A Spark of Genius

by michaelsuave

Xander Harris was never called a genius, but after a different choice of Halloween costumes he is hit with a 'spark' of mad genius, the abilities that go with it, and flung into a far different world. Come and enjoy the madness. GirlGenius vers costume. HIATUS

28. Chapter 28: Girls Are Trouble

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: I have to be honest, the lack of reviews, notes and thoughts had me thinking 'to hell with this story' but the outpouring of more ideas and thoughts really helped. So you get a longer chapter where Xander starts to clash with some mega villains and chaos is abundant. Some of you who reviewed will note that some of your ideas did actually hit close to the mark on what happened, good on you! You win a cookie (as in the website you are reading this on just installed a cookie on your computer, aren't you special.) I hope you planned to have a good break of time to read this chapter, because it is over 18k words long. Let me know if you enjoy this or have additional thoughts.

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'Thought'

"Speech"

/foreign language/

Chapter 28: Girls Are Trouble

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity." ~Albert Einstein

Bialya was a semi-utopian society ruled through unscrupulous means. The ruler of Bialya, who went by the name of Queen Bee, used a mix of alien and advanced technology to stimulate the brains of the citizens of the Middle Eastern country until they literally became addicted to living within its borders. All citizens in the country had an implant that made them so hopped up on endorphins, that they were a perpetually happy bunch. Add to that the 24 hour a day free medical care, free education and food, and you had a country similar to the Leviathan's Empire; but which did so by totally different means. Still, the country was beautiful, the weather was perfect, and the people were friendly; the perfect trifecta with which to create a tourist hot spot. For those tourists who wanted the absolute best of the best in Bialya, the Royal Gardens Grand Hotel was the place to be.

The hotel was opulent, with marble and gold interspersed with lush plant growth, fantastic rooms, pools, spas, and food to die for. The Royal Gardens Grand Hotel was staffed only by the brightest and prettiest citizens of the Arabic country, and of that staff, Traya, a hotel manager, was bright and not just a bit haughty about her looks.

Dressed sharply in a business suit, Traya had worked her way up through the ranks of the largest and most prestigious hotel in Bialya, and she wasn't afraid to bury a knife in somebody's back if she needed to. Still, since Traya was the youngest and most junior front desk manager for Bialya's largest paradise resort, she was the one who had to deal with all of the super eccentric rich customers that graced the opulent hotel and spa. Still, the customer she was going to deal with at the moment was a bit different than the normal eccentric patrons that she had to deal with.

Traya thought back to how she met Mr. Harris as she rode the elevator up to the penthouse suites level with her manager's key.

A tall broad handsome young man with dark windswept hair had moseyed in the door during the growing heat of the morning. From the reddish brown dust that was on his face and exposed skin she had known that he had been traveling through the border areas towards Turkey. The young man had just given a jaunty wave and walked past the bellhops who had offered to take his heavily beaten looking backpack, and instead the young man had walked right up to the open counter where Traya was working on the shift schedule for the hotel lobby.

Traya had to admit that her heart had skipped a beat when the tall obviously muscled man had smiled a self deprecating smile at her and said hello; which is probably why she was so ready to kindly direct him to a more 'suitable' arrangement rather than just telling him to get the hell out of the hotel that he obviously couldn't pay for.

Apparently looks could be deceiving, for when she suggested other accommodations he had simply shrugged and said he could afford her best rooms. A bit frustrated, Traya had snapped at him that she highly doubted it, at which point she nearly swallowed her tongue when he pulled out of his pocket a gold ingot as thick as her forearm and dropped it on the counter. After pre-paying for a week's stay in one of the world's most expensive hotels and in the nicest suites available, Mr. Harris had been treated completely different by the staff.

To say Mr. Harris's service had been excellent after that point would be an understatement. Still, the other wealthy guests also had to be appeased as well. Thus Traya was on her way to Mr. Harris's suite to politely check up on the prodigious sounds of explosives, the almost constant sound of grinding shearing metal and the punctuations of heavy hammer blows; hammer blows that shook the entire top floor of the hotel.

As the elevator doors opened up, and Traya fixed her hair so that it was perfect, she was assaulted by the sounds of a loud explosion and a billow of black smoke puffed out from under one of the doorways down the hall.

'Obviously Mr. Harris's room.' Traya thought to herself while girding herself to deal with the handsome yet odd young man.

Traya walked up to the door and waved her hand to dissipate the smoke that was issuing up in front of the door before knocking politely on the door and waiting.

There was no answer at the door, and if the sound of the jackhammer and what sounded like a pack of braying donkeys was anything to go by, Traya figured she would have to knock louder.

Scrunching up her cute nose in frustration, Traya switched to pounding on the door. After about thirty seconds, the racket stopped and the door was whipped open to show a man in an open hotel robe and red silk boxers. The red silk boxers had radioactive warnings on them along with little signs that read, "Warning, the contents of these boxers may be hazardous to your sanity."

Traya couldn't help but smirk a bit as her eyes drifted up from the boxers to the tight eight pack of abs that lay below a nicely chiseled chest. The picture was marred a bit as Mr. Harris's face was smeared with bits of soot and a pair of welding goggles covered his eyes while a screwdriver and tuning fork were stuck behind his ears.

The odd ensemble caused Traya to pause for a second before smiling and politely asking, "Mr. Harris, would you please be so kind as to keep the noise down?"

"What? I can't hear you." Xander yelled in reply while pulling off his goggles. "Let me take out my ear plugs." He yelled one more time before doing exactly that. Twisting his fingers in his ears to get the ringing out, Xander asked again while giving his normal smile, "Sorry about that, what did you say?"

Xander's smile caused something to melt in the normally haughty young manager, and she felt a tingling from the lower regions of her body.

Traya though to herself, 'Perhaps I could offer Mr. Harris some "special" services courtesy of the hotel.' Traya subconsciously licked her lips while thinking.

Realizing that she had been checking out his body again, Traya blushed a bit before answering, "I asked if you could please be so kind as to…" Traya's statement was cut off by the sound of a klaxon blaring back in the room. Xander's eyes got large and he quickly darted back into the room.

Traya wandered into the room to see what exactly Mr. Harris was doing, and was surprised to see that all of the couches and furniture in the room had been pushed to the side and that the room was instead cluttered with large robotic metal presses, cutting shears, sheet buffers, something labeled a three dimensional laser cutter, and a giant drill press; all with electrical cables cluttering across the room where they were plugged into what appeared to be a simple black t-shirt.

Looking to where Xander was in the bathroom, Traya saw bubbling and fuming chemical beakers of every color and size simmering over small flames or chilled by tanks with liquid nitrogen warning symbols on the sides.

'This is definitely the weirdest thing I've seen in a patron's room before,' Traya thought to herself as she saw Xander stick his finger into a beaker and then taste the fluid that was on his finger. 'Still, I wouldn't mind getting a taste of him.' She thought as she watched Xander bend over the beakers and tasting the contents.

"Hmm, needs more arsenic." Xander mumbled to himself before running back into the main bedroom due to the sounds of a device on the bed that unfolded and started to repeatedly quack like a duck.

Traya heard Xander's statement and couldn't help blurting out, "Arsenic? Isn't that poisonous?" She questioned, her head following Mr. Harris's path from the bathroom to the living area.

Xander merely shrugged as he walked by, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." He stated with a smile.

'Yep, definitely the weirdest. This even beats that singer who liked to dress his shih-tzu's up in Japanese kimonos for tea ceremonies while he wore only women's lingerie.' Traya stated, following the eccentric patron from one room into another.

"Come on, get in there." Xander growled as pulled an assortment of knives, full length swords and futuristic weapons out of his backpack and pilled them up on what appeared to be a black pair of long johns lying on the bed.

Traya stood there wide eyed and open mouthed as the pile of sharp metal and dangerous objects came out of the much too small bag and then were noisily absorbed by the shirt. Sure the weapons were disappearing into the long john material, but the noise while it was doing so sounded like Xander had an entire train yard of heavy machinery working.

Traya, a bit frightened at all the weapons in front of her yelled out, "Mr. Harris, it is illegal to bring those types of weapons into Bialya."

Xander merely waved away her concern before yelling back in answer, "Diplomatic Immunity." He stated with a bit of a smirk; the smirk and the weapons added a sense of danger to Xander's image, and Traya felt herself warming up.

Still, Traya had to do something about the terrible sounds issuing from the bed as the odd clothing seemed to snake out tentacles before forcefully pulling the weapons into its 2 dimensional mass.

Ever the consummate professional, Traya shook her head before yelling to Xander, "The Noise Mr. Harris, Can you do something about the Noise?" Traya waved her hands to draw Xander's attention as the sounds had gotten almost painfully loud at that point.

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the Noise!" Xander yelled back before looking around him quickly.

"Ah ha!" Xander yelled as his eyes lit up and he held up his finger like he had an idea.

Diving over the bed, Xander rolled across the floor before hopping up and then reaching into the seat cushions of one of the couches that was against the wall. Throwing bits of lint, a pair of discarded underwear, and a few loose coins over his shoulder as he dug through the cushions, Xander finally (and improbably) pulled out a tennis ball from beneath the cushions.

Chuckling a bit madly to himself, Xander skipped over to the metal shears and proceeded to cut the tennis ball in half while adding to the already loud screeching sounds of metal being absorbed into the clothing on the bed.

While the still stunned and confused Traya continued to watch, Xander whistled as he quickly walked back across the room to his backpack before sticking his arm all the way in to the shoulder. Digging around a bit, Xander finally pulled out of the backpack a rubber chicken and a pocket watch which he pulled apart with his hands until he could get at the squeaker from the chicken and some of the clock's gear works and timing mechanism.

