechanical legs had been, and the shoulder launchers and arm cannon on War were twisted wrecks next to a face of bubbling melting flesh with unseeing eyes. War may have been a God trapped in a physical body, but not even the physical body of a God can withstand nuclear strikes; even though the fact that Rogga hadn't been reduced to a carbon shadow on the ground was impressive in itself. The unseeing visage of War turned towards Xander and seemed to look through the chest of Xander's MechaGodzilla robot and right at Xander.

"Heh heh heh, you think that you have bested War with War. But you have unleashed War, Death and Pestilence upon the world, freed us from these forms that we were trapped in." War chuckled, a green fluid not unlike blood being coughed up from his lips as he chuckled at Xander before wheezing one last breath and dying.

Xander returned a feral grin and Super- MechaGodzilla's eyes and blasters started to glow, and for the first time in the fight, the crystalline structure in the middle of the giant robot's chest came fully alive with an orange glow that held flashes of blue and red flecks. Looking down at the corpse of War, Death, and Pestilence Xander saw the spectral spirits of the three Horsemen floating next to the their destroyed bodies. Xander remembered the tales from the Black Adam comic books. He remembered the lesson learned that once defeated War, Death, and Pestilence had gone on to possess human beings before continuing on to slaughter millions of humans. They were the spiritual embodiments of the calamity that they stood for; gods by name, specters in death. But Xander had prepared for this very instance, he wasn't afraid of no ghost.

As he watched War breath his last and die, he scornfully spat, "I know how to deal with puny ghosts like you," Xander's voice issued from his external speakers on the MechaGodzilla now that he had activated his system to do so. "Heck, if it worked for destroying Gozer the Gozerian, Gozer the Destructor, Volguus Zildrohar, Gozer the Traveler, and Lord of the Sebouillia in the Ghostbuster's movie, then it should work for a couple of posers like you three stooges."

Xander mentally triggered the final weapon system in his Super-MechaGodzilla while commanding transporter systems back in Romania to snag the heads off of the corpses of Death, War, and Pestilence while teleporting Xander and his protective ball of nano-clanks back to his Romanian fortress. Behind him on the former tropical paradise that was Oolong Island, the power plant sized nuclear proton accelerators whined to life inside the now abandoned Super-MechaGodzilla and emitted semi-truck sized proton energy beams from its eyes, blasters, and central crystal; all five beams struck the three spirits. The three Apokoliptian gods experienced terror for the first time in their existence, right before the beams crossed.

There would be no evidence left of Xander's attack on Oolong, the irradiated glowing island disappeared as the atoms that made up Oolong stopped instantaneously and every molecule exploded at speed of light. When the sea claimed the space where the island had been, all trace of Chang Fu, the science facilities, and even the Apokoliptian Old Gods was gone.

Xander had been a procrastinator extraordinaire when he was in Sunnydale, but life's lessons combined with Lady Luck and her brother Murphy's repeated groin punches to Xander's life had drilled home that time was not a thing to waste. Thus after getting back to his castle, which Xander had finally named 'Bob', Xander had his nano-clothing assume the guise of The Leviathan while donning his black featureless helmet. It was time to go make an ally, hopefully.

Opening a transporter portal, Xander stepped through in his black tailored suit and blood red tie, and came out the other side with his right hand held in the pose of the Vulcan greeting of peace.

"Live long and prosper, I come in peace." Xander said before he really even got a good look at the throne room around him.

The reply was not so peaceful as a blast of yellow lightning impacted Xander in the chest, but then harmlessly grounded itself into the floor.

Looking up, Xander saw that the bolts of lightning had issued from the hands of a tanned skinned yellow and black clad man with pointy ears who sat on a low swept Egyptian pharaoh's throne. The throne was made of gold and jewels and the walls around Xander mirrored that opulence as the red and tan mixes of marble were also covered in scenes detailed in gold and jewels.

Xander cocked his head to the side and raised both hands, "What part of 'I come in peace' didn't you understand?" Xander stated, a bit of humor in his voice as he showed that he wasn't going to respond in kind to the attack.

The man on the throne was silent for a moment, before reclining back in his chair as if at ease, though Xander's vision showed that the tightly packed muscles beneath Black Adam's shirt showed that the man could explode into action at any moment. Xander remained silent in return, though slowly lowered his hands.

