Homebase for the Trio, the next day.
The Summers house was empty with Buffy staying in the dorms, Dawn was in school, and Joyce working at the gallery. The three young men calling themselves the Trio; Warren Mears, Andrew Wells, and Jonathan Levinson were in the back of a black van that belonged to Andrew's uncle. Andrew and Warren were looking at a few miniature camera's while Jonathan was working on a computer with three monitors as he set up the wireless feeds on the devices. Not daring to make any sound while working in case they could be heard, Andrew placed one of the cameras in a garden gnome, and then rushed out and placed the gnome under the shadow of a tree that looked out to the front door of the Summers residence. He then ran back to the van where Jonathan was watching the feed from the camera, making sure it was exactly what they needed to see, before they head out for the U.C. Sunnydale Campus.
Once they parked near Stevenson Hall, Johnathan and Andrew were working on getting the feeds to another camera, with Warren heading to the housing office and asked for a housing application for the next semester. While pretending to work on the application, he took out his laptop and occasionally looked up to make sure that two young women working in the front desk were looking at him. He used his computer to hack into the network and steal Buffy's housing information; especially her room and key card identification number, as well as the card access code. Once he had that information, he sent it to Jonathan in the van. Johnathan then used a machine and programmed a spare key card with that information as Warren headed out of the office while pulling the lip of the cap he was wearing over his face.
With the card ready, Andrew picked up one camera before heading out the side of the van while Johnathan was adjusting the wireless signal for high quality video and audio. Andrew rushed to the front of Stevenson Hall with the key card in his pocket and met Warren at the foot of the stairs. The both of them then rushed up the stairs while Warren, speaking into a tiny microphone on his jacket's lapel asked Jonathan if he was sure that Buffy and her roommate, Willow, was not in her room.
"I really don't want to get kicked in the ass by the Slayer, I want to be doing the ass kicking," whispered Warren, "and we need to surveil her to find out her weaknesses."
"And to see her change," whispered Andrew as the both of them rushed up the stairs to the third floor. Warren smirked as he imagined watching Buffy changing clothes on camera, unaware that she was being watched. His mind swimming with images, he rushed to the door while reaching out his hand for the key.
"But I want to open it," whined Andrew as he took out the keycard while Warren rolled his eyes and then knocked on the door. They waited for a few seconds in case someone was in the room unexpectedly. With no one answering the door, Andrew placed the keycard into the lock, and then pulled it out. They were standing for a second, what actually felt like several hours, and then breathed a sigh of relief when the motors inside the lock whirred and then disengaged the lock.
Andrew pocketed the key while Warren placed his hand on the door handle, and pushed down and then inwards. Rushing into the room, Andrew and Warren looked around while the door closed behind them.
"We're in the lair of the enemy," whispered Andrew while Warren looked around and licked his lips. He walked over to the side of the room that had a desk with a picture of Buffy and a young man, unknown to the two of them it was Barry, tacked to the inside of her desk. Warren sneered at the smile on Barry's face while his arms where around Buffy's hips. It was a picture taken in a photo-booth at the beach from the previous day with Warren eyeing the smile on Buffy's face. In the meantime, Andrew was placing the camera on a high shelf over Willow's desk on the other side of the room while talking through the microphone. He asked Jonathan if he could see everything clearly. The young man answered in the affirmative when he said that from the angle Andrew placed the camera, the could see the entire room clearly… except for parts of Buffy's table.
"Look," said Warren while he was bending down behind the bed. He then pulled out a brown bag from underneath and held it up before placing it on the bed. Andrew looked in awe at the Slavers weapons; stakes, two crossbows, arrows, and knives. He then placed it back down and then under the bed before turning around while Andrew rushed to the window and looked out to a view of the stairs they had rushed up earlier.
Warren asked him to keep a look out while he opened Buffy's closet and looked at the clothes. He then looked down at some drawers and pulled them out slowly. Andrew then had his eyes open up wide when he saw Buffy and Willow walking towards the stairs with bags were swinging on their shoulders. HE then hissed at Warren who waved at him, asking him to give him a second. Andrew frowned and then rushed to where his friend was standing, and what he saw opened his eyes wide while Warren licked his lips.