Xander's hands seemed to blur as a roll of duct tape was pulled out of one of the robe's pockets, which was added to the tuning fork from behind his ear and used to build some sort of small device. When Xander finally pulled back, what was left was a little miniature device that looked like a satellite dish made from a tennis ball housed on top of some weird clockwork contraption with a tuning fork sticking out the side.

Whipping around to look at Traya with an almost insane smile across his face, Xander walked quickly towards Traya and swung his hand up towards her head faster than she could blink.

"Thanks! Just what I needed." Xander yelled over the sounds of the compressing metal as he pulled a bobby pin from Traya's hair before inserting it into the center of his half tennis ball satellite dish.

Traya was startled and put a hand to her throat as her adrenaline had spiked when Xander had walked towards her, but she quickly caught her breath as she watched what happened next.

With the addition of the bobby pin, the room suddenly went dead silent. Xander and Traya were left with a phantom ringing in their ears from the previous loud sounds, but were unable to even hear themselves breath or their own hearts beat.

Xander turned to speak to Traya, and though his mouth was moving, she didn't hear a thing.

Traya's eyebrows pinched together as she was confused with what was going on, so she tried to ask, "I'm sorry, I can't hear you." Yet nothing came out of her mouth.

Xander raised both hands in a shrug, before saying, "I'm sorry, I can't hear you, one second." Yet nothing coming out of his mouth either.

Still, Xander turned around and flicked the little device a few times with his finger, and suddenly Traya could again hear the sounds of her breathing and her heart beat again yet there was no sounds of screeching metal.

Xander turned around and gave Traya a heart melting smile again with a bit of a euphoric look on his face. "There we go, now I can hear you. I always love when an experiment goes right; especially when it doesn't accidentally explode and destroy the building I'm in." Xander mumbled the last part to himself.

Traya smiled back at Xander and took on a bit of a predatory look. "Well Mr. Harris, I had been sent up here to get the sound to stop, but since that is done, is there 'anything' else I can do for you?" Traya asked coyly, stressing the word 'anything' while at the same time clasping her hands behind her back; which made her chest more prominent.

Xander gave an honest smile back, "Nope, all good here unless you're good with a phase transducer?" Xander finished, misinterpreting the word 'anything' from this attractive hotel staff member.

Traya gave a confused look, before concentrating on what she wanted again. Traya tried again, walking one foot in front of the other towards Xander, such that her heels accentuated the sway in her hips, and only stopping when she was well inside Xander's comfort zone.

"Sorry, don't know what a phase transducer is, but it's almost time for a lunch break, could I interest you in 'something' for lunch?" She stated, peering up into his eyes while licking her lips.

Xander merely looked down at Traya quizzically, he really didn't have a clue what she was talking about and was currently busy trying to get the little voice in his head to shut up so that she could talk to the nice hotel manager in front of him.

'Hey boss, she's trying to…" The little voice stated in Xander's head before Xander interrupted him.

'Shut up little voice, this isn't the time for your harem crap.' Xander groused mentally to himself.

'But boss, she is trying to…' The little voice tried again.

'I said enough, I probably look dumb standing in front of her staring down at her without answering.' Xander thought back briskly before smiling at Traya and answering.

"Sorry about that, got lost in my thoughts." Xander stated to her, and her smile started to grow, only for Xander to continue, "Yeah, does your room service have any steaks? Oh, and if there is any way I could get an order of Twinkies, that would be great. Thanks for offering to get me lunch." Xander said with a smile before patting his robes before pulling his wallet out of his pocket and handing Traya a hundred dollar bill.

Traya stared stunned, open mouthed at the money in her hands, then back at Xander who was smiling down at her, then back at the one hundred dollar bill.

Traya frowned at the same time that Xander noticed that the room had suddenly gotten chillier.

Traya took a step back and stilled her face into a blank mask, though there was a definite hint of the Queen C death glare coming from her eyes. "Yes sir, right away sir, thank you sir." She spat out before turning quickly on her heels and storming out of the room, slamming the door to the Xander's room; though it didn't make any sound due to Xander's sound dampener.

Xander quirked an eyebrow up as he realized that the nice hotel manager lady was suddenly weird and upset. Xander thought to himself, 'What was that about?'

'Sigh, never mind.' The little voice replied in the back of his head.

Xander merely shrugged and thought to himself, 'I'll never understand women.'

With that, Xander turned back to the room and his experiments, just as the little voice in the back of his head sighed again, 'And I'll never get my harem, Sigh.'

---

When it was late afternoon in Bialya, it was dawn in Las Vegas, which meant that Zatanna Zatarra was enjoying her time sleeping in after the closing of her last show the night before. Unfortunately, Zatanna's restful sleep was interrupted when a swirling disk of light and smoke appeared to the side of her bed, and then as if through a magical mirror appeared the face and upper torso of a dark haired man with piercing dark eyes and a well tailored suit.

"Zatanna." He stated through the mirror, and watched as his sleeping daughter just murmured in her sleep and rolled over.

"Zatanna! Wake up this instant." He ordered.

"Ugh, five more minutes." She mumbled and pulled the pillow over her head before rolling over and falling asleep again.

"Zatanna Zatarra! You wake up this instant young lady! Don't make me step through this portal." Giovanni 'John' Zatarra snapped, crossing his arms in frustration.

Zatanna shot straight up in bed wide eyed and looking around frantically until she saw the portal next to her bed and settled down a bit. Yawning, she stretched her flannel pajama clad arms up into the air; her pj's were rather cute for a woman her age with little white bunny rabbits hopping out of magician's hats all over the top and pants.

Smacking her lips, she smiled and said, "Good morning, Daddy. What can I help you with? I thought you were pretending to be dead so that you could focus on the hidden city?" She questioned while rubbing her eyes and running a hand through her hair that had been mussed by the pillow.

John glared but straightened his arms. Looking straight at Zatanna he answered, "Don't 'good morning daddy' me Zatanna, and I am in the Hidden City, or at least what I thought was a hidden city. Tell me, what do you know about a young man who can cover himself with quick silver and is immune to magic?" Zatanna's father demanded.

Zatanna stopped mid yawn, and turned wide eyes towards her father, "What did Xander do?" She stated, a bit scared.

John frowned, "Xander? Well this 'Xander' as you call him breached the wards and defenses on the only physical doorway into the Hidden City, helped destroy the market place, and then escaped after mentioning your name. Oh, and your grounded preemptively."

Zatanna sputtered, her father's words about Xander whipping through her head before the last thing he said filtered through her mind and she wheeled on him petulantly. "Daddy! You can't ground me, I'm an adult! Besides, who I date is none of your business." She spat back while crossing her arms over her chest in a pout.

John Zatarra's eyes darkened and his brows furrowed together, "Dated? You dated this man? First you go off to Tantric magic classes with John Constantine, and now you are dating men who are not only non-Homo-Magi but also are immune to magic? That's it, you're grounded young lady." John spat back, the overly protective father mode coming on strongly.

Zatanna pouted even more, "But daddy, it was only a one night stand…" She stated, only to cover her mouth quickly while her eyes shot open wide at what she had just let slip.

John Zatarra's face started to go blood red, and a vein in his forehead started to throb, "You let…! That man! Grrrrrrr…. That's it!" He shouted, "You are to be at Shadowcrest Mansion in two hours, and you are grounded until we discuss your ability to learn wisdom from your elders and how to make better choices."

"But Daddy!" Zatanna started, only for her father to cut her off.

"Ah, I don't want to hear it. Don't make me step through there and bind your powers or you'll be sitting in your room inside a containment circle for the next month. Now I expect you to be at the mansion in no later than two hours, and you should warn the Justice League that you will be unavailable for the next month." John ordered, crossing his arms and commanding his daughter.

"A whole month? But I'm an adult father." Zatanna whined.

"Ah ah, not another word. You're only an adult if I say you are an adult. And obviously your decision making shows that you aren't ready to be an adult yet, now get moving young lady." John demanded, and the viewing portal swirled and then drifted away as dissipating smoke.

Zatanna stayed in her bed, crossing her arms and pouting for another minute.

"MOVE IT YOUNG LADY!" The voice of John Zatarra boomed across the room, shaking books and pictures off their shelves.

Zatanna "EEEP'd" and started scurrying to get packed to go back to the mansion.

---

Meanwhile back in Gotham city…

Batman pulled the Batmobile into its parking place in the middle of the Batcave and waited as the turntable in the floor rotated the car so that it was pointed back at the entrance to the cavern.

The top of the sleek vehicle rolled back and Batman pulled himself out of the driver's seat with a grunt of pain as his bruised ribs and the slice on his chest caused him a bit of pain.

"Good evening, Master Bruce. I've taken the initiative to prepare you a small dinner to hold you over while I bandage your wounds. Were you successful tonight, Sir?" Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler and the man who had raised him, questioned while standing in his immaculate butler's uniform with a tray of sandwiches on a silver platter in his hands, a towel over his arm, and a first aid kit on a strap over his shoulder.

Wanting nothing more than to update his notes on the Joker before getting his three hours of nightly sleep, Bruce pulled his cowl off his face before accepting the towel from Alfred and proceeding towards the seat in front of the Batcomputer.

Bruce sighed as he gently set himself down in the chair before answering, "The Joker is back in Arkham, but his hyenas gave me a nice gash before I was able to knock them all out." Bruce answered Alfred in his normal growly voice while simultaneously logging into the computer and pulling up the details on the Joker.

Sticking a sandwich in his mouth, Alfred assisted Bruce in removing the armor weaved shirt and cape that was part of the batman outfit. Bruce then moved forward in his seat so that Alfred could wrap the bandages around his chest.