"Hmmm, very interesting." Black Adam answered in baritoned heavily accented English. "You bare the mark of a chaos wizard, but not the wizard Shazam. You also seem to be null to the power of magic. I will give you your peace for the moment so that you may speak your mind and tell me why you have intruded on my country and my throne room." Black Adam, the ruler of Kahndaq replied.

For some reason Xander had always assumed that Black Adam would be a Bass rather than a baritone, 'Perhaps like Darth Vader or something.' A voice said in the back of Xander's head. Xander knew that Black Adam, the first 'champion of earth' to be empowered by the wizard Shazam (back in ancient Egypt) wasn't necessarily a good guy, nor a nice guy even. But then again, Xander had always felt sorry for Black Adam. Here was a guy who was granted powers without really asking for them, then his family was murdered and the wizard Shazam had the gall to think that Black Adam wouldn't want revenge. Banished across the galaxy to the farthest star by said wizard, Black Adam had spent centuries flying back towards earth as all that he had loved and cared for died or withered away with age while the people of his homeland, Kahndaq, were ruled over by a vicious tyrant. Now Black Adam was not a villain, but not a hero either. The classic antihero, empowered by the gods with magical super strength, magical attacks, almost fully invulnerable and impossibly fast. Add to that the fact that Black Adam was as big of a punching bag by Fate and Murphy as Xander was, and it was understandable why Xander had thought to approach the Kahndaqi ruler as a possible ally.

"Very well, I am called The Leviathan, I am the ruler of Romania, and I came seeking you in the hopes that we may become allies, and perhaps friends. You and I have a lot in common actually." Xander explained, standing comfortably and relaxed even though he was in the presence of a guy who was able to easily kick the shit out of Superman and a majority of the Justice League; at the same time.

"Ha, what do you think we might have in common Leviathan?" Black Adam replied, leaning forward and resting his forearm on his knee while gesturing for Xander to answer. "I know you are new in ruling your country, where as I have been alive for many centuries. What do WE possibly have in common?" Black Adam continued, a bit of scoffing coming through his voice.

"Ah, well there you see. Though I certainly am not as old as you are, I understand the need to protect my people, the need to protect those you love, and your family." Xander answered, this next part needed to be carefully said so as not to anger Black Adam, "I know your story, Teth Adam, widower of a murdered wife and child and oath maker that you would never let it happen again. I too protect those I love and believe that irredeemable criminals need to be permanently dealt with; I believe you would say an eye for an eye? We have both been changed and empowered by wizards; said same wizard banished us from our loved ones and homes through magic. And now we both rule our countries and don't believe that evil should be allowed to prosper on the blood of innocents. I guess our main difference is that you have been able to find love and a family in Isis and Osiris, where as fate seems set on continually destroying my chance at a happy family." Xander completed, and waited to see how Black Adam would reply.

Black Adam had tensed at the brief summary of his past, but then relaxed a bit more as The Leviathan discussed their similarities, the last part of the description coming across with a hint of sorrow that Black Adam recognized from his own life.

Xander stood silently, waiting and watching as he could see the Kahndaqi ruler was thinking over what he had been told.

Black Adam's voice was quieter when he answered, but was easily heard across the throne room where Xander was standing, "If what you say is true, then yes, we do have a bit in common. But you still haven't told me what you want. It is my experience that people always want something from me, whether it is to do something, or to not do something, it seems always the same." Adam finished, sitting back in his throne and setting both arms down on his armrests while crossing his legs in a relaxed pose.

"Well, honestly I'd just like an ally. You protect me, I protect you; that type of thing." Xander stated through the speakers on his helmet. Seeing Black Adam beginning to scowl, Xander quickly continued, "Towards that end I would like to say that I've already saved your wife's life and that of your people, and I would like to help save your adopted son, the brother of Isis, Osiris's life. If you would merely call your family here, and have Osiris bring his 'friend' Sobek as well, I can further help you and your family." Xander answered, almost spitting out the word 'friend' as if it were a curse word when referring to Sobek's relationship with Osiris.

This definitely got Black Adam's attention and he immediately stood up from his throne and started marching across the floor towards Xander, "You will tell me what the threat to their lives are, and you will tell me now." Adam stated; it wasn't yelled, but it was definitely a command.

Xander merely gestured to the side of him, and commanded three portals to open up, depositing the severed heads of Death, Pestilence, and War in glass and metal containers.

Black Adam's march towards Xander stopped and diverted towards the three heads. The antihero Black Adam circled the three heads in examination before looking up at The Leviathan with a raised eyebrow.

