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

30. Chapter 30: All Is Fair In Love And War

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: This chapter is uber long, however it didn't feel like the right place to stop earlier than where it is at; sorry if you don't like long chapters but welcome if you do. I've always thought that chapters should be written to completion, and not be based on a word count. That said, I present you with 39 single spaced word doc pages worth of story, some 21k plus words that should last you until I get the next chapter out. Honestly, a lot of the chapters before this were inspired to bring me up to the point where I could introduce certain ideas. In a few chapters will come the idea that inspired this story, and I can tell you that I'm seriously psyched about it, I absolutely can't wait to write it. Oh, I feel a insane laugh coming on! BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Whew, that's better. Anyway, please let me know if you like this long chapter or would prefer shorter chapters more quickly updated. I can write the next few parts of the story either way, though I can tell you that when the part that I'm really looking forward to comes about, we will see some epic stuff again (not to say that this chapter isn't epic.) Anyway, hope you enjoy, let me know which is easier/better to read, short or long chapters? Cheers!

---

'Thought'

"Speech"

/foreign language/

Chapter 30: All Is Fair In Love And War

"War is hell and all that, but it has a good deal to recommend it. It wipes out all the small nuisances of peace-time." ~ Ian Hay

Cassandra Kalderash, the silent teenaged girl formerly known as Cassandra Cain, was overwhelmed. It wasn't a bad overwhelmed, no not at all. Rather it was the overwhelmed feeling of having a dream come true in all its weird and wonderful ways. Dreams are often not reality, and the vice versa is true as well. Thus as Cassandra was introduced and accepted by the Kalderash Clan she was both wide eyed at all the newness, but had a smile pasted across her face that even a jack hammer couldn't chip away.

On her right was the overly large aunt whose language of love was feeding everybody, and she was currently heaping large additional helpings onto Cassandra's plate faster than the girl could eat; all the while tutting that Cassandra was just too skinny.

Cassandra couldn't understand a word the lady said as rapid fire Romanian was said to her by her new aunt, but Cassy could tell that the words were being said with love and caring as smiles and constant hugs and touches accompanied the flurry of words. Love and smiles were something Cassandra had never really experienced before, but it made something deep inside of her come alive.

Across the table from Cassandra sat Xander who had gifted her with the nickname of 'Cassy' that the family around her were using. Every so often Xander would smile at her as he scarfed down a large helping of gypsy cuisine.

Cassy's eyes kept flicking up and down the table at the family around her.

There was her new uncle with the large mustache seated two seats to the left. The man played with a shiny large silver coin that seemed to dance over his knuckles through slight of hand before he would pretend to swallow the coin only to have it 'appear' out of the ear or nose of one of the giggling children at the table. The man had even reached around and pretended to pull it from Cassandra's ear and she had smiled at being included in the games even if they were silly, as it showed Cassy that she was truly accepted as part of the family.

Down the table was her new grandmother Magda, and seated next to Cassandra was her new sister Janna who also hugged Cassy every now and then. The large long table in the portion of the Castle housing the remaining members of Clan Kalderash was filled with loud boisterous family type noise, smiling and laughing, eating and chatting with each other. Though it wasn't that long since the Clan had been horribly attacked and lost several love ones, the addition of a new family member was a time to gather and celebrate the love and chaos that was a large family get together.

Xander was seated between Tara and Dora who kept his mug of coffee full and handed him servings of chicken, lamb, vegetables and potatoes before he could even ask for them. Xander enjoyed the actions around him and took part in the conversations going on, though at the same time he kept an eye on Cassandra to see how she was doing with all of the hullabaloo.

Xander watched Cassy's face as she smiled and nodded, or tried to pantomime answers with her hands and face, but through it all Xander could tell that Cassandra was a bit frustrated that she couldn't answer back to the questions and conversations that were going on at the table.

"Cassy, are you having fun?" Xander asked with a bit of a quirky smile and a sparkle in his eye.

Cassandra looked across the table and gave Xander a big smile before nodding. Only the slightest hint of a flaring nostril and a hesitation in the nod told Xander that she was still a bit uncomfortable.

"Well then, are you ready for dessert?" Xander asked with a larger smile as the table all slowly quieted down and turned to look at Xander and Cassandra.

Xander could see that the sudden quiet at the table made Cassandra a bit uncomfortable, but his continued smile at her caused her to give him a slight smile back and shake her head "no" before rubbing her belly like she was full and then a bit of a sly look came across her face before she pantomimed falling limply into her chair as if she was too full to move.

This caused everybody at the table to laugh, and the large matronly Kalderash Aunty seated next to Cassandra laughed loudly and patted Cassy on the shoulder gently.

Xander just smirked, "Oh well, then you wouldn't like the brain food I had planned then. I figured for dessert that I would use my technology to give you the ability to speak and write, but if you aren't interested…"

Xander's statement was interrupted by Cassandra's eyes growing large and she frantically started waving her hands in the negative as she sat up and reached over the table pleadingly towards Xander.

The absolute look of desperation on Cassandra's face made Xander feel badly that he had teased her about something that was obviously so important to the girl. Thus with a chagrined sort of half smile Xander apologized, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to tease you." Xander said as he reached out and took Cassandra's hands and gave them a squeeze before smiling at her again.

"How about we head down to the Frank-N-Stein lab and I give you the gift of communication." Xander continued with an honest smile while giving Cassandra's hand another squeeze before letting it go and pushing back from the table.

Cassandra stared up at Xander wide eyed before frantically looking at Janna and then down the table at Magda.

Both Magda and Janna smiled at Cassy and Janna slowly reached out and pulled Cassy into a one armed hug.

"We will go with you child, I am sure Xander can be trusted." Magda replied to the unspoken plea while turning her white cloudy eyes from Cassy to Xander.

Cassandra turned to look up at Xander and her features stilled into a determined look before she nodded at Xander.

Xander almost laughed as Cassandra's look reminded him of Willow's 'resolved face,' but he held it in and instead wiped his mouth with his napkin before setting it down on his seat and leading the way to the doorway. Cassandra, Janna, Dora, Tara, Magda and Igor all excused themselves from the table and got up to follow Xander through the Castle.

As Xander led the way through the twisting halls and down the stairways towards the basement, Magda and Igor walked behind Cassandra while Janna, Dora and Tara surrounded Cassy to the sides and behind and held her hand or hugged the silent and slightly worried teen as they walked along.

As Xander stopped in front of a solid black metal door, he turned around to smile back at Cassy while pushing his hand against a biometric panel on the wall. "Don't worry Cassy, this won't hurt at all." He said before leading the way into the room as the door slid open.

As lights turned on automatically around the large laboratory, spotlights immediately rotated towards two large medical beds in the middle of the room; two tables that had dangling kitchen sieves above them with wires that led to a long flat multileveled rack of glowing liquids, toasters, bar-b-q grills, and a keg-orator with a tap labeled "Spark-ale."

Xander gestured for Cassandra to hop up on the table on the left while he started fiddling with the switches and explaining what was going on.

"So I took the Black Heterodyne's notes regarding the Frank-and-Stein system and figured that if I used it as a base I could transfer and swap skills and abilities that would be fully accepted by the brain without having to relive the experiences of the donors." Xander lectured as he pulled out a loaf of sliced white bread and stuck it in the toasters slots before pushing down the button to start the bread toasting. "Using the idea that memories are better grounded in scent than in sights or sounds, we use brain food, the sparkly relaxing brew of Spark-ale… get it spark-ale, sparkly." Xander turned and smiled at his audience who mostly humored him with a nod while Cassandra just looked confused being as she wasn't used to Xander and his mad science.

"Well anyway, so through the use of science we get the sausages grilling, the ale flowing, and we allow the information to flow until such time as we smell burnt bread." Xander explained as he pulled out two steins from under the keg-orator, topped them off with frosty Spark-ale-y goodness and then mentally ordered a package of Bratwurst to be transported down from the Castle's main kitchen.

Xander smiled, a bit madly, and started whistling a bit of an odd tune as he walked over to Cassandra before lowering the kitchen sieve with the wires attached to it down onto Cassy's head. Xander attached a chin strap under Cassy's chin and handed one of the full steins of ale over to Cassandra while Janna held Cassy's free hand and smiled and nodded assuringly.

Xander then jogged around the table while spilling a bit of the Spark-Ale and hopped up to sit on his own medical table. Resting the wet mug of ale between his legs Xander reached up and situated the second kitchen sieve onto his own head before connecting the chin strap.

"Ok, normally I hate alcohol, but it's important for the transfer procedure, so drink up… or as Tony Harris always said, chug it like a man." Xander said before tipping the mug of ale back and swallowing the beverage down quickly before grimacing a bit and then laying back.

Cassandra looked a bit scared but followed Xander lead, chugging the ale before coughing and trying to keep the foam from coming back up her throat. She then looked over at Xander questioningly.

"Ok, we just lay back and close our eyes, and by the time we smell the bread burning we should be set." Xander stated as he started to lie down.

Cassandra lay down and closed her eyes, but Xander hesitated to lie down fully, pausing to turn and look at Igor who was standing beside his bed. Xander whispered, "Um, Igor, if you smell something that smells like spicy Mexican food, please kill the power." Xander finished with a bit of a cringe, but then lay down anyway and closed his eyes.

---

Five minutes later, a waft of smoke flickered and grew from the toaster until to blackened pieces of black charred carbon, formerly known as bread, shot out of the toaster's slots with a "Ding!"

The five minutes of silence had been watched over by the audience of Dora, Tara, Janna, Magda and Igor as they were witness to the eyes of Xander and Cassandra moving incredibly rapidly under closed eyelids. While the eyes were doing an imitation of REM sleep, Cassandra's jaw seemed to be clenching and unclenching quickly in little twitching motions while Xander seemed to be practically spasming across his entire body as if he was having a seizure. Still, Igor hadn't smelled anything remotely like spicy Mexican food, so those who were merely spectators to the transfer procedure could do nothing but try and wait patiently. Only Janna seemed to be doing anything as she continued to hold Cassandra's hand firmly clenched between Janna's two hands, giving silent subconscious support to Cassy.

As the hard pieces of charred bread clattered against the floor with dull thuds and the wafting smell of burnt bread saturated the room, the twitching of both Cassandra and Xander stopped.

Cassy's eyes were the first to flutter open as she slowly turned to look over at Janna holding her hand.

Cognizance slowly seeped back into Cassandra's mind and she realized who she was looking at and smiled, "Janna… I can talk." Cassy said haltingly at first, but then with confidence at the last.

"It's Alive!" Xander's shouted as he shot up into a sitting position wide awake.

Everybody in the room slowly turned to look at Xander.

Xander blushed bright red before giving a muffled cough into his hand, "Um, uh, sorry, it's a bit of a habit after this type of thing." Xander finished a bit chagrinned.

"How are you Sir?" Igor offered, stepping up in front of Xander.

Xander turned to look at Igor, and a big smile crept manically across his face.

"I know kung fu." Xander stated before laughing a little bit insanely, forcing himself to stop quickly as he realized that Cassandra still wasn't used to him. "Um, that was an unexpected result of the transfer, I had expected it to only be a one way gifting to Cassandra." Xander spoke his thoughts out loud while rubbing his chin; it struck an interesting pose given that he still had a kitchen sieve strapped to his head.

Turning quickly to look at Cassandra, Xander questioned in concern due to the unexpected outcome of the procedure, "How are you Cassandra?"

Cassandra looked back at Xander, both of them still wearing kitchen sieves strapped to their heads and the wires and tubes attached to her head swung and tangled with her movement. Cassy hesitantly moved her jaw around a second before turning and smiling at Xander, "I can speak English." She said happily, and then looked confused for a moment before tilting her head to the side inquisitively, "/And apparently Romanian/" "/German/" "/French/" "/Russian/" "/As well as Sumerian, Latin, ancient Egyptian and something that I know to be bits and pieces of a demonic language…/" Cassandra finished, switching between the different languages that Xander had imparted from his mind into hers.