Like a habitual practice that was done every night, Bruce worked on the computer while Alfred worked on bandaging Mr. Wayne.

The large screen flashed the face of The Joker on it, his grinning pale visage taking up half the screen while the other half held details about plans and counters to the Joker's actions. Every engagement with the Joker was logged and weaknesses were noted for future use.

Bruce grunted as Alfred pulled the wrapping on Batman's ribs tight, and then Bruce hit the enter key on the computer; changing the Joker's status from "at large" to "detained."

Every night was the same, Bruce left as Batman. Batman chased and caught a villain. Batman returned to the Batcave where he resumed his persona of Bruce and was bandaged by Alfred.

Bruce reached for another sandwich and stuck it in his mouth, right as something different happened.

The image of a floating electronic copy of a mail envelope flittered across the screen, until it took up the whole image of the computer's monitor. Bruce stopped mid bite, and even the unflappable Alfred paused in his tying of the wrappings on the bandages as the speakers on the Batcomputer said, "You've Got Mail!" in a sing songy voice.

As Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth stared at the screen, the digital letter unfolded and a message was silently displayed to read:

Dear Bruce, or do you prefer Batman?

Anyway, I noticed that you had plans and contingencies for dealing with your friends and enemies alike. Naughty boy, bad bat! You shouldn't treat your friends that way, and you never know who will access your systems and use them against you. Thus I've taken all of your plans for dealing with heroes, but left you the ones dealing with the villains. Naughty boy, no bat treats for you.

Signed,

Anonymous

Bruce stared at the screen for a moment as his visage grew darker. Tearing the sandwich out of his mouth with a growl, Batman furiously typed on his keyboard and called up the encrypted folder that held all of his plans for if he ever had to neutralize other Justice League heroes.

They were gone. The file was empty.

"Damn it!" Bruce cursed, "Computer, bring up security logs for access to the Batcave, report all incidences of trespass near the Batcomputer for the last twenty four hours." Batman commanded.

An image of a black bat appeared on the screen with a timer in the middle of it. Finally the clock hands wound all the way around.

A feminine voice replied, "Access log request completed. Computer accessed in the last twenty four hours by Batman only. No additional physical or electronic access acknowledged," the voice completed calmly.

Batman was anything but calm as his thoughts raced through who could have hacked into his system and stolen the information.

"Computer, connect me to Oracle." Bruce commanded, and a slight symbol of a ringing red phone appeared before a green digital image of a Greek Delphic face appeared on the screen.

"Oracle here, how can I help you?" The voice of the mysterious Oracle came over the speakers. There were only three known people in the world who knew that the Oracle was really Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Police Commissioner Gordan. Shot and paralyzed by the Joker, the once Batgirl 'Babs' Gordon now helped support the crime fighting heroes through the use of her incredible computer hacking and intelligence gathering abilities.

"This is Bruce, put every type of encryption you can on this line and let me know when you've got it running." Batman ordered darkly.

The sounds of a few clicks was heard, before the line went dead for a second, and then a tone sounded before Barbara's voice was heard again, "We're secure, what's going on that the normal Oracle defenses and Batcomputer encryption wasn't good enough?" She queried.

"The Batcomputer's been hacked." Batman explained simply, his fingers flying over the controls of the keyboard to start bringing up every backup and secondary backup command and tracking subroutine that he had installed in the computer to not only prevent this type of thing from happening but also to track those who ever even tried to hack the super computer.

"What!" Babs spat out before her voice took on a business tone of voice, "I'm running the black hat background programs and the code line checks now, and nothing is coming up as tampered with or accessible via outside sources. It will take me a while but I'll parse out all of the relay codes for the last week to see if anything changed or if there was a backdoor we missed. Do you have any hints at who would do this?" She finished with a question while the sound of her fingers dancing over computer keys was heard in the background.

"They took specific files, files I was warned to delete by the Grey Knight." Bruce relayed as he continued to run routines on the computer to see if any outside access had connected into the computer. The computer kept telling him that the only use of the Batcomputer had been by Bruce himself and via the controls in the Batcave. Growling to himself, Batman continued, "The Grey Knight hinted that I needed to get rid of some contingency plans that I had or they could be used against me. However the email that was sent to me comes across as particularly playful and calls me a naughty boy." Bruce continued.

A muffled laugh could be heard to come from Oracle, and Bruce glared at the screen.

"Ok, sorry, but somebody calling the Dark Knight of Gotham a 'naughty boy' does come across as a little humorous." Oracle explained, "The only people I've heard refer to you as a naughty something or other would be Catwoman or perhaps Poison Ivy." Barbara added her two bits as both Oracle and Batman continued to type furiously on their computers.

Alfred walked up with a cup of coffee and held it out to Bruce, who took and drank the still steaming liquid without so much as a word or a wince at the heat of the brew.

"Blech." Bruce stopped typing to look at Alfred questioningly.

"I thought you needed the caffeine Sir, unfortunately all we had was the Nescafe instant coffee that was a year old. We are out of our supply of Sparkbucks coffee sir." Alfred stated simply before turning and leaving Batman to his work.

Bruce stopped to wipe his tongue on the back of his hand and smacked his lips for a second to get the bad taste out of his mouth before going back to typing.

"Barbara, cross reference Catwoman and the Grey Knight, and then give me a report on any connections. Also look up The Leviathan to see if he has any connections with either Catwoman or Poison Ivy. I'm reviewing the security tapes on fast forward now." Batman explained, while a section of the screen flashed up the image from the Batcave's security camera that was focused on the Batcomputer.

Both Bruce and Oracle were quiet as they worked. Batman watched the screen, and sure enough the only image of a person to grace the video recording was of Bruce working away at the Batcomputer at several periods of time. There were no flashes of light that would suggest that the Grey Knight, Leviathan, or one of their people had entered the Batcave.

'But with their advanced technology, there is no telling what they could do.' Batman thought quickly while counter plans filtered through his head regarding dealing with the self proclaimed cross-dimensional cousins.

Barbara's voice interrupted Batman's introspection, "The only known relations or contacts of the Grey Knight are his black armored soldiers and The Leviathan. I'm seeing reports starting to filter out of Romania and Kasnia regarding larger than normal fruit and vegetables which could suggest a connection with Poison Ivy." Barbara stated, only for Bruce to add some facts to the puzzle.

"Only Poison Ivy is currently detained in Arkham's high security wards, I was there earlier tonight and doubled checked that the usual rogues gallery was still accounted for." Bruce stated while rubbing his chin in thought, "Besides, Pamela Isley has never been known to help regular humans with her plants. Her large vegetables would be more likely to eat the normal citizens rather than allowing the humans to eat them." Batman finished, remembering instances where Poison Ivy had attacked with giant man-eating pumpkins and other types of vicious vegetation.

"Well there are rumors of Romania turning into a pristine place without any pollution. That could account for some of her involvement, but doesn't explain the situation given that she is still in prison." Oracle replied and both were silent as they continued to try and solve the latest problem to face them.

After several minutes Barbara finally gave Bruce some more news, "I have a video recording of Selina Kyle leaving the Gotham Airport via private charter three weeks ago, though I lost track of her when she reached Europe." Babs hummed to herself in thought for a moment and the sound of her clicking computer keys continued for a second before she added, "I'm seeing a burglary in the Zurich diamond market that could have been her, and four days later the Royal House of Saud made a report with Interpol regarding the theft of some emeralds which had been labeled the 'Eyes of Bast,' named after the Egyptian Goddess of cats."

"Hmmmm, well there goes our best leads. I still think that we are on the right track but obviously haven't arranged all of the puzzle pieces together yet." Bruce stated with a frown; he hated not knowing the answer to a puzzle like this, especially one that was in regard to the security of his identity.

"I'll forward the message to you. Maybe you can find something from it." Batman stated gravelly.

"Will do." Barbara Gordan answered before adding, "Do you want help trying to recreate or pull up backups on the lost files?"

Bruce clicked a couple of keys and was rewarded with the answer that he expected he would find, "No, they obviously aren't safe enough on the computer, and the backups are missing also. No, you focus on trying to find Catwoman and The Grey Knight, I have a feeling that wherever they are, they are up to no good."

---

It was night time, and Xander's room was put back into its original configuration with the furniture nicely and neatly situated about the room in its original position. The leftovers and Twinkie wrappers from the dessert portion of his late lunch were sitting in front of the couch on the long coffee table and all of the machinery and chemicals that had cluttered the room were either put back in Xander's backpack or had been incorporated into the almost spandex like black tights and long sleeved shirt that Xander was currently wearing.

Xander stared at his reflection in the floor to ceiling mirror that took up an entire wall of the bathroom.

Turning from side to side, Xander noted that the seam between the shirt portion and the pants portion of the upgraded nano-clank armored clothing had fused together like it was meant to. "Sure beats the silver color," Xander said to himself as he admired several hours worth of work.

Taking a big breath to still his mind, Xander started testing out his new system by giving his nano-clothing mental commands through his own internal systems.

'Ok, clear.' Xander thought, and the suit went translucent so that it looked like Xander was naked.

'Black again.' He thought, and the suit once again turned back into its solid midnight black color. The fabric of the material, if clothing made from trillions of microscopic nano-clanks could be called fabric, resumed its form fitting spandex shape; showing off every muscle and curve on Xander's body.

'Mask on.' Xander ordered and the black nano-weave fabric oozed up his face quickly to fully cover his head and hide his facial features in a similar manner as The Question; only now Xander was a faceless man in what looked like a solid black bodysuit.

"Cool!" Xander stated with a smile as he noticed that the clanks were correctly filtering the air that he was breathing and still allowing him to get the oxygen he needed while expelling the excess carbon dioxide. Optical sensors linked to the tiny machines allowed him to see details and computer information beamed in front of his eyes via the suit's sensors; similar to functions of The Leviathan's helmet.