Xander answered the earlier question, "I present to you the remains of three of the 'Four Horsemen of the Apokolips.' They were created by the scientist Chang Fu in the science facilities of the former Oolong Island off the coast of China. They where the mortal vessels for three of the four Old Gods of the planet Apokolips, and if left unchecked they would have been responsible for the death of millions, including your Isis. I would appreciate if you didn't mention this to anybody else, as I really don't want to get into a war with China for nuking their island. Now if you would call your wife and son, we can finish off the last…"

Xander's statement was interrupted by Black Adam flying across the room in a blink of an eye and picking Xander up by the front of his suit.

"How do you know this! Who are you and what do you mean 'they would have been responsible for the death of Isis'?" Black Adam snarled.

Xander nonchalantly quirked his head to the side and then wrapped his hands around where Black Adam was lifting him off the ground. Using his super strength and Nth metal infused hands, Xander overpowered Black Adam's magically granted strength and then Xander floated out of the grasp of the startled Kahndaqi ruler.

"No touchy Adam. I know of the things I say because I've seen and read pieces of your future had I not interrupted the plans of your enemies. The future going forward is up to you. I can be a friend and ally, together we can save your son's life, or I can leave now and you can deal with possibly losing Osiris. The choice is now yours. Call your wife, her brother who you consider an adopted son, and Sobek, or I'll leave you to deal with what comes your way." Xander said with steel in his voice. Xander had been the punching bag for his father as a child, and he wasn't going to let somebody bully or intimidate him again if he had anything to say about it, not even a potential ally like Black Adam.

Black Adam was stunned; not even Superman or Captain Marvel could have as easily peeled his hands away like The Leviathan had done. That, mixed with the words The Leviathan spoke caused him to step back.

Looking down at the three glass encased heads, and then back at The Leviathan, Black Adam made his choice.

Yelling towards the ceiling in ancient Egyptian (Xander recognized bits and pieces of it from his research sessions with Giles and the Scoobies) Black Adam called out and a Feitheran flew out of the balconies surrounding the upper levels of the throne room and came to land before Black Adam.

Xander watched on as Black Adam instructed the hawk like humanoid Feitheran to go and bring Osiris, Isis, and Sobek to the throne room. The Feitheran nodded in reply to Black Adam's command and then launched into the air on feathered wings before flying out of a sun filled opening in the stone roof of the throne room.

Xander and Black Adam stood facing each other, neither fidgeting nor speaking as they waited for the arrival of Isis and Osiris; Black Adam's scowl and anger did not leave his face the entire time.

Soon enough though Isis flew in from the opening in the roof, and Osiris followed after. Landing next to her husband, the tanned beauty was garbed in a white outfit, split to cover her chest and the second as a wrap-like skirt around her hips. It was perfect garb for a desert country like Kahndaq.

"You called for me husband? Perhaps to greet our guest?" She stated as she stepped into Black Adam's arms and kissed the Kahndaq ruler's cheek; Black Adam's arm instinctively wrapping protectively around her.

Rather than answering his wife though, Adam turned to Osiris, who landed beside them and bluntly asked, "Where is Sobek?"

Osiris was a bit taken aback by Black Adam's tone, but answered with a smile, "We were out playing by the river. He should be here any moment."

A shuffling and scrapping sound of scales on stone behind Xander caused him to turn around just as a large crocodile-like creature wandered into the room and walked towards Xander and the Black Adam family.

Xander's feral grin, shown under his helmet, but was covered from being seen as he ignored Isis and Osiris and turned towards Sobek.

"Why hello there, Sobek. I so wanted to meet you after greeting your family earlier." Xander stated while walking over so the three glass encased heads were in between Xander and Sobek. "I think you recognize the three figures here, isn't that right Sobek? Or should I call you Famine…?" Xander finished an evil smile creeping across his face under his mask.

Sobek's shuffle into the room halted abruptly at Xander's greeting, and you could see the hulking crocodile humanoid freeze, hesitate, and then a myriad of emotions flickered across the creatures face before settling into one of absolute rage when Famine realized that the gig was up and that this stranger in black had ruined his scheme to devour Osiris and the Black Adam family.

Bellowing, the seven foot tall green scaled behemoth leapt through the air with surprising speed, jaws open to devour Xander head first.

Xander remained unmoving in the path of the attack, ignoring the cry from Osiris behind him and the sounds of a scuffle as Xander's helmet informed him that Black Adam was restraining Osiris from helping his 'friend' Sobek attack The Leviathan.