She finished looking inquisitively but not with anger at him, "So how come you now know kung fu?" Cassy stated, still a little bit unsure of the sound of her own voice and with her vocal cords feeling a bit sore after a lifetime without use.

Xander stared Cassandra right back in the eyes before rubbing his neck with his hand as he was a bit uncomfortable.

Staring right back at Cassy, Xander honestly replied, "Seriously? That was an unexpected side effect actually, and I'm happy it wasn't a fatal one." Xander had thoughts about his calculations for the experiment run through his head, and he realized with a wince that he had transposed the X and the Y before the Z.

Xander's brain flew through the factors and the information that he had learned from the procedure that had gone partially wrong. "From what the information gained from the transfer is telling me, your ability to communicate by reading body language was so tied into your training and martial arts skills that the system needed to upload your fighting and training into me before it could translate the ability to speak and write languages back into something you could use. Without that you would have lost your ability to read people or use your martial arts training when you gained the ability to speak and write."

Cassandra just stared at Xander for a second in thought, wondering if she had mistakenly put her trust in Xander only for him to take advantage of her. But as she quickly thought it through she realized that he had only helped her out and the body language she was reading off of Xander was telling her that he was being completely honest about the unexpected result.

Smiling, she nodded at Xander before realizing that she could say something rather than just pantomime answers. Now it was Cassy's turn to blush and smile chagrinly as her new family chuckled at her.

"Ok, consider it an exchange of gifts." Cassy said with a smile as Janna, Dora and Tara all rushed the table and gave Cassy a big group hug of squee'ing females.

Xander watched the interaction with a smile, even thought the high pitched squeal was a bit painful with his super human sense of hearing. Putting a finger in his ears and twisting them for a second with a cringe to get the ringing out of them, Xander responded with a smile. "If anything, I do thank you for giving me an unexpected gift, even though I've cursed you with my chicken scratch hand writing." He said the last part with a smirk and a wink to let her know he was joking.

Then with a smile that wouldn't melt butter Xander added with an innocent voice, "Though I may have given you one more skill than you asked for."

Cassy looked at Xander quizzically as her new sisters stepped back. Cassandra looked down as she tried to think about what other information Xander could have transferred to her. A thought came to mind, and she looked up at Xander with a raised eyebrow.

"What is this Street Fighter thing, and why do I suddenly have an urge to eat something called a Twinkie?" She asked inquisitively and very puzzled.

Xander's smirk seemed to grow from ear to ear before he quickly popped the latch on his 'helmet' and blurred to appear next to Cassandra's table.

Smiling largely, Xander quickly released the chin strap from Cassy's sieve hat before taking her hand and helping her off the table.

"Come on little Sis, let me teach you the time honored pastime of video gaming and junk food." Xander said with a smirk before calling for a portal and disappearing through it dragging Cassandra behind him excitedly.

---

"Hadouken!" "Ai Ai Ai!"

"Wa ha ha ha, you have much to learn grasshopper when it comes to the arts of game-fu." Xander taunted Cassy after his Ryu character beat Cassandra's Chun Li again.

All around the couch that Xander and Cassandra were sitting on were the empty wrappers of Hostess products, bags of chips and empty soda cans

"Smack." Janna bopped Xander up the back of the head from behind the couch, "You're supposed to let your little sister win every now and then Xander." She teased him.

Xander looked from Janna back to Cassy and rubbed the back of his head humorously in mock pain, "Hey, Jesse never let me win when I was learning how to play video games at his house, and I'm not going to go easy on her just because she's a girl." Xander groused playfully while looking back over his shoulder and up at Janna.

"Smack" A hand from behind Xander smacked him upside the back of the head.

Xander slowly turned wide eyes towards Cassy and saw her grinning at him with a sparkle in her eye.

"Hey, see what you've taught her?" Xander said with a pout towards Janna as he crossed his arms across his chest a melodramatic fashion, he could barely hide the smile that wanted to creep across his face.

Janna had no sympathy for Xander and merely crossed her arms under her breasts before smirking back at Xander in such a way that would have made Cordelia proud, "Serves you right for picking on your new sister. Besides, we girls have to stick together, isn't that right Cassy." Janna finished towards Cassandra.

Cassy imitated the body language of Janna almost perfectly, crossing her arms across her chest and giving Xander the same type of smirk, "Right." She chirped, before breaking down in giggles.

Xander looked from one girl to the other and then mock pouted, "Great, just great. What is this, gang up on Xander day?"

Both girls looked at each other and smiled before stating in unison, "Yep!"

Xander tried to continue the pout, but he couldn't help the smirk that crawled across his face at seeing Cassandra fitting in so well.

Just then Tara and Dora bounced into the room in flannel pj's that still looked incredibly cute, given that not all of the buttons were done up on the tops and were showed expanses of free floating breasts.

"Bed time!" The two minion members of Xander's girls cried out as they skipped into the room towards Xander, Janna and Cassandra.

"Great!" Xander said, only to see both pajama clad girls bypass Xander and snag the hands' of Janna and Cassandra and start dragging both girls out of the room.

Xander was a bit stunned, "Wait, but, uh, I thought…" He started to mumble confused.

"Girl's slumber party, night night Xander!" Tara and Dora chimed out together while all four girls were smiling and Cassy was looking especially excited as she once again got to experience something that she had never had as a child.

"But, but..." Xander mumbled at a loss for words.

The four girls all looked at each other and giggled before pushing Cassandra towards Xander, "Give your big brother Xander a hug good night and then we can go have fun." Janna stated with a gesture towards the still startled Xander.

Cassandra looked at the girls with an inquisitive look before turning to Xander and walking over and giving him a hug.

Xander came out of his startled state and returned the hug with a smile as he patted the shorter teen Cassy on the back and gave her a little squeeze. "Good night Cassandra, welcome to the family and sleep well."

A muffled, "Goodnight Xander." Issued out of Cassy's who was hidden under her shoulder length hair, speaking into his shoulder as she bent over and gave Xander a squeeze in return before she let go and seemed to glide in happiness back towards the rest of the girls.

The four girls then all smirked together before waving at Xander and traipsing out the door with a "Night Xander" and a bounce in their step.

Xander couldn't help but smile at the interaction between the girls and the happiness that Cassandra was showing, even if he was being left behind.

Somehow Cassandra just pinged Xander's older brother and protector instincts, and the primal spirit in Xander's head seemed to be giving off emotions agreeing with protecting the young pup.

'Just wait until you have to give some suitor the shovel speech, only your speech will include the possibility of painfully scientific experimentation and the scattering the boy's atoms across the galaxy if he makes her cry.' The voice of Xander Heterodyne stated in Xander's mind.

Shaking his head with a smile, Xander stood up off of the couch he had been sitting on and moved over to turn off the game system and TV before stretching and looking out the window on the other side of the large private entertainment and game room.

Though it was dark outside and Xander could see the lights of the city outside and down the hill from the Castle, he didn't feel remotely tired.

Something Xander had been realizing since using his super speed more recently was that he really didn't need the amount of sleep that he used to get back in Sunnydale. Sure back then he had been out till about midnight or one AM patrolling with Buffy and gang, but he still got his eight hours of sleep a day; what with History, English and Math classes being prime nap periods in addition to his time back in his bed at the Harris household. Then there had always been Saturday and Sunday mornings where Xander's parents didn't wake up from their alcohol induced hibernation until at least one o'clock in the afternoon. Those weekends let him sleep in plenty late and still have time to disappear from the house before his drunken biological material donators awoke.

Here and now though, Xander figured that he could get by with three to four hours of sleep a night and feel like he was completely rested.

Querying his internal nano-clanks, Xander was mentally told that the time was only ten thirty at night in
Romania.

Cracking his back to the left and to the right, Xander thought to himself, 'Well, if the girls are going to be busy, then I might as well try out some of these new fangled fighting skills that Cassandra donated.'

'Ah yes Xander-san, remember, wax on, wax off.' A new voice that Xander had never heard before said inside his mind.

Xander's eyes went large for a second before he face palmed himself with a smack and then shook his head.

"Just great, now I have Mr. Miyagi in my head." Xander groused before shaking his head and calling for a portal.

A black portal opened up and Xander stepped through into a gymnasium with a large padded wrestling mat in the middle of it.

Even at this late hour several of the minions that lived and worked in the Castle were working out on the machines along the edges of the mat, and several female Jägerkin were having a knock down drag out biting and eye gouging fight on another part of the mat; in short the Jägers were having a light spar in the gym.

Xander stepped out of his portal onto the mat and nonchalantly stepped over the flailing arms and legs of the brawling Jägers while the minions continued to work out with the weights and exercise machines. The current residents of the room only gave Xander a brief look before continuing their work outs, as they didn't know who he was given that there were so many people working in the Castle.

Xander made a small hop to the left to dodge the rolling tangle of female Jägers, and smiled at the antics of fighting female Jägers. A brief thought went through Xander's mind that it was interesting that they seemed to be furred in what he considered more feminine tones as compared to the more darker base colored male Jägers.

Though the original Heterodyne universe was more paternalistic and mostly employed males in the ranks of the Jägerkin, Xander was an equal opportunity monster maker. Xander hadn't turned aside any of the willing recruits to the Jägerkin ranks, which when taking into account that women tend to live longer than men it meant that roughly half if not greater than half of all of Xander's Jäger military forces were made up of females who chose the Jägerbrew rather than to die of incurable old age. Xander had no bias against woman in combat, he was pretty sure that working with the Slayer for a couple years had left the thought that girls couldn't fight thoroughly debunked.

Xander carefully threaded his way through the rolling moving brawl and over into an area of the large mat that left him with roughly twenty feet in all directions that was free of any human or Jäger.

Closing his eyes and slowly taking a deep breath, Xander seemed to fall into himself and embraced the skills that he had accidentally gained earlier that evening.

Standing with his feet together and bringing his hands together at waist level in two fists Xander slowly pulled his arms up with his fists gliding upwards in front of his chest until they reached his sternum. At this point Xander slid slowly to the right with his right and left arms pivoting at the elbow and extending as his right foot raised up fluidly and stepped out into a Wushu extended horse stance.

Hands seamlessly fluttering from fist to spear with thumb elegantly moving in perfect precision, Xander slowly transformed the move into a kata that Cassandra had learned as a child.

A brief subconscious thought that Xander's current clothing was bothering him while going through the movements went through his mind as he swept his foot to glide across the mat while his arm moved up to do a simulated high block before executing a head and shoulder roll to dodge under an imaginary attacker's kick.

Xander's Hawaiian shirt and tight under t-shirt rippled and disappeared down his body to leave his upper torso exposed while his pants shrunk into tight spandex like biker or sprinter shorts that cut off just above his knees. This left Xander's full six foot plus form of chiseled muscles exposed, and one of the female minions running on a treadmill forgot to continue her run and was in turn flipped backwards off of her exercise machine.

Still Xander flowed through the kata with his eyes closed, ignoring the world around him, before finishing the Wushu form and falling into a slightly more energetic crane style which quickly gave way to the aggressive quick clawing motions of tiger style kung fu as his speed increased.

Xander continued to breathe deeply, allowing the forms that had been implanted in his mind to seamlessly control his body as if he had gained the instincts of practicing the fighting methods from birth.

Kung Fu became Tae Kwon Do which became Okinawan Karate before flowing into Muay Thai and then French Savate before merging into Silat, and still Xander's speed increased as the power of his blows and animalistic damage that he seemed to bring to his invisible adversaries increased.

Silat moves flowed through animalistic forms as Xander's muscled form rippled with silently graceful contained strength, before becoming powerful Brazilian Capoeira moves that felt more comfortable with Xander's usual brawler tactics.

In the back of Xander's mind a pounding beat began to drive his blows and movements as the sound of his heartbeat was punctuated with his slapping footfalls and heavy blows that cut the air with elbow strikes and clenched fist punches that would have disintegrated concrete. Though the same forms that best fit Cassandra's body were those that were more fluid and graceful, that didn't mean that she hadn't known and mastered the more violent power based forms that Xander felt fit his style and strength best.