Xander then raised his hands to the side and commanded, "Initiate weapons test, go."

First claws grew from his outstretched finger tips, and then retracted. Then the familiar claws so similar to the Marvel comic character Wolverine seemed to slide out from between where his knuckles were, and then they retracted.

At this point Xander hovered into the air with his flight abilities, as the second part of the weapons formation test began.

Ridges and rings of spikes formed out of his arms, quickly expanded and retracted, followed by spikes forming along the other parts of his body until they all shot out at the same time, making Xander look like some deranged copy of a pinhead or sea anemone.

Xander lowered himself to the ground, and held out his hands, just as a long katana like sword grew in the grasp of his right hand, before shrinking to dagger size and then disappearing. This was mirrored in his left hand before that weapon also shrunk.

'Ok, here goes nothing.' Xander thought to himself as the particle beam and projectile weapon systems were the next to be tested; though not fired.

A simple pistol formed in his right hand, then another in his left. The guns then blurred as they changed shape into sawed-off shotguns, machine pistols and then different types of one handed energy weapons; the maw of the weapon glowing an eerie blue, green, or red depending on the weapon that had just formed in his hands.

Then the rest of the suit on Xander's body began to change shape. Like a Vuldarian Warrior from the DC comic book universe, a race that could literally turn parts of their body's into weapons, Xander's arms became glowing cannons, then miniguns, and then plasma launchers, and crossbows popped out on his shoulders before being retracted. A myriad of weapons from rocket launchers to even a large glowing chest weapon were formed; Xander could now form his suit into any of the weapons that he had piled onto his suit and let it absorb.

"Sweet!" Xander stated with a large smile as the test came to a finish and he was left staring at his 'spandex' complexion once again.

'Not that I really have had any training with these things, but I'd rather have access to the weapons rather than need them and not have them. Murphy would make sure I needed them if I thought about it and didn't end up adding them.' Xander thought to himself while he examined his arms and body in the mirror to make sure it had returned to its base form.

"Ok, color and image change." Xander ordered before having a mischievous glint come to his eye.

"Batman." Xander said, and immediately his costume flowed until the trademarked grey suit with black cowl, cape and gloves adorned him, Xander's eyes and mouth visible.

Xander swirled the cape around him, then said to his image in an imitation of Batman's growly voice, "I'm Batman! Would you like to be Robin? You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Xander stated, posing before the mirror before breaking down laughing.

When he caught his breath again, Xander went through some more costume changes, "Superman" and the blue and red outfit was on him, his face was fully open to be viewed. "Black Adam" was followed by the proper costume, just as "Green Lantern" and even "Dr. Fate" worked to give him the appropriate outfits.

As Xander said "Dr. Fate" the gold helmet and armor formed around him, and a tingling sensation hit his body as if magic was trying to be used on him. Xander's eyes shot wide and he quickly commanded the outfit to go back to normal.

As soon as the costume switched from being a copy of Dr. Fate's Sorcerer Supreme outfit the magic feeling stopped tingling. Xander looked around carefully before giving a sigh of relief.

"Whew… I really hate magic." He stated before looking back at his mirror image and turning from side to side again.

The full black colored image with the featureless face stared back at Xander from the mirror.

Xander turned his head to the side for a moment before commanding, "Smile." And a big creepy almost Gumby clay like smile spread across the featureless face, looking more Cheshire Cat than human.

"God, that's just creepy." Xander stated, and mentally told the smile to disappear. 'Apparently not everything is working properly,' Xander finished thinking before deciding to finish the test.

"Xan-man clothes" Xander stated, and his black spandex dribbled off of his face and arms until he was once again in his usual brightly colored Hawaiian shirt, jeans and boots.

Xander smiled before mentally flipping through his normal clothes ensembles; everything from more Hawaiian shirts to the black long sleeved shirt and tighter black cargo pants that he had been running in when he arrived in Turkey.

Xander's smile grew larger, before finishing off with the final test of his upgraded nano-clank clothing.

"Predator mode," Xander said with a mischievous smirk.

The Hawaiian shirt and jeans turned back into the full body covering black spandex before blurring and then seeming to disappear.

"Awesome! BWA HA HA HA HA HA!" Xander's said as he broke down laughing, evil thoughts about what he would have used this ability for back in Sunnydale's girl's locker room coming to mind.

Xander waved his hand in front of his face, and only a slight distortion was seen as the nano-clanks on one side communicated and projected the image from behind him onto Xander, thus rendering him almost invisible with a chameleon type camouflage system.

Xander continued to madly laugh to himself as thoughts of prank possibilities ran rampant through his head. "Plasma shooter" Xander coughed out between bouts of laughter, and the trademark three dot laser site of the plasma launcher from the movie "Predator" shown on the side wall where Xander aimed it.

"Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! HA HA HA HA HA, heh… heh…" Xander struggled to bring his laughter under control and ended up giving little giggles as he geeked out and couldn't help but enjoy it.

"Jonathan and Andrew would be so jealous." Xander said aloud as he appeared again and the plasma launcher absorbed back into the shoulder of his armor.

Xander took one more look at himself in the mirror, clapped his hands before rubbing them together and stated, "Screw going to dinner just yet, I've got to try this out."

With that, Xander was a black blur out of the bathroom. The only evidence that Xander had been in the suite was the open doors to the balcony and the slightly waving curtains that had been caught up in the breeze of Xander's passage.

---

That night, the country of Bialya had more alien and ghost sightings than in the past several decades combined.

Because there wasn't really any crime to disrupt in the country, Xander decided to break in his suit through the use of pranks and mischief.

The evening had just gotten dark, and Xander's black suit blended in well with the night sky, only broken up by the backlight of the stars as it was a moonless night. Couples were walking some of the tourist districts of the capital city, and these would be Xander's beginning targets.

"Tap Tap." Xander started out with an oldy but a goody as he floated above a man walking down the street by himself before lightly tapping the man on the shoulder.

"Huh?" The man turned around to look behind him, only to not see anybody around him. "Hmm, must have imagined it." The man said with a shrug before continuing his path.

A minute later Xander floated back from above the man and tapped the man on the other shoulder.

The man again whipped around to see if somebody was behind him, but again saw nothing but the nearly empty street. The nearest person to him was a good block away.

The man was a bit more confused, but began to walk again, every so often looking over his shoulder or behind him.

When the man finally stopped checking behind himself after about five minutes, Xander again tapped the man on the shoulder, causing the man to swing with his hands wildly behind him, but missing Xander totally as he used his speed and flight to be out of range.

"Who's there!" The man yelled, looking down the street behind him.

"Tap Tap," Came on the man's shoulder from the direction he had just been walking in, but was now behind him.

As the man turned around quickly, Xander made a mental command, 'Glow in the dark green,' Xander commanded with an internal chuckle.

The man turned around to face a glowing ghostly figure without a face, and his eyes grew large.

"BOO." Xander said, doing his best Willow on Halloween imitation.

"AHHHHHHH Ghost!" The man yelled and took off sprinting down the street.

The moment the man had turned around to run, Xander had again initiated the predator camouflage and disappeared into the night air chuckling to himself.

Xander next turned his attention to the palace of The Queen Bee, the dictator of the country.

There, Xander visited the palace's kitchens before systematically adding clear gelatin powder to the water in every toilet he came across; followed up by using clear cling wrap to cover the toilet seats.

Xander then activated the sound dampening system that he had created earlier, and installed in his armor after Traya left, before he proceeded to string toilet paper all over the canopy bed of the Queen Bee while the Queen Bee herself was taking a shower in the attached master bathroom. Finally, to top off the juvenile pranks he played on the palace, Xander even added a complete box of choco-lax chocolate laxatives into a bowl of chocolate pudding that a chef had left refrigerating overnight; the choco-lax unknowingly 'donated' from the medicine cabinet of the palace's chief butler.

Such was Xander's luck that he got off scott free with his pranks, and though he probably wouldn't hear about the results, he was happy to do his little part to stick it to the Man… or Woman in this case.

'I feel a little hypocritical pranking another dictator, but Eh, it's not like I drug up my people so that they can't leave my country.' Xander thought.

'No, you just make sure that the nano-clank injections dissolve whenever somebody attempts to take a blood sample, x-rays or scans then, or tries to cross the border with them in their system.' A snide voice said in the back of Xander's head.

Xander shrugged to himself as he couldn't debate that, but he still felt that the Queen Bee had crossed a line that Xander had not.

After that thought, Xander decided to return to the hotel to grab some dinner.

As he neared the hotel from the air Xander was startled to catch movement in the shadows of one of the chimneys clear across the resort grounds on the roof of one of the private villas that were available for larger groups of people.

Xander's enhanced night vision, a mix of technology from the nano-clanks and from the leftovers of the primal spirit, let him clearly view a lithe figure flip off the roof and carefully land on a railing of a balcony; landing as gracefully as a cat.

"I tink I saw a puddy tat." Xander said to himself, doing a Tweety-Bird imitation from some Saturday morning cartoons he had seen as a child.

Xander was feeling especially playful after the early evening he had just had, and he was up for maybe having some fun taunting the burglar or intruder who was sneaking into the villa.

'Hey, taunting always worked for dealing with vamps and big bad's, why should this be any different?' Xander thought to himself with a little mental shrug and a smile.

Silently, Xander ghosted down through the air to hover near the balcony where the dark figure had disappeared in through the open balcony doors. A hint of sparkle was seen to reflect a bit of starlight as the figure slid a diamond necklace into some sort of pouch on the side of their waist.