"That… that… that's…."
"Guys, get out," said Jonathan who accessed the feeds from the lobby and watched Buffy and Willow, the both of them laughing, as they walked into the lobby. He then looked up at the camera which showed Andrew telling Warren to be quick. In the meantime, Warren was looking at a drawer full of Buffy's underwear. The young man, with a hand shaking, reached in and took out a lace pair of panties before stuffing it into his pocket. He then closed the drawer before telling Andrew they needed to get out of there.
While Jonathan was telling Warren and Andrew through their earpieces that Buffy and Willow were already walking up the stairs, the two interlopers rushed out of the room and headed for the stairwell on the other side of the hallway. Just after they entered the stairwell and closed the door behind them, they peeked through the glass pane in the middle of the door. They saw Buffy and Willow walking into the hallway before heading to the room. Warren heard Buffy's laugh while his hand was in his pocket feeling the material of the undergarment he stole.
"I want her," whispered Warren as Buffy walked into the room followed by Willow. It was then that Jonathan said that he was receiving good picture and sound. Warren chuckled before he and Andrew then walked down the stairs to the first floor. They rushed through the lobby and left the dorms while Buffy and Willow placed their bags on their respective beds and talked about plans for the rest of the day.
While Warren and Andrew were rushing to the van, Jonathan knew he had seen Warren taking something from Buffy's closet. He didn't know Warren as well as Andrew, but Jonathan knew that he was a genius. However, he also suspected something darker about him… and as he watched Buffy and Willow change… he looked away. To Jonathan, he still wanted to take over Sunnydale with his friends, but while talking about spying on the Slayer sounded good at the time… seeing Buffy and Willow changing made him feel sick. The excitement of seeing two beautiful girls wore off as Buffy and Willow took off her underwear when the side door of the van opened.
Warren and Andrew rushed in before closing the door behind them and leered at the screen as Buffy and Willow, who were now topless were talking about their dates for later that night with Barry and Tara respectively. They watched as Buffy was laughing at something Willow said while opening her underwear drawer and, without looking, took out some undergarments and placed them on the bed. She then picked up a towel, put on a robe, and then grabbed her clothes before heading to the communal ladies shower.
Jonathan looked at the leering Warren and Andrew and then looked at the floor in embarrassment while they were whistling at the young women. To him, he knew Willow and Buffy very well; the both of them had in fact saved his life a few times…. And Buffy actually prevented him from committing suicide in their senior year of high school.
And despite that, he was responsible for spying on them.
"Shucks," said Andrew after Willow left the room while Warren drooled, "they're gone."
"They'll be back tonight," said Warren before he headed for the driver's seat in the front cab, "next stop, the Magic Box. Then tonight we come back and…"
"I have to go pee," said Jonathan as he opened the side door before Andrew and Warren could say anything, "sorry, it's really bad."
"Didn't we tell you not to have that large iced tea?" said Warren with a frown, "well… get a move on, dude. Two more cameras to place and then… and then we see the Slayer change again…. And again… and again."
"I also have an idea of a contest to test her abilities and the way she thinks," said an excited Andrew before he started waving his arms about after turning off all the monitors in the van, "we could make it like a competition between us."
"I want to hear about it when I get back," replied Jonathan who was fidgeting as he pretended to have an urgent need to head for the restroom. He then turned and shut the door of the van behind him before rushing to the nearest building, Stevenson Hall. He had seen the screens in the van turned off before, from the corner of his eyes, saw Andrew sit down next to Warren who started the van. Jonathan then turned into the walkway that led to Stevenson Hall and, after the doors behind him shut, head for the front desk where he reached in for one of the many copies of the UC Sunnydale newspaper and then looked around. He saw a young woman with a pen, and then rushed to her before grabbing the pen from her hand. The young woman said, "hey!" while at the same time Jonathan profusely apologized and said that he'll have it back to her in a few seconds.
Not wanting to be long in the lobby, since his two friends were waiting out in the van, Jonathan wrote something on the top section of the newspaper, and then folded it before rushing to the young woman and handing her back the pen he "borrowed". He thanked her before rushing up the stairs, and then he stopped when he saw Willow rushing out of her room in a robe. To Jonathan, time had stood still, Willow was supposed to be out of the room earlier, and here she was stepping out.