Capoeira became Israeli Krav Maga before turning into Russian Sambo and even a bit of Marine Fu and American special forces S.C.A.R.S as Xander started to literally tear apart the mat around him as he simulated body blows, take downs and elbow strikes that broke the sound barrier with his inhuman speed and strength.

It was at this point that the internal pounding beat in Xander's mind was matched by counterpoint punches and body plows against the padded mats as Xander threw himself around his fighting area in vicious attacks at super blurring speeds. At this stage of Xander's sparing, only the Jägers in the room could fully follow Xander's motions as they continued to break the sound barrier. The pack of female Jägerkin had totally stopped their fight to watch in wide eyed amazement the incredible violence and lethality of the individual destroying a fourth of the gym. And just like a Slayer, nothing turned on a Jäger more than violence.

The booming of the speed of Xander's blows shook the room so much that those who had previous been working about or sparring on their own had all stopped to cover their ears and watch Xander's action as his one man battle shook the Castle.

Xander continued to keep his eyes closed, and a smirk grew across Xander's calm face as he came out of a foot sweep spin at ankle level which turned into a flying flip kick that landed with a vicious heel strike that blew through the foam mat, cracked the stone floor, and left a divot in the underlying metal beneath.

That's when the goofy side of Xander decided to add in a bit of the fighting techniques from the Street Fighter game into his improvised merging of fighting techniques.

A jumping uppercut that used his flying ability to launch him towards the fifty foot ceiling turned into a flip kick that launched him toward the mat with a brutal knee drop that landed with a shuddering BOOM before Xander rolled forwards into a flying multi kick that would have made Chun Li from the Street Fighter video game proud.

A dragon swing kick that would have taken off a person's head became a swirling whirlwind as Xander launched himself across the room traveling forward while his extended foot spun around him like a tornado or a buzz saw as he shouted Tatsumaki-Senpū kyaku (Tornado Whirlwind Kick).

As Xander landed out of his whirlwind kick he let the momentum of his spinning kick turn him back towards the direction that he had originally come from and brought his hands together at his chest before extending them and opening his eyes as he yelled "Hadouken!"

Xander opened his eyes just as he realized what he was doing and saw a bright blue ball of energy launch from his hands straight at the pack of stunned and staring Jägers who had stopped their brawl in order to watch "da hottiez fightzing moves."

Xander's eyes got large.

The Jägers' eyes got large.

And a smattering of minions and Jägers dived to the sides to dodge out of the way of the sizzling energy ball as if Xander played the proverbial part of Moses parting the Red Sea.

The energy ball zipped across the room with a sizzling sound before it exploded and disintegrated a section of the gym's back wall with a thunderous "KABOOM!" that knocked nearby spectators off their feet.

The rumbling shaking of the explosion rattled the room, and all of the minions and Jägers in the room who had followed the path of the energy ball slowly stared at the new door into the gym before turning back to look at Xander.

The crowd was silent as they stared from the silent goggle eyed Xander to the smoking hole in the wall, then back at Xander.

Finally the silence was broken by one of the somewhat drooling female Jägers.

"Canz I havez yur baby?" A pink furred Jäger asked Xander with a panting smokey voice as she laid sprawled out on the wrestling mat from where she had dived for safety.

All of the minions and Xander turned to stare stunned at the Jäger before said female Jäger shrugged.

"Whutz? Hez dangerous, muskled and deadly sexzy." The pink furred Jäger answered like it was the most logical thing in the world.

"Vel, he didz tries taz killz us, and datz is da vurst stepz tavards foreplayz." A female light green colored Jäger answered before looking at Xander with bedroom eyes and licking her lips. The other four female Jägers who had previously been involved in the 'exercise sparring session' looked like they were getting ready to pounce on the shirtless and tight shorts wearing Xander.

Everybody else in the room looked wide eyed from the Jägers, to Xander, then back to the Jägers, and then back again to Xander.

Xander realized that his curse of attracting non-human girls was alive and well, and he turned pale before gulping.

Xander looked around quickly for an escape before stuttering out, "Uh, um, uh… Look at that!"

Xander finished with a wide eyed excited yell and pointed behind the Jägers and the crowd.

While everybody swung to look where he was pointing, Xander disappeared in a blur out of the gym.

The pink furred Jäger turned around to face where Xander was and gave a frustrated swing of her fist and snapped her fingers with a growl when she realized that he had escaped. "Shuckz, hez gonez. Doz anybody know vho dot vas?" She asked as she propped herself up on her elbows from where she had been on the floor after diving away from the energy ball. She fanned the collar of her shirt to cool herself down after getting hot and bothered due to the deadly, violent and heavily muscled man who had been wearing nothing but tight workout shorts.

The other female Jägers just looked at each other and shrugged with similar looks, though a fuchsia colored Jäger sniffed the air and turned to smile towards the others and said quietly so that only the other Jägers could hear, "Hez smelz very gutte, likz der Heterodynez."

The other female Jägerkin all looked at each other before all taking a big deep breath, and then smiling largely at each other. Several silent hungry smiles were shared between the group before they all nodded to each other and started to leave the gym.

"Just vait untilz da uder goylz hearz aboutz dis von." The pink furred Jäger stated as she picked herself off the floor and followed the other female Jägerkin out of the gym; she couldn't wait to tell the other female Jägers in the military about how Da Boss vas a bigz Hottie.

Even with the smoking wreckage of the wall, the torn apart wrestling mat, and the damage to the audience's hearing that was being repaired by their nano-clanks, the minions all just shrugged and went back to what they had been doing before they were distracted by the unknown fighter.

After all, it was just another normal evening in Romania since The Leviathan took control.

---

Xander woke up early the next morning when Igor entered the Castle's master bedroom with a large tray of toast, scrambled eggs, coffee, and several large piles of paper.

"Good morning sir, we have a bit of business to take care of today, but you should be free by dinner time." Igor stated as he set the tray down on the bed within reach of Xander and then moved about the room tidying it up a bit.

Xander picked up a piece of buttered toast and took a bite out of it before chasing down the toasted bread with a swallow of coffee.

Brushing the crumbs off his hands so they fell to the floor instead of on his hands, several little clanks scooted out from under the bed with little vacuum cleaner attachments to clean up the mess while Xander ignored the action in order to concentrate on the paperwork in front of him.

"A mutual defense treaty with the Amazon Nation… A request to franchise out our healing technology to the rest of the world… requests to purchase power from France, Germany and even the UK and a petition from a Kaznian separatists group in Bosnia Herzegovina. What is this Igor?" Xander looked through the different pieces of paper before turning to look up at Igor to question what the paperwork was for.

Igor finished sorting through scratch paper designs for devices that had been scattered across the desk and floor in one corner of the room and turned to answer Xander. In a stoic blank faced look akin to a proper butler's Igor replied, "Those are the decisions that only you can address sir."

Xander looked at Igor with a raised eyebrow, encouraging his chief assistant to continue explaining.

"Based on your directions to date Sir, I, along with the Castle, the Chateau, and the rest of your AI's and subjects have been managing your empire under the subsidiarity principal that we will only bring those decisions to you that only you are capable of answering. What with Castle Bob having an imprint of your mind and the vast intellectual, industrial and economic capabilities at hand, we have been able to do a majority of the managing of your assets and empire, but alas sir every overlord must deal with some paperwork." Igor completed with a wave towards the foot tall stack of paper sitting on Xander's bed next to the tray of food.

Xander looked from Igor then back to the paperwork and then flipped through it again to see a few of the other topics that needed to be dealt with. Looking to Igor with a raised eyebrow Xander added, "And you just figured that this was the way to do things when ruling an empire?" Xander asked, not that Xander was angry or anything that decisions were being made for him without his direct counsel, but merely interested in Igor's answer. After all, the growing empire and economic concerns seemed to be growing nicely.

"Sir, Castle Bob tells me that your family managed the Pax Transylvania of the original Heterodyne universe through the simple subsidiarian principal of "Don't make me come over there." Basically Sir, if it worked to manage and keep peace throughout a Europe filled with sparks, then we figured we shouldn't tamper with a system that already worked well." Igor stated with a nonchalant wave of his hand as if to punctuate the logic of the statement.

"Hmm, if it ain't broke don't fix it?" Xander said, looking up from the papers while rubbing his chin in thought before focusing down on the issues presented in the paperwork.

"Exactly Sir. Besides, based on your reactions to threats, we felt that you were already following the past Heterodyne and Wulfenbach traditions of your family; that being you the Master was left to your inventions and high level decisions unless the need for overwhelming force was called for in order to further your goals or protect your realm." Igor finished while picking up a pen set from the desk and bringing it over to Xander at the bed.

Xander pondered what Igor stated, 'Hmmm, I do remember the family motto of 'Don't make me come over there.' Xander thought while he continued to rub his chin, realized he had a bit of beard stubble on it, and then mentally commanded the nano-clanks in the skin on his face to shave it off.

'Yes, Grandfather Klaus came up with that leadership style after the Wulfenbach Heterodyne alliance.' The voice of Xander Heterodyne reminded Xander in the back of his head. 'Basically it was the idea that we allowed the countries to manage themselves and keep their own cultures until something we didn't like threatened, at which point we responded with swift overwhelming and often terminal force. It was quite effective.' Xander's Heterodyne self stated in Xander's mind with a bit of a bloodthirsty grin while memories of the Heterodyne and Wulfenbach families crushing all opposition in Europe flitted through Xander's mind.

Xander smiled while delving into happy memories of world domination in another universe before coming out of his daydream to realize that Igor was standing silently next to the bed and offering over a pen with which to start working.

Xander turned his smile towards Igor and thanked him for the pen before starting to go through the paper work.

"Hmm, let's get the easy ones out of the way first." Xander said to himself while he nibbled on the back of the pen while quickly reading the request by the Amazon Nation for a mutual protection pact. Queen Hippolyta's letter suggested that The Empire of the Leviathan would be a likely ally in issues of war and force as both relatively small countries had similar feelings about war and peace.

"Hmm, hard choice here." Xander said a bit sarcastically with a smirk on his face, "Do I want to be allied with an empire that is pretty much made up of gorgeous Slayer types… hell yes." Xander finished with a smirk and a flourish of his pen as he signed 'The Leviathan' on the treaty paperwork. Reading down the page he saw that there wasn't going to be any major signing event as the Amazons didn't like to leave their island home and enter 'Man's World.' Xander handed over the Amazon paperwork to Igor before pausing mid motion with a thought.

"Hmm, since I'm on the topic of Islands and Oceans." Xander segued as he turned his head to look at Igor. "Do you know where Toot is?" Xander queried.

A flash of light at floor level and a "Toot!" sound happened before Igor could answer.

Xander smiled and looked down next to Igor's robe shrouded legs to see the original little clank that Xander had created in Metropolis, standing at attention and saluting Xander with a little metal clawed hand.

"Hey ya Toots, how ya doing?" Xander asked doing a goofy, imitation of Humphrey Bogart, just because Xander would always be prone to goofy Xander type quips.

"Toot toot, toodly toot toots." The little clank answered, its one little eye blinking as its hands waved in gestures to punctuate its statements.

"Well it's good to hear that you've completed work on the Kaznian infrastructure, emptying out all the mountains and shoring up the walls. Tell the gang high from me." Xander responded, to which the little clank returned an affirmative "Toot!"

Xander's face took on a serious look, "Now I've got a new mission for you and the rest of the little clank brigade, and a part of it might be dangerous." Xander stated.

The little clank shot to attention, little round body straight and arms like ramrods against her sides like she was a soldier being sent on a mission.

Xander smiled at the clanks reaction.

"I want you and the other little clanks to clean up the floating garbage patches in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, especially the large North Atlantic Garbage. Transport the refuse to our holding facilities to be rendered into usable material, and then I want you to deliver a message for me." Xander ordered.

Waiving his hand at what looked like a large hanging tapestry of medieval battles fought by the Black Heterodyne that was on the wall between Xander's bed and armoire, the tapestry shimmered and became an active display of the map as relayed to the Castle via Xander's satellite network of little clanks.