Xander waited silently, floating above the balcony in his head to toe black nano-clank covering and waited to get a closer look at the cat burglar.

'Talk about cat burglar!' Xander thought with a mental wolf whistle as he hovered in the air outside the doors and got a clear view of the form fitting, black cat-suit wearing, feminine thief who slinked out of the doors and then swung her whip which wrapped around the chimney.

Catwoman, the famous thief from Gotham, was well outside her normal stomping grounds. However Xander certainly didn't mind as he enjoyed watching her sexy figure while she used her whip to easily climb back to the rooftop.

Xander hovered closer as he saw Catwoman start to wind up her whip.

"I did see a puddy tat! I did! I did!" Xander stated softly with a smirk on his lips as he was floating a few feet behind one of the greatest pair of black leather encased legs and rear he had ever seen.

Catwoman flinched slightly at the same time that she fluidly spun around.

The world slowed down for Xander as he saw the black whip unfurl and fly right towards his head. However Xander was getting used to this super speed thing, so simply dodged his head to the left while he casually reached up and grabbed the tip of the whip out of the air before it could make a cracking sound.

Catwoman's whip snapped out to where the voice had come from, and she spun around just in time to see a dark floating figure dodge its head to the side in a blur and catch the end of her whip.

She was wide eyed for a second that the figure could have snuck up on her as quietly as Batman did, but even more so when the figure put a finger to where his lips should have been and said.

"Shhh, quiet. You'd think that the great Catwoman would realize that cracking a whip over the site of a burglary would be a bad idea." He said, quirking his head to the side.

Catwoman gave a little "Grrrrr" before letting go of the whip and skipping backwards, the metal stilettos on her boots whipping up towards the chin of the figure as she back flipped away and across the roof.

Xander dodged backwards, bending at the waist so that the stilettos didn't puncture up through his chin; not that they could have penetrated the nano-clank armor.

Xander was left staring at the fleeing figure of Catwoman as she darted across the rooftop and then leapt onto the clay shingles of a nearby rooftop as silently as, well as silently as a cat.

'Moment of truth here guys, do we arrest her, or just have some fun? Frankly I could care less if she stole some heavily insured diamond necklace.' Xander offered up his thought.

The answer of 'Harem Harem Harem!' drowned out all the other voices in his head and made Xander smile; he decided that playing was the answer for the night.

Xander just smiled bigger, 'I hate to see her go, but I love to watch her leave.' He thought with a mental quip before taking a quick look at the whip left dangling in his hand. With a shrug, Xander absorbed the whip into the palm of the suit's right hand before zipping through the air to the rooftop that Catwoman was running on and immediately started running across the shingled surface; his super speed allowing Xander to easily catch up to her and pace her run in a blink of an eye.

"Aren't you a little far from Gotham?" Xander quipped from Catwoman's left while he effortlessly paced her.

Startled eyes swung to look at him in surprise before she changed course mid-step and pivoted into a roundhouse kick that Xander again easily dodged.

The roundhouse kick was followed by a sweeping leather clad leg that attempted to take Xander out at the ankles before it was followed up with a pair of clawed hands trying to rake his face.

"Whoa there little missy, what's got your dander up?" Xander quipped with a smile in his voice as he first ducked the flying roundhouse, floated over the attempted ankle sweep and then caught both of her hands at the wrists, a good five inches in front of his face.

Catwoman growled as she felt her hands catch short of their mark, and followed up with a strong knee to the groin of the male figure that held her.

"Doing!" The sound of bone and flesh bouncing off of metal reverberated off the roof, and Catwoman was left with a numb and quite bruised knee as her leg bounced off of Xander's upgraded armor.

Selina thrashed about in the immovable grasp of the figure, struggling to get loose of the hands that held her wrists as tightly as steel bands but which didn't painfully crush her.

An attempted knee to the ribs was followed by a high kick where she snaked her non-injured leg in between their bodies and into the splits in order to get at the blank faced figure's head with her stiletto heel.

Xander smiled to himself as he held the struggling thief, only to end up in a bit of an awkward position when he dodged his head to the side to miss getting hit with the high flying boot and ended up pulling Catwoman closer to him and trapping her against him with her one leg up in the air pinned against his shoulder and the other on the ground as her only support.

This is where Xander realized a mistake he made in upgrading the armor; no room for 'growth' in the crotch portion of the armor.

'Shit!' Xander thought as the normal teenaged male reaction to having a hot leather encased woman pressed against his body started to 'rise' but was limited due to the protective nature of his armor. It really didn't help that with Catwoman doing the splits and continuing to thrash against him she was unconsciously rubbing her crotch up against Xander's and was in effect giving him every comic book fanboy's dream come true lap-dance.

"Ow, um Selina." Xander started to say, but was ignored as Catwoman continued to struggle against him.

"Damn-it Selina stop moving!" Xander said as the pressure of his penis against the inside wall of the metal form fitting armor built up. Xander quickly whipped his arms around to move Catwoman's hands behind her back, basically hugging her to him and fortunately stopping her squirming as she realized she was well and totally caught.

Unfortunately for Xander though, he now had a pair of rather nice leather encased breasts pressed up around her leg and into his chest. Added to this was that Catwoman's normal mode of operation was that if force doesn't work, try seduction.

Catwoman was initially startled by the use of her real name, but that really only gave Xander a second's respite before she turned on the seduction skills that she used to throw males off balance.

"Well then big boy, isn't this cozy." Selina Kyle purred up at the taller figure in black that held her immobile.

Xander wasn't too sure who was in control of the situation any more, and the pain in the crotch was a bit of a distraction. "Um, yeah, um, well, Heh… Didn't mean for it to come out like this." Xander said a bit tensely, not quite sure what to do as he blushed under his armor.

"Oh really, what, don't like it?" Catwoman said in a sultry voice as she lightly rubbed her lower section against Xander's crotch back and forth.

"Eeep, um, yeah, that's the problem, apparently I didn't calibrate the armor for certain um, problems." Xander said, wincing a bit under the armor but unseen by Catwoman due to the faceless nature of his armor.

Selina chuckled seductively, not able but to find humor in the situation. "So what do you propose then? You obviously have me at a… disadvantage." She stated, before going up on the toes of her standing leg in order to rub a slight circle on Xander lap.

"Grrt," Xander groaned and clenched his teeth before squeaking out, "Well I just wanted to," He started to say, but his voice came out a bit higher pitched then he planned on it coming out. Xander swallowed while Catwoman laughed at his expense again.

Stilling himself mentally, Xander started again, "Well honestly I was just having a bit of fun tonight and wanted to talk. So how about I let you go, and we have a bit of a chat without you running off or trying to attack me again?"

Catwoman stopped struggling or rubbing up against him for a moment and thought before answering, "And what if I don't want to chat for a little bit?" She questioned playfully as she looked up at him with her blue eyes staring through her cat's eyed goggles.

Xander shrugged, "Well far be it from me to stop a lady out for a simple night's stroll, but I'd figure that it's the nature of a cat to be curious; especially about something or someone who knows all about their real identity, Ms. Selina Kyle of Gotham City. What would the Armless Master think of his pupil running away without the answers to her questions?" Xander answered, a bit of smile coming across in his voice as he made an offer he knew she wouldn't refuse.

Selina looked up at him through the eyeholes of her black mask and blinked at this new twist to the situation. A moment later she smiled up at the dark figure, "Ha, ok you've got me, and it's not like you couldn't capture me again just as quickly, so what do I have to lose." She finished before adding a question, "But when we are finished, are you going to let me go?"

"My word as a gentleman that you can go free." Xander quipped back, but then realizing the situation that they were in together and that it probably wasn't a proper position for a 'gentleman' to be in. He finished as he let her loose and stepped back from her while turning briefly to arrange himself.

Selina brought her leg down as he backed up, and then shook out her shoulders and hands from being pinned behind her back before coyly answering back, "You're not like any hero I've come across before. Who are you?"

Xander smirked to himself before remembering something he had done with his armor earlier that night. With a mental command and a statement, Xander's armor morphed into the black cowl and cape of the Dark Knight of Gotham.

"I'm Batman!" Xander said, turning his head to the side and striking a pose with both hands on his hips while thrusting out his chest.

Catwoman was stunned.

Selina's jaw dropped open, wide eyed staring at Xander as he struck a corny pose in the armor of her main adversary and sometimes love interest.

Xander held the pose for a second before turning to smile at Catwoman. She in turn wasn't sure whether to be scared at the visage of a grinning Batman, or to crack up laughing. She ended up giggling.

"He heh he. Ha ha ha ha! You know, Ha ha, He'd probably give up on his oath to not kill if he heard you had worn his outfit." She finished, continuing to laugh and by this point having to support herself on her knees as she was struck by a fit of giggles.

Xander just smiled and shrugged before mentally ordering his armor back to its normal mode of all black and face covering, "Eh, I'm not going to tell him if you aren't." Xander said with a smile.

Catwoman straightened up and started to stroll towards Xander before carefully sliding a finger along Xander's chest and then over his shoulder as she continued to walk around him in a strut, "And what's in it for me?" She quipped playfully as she walked her fingers up his chest and over his shoulder as she circled him in a prowl.

Xander looked over his left shoulder to watch her as she strolled around him, the epitome of feline feminine grace.

Xander smiled under his mask and shrugged, "Well I was going to let you go, but if you really want me to turn you into the police along with that diamond necklace you stole…" Xander left the statement unsaid.

Selina pouted, her dark red lipstick making it come off more seductive than petulant, "Hmph, well if you want to be that way, fine, I won't say a word. Now who are you, I'm sure I would have heard about a hero with your speed and strength in Gotham, and that's the only way I could think you would know who I am and where I got my training?" She posited as she continued her stroll to stop before Xander.