The only inkling that Xander was ready for the attack was the brief tensing of muscles as the world around Xander seemed to slow down. Once again vectors, trajectories, and force points were tracked by Xander's eyes and senses while the Jarvis super-AI in Xander's helmet instantaneously communed with Xander's mind, telling him of the weak points on a crocodile.

To the outside observer, it looked as if The Leviathan was about to lose his head, for just as Famine's jaws snapped shut where Xander's head should have been, the black suited figure blurred a step to his left before catching Famine in a headlock; crocodiles have amazing muscles for crunching things, but are as weak as a kitten when it comes to opening those jaws back open again. Against Xander's super strength, strength on par with Superman's, Famine had no hope of opening those jaws again.

Xander's hand latched around Hunger's jaws, but where the black gloves met at the tip of the creature's maw, the nano-clanks flowed and merged into a solid band of black metal. Not one to deprive a host of entertainment in his own home, Xander lashed out with his foot in a blur of speed that would have made The Flash proud, breaking both of Famine's kneecaps and toppling the creature forward to spill onto the floor. Famine's head hit the ground with a snapping thud, the creature's head landing exactly in line with the three glass encased heads of the other Horsemen.

Xander smirked under his helmet, and turned while planting his foot hard in the middle of Famine's back, right between the shoulder blades.

The sickening 'snap' of a breaking spine was mirrored by the flinch of Osiris who was still being held back by Black Adam.

Xander gestured to the three glass encased heads, and Famine under his foot. "And there you go Adam, I do hope you will let me call you Adam? A matching set, the Four Horsemen of the Apokolips, created for the purpose of killing you, Isis, and Osiris."

Xander could see Osiris's emotions warring upon the boy's face, but Isis's brother soon hardened his features towards Famine as he saw the hate shining from the creature's eyes back at him.

Black Adam moved towards Xander and then crouched down in front of Famine, anger and rage clearly painted on the antihero's face. "You would attack my family? You would seek to destroy that which I hold dear? An eye for an eye Sobek, your sentence is death!" Black Adam finished with a roar, before reaching down and grabbing Famine by the head and heaving backwards.

There was a heaving popping and ripping sound, and blood splashed across the floor and Xander's black suit pants; the blood seeming to be absorbed into the black material of The Leviathan's suit.

When Black Adam stood up, he gazed into the eyes of Famine, the last of the Four Horsemen, and watched as the life left the creature's eyes.

Black Adam heard a raspy chuckle sound from the corpse at his feet, and stepped back quickly as a wispy smoke like spirit emerged from the body of Famine.

However before the spirit could say anything, before the Apokoliptian old God could taunt Black Adam with revenge, The Leviathan snapped his fingers and a transporter dropped a Ghost-trap that looked similar to that used in the movie Ghostbusters.

Xander stomped his foot down on the trigger, and a white light exploded from the trap. A light that quickly sucked the spirit of Famine into it and then closed. The lights on the trap went from green to red, and then all was silent in the throne room.

Black Adam looked from the head in his hands, to The Leviathan, then to the three heads arrayed around him, then back at The Leviathan. Isis walked forward and rested her hand on her husband's shoulder, and with that gesture you could see a bit of the tension go out of the Kahndaq ruler as Black Adam realized that his family was going to survive for another day; all thanks to this strange black garbed man.

"Well, I can't say that I'm a hero. But I would do anything to protect my friends. So, can I call you a friend Black Adam?" Xander asked, putting a hand forward for Black Adam to shake.

Black Adam stared at The Leviathan for a moment, and then slowly, ever so slowly, a smile split the antihero of Kahndaq's face.

"Friends." Black Adam agreed, grasping Xander's forearm in a more ancient form of greeting than the modern handshake; a greeting of allies that showed there wasn't a dagger up their sleeve meant to stab the other in the back.

With that, Xander had finally found his first super powered friend and ally in this new dimension.

AN: Well, some people called it, but I figured it was pretty obvious given Xander's traits and actions. Xander comes from Sunnydale, and his type of hero is not the capture and release kind. He grew up learning that sometimes you have to kill in order to survive or to ensure the survival of those you love or care for; that in order for good to thrive, sometimes evil must be absolutely destroyed. This should be interesting as Xander will no doubt run afoul of the Justice League some day. Hope you enjoyed it. Cheers.