Xander communicated with his nano-clanks to broadcast to the castle that a red blinking blip would appear in the mid-north Atlantic Ocean, right near the underwater trench that split the ocean.

"Right there, about seventy something miles north of these Portuguese islands is the underwater city of Atlantis." Xander stated with a wave from his position still sitting on the bed, but pointing towards the blinking dot on the interactive map. "I want you to take a recorded message to Orin the Sea King of Atlantis, otherwise known as Aquaman. I want you to tell him that my cleaning the garbage patches is The Leviathan's gift to Atlantis, and that I seek an alliance with him, but I would like to meet in person to discuss the alliance and how our two empires could benefit from trade with each other." Xander finished with a slight sparkle in his eye, as plans and possibilities filtered through his mind.

"Toot toot. Toot!" The little clank agreed and then saluted.

Xander grinned at the little construct, "I know you will do a good job. In order to get your message safely to Atlantis, come down to my lab later today and I'll give you a few dozen upgrades. Sounds good?"

"TOOT!" The little clank answered excitedly and bounced up and down from one foot to the other as it did a little imitation of Xander's happy snoopy dance.

Xander laughed, and even Igor smiled at the little clank's reaction. The laughter drew the attention of the pocket watch sized robot that stilled for a second when she realized what she was doing, before rapidly coming back to attention.

Xander just smiled and announced, "At ease soldier, you are relieved to carry about your orders."

The little clank saluted again with a toot before disappearing in a flash of transporter light.

Xander smiled and shook his head before going back to reading through the paperwork.

Xander silently read through the paperwork, making a mark here or there until he got to the request from foreign companies to license or franchise The Leviathan's healing technology. "No, no, no… hell no." Xander said as he read through offers from Queen Industries, Wayne Enterprises, Johnson and Johnson and LexCorp.

"If I might intrude sir, the real question has to do with how you want to share any of the promised healing cures that you have." Igor added to Xander's train of thought. "Already our embassies have lists of millions of people dying from cancer and other traditionally incurable diseases who are begging for your help." Igor explained as he sorted through a few of the pieces of paper on the bed and pulled out a spreadsheet listing the numbers of people by country who were begging for The Leviathan's aid.

"At the bottom you will see the 'other' category Sir. That details the last census data from the camps of individuals staying in tent cities around our borders requesting to come in." Igor explained as he reached over Xander's shoulder to point at a specific figure that was in the low tens of millions.

"Wow." Xander said a bit startled before starting to brainstorm rapidly. Slowly a smile started to grow across his face as an idea germinated and grew within his mind.

"He he, Leviathan land, heh." Xander said to himself as a maniacal glazed look came over his eyes as he started to hum to himself.

Mentally calling up a holographic keyboard and computer screen to appear over his bed, Xander's fingers flew across the keyboard while mentally coming up with ideas almost faster than his super speed fingers could make them come to life on the screen in front of him.

"So inside a mountain… no no, we need it open to the air. Oh my gosh that would be so cool!" Xander spoke to himself while continuing to hum as he started creating one design only to delete it and start again, "Yeah, in the air, a floating city with a Leviathan themed amusement park, city parks, medical centers and security out the wazoo." Xander 's floating city idea came to life with futuristic looking giant spires and towers that both extended miles up into the air as well as down from the bottom of a floating jagged piece of earth.

"Security, that reminds me!" Xander almost shouted as a brilliant idea came to his mind, "Not only will the city be floating, thus harder to get to through means outside our control, but we phase it out of reality like we did to Romania when we took it over. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!" Xander cackled madly with glee.

"Oh Oh, and just like that hidden city with those trigger happy hocus pocus uppity magic users, we make portals that we can control from each of our embassies and we have the city floating over my territory before we phase it out of tangible existence." Xander's eyes had a shiny insane gleam to them as thoughts and plans simply flew through his mind.

"But what will we use for the main bulk of the land needed for the city?" Xander paused suddenly, hands stilling as he tried to think of what to use for the floating city besides ripping a plot of land from the ground.

"If I may, Sir?" Igor stated as he punched a few buttons on his data pad and the holographic computer screen in the room showed some information from past endeavors.

"Ah Ha! Eureka!" Xander yelled as he instantly saw what Igor was trying to show him. "Great work Igor, we will use a large portion of the earth and stone excavated from hollowing out the mountains. That's just what I needed." Xander said with a beaming smile at his chief minion as once again his minion gave Xander just what he needed for his latest project.

"I do try Sir." Igor stated in a very blasé manner; as if pulling up the means for creating a dimensionally phased floating city that twisted gravity and was the size of London was just another part of his job that rated up there with bringing his Master coffee.

Xander was deep in thought, every now and then his tongue would stick out the side of his mouth and he would bite down softly on it without even knowing it while he continued to stare at the screen and type away on the holographic relay.

"So we use an enlarged and weaker version of the transphased dimensional energy pressure system to super compact the soil and rock into a single bedrock shape, implant it with the remaining Nth metal as a backup to our Nth metal inspired anti-grav system." Xander said to himself as the city was digitally built from the ground up in front of him on the holographic screen.

"How much Nth metal do we have left?" Xander started to ask, only before he could finish Igor had pressed a few buttons and the information came to up on the hologram.

"Excellent. Carry the zero, swap out the coefficient data and take into account the use of old Yeti's Gravity Engine designs that Mother Heterodyne learned while traveling with Master Payne's Circus of Adventure and tada!" Xander finished and sat back to gaze at the designs for his creation.

Giant crystal obsidian black towers rose elegantly from the top of the floating cityscape while lower buildings were clearly set up as amphitheaters, stadiums and large glass museums with an architecture that couldn't seem to make up its mind on whether it wanted smooth lines or hard edges. It was a mix of power, healing, might, beauty, technology, and fun and adventure as designs for lovely flowering parks and gardens were mixed in with amusement rides and Leviathan and Grey Knight inspired theme parks. The tall towers not only shot high into the air above the already hovering foundation of the city, but also seemed to defy logic by jutting out of the bottom of the huge solid compacted mass that would be the city's base. In fact, it appeared that there were two cities as if the floating city couldn't decide which way would be up and which would be down and decided to build to separate cities with trees, parks, buildings and roads on both sides of the foundational block.

"Very interesting sir, and will gravity be a problem Master Harris?" Igor questioned as he gazed at the design for the city.

"Bah, gravity smavity." Xander said with a wave of his hand and stuck out his tongue at the thought that gravity would be a problem. "Those so called laws of Gravity are more like polite suggestions. Besides, if my calculations are correct, then I'm more worried about this thing launching into orbit than crashing back to earth. Besides, it will be phased out of reality without any Earth to affect it, and if we color the energy wavelength of the dimensional shields the right color then it will look like you are gazing up into the sky no matter which side of the city you are on." Xander mentioned without a worry.

"Besides," Xander added in explanation, "The gravity tech, engines, Nth Metal etc are so interwoven into the very fabric of the city and its buildings that there is literally no way for this thing to crash back to earth no matter how somebody tried to sabotage it. I'm not about to build something on par as a Death Star and end up leaving a two foot portal open that leads to the power core. Fool an Empire once, shame on them; fool an Empire twice, shame on me." Xander finished in a flippant tone while concentrating on his designs and continuing to add little homey touches; like security lasers and weapons and a force field protected security area that people would be screened through before entering the city, you know, the kind of stuff that would make Xander feel at home in the city.

"Absolutely Sir. Very well Sir." Igor answered before forwarding the plans to Xander's other minions and robotic legions to begin the creation of the floating city of the Leviathan. After all, if the Master said it would work, it would most likely work; either that or the galaxy would probably blow up due to the accidental explosion. These were the types of things to be expected when working for the Heterodynes.

Xander was in a rather chipper mood after finishing his designs for the city, so he decided to fly through the rest of his work while continuing to chat with Igor.

"So the city should solve our problems of being able to securely administer medical aid to the masses while also showing the world the benefits of being aligned with The Leviathan; not to mention the tourist dollars." Xander explained as his fingers were a literal blur as his eyes seemed to be constantly vibrating back and forth as he read through the paper work and shuffled through it.

"Medical aid for free sir?" Igor questioned.

Xander stopped and gave Igor a bloodthirsty grin, "Of course not. Charge an arm and a leg," Xander saw the bloodthirsty grin start to form across Igor's face, so quickly added, "figuratively in this case, to those who can afford it and give free services to children and those who can't afford it." Xander commanded as Igor took notes.

Igor lost the bloodthirsty grin, but it appeared that a smirk still threatened to split the old minions face.

"What with our portals being spread throughout the world at our embassies, those who need our services can easily get there. Staff the city with a rotation of two legions of armored Jägers at all times in addition to our human workers, and please note that there will be no Lazarus vats installed in the new city. I refuse to bring back the world's dead, and we want to make people feel the cost of not being one of our citizens while seeing many of the benefits of what they could have if they joined my Empire." Xander said with an evil looking smile, "Inspire them to join my plans, to offer their countries to my control. Show them what they missed out on in the first place due to their embargos and lead the masses to join us and bring their wealth with them! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

A joyous smile split Igor's face when he heard Xander's explanation. The evil laughter did the old minion proud. "Then the Master will finally be working towards world domination?" The Chief Minion questioned hopefully.

Xander's laughter stopped, and he turned a blank face towards Igor before going right back to work on the pile of papers.

"Nah, not trying for that, just trying to protect more people and work towards some future goals that would take more assets." Xander explained while looking back at his paperwork; he didn't see the brief look of disappointment and sadness that flashed over Igor's face before the chief minion's facial features fell back into their normal stoic repose.

"Too much work, and you get all those hero types bugging you. You're evil, blah blah blah, how dare you make the world a better place for the normal people by taking over for their ineffective governments, nag nag nag." Xander groused with a wave of his hand while continuing through the paper work.

"Sparkbucks stores all fully upgraded including security… good." Xander continued to read and check things off. "Crop growth beyond expectations and reaching capacity, good, start export sales with priority on highest quality goods going to our people and allies before opening to world market. Oh, and let's see about getting some really interesting plant species populating the parks in the floating city. See if you can use them to help keep people off the grass or something." Xander ordered nonchalantly as he knew his minion was taking notes.

Xander flipped through a few more pages, "Power sales to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Russia, approved at a price that undercuts their energy companies but still brings us in a serious profit, excellent. Plant several of the Dyson Spheres in the newly hollowed mountains around New Mechanicsburg and a dummy bio-energy plant at the surface to route the power through it for sale to the electricity hungry United States." Xander mumbled to himself, his face flickering out of his concentration look to smile as Xander read through the good news.

Igor let slip a small smile at Xander's cutthroat ways and subtle manipulations. The chief minion was happy. Even though the master said he did not want world domination, all of his actions were pointed in that direction. Though it was different than most tactics taken by the Heterodynes before Xander, Igor thought that it these slow subtle methods may work out better than the normal "Build an army, see the world fall at you feet" method that most Heterodynes followed.

"It will be as you say Master." Igor stated with a smile.

Xander looked up at Igor due to the happy tone of his minion's voice and raised an eyebrow at Igor.

"Um, yeah." Xander stated, not quite sure he wanted to know why Igor was smiling merely because Xander was talking about sales of electricity. Xander then went back to his paper work.

"Shall I set up a dummy corporation for your energy sales, or should sales of electrical power come directly from the Empire's government sir." Igor questioned while stifling his smile back to a more staid look.

"Start up an international dummy corporation to manage the sales of power here and in New Mechanicsburg. As for a name, bah I don't know. Call it an abbreviation of Energy, or energy and natural resources organizational network or something or other. I don't care, abbreviate it and make it a shell company that doesn't really do anything but make it look like it's really selling the energy. Then funnel the money back into my projects and pockets." Xander decided on a whim as he kept the majority of his concentration on reviewing the paper work.