'I love his ass, and the way that suit hugs his muscles, purrfectly yummy.' Selina thought to herself with a little smirk as she finished walking around him and waited for his answer.

Xander smiled under his mask and shrugged before answering, "Eh, not much of the hero type. Not to say that I don't help people, they just aren't here at the moment. But I'm not a villain either, um." Xander started off simply, but ended up babbling out the rest; which caused Catwoman to laugh at his antics. "As far as Gotham goes, well I've been there, but only for less than a few hours." He finished, rubbing his hand against the back of his neck as he remembered breaking into the Batcave.

"So what are you then? You are a man, right?" She said, laying a hand against her hip and only accentuating her curves and grace when she did so.

"Yep, dyed in the wool, card carrying member of the man club, born and bred. My friends call me Xander." He answered honestly without really thinking about giving out his name.

'Smooth move ex-lax.' The voice of the primal growled at Xander in his mind as Xander did a bit of a mental cringe before figuring that the damage was done anyway so might as well be honest.

'Frankly guys, it's not like she could do anything to us and we haven't been hiding during this trip.' Xander replied with a mental shrug before listening to Catwoman again.

Catwoman raised an eyebrow, "Xander? That's not a super hero's name that I've ever heard before, what does it mean?" She questioned.

Xander laughed in reply, "Xander is short for Alexander, Alexander Harris at your service Mademoiselle." He stated with a mock bow, "It's like if you called yourself by the name Selina rather than Catwoman." Xander was enjoying just being himself and not having to hide away what he could do, and he figured that it wouldn't hurt to talk to Selina as himself.

'Yeah dude, be true to yourself man. This is your trip to find yourself, your path to Nirvana man. Besides, it's not like the news isn't already talking about the thwarted bombing in Turkey.' The voice of Xander's inner Californian stated to him around the sound of 'medicinal' bong hits.

'Just like Tony Stark being known as Iron Man, it's going to help with the ladies if they know you're a super. Just think of the Harem potential.' The little voice of Xander's libido pleaded in Xander's head; trying to get back on track with the pursuit of the harem since Xander had lost ground earlier in the day when he turned down Traya's advances.

'But weren't we trying to stay out of the view of the super villains and heroes?' The voice of logical reasoning questioned while polishing his glasses.

Xander's devil's advocate voice added, 'Eh, he's already going to take out Lex Luthor, and there is no way with his luck that he won't tangle with every hero or villain from here to the other side of the world while he's traveling around. After the run in with that bomber, well he might as well start making the name for himself that he wants, rather than letting other's make a name for him based on what they believe.'

All of the other voices were quiet for a moment, before they all stated, 'Agreed.' Well, all except for the voice of insanity, who just answered, 'Turquoise.' However none of the voices listened to that answer, as all men know that Turquoise isn't a real color; and neither is Salmon for that matter.

With that Xander mentally activated his facial cover to slip down so that he could be face to face with Catwoman while giving her a toothy grin.

Now Xander didn't realize it, in his mind he was still that donut retrieving King of Cretins from Sunnydale. But the reality was that with Halloween night he had inherited the muscled physique of an Olympic athlete and the smile and sparkle of a true hero. In the universe that was Girl Genius and where the Heterodynes harkened from, a heroic spark could inspire not only with their voice, but with a mere smile and a sparkle of the eye. It was that type of look that when the villain had the maiden on the tracks and was twirling his mustache, the hero would ride in on his charger and with nothing but a smile and a 'tally-ho' save the day. Take the Heterodyne makeup and add it to that of Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer, and Xander had grown into the classic epitome of what a 'hero' would look like, even if Xander denied being a hero. It was genetic, it was the Spark, and Xander had it in spades. Add to that the fact that the Amazo nano-clanks had slowly changed Xander's body to have the muscle mass of Superman and the definition of The Flash, and well, Xander was a stud.

Xander smiled at Selina and Selina's brain hiccupped as all she could think was, 'Meooow, Kitty Likes!'

Xander continued talking as Catwoman just continued to kind of stare at him, "Anyway, so I was originally trying to stay out of view, but I decided oh about a second ago, that life is more fun when I can just be myself." Xander finished with a shrug while trying to fill the silence before smiling at Selina again.

Xander's second smile at Catwoman made her heart skip a beat and she felt a bit of a flush run through her body before she visibly shivered and brought herself under control, 'Down girl, it's no time to be acting like this guy is a big batch of catnip.' She thought to herself before his words triggered in her mind and she raised a well manicured eyebrow behind her mask.

"So wait, no secret identity? No hiding your name? Aren't you worried about somebody finding out who you are in your normal life?" Selina questioned as she subconsciously started swaying back and forth a bit like a cat deciding whether or not to pounce on a toy.

"Ha! Normal life? I don't do normal, or I should say that normal doesn't do Xander." Xander quipped, chuckling at her comment as he really thought about his situation.

"Besides, if anybody wanted to try and mess with my so called 'Normal life' then they would be in for a bigger problem than just screwing with me personally. Let's just say that my 'family' that's around here each come backed up by their own personal militaries and are a lot nastier than I am." Xander stated, thinking about what would happen if anybody tangled with his Grey Knight or Leviathan personas.

"Frankly, anybody who even thought about messing with those I consider my friends or family wouldn't have long to learn the error of their ways." Xander finished, with a bit of a nasty grin that cast a dark shadow across his face.

Catwoman just stared at Xander as he spoke, and with his last statement Xander's visage seemed to grow darker, while power seemed to just roll off of him in almost tangible waves.

Selina visibly shivered, for if there was one thing that got her motor purring it was the tall, dark, and dangerous bad boy types.

Her smile grew across her face before she put her head back and chuckled deeply before looking back at Xander again, she liked this man. There was something about him that just called to her naughty side.

Xander smirked at her as his playful mood came back to him "I've heard about curiosity and cats, so now that I've caught you and told you a bit about who I am, it's your turn to see if you can catch me if you want to know what information I have regarding Selina Kyle." Xander stated catching her a bit off guard.

"Tag, you're it." Xander quipped before darting forward in a blur to tap her gently on the forehead before taking off running at speeds that would have made an Olympic athlete proud, but not at any superhuman speed.

Selena blinked as the dangerous and dark mood seemed to switch so quickly to youth and playfulness and caught her off guard for a moment. However it was only a moment, and then she realized that Xander was getting away and quickly took off running across the roof after him with a smile on her lips.

'A Cat's got to play with her food before she eats.' She thought to herself as she leaped the span between roofs and took off catty-corner towards the next building where Xander had landed before waving at her mockingly. Xander led her on a chase along the rooftops that formed a large square around the pool, spa area, and multiple outdoor restaurants and bars that filled the middle square of the resort; all of the patrons down below blissfully unaware of the actions taking place on the roofs above them.

Xander allowed her to catch up a bit on him before tantalizingly staying just out of reach as he used the chimneys and satellite dishes on the roof to play a game of cat and mouse with her.

Soon enough they reached the roof of the main hotel building and Xander executed an acrobatic flip to launch himself off the edge of the roof and to his balcony below before darting into the room.

Selena was fast on his tail and landed lightly in a crouch before strolling off of the balcony and into the room to follow Xander.

Xander walked over to the minibar and pulled out a Coke before popping the top and turning around, "Can I get you something to…" He attempted to offer her something to drink, only to find out that as he turned around she was right up next to him smiling up at him, her goggles resting on the top of her head and her big blue eyes sparkling up at him while her pouty lips smirked at him.

Xander gulped as Catwoman continued to stroll with exaggerated hip sway towards him. She was already a foot in front of him, and Xander found himself backing away from her a bit startled, only to have his retreat cut off when the back of his legs hit the bed.

With a fast push against his chest, Catwoman pushed Xander till he was sitting on the bed staring wide eyed up at her, but then she stepped with a knee on one side of Xander, only to straddle his lap facing Xander as she put her other knee on Xander's other side.

"Tag, your it." She playfully stated with a seductive smirk while looking at Xander from about six inches away but slightly looking down at him as she was on her knees straddling him and he was fully seated.

"Uh yeah, heh heh, um, I was going to ask if you wanted to get comfortable or have something to drink." Xander stated, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand and trying to look anywhere but at the leather wrapped breasts that were right at his eye level.

Selina's smile only got larger as she said, "Ok." While reaching up to her neckline and pinning the hidden zipper to her cat-suit between her clawed fingers and pulling down the zipper until it was at her belly button; showing the inner slopes of her cleavage and the large creamy expanse of skin.

"Now I'm more comfortable." She stated with a smirk, noting as Xander's jaw dropped at the same time that the open can of Coke fell out of his hands and to the floor unnoticed.

Xander stared at the expanse of skin in front of him, and his mouth suddenly went dry as his brain was in a riot.

'What do I do? What do I do? Catwoman is straddling me half naked on my bed? What do I do?' Ran a panicked thought in his head.

'SMACK!' The mental blow from the little voice upside Xander's brain snapped him out of his panic, 'Oh no you don't, you've got your dream come true within licking distance, you're not going to mess this up for me again buddy, or I'm going take your two boys and go on strike. Now pull on those big boy pants, call on the knowledge from the Heterodyne Xander, and turn the tables on her.' The little voice commanded.

'I'm here for you Xander.' The mental voice of Xander Heterodyne stated with a huge smile, giving Xander two thumbs up.

In the real world, Xander's mouth slowly closed, and a sparkle came to his eyes as a smirk grew across his lips.

Looking up at the smug looking Catwoman, Xander realized that it was time to turn the tables.

In a flash, Xander's hands reached up to clutch Selina by the back as he mentally commanded his chest armor to recede while simultaneously flipping over so that Catwoman was now lying on her back on the bed, Xander on top and between her spread legs.

The hunter had become the prey, as Xander now with his shirt off as he held himself over her face to face and quipped, "Now my dear, to answer your unasked question, I come from a dimension that lets us view the actions of the heroes and villains of this universe. I've seen your progress from living on the streets to the highest echelons of society and high crime. I know you are a thief and a fem-fatale and I've always thought you were one of the sexiest people in this dimension." Xander finished with a smirk and a twinkling of his eyes.

Selina was just stunned as the tables had been turned on her, and she was no longer in full control of the situation. A part of her really liked it. And as the surprise returned to her seductive smile she heard Xander ask, "Now the question is, would you like me to continue this discussion, or would you prefer to do something else?" Xander playfully asked, his face hovering over hers and the flesh of his hard abs lightly resting against the exposed skin of Catwoman's stomach.

Selina's answer was to wrap her arms around Xander's neck and pull him into a deep passionate kiss.

WARNING, WILD THING SCENE. IF YOU ARE TOO YOUNG TO KNOW WHAT THE WILD THING IS, SKIP AHEAD!

Xander and Selina's tongues dueled desperately with each other, vying for supremacy and dominance as a bit of Xander's primal spirit came to the forefront.

This wasn't love making, this was hot sweaty, madly sucking, nibbling and biting sex.

Selina wrapped her legs around Xander's and pulled him tightly against her while at the same time throwing her weight to the side to roll on top of him. With her bit of freedom, she wiggled off the clawed gloves before entwining her hands in Xander's hair and sucking on his lip.

Xander in turn came up for a breath of air for a second, and then tried to concentrate through Selina's now nibbling and licking his ear while he tried to wrestle the upper portion of her cat suit off her upper torso and arms.

Xander growled in aggravation as the tight leather didn't want to come loose, and Selina giggled with a deep seductive chuckle while she continued to try and distract him from his pursuit in getting her naked.

Xander's eyes flashed green briefly as the primal spirit came a bit to the forefront of Xander's mind; no measly leather outfit would deny the Alpha his mate.

The deep rumbling growl left Xander's chest as he bit the juncture between Selina's neck and shoulder, causing her to gasp and shudder slightly as the pleasure and pain of him claiming her caused her to freeze in her struggles; the instinctive actions of the female halting when the predator mate bit her neck.

This brief halt in struggle was all that Xander needed to finish pulling the cat-suit down off her upper body, freeing her breasts to mash fully against his chest before he flipped them over again so that he was on top. Standing up with strength that she couldn't match, Xander pulled her legs off of him so that he could fully unrobe her while mentally commanding his outfit to retract until it was piled up as nothing more than a watch on one wrist and a masculine chain bracelet on the other.

Pulling her leather outfit off her body, including the boots, while pinning her down with his animalistic look and the pressure of one hand settled between her breasts, Xander claimed his mate and disrobed her of the barrier between their passions.

Selina was seriously hot and bothered, panting from the mix of the make out session and the feelings of pure power and animalistic passion that were pouring off of Xander like tidal waves of pheromones. She had been with other men before, had even been close to being in this position with Batman, but never had she felt so fully wanted and wanting as she did for this strong epitome of masculinity that was Xander in that moment.

While he removed her pants, she faux struggled to get free of his hand, but deeply she was happy to be claimed where as she had earlier thought that she would be leading this dance. She finished by stroking her nails down the forearm that was pinning her to the mattress, and as her pants were finally ripped from her, she welcomed Xander back to her with open arms and open legs.

Xander growled and smirked before pouncing on her like some sort of large cat, ravishing her breasts and nipples with his tongue as he licked and bit; causing Selina to gasp and arch her head back against the mattress in passion.

The trail of his teeth and kisses trailed up to her neck, where he bit her again while his other hand trailed down to first cup her buttocks and pull her against him.

Selina too bit, licked, and sucked on his neck, ears, and lips before gasping to match his growl as she felt her wet lips rub up against Xander's hardening length. There would be no armor to distract from the sensation this time, and nothing to restrain Xander's girth when they rubbed up against each other this time.

Mewling and purring, she rocked her hips to slide up and down Xander's throbbing member, making him groan as he felt her wetness hitting the most sensitive parts of his penis.

They continued to devour each other's lips while rubbing themselves against the outside of each other, until their timing got messed up and they ended up seating his penis to split her dripping lower lips.

Both groaned and Xander's eyes shut as Catwoman's eyes got large as she felt the first three inches of Xander's thick cock slide into her.

The pleasure was incredible, and like a dying man in the dessert who just got a small drink of water, they wanted more.

As one, the two of them thrust deeply against each other, Xander's entire length diving into her to plunder the depths as he growled and bit the side of her neck to stifle his yell. Unknowingly, Selina clawed her red painted nails up Xander's back; scratching him and drawing blood before quickly healing over.

The pleasure and pain, passion and heat joined as their pace picked up as meaty wet slaps were heard as Xander thrust to meet Selina's humps; a perfect counterpoint of euphoria.

Pushing off with the heel of her foot against the bed, Selina rolled Xander over so that she was on top, riding Xander for all she was worth as she sat back and smiled darkly down at him as she ground her clit against his lower pelvis with every thrust and slide; causing a deep purring sound to come from Catwoman's chest.

Xander's eyes seemed to glow and he was biting his lip to stifle his primal yell as his hands rested on her hips and helped to drive her up and down his length; meeting every time with a slap as they took passion from each other.

Her bouncing tits were calling to him as she rode him up and down, taking one of her arms to scratch it through the back of her own hair unknowingly before using her hand to stifle a scream as a particularly vicious thrust was met at the same time that Xander's hands captured her bouncing orbs and gave them a bit of a squeeze.

Growls were met with pants, purrs were met with groans, and then Xander smirked and his eyes twinkled as they were suddenly floating a good foot above the surface of the bed.

Losing the traction of her knees, Selina dropped hard onto Xander's penis, hitting against her womb and causing a spike of pleasure and a bit of pain as her eyes got large at the realization that they were flying.

Selina's view of Xander was cut off, As he used his hands to grab her waist and pivoted her in the air so that suddenly he was behind her and bending her over while he dropped them to the mattress with a bounce.

The bounce caught her unaware, and her arms dropped from her shoulders and breasts to the mattress as Xander held her hips up as he plowed into her from behind 'kitty' style.

Selina's surprise was short though as this new position allowed Xander to reach untouched depths of her sheath with every thrust, and the angle was just right to be almost too intense but oh so fantastic.

"Oh God." Selina called out unthinkingly as it just felt so good.

Xander's dark chuckle answered her as he drove her back and forth with every hip thrust, "God's not here now, but I hope you aren't too disappointed that it's just little old me." Xander's statement finished off in a deep groan as the look of him plundering her perfect rear and well muscled back stared back at him from the mirror that lined the wall beside the bed.

Selina's seductive answer was portioned out between groans and purrs as her body was racked by pleasure and building towards a climax, "God, baby, doesn't have anything on your penis, and there is nothing little about you." She stated before cutting off in a moan as her face rested sidewise on the bed, eyes closed and pointed towards the mirror where Xander could see every look of pleasure making her twitch.

Xander felt his pleasure rising also, and the animal spirit in him called out to him to fully dominate his chosen mate, to leave her knowing that she was his.

Bending forward, Xander grabbed both of Selina's arms and pulled her shoulders off the bed as he pinned her arms behind her back and picked up his speed and thrusting as his other arm circled around her chest and palmed her breast before squeezing it.

Xander's teeth latched on to the back of Selina's neck, and the tingle of her erogenous zone being bitten and his arms fully controlling and claiming her was the trigger she needed to orgasm strongly.

Selina screamed in pleasure, nearly deafening Xander as her vagina fluttered and milked at Xander, attempting to squeeze an orgasm out of him also.

It was enough, and Xander added his deep growl of success as he sawed in and out of her wetness and then buried his twitching self in her fluttering depths as he bathed her insides with his liquid heat.

Catwoman's eyes got even larger, and her scream hit another octave as she felt Xander cum inside her, his orgasm combining with hers to drive them to new heights of pleasure as her cry threatened to shatter the glass in the room.

Grunts and thrusts were finished as one last yell escaped Xander's lips, and then he released her arms and neck to fall to the bed on their sides; Selina protected in his arms and Xander's still hard member deep inside her wetness.

Xander and Selina huffed and puffed as they caught their breath. The sound of their rapidly beating hearts joining with their quest to pull oxygen into their lungs after their athletic duo.

Finally, the panting slowed down until it was almost silent in the room. Of course this meant that Xander needed to fill the space with a humorous quip, "So I never got your answer on whether you wanted to do something else other than ask questions." He said with a smirk into the back of her short hair before nipping playfully at her ear.

Selina's chuckles did interesting things to where Xander's penis was still inside her, and he felt himself growing harder again.

Catwoman felt him grow firmer and pushed backwards to roll Xander onto his back while spinning her legs in splits to athletically come into a position where she was straddling him.

Smirking down at Xander she quipped, "Is the offer of a drink still on the table? This kitty could use some hydration." She said with a sparkle in her eye.

"Yep." Xander quipped before putting his hands behind his head and floating the still joined couple up into the air and off of the bed towards the mini-bar.

Selina's eyes got large and she sat forward quickly to hug Xander while her legs twined around him.

Xander saw the look on her face and joked, "Now now, what would anybody think about a cat being afraid of heights." He teased her, given the fact they were only floating about three feet above the ground.

Selina turned to glare a bit at him before she smirked and tightened herself up around Xander's penis. "Are you going to get me that offered Coke or do I have to steal it?" She joked in return.