"Very well sir, I'll make sure to incorporate your energy sales company, with a name according to the abbreviation you suggested, ENRON. Some of your minions from New Mechanicsburg have come up with some very interesting accounting methods that may be of assistance in funneling around the money." Igor replied as he plugged the figures into his data pad and grew an evil smile due to the tingle of happiness he felt at his master's directions to create an energy monopoly.

"Yeah, I know you will do a good job. Thanks Igor." Xander responded without really listening to Igor's discussion on the form and accounting methods of the energy company, it wasn't like it was important after all.

That said, Xander flipped over another page before pausing to double check at a slower speed what he had just read.

"Igor?" Xander questioned slowly as he reread the paper.

"Yes sir?" Igor answered.

"What's this I'm reading about the Queen Bee of Bialya placing a bounty on the head of one Xander Harris for despoiling the confines of her palace?" Xander growled and a dark look grew over his face as he didn't like to be threatened.

Igor looked at the sheet that Xander had just read before pulling up a report on the data pad that the chief minion always seemed to carry with him.

Igor responded as he read down the report, "It says here in RedTree's report of information gathered from the security cameras in the palace that the Queen Bee was distraught at the mess done to her room. This led her to go eat comfort food, which for women is of course chocolate, Sir." Igor explained as he continued to read.

Xander cringed a bit at the mention of eating chocolate at the palace, but waved for Igor to continue.

"Well sir, it appears that she ate an entire fresh batch of brownies and a large bowl of chocolate pudding from her palace kitchens. The report states that the Queen suffered some gastrointestinal problems due to the large dose of chocolate. The security readouts are a bit muddled Sir, but the next thing that RedTree's report states is that the palace suffered severe plumbing problems at the same time as screams of agony were heard to issue up from the dictator's commode." Igor answered while turning a look towards a pale faced Xander.

"RedTree's report goes on to say that the timing of the incidents followed shortly before Ra's al Ghul's people notified the palace of the interference of one meta-human named Alexander Harris, no middle name. I can only assume that she mistakenly blamed you for whatever accidents befell her, Sir." Igor finished explaining the logical answer given the facts he had.

Xander stared at Igor wide eyed, before swallowing and realizing that his mouth felt a bit dry.

"Um," Xander started, licking his lips to wet them. "Heh, well what do you know, those um, pesky accidents. What is the bounty amount on my head, and what is she asking for?" Xander added while the little mental voice of what sounded like a Xander's inner child laughed his head off at Xander's expense.

'Even in my own mind I get no sympathy.' Xander groused.

'Pbttttttt!' A little child sized Xander in oversized clothes skipped across Xander's mental-scape before stopping to stick his tongue out at Xander's statement before skipping off again.

Xander shook his head to bring himself back to the present, just in time to hear Igor announce, "One million dollars for your death sir."

That caught Xander's full attention. "People just don't have a sense of humor any more, I mean one little prank, um I mean." Xander quickly covered for his slip of the tongue.

Igor ignored the slip of the tongue and continued to appear as if he hadn't noticed Xander's statement.

"Um, I guess I'll have to deal with her sooner rather than later." Xander groused to himself before going back to work and quickly scribbling down a "No" to the Bosnian separatists request to give them weapons or initiate a military takeover of Bosnia.

"Very well sir." Igor responded, and then stood quietly as Xander continued to blur through the paperwork before him.

Xander finished and slapped his pen down on the food tray, accidentally embedding the head of the metal pen into the cherry wood breakfast tray as he wasn't concentrating on what he was doing and was more focused on the newest problem, the Queen Bee.

"Crap, oh well." Xander groused as looked down at what he had just done to his nice breakfast tray.

Xander pushed the tray and the completed paperwork away from himself. Xander didn't really know why, but the fact that the Queen Bee had put out a million dollars for his death irked him a bit; especially since he had only played simple pranks on the palace and didn't just kill the corrupt dictator and take over her country.

Igor snapped his fingers and the pile of paper disappeared in a flash of red transporter light.

Xander pushed the tray away from himself and threw off the blankets as he jumped out of bed and resolutely walked out of the room in his pajama pants and into the bathroom.

Fifteen seconds later, Xander stepped out of the bathroom with wet hair and wearing a towel around his waist while using another towel to dry his hair after his super speed shower. "And the last two days had been going so flipping great without lady luck rearing her head. Why does this stuff always happen to me?" Xander muttered to himself rhetorically. After all, only Xander Harris could prank a person with Toilet Paper and laxatives and end up with a bounty on his head the next day.

Xander finished drying himself off and dropped the towels he had been using as the seemingly simple metal bracelets on his wrists rippled up his body to clothe Xander in a white lab coat over a black tight t-shirt, jeans and boots.

Xander stomped towards the door to his room, only stopping to state to Igor, "If anybody's looking for me, I'll be in the lab helping with projects and creating things that go boom."

"Very well sir." Igor responded with a bow as Xander swept out of the room.

---

"Alec, how goes the living nano-clank project?" Xander questioned as he poured a glass beaker full of viscous green fluid from a tank in a room filled with what looked like large stainless steel distilleries and masses of pipes. Glass viewports showed greenish slurry moving inside the giant tanks, almost as if the algae colored substance was alive and sentient.

Alec Holland looked up from a mushroom spore colony that was contained inside of a force field and fed by some sort of black light that glowed against the green skin of the Swamp Man's arms. Alec finished touching the fungi as swirls of floating spores danced around in the breeze made by his arms as they moved through the field to flick a mushroom and cause it to grow larger.

Alec smiled and looked up at Xander across the room; the humming swishing sound of things being stirred and agitated came from the tanks situated around the large sterile looking metal growing room. It was past dinner time, so the only inhabitants of the lab were pretty much Xander and Alec, though one tech was in the corner monitoring some test data on a floating holographic screen.

"Hey Xander." The scientist, turned Swamp Thing, turned elemental, turned sentient human looking mix of plant matter and science said in reply to Xander.

Alec stood up from where he was bent over the fungi experimentation tank and pulled his arms from the energy shield, shedding off the loose spores that had landed on his arms while he had been working. Turning to face Xander, Alec gestured towards the bottle in Xander's hands, "Yeah, that's the final version of the protein and living version of the nano-clank. Right there you have enough microscopic clanks to rewrite the DNA of a person or kill off and absorb a cancerous tumor the size of a VW bug. When they are finished, send the signal and poof, all trace of the nanites is gone as they dissolve back into their base molecular format and are absorbed by the body as food." Alec finished with a smug smirk at completing one of Xander's main projects; one that would be used as the base cure for all non Empire citizens that would be administered medical aid.

"Excellent." Xander smirked at the bottle of little swirling climbing and whirling nano-bioclanks in the beaker. Xander's smile slowly slipped and he arched an eyebrow at Alec and asked, "Have we had a successful human test yet?"

The scientist with the green thumb shook his head and answered, "Nope, everybody we have here has the base version of the metal nano-clanks and I'm not exactly the right person for a human sample."

In reply, Xander merely shrugged, mentally commanded the nano-clanks in his arm to shut down and then grabbed a pair of pruning shears that was sitting next to a pile of green saw grass that was the base for the nano-bioclank mix.

Pinching the skin on the back of his hand with the shears, Xander snipped a small cut on the back of his hand with a wince as blood immediately began to puddle and dribble down the bones and joints on his hand.

Xander tipped the beaker over, and a glop of the new biologic nano-clanks splatted on the back of his hand.

The glob of green matter seemed to writhe on the back of Xander's hand for a second, and then it looked as if they were being sucked down the drain as they cleaned up and dissolved the blood and then disappeared into Xander's body while healing the scar behind them and leaving clean unblemished skin.

Xander lifted his hand up to the light and saw that there wasn't so much as a scar where the latest version of nano-clanks had been dripped. Then closing his eyes, he sent a mental command to his Nth metal nano-clanks to broadcast the signal to the biological nano-clanks to dissolve.

Keeping his eyes closed, Xander's smiled as his internal miniature helpers informed him that in a matter of seconds every one of the tiny green machines from the new biological base material had been absorbed by the tissues of Xander's body.

"Yep, it works." Xander answered Alec back smugly.

Alec smirked back at Xander and commented, "Sacrificing the body in the name of science are we?"

Xander merely shrugged and smirked with a playful, "Sometimes you have to take chances for the advancement of Science!" He finished with a pose, head and chin up to the right and hands on his hips as he puffed up his chest.

Xander was only able to hold it for a second before both he and Alec broke down laughing.

Xander slapped Alec on the shoulder and then started walking towards the entrance to the lab, "Anyway, I just wanted to stop by while I was waiting for my dinner to cook…" He started to say but was interrupted as both Tara and Dora waltzed into the room.

Both Xander and Alec tried not to drool as Tara and Dora defined the world "HOT" at that moment. Sparkly silk almost negligee like clubbing dresses stopped just low enough to hide their crotches and bums and long unclad sleek legs tapered off into high, very high, platform heels.

The blonde Dora was dressed in bright crimson seductress Red, yes red with a capital R. The silk flowed around her body hinting at everything yet showing nothing even as the top of the dress showed an incredible expanse of creamy chest, arms, back and legs. Red heels tapped off the ensemble and simple diamond earrings were her only other adornment.

The raven haired Tara was dressed in a deep green that was in the same cut and fabric as Dora's and whereas Dora had on Red heels, again with the capital R, Tara had on a pair of black CFM's.

Both girls strutted into the room and snagged Xander's left and right arms while planting a kiss on both sides of his cheeks.

Both girls laughed when Xander's and Alec's jaws both seemed to drop open at the sight; a sight that got even better as the laughing did amazing things to the two girls chests.

Tara leaned over and gave Alec a kiss on the cheek and used a finger to close his mouth by lifting the green man's jaw, and Dora did the same thing to Xander.

"Sorry Alec, but we're here to kidnap Xander for abandoning him last night. He's taking us out dancing." Dora stated, leaning up and closing Xander's mouth before kissing him.

When Dora came up for air Xander had a goofy grin on his face, and didn't realize that he was suddenly wearing bright red lipstick. With that, the two girls dragged the stunned Xander out of the room and waved goodbye to Alec.

Alec watched the girls leave before shaking his head, "I've got to get myself a girlfriend." He stated, before turning back to work on the plants in the lab.

Xander stumbled out into the hall before he seemed to wake out of his stupor and stopped, nearly throwing the girls off balance at his sudden stop.

"Dinner!" Xander stated worriedly.

Both girls looked at him and Tara replied a bit confused, "You can take us out for Dinner before we go dancing Xander."

Xander shook his head and looked down at the shorter Tara who came up to about his chin in her high heels, "No, you don't get it, I put dinner in the…" His statement was interrupted by a loud "BOOM!"

An insane gleam came to his eyes and Xander ducked out of the girls grasps with a yell of, "Turkey's done!"

Xander darted into a laboratory two doors down the hall.

By the time the girls walked into the room a bit befuddled at Xander's reaction, they saw him standing next to a large solid metal sphere with a two foot wide latched door next to it.

Xander twisted several latches to open the door in between bouts of mad cackling.

"Bwa ha ha ha." Xander chuckled before throwing open the door and waving away the wafts of smoke that issued out of the large metal sphere. Turning back to Tara and Dora, Xander explained excitedly, "So I figured cooking was just a matter of heat and pressure, so I figured I'd throw out the whole waiting thing and cook a turkey with explosives!"

Xander stuck his arm into the large sphere and seemed to fish around for a bit before he finally pulled his arm back with about a one inch shred of what looked like splattered meat of some sort.

Xander looked at the paste that used to be turkey that he was holding in his hand, and then back at the girls before he stuck his head inside the sphere.

Both girls looked at each other and shrugged before turning to gaze at Xander to figure out what their master was doing. Mumbled cursing could be heard to echo around inside the sphere before Xander pulled his head back out again.

Slamming the door to the explosion oven Xander turned quickly and gave an embarrassed smile to Dora and Tara, "Heh, um, yeah, so out to dinner we go." He finished as he quickly walked away from the failed experiment while wrapping an arm around the waists of each girl and leading them out of the room.

Through the corner of their eyes' both girls caught each other smiling at their master's antics while Xander was oblivious to the looks the girls were giving him.

Xander mumbled to himself, "Maybe next time I'll use nuclear explosives…"

With that he turned out the lights.

---

An eight thirty dinner in Paris followed by dancing in Moscow was the call for the night.

To say that the dance club Propaganda was the preeminent club in Moscow was a bit of an understatement. Propaganda was the place to see and be seen on a Friday night, and swanky and dressed to the nines was the name of the game if you even hoped to have a chance to get in. Not only did the dance club's line of people wanting to get in wrap the block, but hordes of security guards monitored the wannabe patrons for everything from dress code to literally whether or not they were beautiful or handsome enough to enter the club. There were new rich mafia gangsters, young bankers, ex-KGB and more model quality girls than any other place in Moscow at that time of night, all lined up trying to get into Propaganda.

Xander on the other hand didn't need no stinking line. Sure there was a line, but there was also a VIP queue cordoned off by red velvet ropes that let the super rich and elite bypass any measly line. This was Xander's entrance as he pulled up right in front of the doors in a smoking hot black and yellow Lotus sports car. Hopping out of the sleek little two door racer, Xander left his door open and scooted around to the passanger side of the car where he opened the door and helped Dora off of Tara's lap before lending a hand in turn for Tara to get out of the car; both of them showing a dangerous amount of leg in their short dresses and in the low to the ground sports car. Xander smirked at the looks of envy and lust that were shot at him and his girls, and he mentally noted that it was nice to be part of the 'in crowd' for the night; that and the promise that club Propaganda would blow the Sunnydale Bronze out of the water if there was ever a competition between the two dance clubs.

Taking a girl on each arm, Xander imperiously led the girls towards the front door, not even slowing to stop for the bouncers as he pulled a bound package of hundred dollar bills out of his tailored black suit and tossed it to the large main bouncer with the clipboard manning the door.

Whether it was how incredibly hot of a trio Xander and the girls were, the 10,000 dollars American that Xander tossed to the head bodyguard, or the fact that Xander's car was a two seater that somehow closed its own doors and drove off before the valet could get into it, well Xander and his girls didn't have problems walking past the stunned crowd and bouncers and into the confines of the club.

Dora, Tara and Xander waltzed past the line and into the Moscow dance club Propaganda as the music's beat seemed to hit them like a solid wave. The beat was pumping and the lights were flashing as the dance floor was a nonstop light show while shadowy booths and tables took up the edges of the club. Xander couldn't help but smirk and then laugh to himself as the DJ for the night, DJ Smash, was playing a song about snack food and hot girls while two gogo dancers on stage seductively deep throated Twinkies.

Xander took it as an omen from the Hostess gods that he was supposed to be here, and smiled as both Tara and Dora squealed in delight and pulled Xander down to the dance floor.

Now don't get it wrong, in Xander's mind the snoopy dance was just as important a form of interpretive dance as any ballet, tap, tango, or limbada. However each form of dance had its time and place, and when you are a six foot plus tall, dark, and handsome man in what appears to be a five thousand dollar suit and unbuttoned silk shirt, with two earth bound goddesses dancing up on you, well the snoopy dance was not the proper form of expression.

Xander Heterodyne had been taught to dance from a young age as was proper for the heir of the rulers of Europe in the Girl Genius Universe. The influence of those memories was Xander's to call upon. The Primal spirit was the epitome of grace and power, the top alpha predator among nature spirits, and his movements were the type that called to potential mates that here was the being who you wanted to have babies with. Add all of this together with Xander's new knowledge of martial arts from Cassandra, and Xander could dance. Not only could he dance, but he was the best dancer on the floor.

Xander flowed with the girls, appearing as if his body was caressing up against theirs as he brought his right hand up to pull Dora close to his front while his left arm wrapped around Tara behind him. The beat pounded and called to that ancient instinctual part of Xander's soul and psyche and caused him to move like some great cat: a panther or a lion in the midst of a hunt, and the girls were his prey. Xander moved fluidly as his tailored suit hinted at the sculpted muscles underneath and seemed to bend and sway with his body as he let his instincts take over and just moved to the beat. The driving Thud Thud Thud, of the beat mirrored the rhythm that was as ancient as mankind, when man and woman first danced around the fire in the dark of the night and later danced together in their fur bedding.

It was magnetic, and Xander seemed to exude waves of power as he just let himself go, not realizing that as he danced with and kissed his girls, molded his body with theirs seamlessly, that almost all of the eyes in the club were on him.

Women and men wanted to be with him, wanted to be him, wanted to be Tara or Dora, and all the while the music changed and the songs mixed together as Xander just relaxed and enjoyed the beat and the peace that comes from just dancing and letting your body move to the rhythm.

Fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, forty five minutes and even an hour later, Xander and his girls danced nonstop, the sweat glistening down the necks and sparkling off of the exposed breasts of Tara and Dora; though Xander hadn't even broken a sweat yet due to his unnatural countenance.

The whole club was focused on the trio as they continued to dance, and they would have continued to keep on dancing if the DJ wouldn't have made a mistake and miss hit the beat, breaking the mood.

The jarring timing mishap in the thudding beat brought Xander's awareness back to the present, and he looked out over the top of Dora's head to look into the shadows around the outskirts of the club. What he saw there brought up a hint of warning, for his ability to see in the dark better than normal humans allowed Xander to see that not all of the attention being focused on Xander's dancing partners looked wholesome.

Through the corners of his eyes and as he nonchalantly continued to dance and turn towards Tara, Xander saw that groups of men that just screamed "Criminal!" were focused solely on Xander's girls.

'Looks like it would be best if we went home, no need to cause any problems with the locals.' Xander thought to himself and gracefully wrapped his arms around both girls before planting a kiss on each of their lips while starting to draw them off the dance floor.

Coming up for air from his second kiss, Xander questioned, "Dora, Tara, is it alright if we leave, I'd like to go home for some fun time?" Xander finished with a ridiculous double raising of his eyebrows, kind of the nudge nudge hint hint, ya know what I mean type of silly action that was so Xander.

Both girls smiled up at Xander as they continued to pant and catch their breath from the mix of dancing and kissing that had been going on for over an hour. Dora looked at Tara, and then back at Xander before suggesting, "We'd like to go to the ladies room to freshen up, if that's alright?"

Xander bit the inside of his cheek in thought as he looked around at the club. Sure there were a lot of wealthy young and old men here perving on the girls and looking like Mafia wannabees, but there were also a lot of bouncers.

Deciding that it would probably be ok, Xander shrugged and said with a smile, "Sure, but hurry back, I'll miss you."

Both girls smiled up at Xander and kissed him on the cheeks before walking hand in hand around the outside of the dance floor and towards a hallway that looked to lead towards restrooms.

Really not one to drink, Xander merely stood on the outskirts of the dance floor for a moment, but was only able to stand still for a moment before several beautiful Russian girls walked over to Xander and started trying to pull him back onto the dance floor with them.

Xander smiled and tried to wave them off, but they were insistent, rubbing up against him and pulling on his silk shirt and suit coat to pull him chuckling onto the dance floor where he was immediately made the center of the bevy of Slavic hotties.

Xander danced, smiled and chuckled as the girls all seemed to be vying for his attention, almost competing with each other who could rub up against or caress him the most, and Xander wasn't minding it one bit.

Getting lost in the beat again, Xander enjoyed his dancing, even if these girls couldn't move as seamlessly with him as his two minion lovers could.

"Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!" An alarm sounded in Xander's head as Xander's nano-clanks sent Xander a warning.

Startled, Xander stopped dancing suddenly and totally ignored the girls who continued to try and dance up on him.

'Query the alarm.' Xander commanded mentally and was instantly given a status report.

'Sir, the nano-clanks of Dora and Tara are showing a great deal of stress and have initiated healing for several superficial wounds."

Xander went from happy-go-lucky seductive dancer to pissed off Alpha Primal in less than a heart's beat.

'Fuck, initiate tracking and guide me to them, activate helmet armor in stealth mode.' Xander mentally commanded as he rudely pushed the girls away and stepped through the dancers on the floor like some angry god of old, about to get biblical on somebody's ass for hurting his girls.

A brief shimmer was all the tell tale sign that Xander's nano-clank clothing had gone into armor mode as it merged over his head but remained in predator mode; and since it was only showing an image of Xander's own head none of the crowd new the difference as eyes tracked him pushing through the crowd like a bulldozer.

Messages and maps flashed up before him, projected onto Xander's eyes as his user interface became active and showed him a satellite zoom in of the building in the corner of his eye while a white line was super imposed over his vision to show Xander the way towards his girls. A second later the satellite image went to thermal imaging and Xander instantly read that Tara and Dora were somewhere on the opposite side of the building, and they were definitely not alone.

Xander pushed his way out of the main portion of the club and into the hallway that led to the bathrooms, a quick right turn at an intersection showed him the men's bathroom on the left and the women's on the right. At the end of the hall, and where the light was directing Xander, were two large bouncers standing before a solid looking red steel door.

Xander stomped straight for the two bouncers, not slowing or even speeding up as one of the information tickers streaming along the bottom of his visual screen showed that the girls injuries were only superficial, but that their endorphin and adrenalin levels were rapidly increasing as time went on.

Both bouncers were intimidating figures with tight black shirts over black fatigues pants with bulging muscles underneath, and they stepped in between Xander and the steel door as one raised a hand to stop Xander's progress.

The guard warned Xander in Russian, "/No guests are allowed in the…/"

Xander cut off the guard's words with a straight spear jab of his fingers right into the trachea of the bouncer, crushing the man's esophagus and causing the man to cut off mid sentence in a silent gasp of pain as both of the bouncers hands then went to grab at the man's ruined throat. However the choking bouncer didn't get to worry about his throat for very long, as Xander's hands blurred to grab the heads of both bouncers and slammed them together with a wet sounding thunk.

Both bouncers dropped like puppets with their strings cut as Xander stepped over them without breaking stride and pulled back his right fist as he mentally activating his armor to go fully active.

Xander's full body black nano-armor covered his fist right before it impacted with the steel door and blasted it off its hinges.

The doorframe seemed to disintegrate with a "Boom!" as the steel door went flipping and flying through the air of the club's kitchen where it sliced through the hot gas stove and caused an immediate explosion that caught a chef and a dish washer on fire as the gas fire hit frying grease and ignited.

Xander ignored the screams of the burning men and the fleeing cocktail waitresses who were running screaming from the room as he tromped through the kitchen like some sort of terminator; crushing preparation tables in his path before grabbing a charging bouncer by the throat and throwing him through the wall that separated the kitchen from the main dance area.

Ignoring the screams that his computer systems were picking up as coming from the dance floor, Xander marched around a large dishwashing machine to come face first into a hail of bullets from a bouncer wielding an uzi.

"Thud thud thud thud thud…" The bullets impacted Xander's armor like so many droplets of rain on a calm pool of water, and Xander merely growled as the bouncers had just been upped from the category of 'inconvenience to move beyond' into a category of 'kill on sight.'

The snap hum of Xander's shoulder mounted plasma launcher was the only warning the sub-machinegun wielding bouncer had before a burst of superheated plasma zipped across the room and literally blew the man in half. The former bouncer's bodily fluids flash heated to gas and exploded in a pink shower filled with little bits of white bone and tissue, leaving a new coating or reddish paint on the walls as Xander again punched through another door that had been guarded.

Xander stepped into the room and immediately took in the details of several polished wood tables covered in stacked bundles of cash and drugs. Xander had arrived just as some Russian mob lieutenant, whom Xander instantly recognized from the high stakes poker table at Caesar's Palace Casino Las Vegas, backhanded Tara across the face while holding her by the hair with the other hand.

There was a smack of the backhand, and then the five body guards and the chief Russian Mafioso holding Tara all turned and stared in surprise at the black-armored behemoth that had just smashed into the room.

Xander's eyes immediately took in the facts of the scene, saw Tara get hit, saw her bleeding lip and saw Dora behind her on the ground sobbing with what looked like already blackening eyes, and then Xander's world tinged Red, blood blood red.