Xander groaned at what she was doing with the clutching and releasing, and with it he learned that it was surprisingly difficult to concentrate on flying for a moment. However he quickly got the hang of it, reached down and snagged a can of soda out of the fridge before popping the top one handed and giving it to Selina who sat up and smirked down at Xander.

Xander smiled back up at the picture of beauty that was wrapped around his waist, and he floated them back to rest on the bed.

Selina chugged a bit of the can before handing it to Xander, where he drank a few gulps before handing it back to Selina to finish.

As she finished the can of soda he asked with a raised eyebrow, "So what now?"

Selina finished tilting back the can of Coke before throwing the empty can behind her. Then with a smile like that Cat that ate the Canary, Catwoman pounced back down on Xander with a smirk.

Xander wouldn't really get dinner that night, and neither would Selina. But as the evening wore into night and the night into early morning, the two continued to feast on each other until Selina passed out from exhaustion.

---

YOU YOUNG WHIPPER SNAPPERS CAN START READING AGAIN HERE; SEX SCENE OVER.

The sun trickled through the open doors to Xander's balcony along with the sounds of the hotel's patron's happily enjoying the weather and the temperature controlled pool.

Even though he hadn't gotten a lot of sleep, Xander still couldn't help waking up with a huge smile as the warm naked body of Selina was curled up against and on top of Xander like some large cat.

Xander turned his head silently to look down at the sleeping face of Catwoman that was resting on his shoulder, and he smiled even larger as her cute little nose would twitch in her sleep as if she was a kitty dreaming of catching a mouse.

Planting a slight kiss on her forehead, Xander carefully and quietly slid out from under Selina while pushing a few pillows to fill the abandoned space.

Stepping out of the bed, Xander popped his back before heading to the bathroom to freshen up.

A few minutes later, the sound of the water stopped and Xander dried himself off before mentally commanding his nano-clothing to turn into an open Hawaiian shirt without an undershirt and a pair of slacks. Barefoot, walked softly across the room towards the balcony while double checking to make sure Selina was still asleep.

Leaning over the balcony, Xander stared at the tropical plants and scantily clad women around the pool area, just enjoying the late morning breeze as he took a big breath of the fresh air.

Mid exhale, however, Xander's nano-clank clothing shot up around his body, encasing him in his armor in less time than it takes for a bullet to fly fifty feet.

Xander felt like somebody had lightly punched his chest as he disappeared.

---

On a rooftop clear on the other side of the resort the sniper took his shot with his fifty caliber Berretta anti-vehicle sniper rifle and watched as the target seemed to stumble and disappear in the time that it took for the recoil to settle out and him to get the target back in the sights. Believing that the shot had killed the target, the assassin pushed back from his prone position on the roof.

Standing up, the nameless professional quickly started taking apart his weapon and putting it away in his suitcase as the people in the pools and the restaurants on the ground floor screamed and ran around in chaos after hearing the loud report of the sniper rifle bounce off the walls around them.

Finishing packing away the rifle and closing the case, the assassin stood and turned.

"Urk!" Only to be choked out as a seeming phantasm wrapped his hand around the assassin's throat.

The assassin struggled briefly with the grasp before a flick of a wrist dropped the long pick like dagger out of his sleeve and into his hand.

Stabbing at the invisible arms holding him, the assassin saw the blade hit a surface before merely bending. One of the hands holding his throat released its hold before the killer was knocked senseless by an invisible backhand.

Through the grogginess and the pain, the assassin heard, "Who sent you?"

Xander appeared in his solid black armor, his one hand holding the kicking assassin off the ground by the throat. His growled out question met dull eyes as the assassin struggled to not pass out from the power of Xander's blow.

Finally the assassin smiled a bloody smile through the lips that Xander had just split, "Ra's al Ghul would like to offer you a position in his organization." The man choked out through Xander's grip.

Xander settled the man down to the ground so he could talk, but by no means released his hold on the assassin's throat, "So why the bullet?" Xander growled again, in his mind the Primal spirit was baying for the blood of the assassin.

The assassin smiled larger at Xander, blood from the man's mouth and nose marring the man's white teeth and dripping down the dark business suit and shirt, "A test. Every member to the League of Shadows is tested before they are allowed entrance. I am authorized to offer you several million dollars a year as a salary if you join." The man finished, his eyes gleaming with the light that can only come from pure fanatical faith.

Xander frowned under his mask. He would never join Ra's al Ghul. "No, you can tell your master I will not be joining as one of his assassins." Xander growled out, fighting the urge to pop the man's head like a pimple.

"I have also been authorized to kill anybody I see you with if you do not agree." The man added with a smirk.

'That's it!' The Primal roared in Xander's head as the man threatened what the Primal felt was a mate.

"Wrong answer." Xander gritted though his teeth at the same time that claws shot out of the fingers of Xander's left hand that was free at the moment.

Xander's clawed hand latched onto the forehead and face of the man before digging in. The assassin screamed for a second before Xander's other hand choked off the man's airway.

Xander's nano-clanks shot into the assassin's brain like barbed darts, burrowing deep into the man's brain and shredding the grey matter as they passed. However as they passed, they also captured the man's knowledge just as Xander had done when he brought retribution to Kasnia's separatist forces.

The silently screaming assassin jerked and thrashed in Xander's hands, and Xander heard the roof access behind him bang open just as he finished juicing the former killer of all of his information.

The security guards who rushed the roof just missed seeing Xander's black clad hulking figure, and instead were witness to a silently tortured man dangling in the air as his eyes bugged out; some phantasm or ghost piercing his skull as brain juices and blood poured down the seemingly floating man's face.

Xander finished and negligently dropped the man before taking off straight into the sky.

Below him, Xander saw the security forces run up to the corpse and check for a pulse before looking up for where the 'ghost' had disappeared to.

Xander hovered in the air silently, invisible to the normal naked eye with his predator system while he sorted through the information he had learned from the assassin. He ignored the scene below him on the roof as he reviewed the new facts.

'Ra's al Ghul is interested in me personally and his people tracked me going west from Istanbul until they found me at the hotel.' Xander thought to himself as he went over the new information.

Xander tilted his head to the side in thought, 'It appears that the report on me was drafted by Talia al Ghul.' Xander mentally reviewed the copy of the file that the assassin had been given when sent off on his mission to target Xander. Xander cringed, 'Damn it! I knew running into her at that casino would bite me in the ass.'

Floating silently back through the air high over the green space and towards the main hotel where his room was, Xander came to a hard decision based on the new facts he had, 'They have people waiting for me from here to the Iranian border, and a secondary plan set up to notify the Queen Bee that a revolutionary super hero has entered her territory upon finding out that the assassin failed his mission.' Xander thought quickly before realizing that Ra's had used the League of Shadow's contacts in Iran to do the same. 'There goes the straight route, I'm going to have to throw them off my tail, hopefully he'll just get bored of tracking me after a while.' Xander hoped, but not really trusting all that much in that hope.

'Fortunately the bastard I killed was the only one to see Selina with me, the damn pervert. So if I move quickly they won't know to go after her.' Xander resolutely thought as he realized he had to leave yet another girl that he thought he could have feelings for.

Flying back into the room, Xander saw that Catwoman was still asleep in spite of the gunshot.

Xander smiled sadly down at Selina's sleeping form, knowing that he would have to distance himself from her in order to keep her safe.

Xander's head became visible as he receded his helmet enough to allow him to lay another kiss on Selina's cheek.

Quickly blurring around the room, Xander quickly cleaned up all of his stuff and put it into the backpack before writing out a letter to Selina. Disappearing out the balcony and back again faster than the human eye could see, Xander laid the letter and a single red rose on the pillow next to Catwoman before taking one last look and then flying out the window with his backpack also shimmering into invisibility on his shoulders.

As Xander invisibly flew north, Selina stirred and saw the letter and rose through her sleep addled eyes.

Blinking and yawning for a second while she made a cat like stretch, Selina started to read the letter with a smile on her face.

Catwoman's smile slowly turned into a frown and then a glare as the details of why Xander had to leave were truthfully and honestly laid out on the page of hotel stationary.

The frown briefly turned back into a smile as Selina picked up and sniffed the rose again, but then the frown returned to her face as she contemplated a certain wanna-be immortal that she really wanted to get her claws on.

'Nobody steals from Catwoman and gets away with it unscathed.' Selina thought to herself as she got out of bed and put on one of the hotel robes. She would use the robe to move through the hotel back to her room while hiding her cat-suit in a towel under her arm; as if she were merely going to the spa or the pool and had her swimsuit underneath the robe.

Glaring and eyes flashing, Catwoman thought, 'You took from me, so I'm going to take from you.' She thought as she left the hotel; plans to rob Ra's al Ghul blind flitting through her head.

---

Not so far away in a palace in Syria, Ra's al Ghul's head came up from where he was reading a report.

"Strange… We don't usually get cold drafts this time of year." Ra's stated to himself.

With a shrug, the Demon's Head, leader of the League of Shadows went back to his work, unaware that he had probably just ticked off two of the wrong sort of people.

---

AN: There you go, a freaking long chapter. I received about a total of 70 reviews and notes last chapter, all of them helping to inspire me to get this chapter out. It took a lot of thinking, and it's quite taxing some times, so I appreciate the help and thoughts. Again, if you enjoy this, please let me know. To those who offered to have my children, unfortunately my wife told me she didn't want to share. Sorry. For those who read this 28th chapter and still haven't reviewed or let me know that you are a living breathing meat popsicle rather than a Google bot, well, don't make me sick Catwoman on you; it won't be the pleasurable kind of cat attack. ;-) Anyway, let me know what you think. Cheers!