"YOU!" Xander screamed in rage while flicking his right hand towards Tara and Dora.

Black transporter portals sucked over Tara and Dora in the blink of an eye, disappearing them along with the now severed hand that had been holding Tara's hair, back to Xander's Castle for medical aid.

The gangster who had been had been holding Tara had about half a moment to look confused at the reference to "You," as if he should know who this black armored machine looking guy was, only half a moment before the pain of his severed wrist hit him and he started to scream as blood spurted from his stump.

The others in the room looked at the screaming gangster, then back at Xander and as one went for guns hidden in their coats. At the same time blades shot out of Xander's wrists and his armor immediately sported razor sharp blades and spikes in every form and shape of flesh rending perfection.

Now normally it's not good to bring a knife or a sword to a gunfight, but that supposed disparagement in weaponry really loses meaning when said blade wielder is able to move faster than a speeding bullet and is stronger than a locomotive. In short, Xander was the blender, and he had just flipped the switch to "Frappe."

The world was in slow motion as Xander disappeared from his standstill to appear next to the closest bodyguard in his way of getting to the chief thug, the other mafia goons were still in mid motion towards firing at Xander's last known location.

Xander dived into the first man's stomach headfirst and right above the belly button, claws leading the way with his fists together. At the moment Xander's claws met flesh they immediately punctured in and through the back of the man before Xander pulled his arms apart and sliced the man in half. However that wasn't good enough for Xander, oh no, these men would pay.

The blades that had just bisected the man's torso had left a six inch missing section, giving Xander a target to dive bodily through; flying literally superman style through the gap but shredding the top and bottom portions of the man as the spikes and blades protruding from Xander's body carved a gory swath through what remained of the man's chest and pelvis

Then Xander was already impacting the second man, even before the first could realize that he was already dead. Xander swung his body to a standing position right before impact with the second man, and with the incredible speed at which Xander's full mass hit the body of the thug, the man's torso, head, legs and arms simply ceased to exist.

One second there was a living breathing gun toting Russian hitman, the next Xander's body was bathed in a fine spray of organic matter as the bodyguard's body literally disintegrated from the force of Xander's armored body ramming into the gangster.

'Now for the entrée of the evening.' Xander mentally growled as he finally reached his target; the man who had dared to hurt Xander's girls.

Xander's clawed hand was around the throat of his former poker opponent and had pinned the guy against the room's back wall before the mafia leader had a chance to blink.

It is debatable which would have been scarier to the thug, Xander's exposed face with eyes shining yellowish green while snarling, or the featureless solid black mask that mirrored the thug's choked off scream. Ultimately the somewhat mirrored black surface of the armor seemed to impart the proper mood that Xander wanted, as the somewhat light absorbing/somewhat reflective material twisted the gangster's mirror image into something similar to Edvard Munch's painting, "The Scream."

The gangster stared silently screaming in Xander's grasp, futilely pulling on Xander's choking hand while using the bleeding stump to thump unsuccessfully on the top of Xander's armored head.

Xander growled and pulled the gangster towards him before repeatedly plowing the Mafioso's head and body into the wall to punctuate his statement, "You! Don't! Hit! Girls!"

Xander used the man's body like a battering ram, smashing and cracking the cement load-bearing wall with the force of the blows as he punctuated every word in his statement by thrusting the man into the wall hard enough to rattle a closed door ten feet away. The final word of "Girls" was prefaced by Xander inserting the guy's head through the cement wall and leaving the body dangling three feet off the floor, held up only by the visible neck with the head pierced through the wall.

In the time that Xander had killed the two bodyguards and taught their lieutenant a polite lesson in ethics and chivalry, the remaining three thugs had realized that their bullets were merely absorbed or reflected off of Xander's armored back and had decided that retreat was the better part of valor. They turned and ran for the open door where Xander had entered the room.

Xander turned on the fleeing thugs to give chase, only to get distracted as the door ten feet from the dangling body was thrown open by an elegantly dressed and silver haired older man.

"/Where the Fuck are those whores I sent you to get? /" The man yelled in Russian as he opened the door, only to look around the room startled for a second as he took in the destruction and death before looking at Xander's blade covered form.

"/SHIT!/" The man yelled as he dodged back the way he had just come while slamming the door behind him.

Xander growled and decided to ignore the fleeing bodyguards; he had bigger fish to fry.

Xander covered the distance to the closed door in three large steps, and went to push the door open with his arm, only for the door to open on its own.

Xander looked up into a red metal helmet with a glowing gold visor and the words CCCP written across the forehead while the metal clad form standing in the doorway was silver colored with a large red star and the number 04 on the chest.

That's what Xander saw, right before a large red painted armored fist connected with his head and Xander went flying.

Xander went flying head first and backwards across the room, crashing right through the table holding the drugs and money and causing a large "POOF!" of white powder and flying currency before smashing through the opposite wall of the room and crushing the club's security center that was in the room on the other side.

Xander shook his head and stood up from the smoking sparking security consol that he had landed on. All of the screens were shattered and the backup tapes were clearly melted in their tape drives.

'At least I won't have to worry about images of my face and actions getting out.' Xander thought as he looked through the hole that he had just made in the wall.

Xander looked through the hole in the wall just as he saw what appeared to be one of the Soviet Union's Rocket Red armored suits point both fists at Xander and launch a torrent of fire through the hole.

There was a literal "KAWOOSH!" sound as the fire immolated the security center in a wash of white hot fire.

"/Heh, eat that Bitch./" The guy in the Rocket Red armor chuckled and started to turn away, only to get broadsided by a flame covered Xander.

"/Bite me ya tin can./" Xander snapped back as he sent the Rocket Red somersaulting backwards through the air to crunch through the doorway where the assumed Mafia boss had fled.

'Deactivate firewall program.' Xander mentally commanded his armor, causing the flames that were pouring off of his armor to stop.

Xander quickly flew after the spiraling Rocket Red into an expensive looking office space with dark hard wood on the walls and bookshelves, with a large desk in the back corner. One of the bookcases was pushed back into the wall, revealing the opening of a secret escape route.

Xander had entered the room just in time to see the Rocket Red armored unit ignite the rocket engines in his boots before righting itself and charging back at Xander.

Both Xander and Rocket Red charged through the air at each other before colliding fists first with an incredible "BOOM!" that shattered all of the glass on the pictures and paintings on the office's walls.

Xander and the Rocket Red were left hovering in the room, grappling with each other.

Xander could make out the face of a sneering face with a military buzz cut behind the helmet of the Rocket Red, and both Xander and the man grunted in effort as the Rocket Red's armor gave the man super strength near to, but not completely equal with, Xander's abilities.

Xander slowly pushed the Rocket Red suit back towards the wall with the opening amongst the bookshelves. "/I, *grunt*, thought, *grunt* the Rocket Red's were part of the good guys. *grunt* Why are you protecting that scum bucket?/" Xander grunted out a question in Russian as he inexorably pushed the rocket propelled Soviet era and alien technology inspired armored suit backwards.

The man behind the armor smiled a toothy evil smile at Xander through the Rocket Red helmet visor, "/It is amazing, *grunt* what you can buy in mother Russia now that communism has collapsed./" The man jeered even as sweat trickled down the man's face due to his effort at holding Xander back.

Xander's eyes grew large and then he glared at the man in the powered suit and Xander growled out in Russian, "/You know you're not going to be able to stop me./" It was a statement, not a question.

The smile on the face of the man in the Rocket Red armor only got larger. "/I know, but I only need to delay you long enough for Viktor to escape out the back. Besides, with this invulnerable armor on, you can't touch me./" The man finished, smiling in victory at delaying Xander even longer.

Xander's blood boiled, and the Primal spirit in Xander raged for the blood of the man who had ordered that Xander's girls be hurt or possibly worse.

'Oh No You Don't!' Xander mentally raged before sending an order to his nano-clanks, 'Initiate armor power assist.' He commanded, and all through his armor and in the muscles and tendons throughout his body, the nano-clanks came alive and started talking with each other. The power assist program was taxing on Xander's body as each individual muscle would communicate with the overlying armor and hand over muscle control to the nano-clanks, effectively boosting Xander's strength at the expense of fluidity of motion.

At that moment, however, strength was really all Xander needed.

"/Eat Physics Bitch./" Xander growled in Russian and pulled the Rocket Red armored suit towards Xander's body by a foot before Xander quickly extended his arms out to their full reach.

Back and forth Xander quickly accelerated his arms, shaking of the man repeatedly in the space of about a foot for though the armored suit protected the exterior of the man, Xander was pretty sure that the man's brain would have to follow Newton's First Law of Motion.

True to form, every bouncing brain in a state of uniform motion does tend to remain in that state of motion until Xander's external force was applied to it. Like a pinball stuck between two bumpers in an arcade machine, Xander treated the Rocket Red's brain like the martinis he used to make for his mother back in Sunnydale; she liked them shaken, not stirred.

Xander's arms and the body of the Rocket Red were a shaking blur, and after two seconds Xander was witness to the man's eyes liquefying as a slush of grey matter and blood painted the inside of the helmet of the Soviet armor.

The jet boots shut down with the brain death of the man in the Rocket Red armor and Xander dropped the limp corpse before blurring out the escape route, hoping that he wasn't too late to catch this 'Viktor' who made the mistake of targeting Xander's girls.

---

The tunnel that led out of the office and exited via a hole in the brick wall behind club Propaganda; a trash dumpster had hinged aside to allow an opening into the alleyway.

Xander darted out of the hole and looked left down the dark brick lined alley and frowned, not seeing anything.

Xander then turned to the right, and smiled an evil smile at what he saw.

Dangling six feet off the ground was the elusive Viktor, held tightly around his chest by the twelve foot tall transformer robot, aka Bumblebee, aka Xander's Lotus.

Xander walked calmly down the alley towards the struggling man who was cursing a blue streak in both Russian and English. A gun lay dropped on the ground under the dangling man who was swinging and punching ineffectively at the large metal hand that held him securely.

The robot turned to look at Xander with its two glowing blue eyes and announced in the voice of a radio announcer, "Today in the news, robot catches felon, more at ten."

Xander smirked evilly and started humming to himself as he waltzed up towards the robot and mafia figure.

"Good job Bumblebee." Xander stated before addressing the Russian mafia boss with an evil lilt to his voice, "Now what should I do with the man who would try to attack my girls? Flay you alive? Slice off bits of you and leave you for rat food here in the alley?"

The man struggled to turn around in the immovable grasp of Bumblebee. Growling and spitting over his shoulder at the black armored figure that had torn up his dance club, the Mafia Don cursed in slightly Russian accented English, "Fuck you! Do you know who I am? Do you know who the fuck you're messing with?"

Xander quirked his head to the side and answered happily, "No, but I'm sure you're about to tell me."

"Fuck you punk, I'm Viktor Mikalek. I'm the Oligarch of Moscow! The Boss of Bosses in the Russian Mob, and I own this town lock stock and barrel. I'll destroy you, I'll kill you, I'll…!"

Viktor's statement was cut off as Bumblebee let go of the Mafia leader, dropping him to where Xander's hand blurred up and snatched the man out of the air by the neck before the man could touch the ground.

Xander pulled the man close, choking out the man's rant and putting them nose to helmet.

Xander growled, his eyes glowing behind his helmet, "I don't care if you are Joseph Stalin reborn and angels come down from heaven to wipe your ass for you! You messed with my girls, now you die!"

Xander brought back his clawed fist to behead the man, only to pause as the man gasped out, "Wait, you kill me and millions die!" The man begged, eyes still haughty but now with a bit of fear in them.

Xander paused with his hand held up to strike. "Talk… Quickly…" Xander said through grinding teeth while still choking the man.

Between gasps for air Viktor Mikalek explained with an evil smirk on his face, "I feed this city, I heat this city, I see that there are police, schools, hospitals, and basic services as well as controlling what goes in and out of Moscow and one third of the Russia. *GASP* Kill me, and millions starve and die in the chaos."

Xander stared at Viktor, the urges to kill the man and the need to protect innocents warring inside of Xander's mind as Xander almost visibly shook due to the battle being warred in his mind.

Finally Xander roared in anger and brought his fist smashing into Viktor's skull.

Only as Xander fist rushed towards Viktor's now fearful face, Xander's claws blades and spikes retracted from his armor, leaving a single needle to protrude from between Xander's knuckles and sink into Viktor's skull and brain.

Viktor screamed in agony as Xander brutally ripped the memories from Viktor's mind, not destroying the man's mind but in no way being gentle.

It was all there, the food shipments were all controlled by Viktor, even the distributorships. The reason the police hadn't shown up yet at the club was because the police were all paid off by Viktor, that and the chief of Moscow's state police was one of Viktor's lieutenants. Viktor had his fingers in everything: fuel oil, energy and telephone companies, potato farming, legal alcohol and moonshine, drugs and prostitution and even guns for hire. Corrupt and honest, blatant and hidden, Viktor Mikalek had used his contacts as a former KGB chief to pick up and control the pieces right as the Soviet Union was falling apart; and it had made him a very wealthy man. Not only wealthy, but needed. Xander read through the memories of the man and knew that if Viktor died, Russia would be in chaos and innocents would suffer and die.

"DAH!" Xander spat in anger as he ripped his needle from Viktor's head, the nano-clanks healing the wound in Viktor's skull.

Viktor's world twisted and spun in pain, and through his pain he heard the armored behemoth curse, "Fine bastard, you're going to live, but from this day forth your mine!"

Viktor's last memory was of a wave of inky black night opening up and swallowing him whole.

---

The sounds of beeping machines and clinking glassware distantly filtered into Viktor Mikalek's mind, bringing him swimming back to consciousness.

Opening his eyes, Viktor realized that he wasn't able to move his head or any of his body, feeling tight constricting metal bands securely holding him down. His eyes moved frantically from side to side, taking in some sort of laboratory with decanters, Bunsen burners and bubbling swirling tubes of chemicals and wires flowing across the opposite wall. A large glass vat of about four feet tall swirled with a mix of black and green swirling goop that seemed to move and writhe on its own while a tray of surgical tools and syringes sat on a sterile medical tray with a white cloth underneath the shiny tools.

Before Viktor could open his mouth to call out or ask where he was, a familiar black portal opened up and the towering black armored being seemed to step out of the shadowy doorway while dragging a dark haired tan woman of Arabic descent by the throat.

The woman cursed and struck at the armored figure without effect, and it was clear that the woman hadn't planned on going anywhere that night as she was wearing a long cream colored silk nighty. Out of the corner of Viktor's eyes he saw a metal table seem to grow and bubble out of the floor solid metal floor like some silver metallic magma.

The armored being thrust the struggling woman against the table and liquid metal grew out of the table to restrain her arms, legs, and torso while also pinning her head into a forward looking position.

The armored figure stepped back into clear view of both tables and waved his hand at them in greeting.

"Hello and welcome to my laboratory. Now that the two of you are all cozy." Xander started to say before he was interrupted by a string of curse words from the woman, a blue streak that even made his face blush a bit with the anatomical impossibility of some of the woman's statements.

Xander waved his arm at the woman and the liquid metal of the table grew up to flow into her open mouth and seize control of her tongue. This finally caught her attention as she struggled not to gag due to the metal that had formed around the inside and outside of her lower jaw and froze her mouth in an open position.

Xander smiled underneath his helmet, "There now, that wasn't very lady like. I was trying to introduce myself." He said with a short jaunty mocking bow.

"Congratulations and welcome, you both have something in common with each other. One, You both have threatened my life, and two, your lives as you knew them are now over." Xander started, and Viktor started to object, only for his table to grow up and seize his lower jaw as well.

"Tut tut, enough interruptions. As I was saying, allow me to introduce myself. I am known as Xander Harris." Xander said, and he saw the eyes of the woman grow large before she growled around her gag, "But you probably know me best as The Leviathan." With this, Xander's armor rippled until he was left with the shiny black helmet, black suit, black gloves, and blood red tie that the world had grown familiar with recently.

At this both of Xander's prisoner's eyes got large in fear and Queen Bee lost control of her bladder.

Xander ignored their reactions and started to pace back and forth before his prisoners, "Yes yes, I bet you're sorry now. Oh by the way, Viktor Mikalek, Oligarch of Moscow and boss in the Russian Mafia, meet the Queen Bee, Dictator of Bialya. Queen Bee, meet Viktor."

Both the Queen Bee and Viktor briefly allowed their eyes to look to the side at each other before immediately going back to following the back and forth pace of The Leviathan.

"Bob, please have Igor come down to the lab with Tara and Dora." Xander commanded to the Castle's AI before continuing to address the Queen Bee and Viktor.

"Now as I was saying, you both have made a big mistake in threatening my life, and the only reason you're not already dead is because for one reason or another if I killed you then many innocents would suffer. Thus I'm going to release you." Xander stated with a wave of his hand and looked to the side at the two of them for a moment while he continued to pace back and forth in thought in front of them.

Both the Queen Bee and Viktor looked startled at the idea that not only were they not going to die, but that they were going to be released. It sounded too good to be true.

Xander continued to pace, scientific calculations of biology, chemistry and nano-technology bouncing through his head as he worked out the necessary mix to make his new plan come true. Though the debate in Xander's head was ruckus and loud, the enforced silence of his 'guests' left the room almost silent besides the sounds of bubbling swirling fluids and of Xander's pacing.

Finally, Xander's silent pacing was interrupted by the door to the lab opening.

In walked Tara and Dora looking healed, showered and wearing fluffy comfortable robes and bare feet along with the normal stoic faced Igor. Upon seeing Xander standing there, both Tara and Dora ran to him and were embraced lovingly by Xander.

Soft whispers were held amongst the three as Xander allowed his still somewhat raging instincts to quiet as he held his girls close and at the same time comforted the cute duo from their earlier situation.

Letting go of his hug, Xander stepped out in front of Tara and Dora and gestured towards Viktor, "Ladies, this is the gentleman who ordered your capture." Xander said with a bit of an evil smirk underneath his helmet. "Why don't you let him know how much you enjoyed the actions of his underlings." Xander finished with a voice that made the hairs on the back of the Queen Bee and Viktor stand on end.

Dora turned and glared at Viktor before walking over to him, reared back her fist, and then popped him right in the nose.

Viktor's eyes immediately watered and a groan escaped his throat as blood started to trickle down his face. Then it was Tara's turn.

Not one to be out done, but having her own opinions on how she should let her feelings be known, Tara walked up to Viktor, pulled her foot back, and then planted the ball of her foot right into Viktor's balls.

Viktor screamed in agony, well as much of a scream as one can do when they can't move their tongue or lower jaw and they are sporting a broken nose; Viktor's eyes crossed as the he began to cry due to the pain.

Both girls looked smug as they moved to stand behind Xander and glare at the whimpering man.

Xander turned to glare at the Queen Bee and quipped, "Be thankful that you only threatened my life, because if you had gone after one of the people I cared for you would be suffering similar pain at this moment."

The Queen Bee's throat visibly gulped.

Xander stood there silently for a moment, looking back and forth between his two guests before smirking and clapping his hands together before rubbing them back and forth in glee.

"Well then, let us get this night's endeavors finished, shall we?" Xander asked rhetorically, as if Queen Bee and Viktor had a choice.

Turning around towards the churning glass vat, Xander pulled down a beaker with a red bubbling fluid in it and poured it into the vat. The substance in the vat immediately turned from a mix of green and metallic colors to dark black, a black that matched the color of Xander's armor and the Leviathan's helmet.

Pulling out two empty glass decanters, Xander dipped one after the other into the fluid and pulled out a healthy portion of the black goopy moving stuff.

Turning back around, Xander walked towards the medical instrument table with the syringes before picking up two of the empty needled devices; both syringes looking like they were built for taking blood from horses rather than humans. However rather than use the syringes on Viktor, Queen Bee or the glass beakers, Xander turned and addressed his minions.

"Igor, your arm." Xander stated, and without hesitation the chief minion pulled up his sleeve and presented Xander with a vein. Xander, through his knowledge of medical science, drew a perfect sample of blood from Igor's arm before placing a gloved finger on Igor's needle mark. Upon removing Xander's finger, Igor's needle mark was gone.

Then turning towards his girls, Xander waved for Dora to approach, and she in turn pulled up the sleeve of her white fluffy robe and Xander again drew blood with a second clean syringe before also healing her wound.

Turning towards the teaming moving beakers of goop, Xander injected the contents of one syringe into one beaker, before following suit with the second syringe and second beaker.

Giving the beakers a swirl and holding them up to the light, they briefly flashed green before going back to their black color. Xander smiled evilly before filling the two syringes up with the mixture, each syringe from a different beaker.

Flicking both large syringes to bleed out the air, Xander turned and lowered his head a bit as he gave a toothy evil smile at the two prisoners from behind his helmet. "Bwa ha ha ha, um, sorry, but now comes the time where you pay the penalty for threatening me and mine. Consider yourself my new Adam and Eve in fighting crime and tyranny." Xander said.

With that, Xander stepped forward between the two medical tables and reached out simultaneously to jab the two syringes into the necks of both the Queen Bee and Viktor Mikalek.

Hot fire burned through the two individuals as Xander pressed in the plungers and the fluid hit their veins and was immediately pumped to their brains and to their hearts where it was circulated through their bodies. Both restrained individuals on their medical tables shook and made gagged moans of pain while Xander and his minions just stood by and smiled evilly at the pain inflicted on their soon to be former enemies.

Stepping back, Xander put an arm around both of his girls while they enjoyed the sight; Igor just giving a bloodthirsty grin at watching his Master's work.

For ten minutes they watched the gory show in silence, enjoying the sounds of agony of those who had dared to attack them.

Finally at the ten minute mark, as if a switch had been flipped on a machine, the seizures stopped and the eyes of both the Queen Bee and Viktor stared at Xander contentedly and without pain.

Xander smirked before waving at both tables with a mental command.

The restraints on the tables retracted, and both Viktor and the Queen Bee fell to their knees bowing before The Leviathan. In tandem they questioned, "How may we serve you Master?"

Xander reared his head back in laughter, and Dora, Tara and Igor joined in, "BWA HA HA HA HA! WA HA HA HA HA! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Finally Xander stopped laughing, his minions also stopping immediately, and then he gestured with both of his hands in an upwards direction, "Rise my minions. Let us talk about my rewriting your DNA to be my loyal minions, and how you will use your new retro-virus to bring the criminal and dictatorial worlds to their knees." Xander said with an evil smile.

The evil smile was mirrored back to him by his three original minions, and his two new loyal minions.

---

AN: Wow, like I said, long chapter and a ton got done in this chapter. If you think this was a filler chapter, then my friend you really need to reread in order to understand the deeper significance of the things happening here. Boy oh boy, I really enjoyed getting this out there and I can't wait to write the next couple of chapters. Sorry about the wait, but frankly I hadn't been feeling like writing for a while there and I hadn't received many ideas, messages or reviews to help inspire me to think up the missing parts for this long chapter. Thanks go to all those who reviewed with ideas or sent me emails or private messages with suggestions and factoids to add to my story. Special thanks go Hasty, Tippy, DamnUnicorn, Lucifael, Eewec, Tenhawk and to all of the readers and authors who helped me via the online chat on Lucifael's website, all are welcome to join us over there as many authors use that site for ideas and to talk to readers. As always special thanks go out to my Beta who catches the parts where I repeated descriptive words or when I have too much fun with semicolons and commas. Anyway, did you like the chapter? Are you looking forward to more? Was it too long? Please let me know via a review or message.

Poll: Long chapters(15k+ words) or shorter chapters (8-14k words), which do you prefer when you read an update? Please let me know if the length of these chapters make them hard to read or if you prefer these long sections to read when you get an update. Cheers!