'She must have come back to get something, and she's just coming out again,' thought Jonathan to himself before stopping a gasp escaping his mouth as Willow, her back to Jonathan, closed her door and started to walk away. Jonathan hung the paper on the railing of the stairs and then rushed down to the landing just before the second floor and yelled in a deep voice.
"Friend of the Slayer! Tonight is the night!" yelled Jonathan in his deepest voice as his throat started to become raw while he rushed down the stairs. Willow turned around after hearing the strange growling voice and narrowed her eyes at the staircase. She then eyed the newspaper hanging on the railing and walked towards it. Upon picking it up, she looked down the stairs and saw no one who could have spoken in that voice.
"Hello?" cried Willow down the stairs before she noticed the U.C. Sunnydale newspaper again and then picked it up off the railing. She just skimmed through it having remembered not seeing it there a few minutes ago after she and Buffy returned from classes. Willow was about to put it away while telling herself that whatever reason that person left the newspaper could wait. It was she folded the paper again that Willow noticed a series of numbers at the top left edge next to the name of the university paper. She then focused on those numbers and narrowed her eyebrows while tilting her head.
'It's an I.P address,' thought Willow to herself while continuing to read the quick message which read, "top left corner of shelf over study table, Willow's side. Act surprised somehow. Will watch at night. Forgive me."
"What?" asked a very confused Willow as she looked at the paper, and then back at the stairs, before heading back into her room again. As she walked in, Willow looked around while closing the door shut behind her. She walked to her side of the room and looked around, but still couldn't find anything as she looked up t the shelf of books. She then looked at the paper while Jonathan rushed back into the van which then drove off.
Willow then frowned as she looked back up at her desk confused. She was still unable to find anything, so she rushed to her computer and input the IP address and then stared at the image on the screen with a stunned look on her face. She found herself, looking at herself, on the computer. She then looked up, got off the bad, and finally saw the micro camera on the high shelf under the shadow cast by a book, and her face went pale. She turned and then rushed to the computer where she saw herself sitting on her bed. Her face paled when she recalled that a few minutes ago, both she and Buffy were naked before they put on their robes and head out for the showers.
"Oh, my God," yelled Willow before she closed her laptop screen and hurried off her bed with her heart racing. Once she was off the bed, Willow stared at her closed laptop while panting as she thought about what to do next. She then rushed to her closet and took out a shirt, and then threw it over the section of the shelf that had the miniature camera before she hurriedly packed some clothes into a bag. She tried to keep herself from vomiting on her bed at the breach of her privacy while she stuffed clothes into her bag. She then rushed to Buffy's side of the room, and opened her closet. Willow then packed some clothes she thought that Buffy may need.
After seven minutes of stuffing the bags, Willow heard the main door open as Buffy walked in wearing a fresh set of cloths, her robe hanging on her arm, and a head of damp hair covered in a towel.
"Will, what are you…?" Buffy was unable to finish her sentence before Willow rushed at her with the two bags in her hands… one of which contained her laptop, and told her that they needed to get out.
"Will? What's..."
"We need to go now, possibly to Tara's apartment," said a stern Willow who was nearly on the verge of tears, "Buffy, we.. we need to go. I need you to call Barry from Tara's place and…"
"Why Barry?" asked a concerned Buffy.
"I'll show you why in Tara's room," said Willow shaking her head as she tried her best not to let her voice crack, "not here. I have some clothes for you and me… but we can't stay here."
"Will?"
"We have to go, Buff, please," begged Willow as she pushed Buffy back and let the door close behind her while magically removing the shirt, and letting it fall to the floor so that the camera could continue taking video. She didn't know if anyone was spying on them now, and she didn't care. She knew that she needed to show Buffy the signal from the camera in Tara's room so that she didnt think that her best friend was nuts. Unknown to the red headed witch though, the camera had just turned on again once the van reached the Magic Box. With Andrew and Warren looking at the empty room for a little while with Jonathan, the former two then headed out of the van in uniforms stolen from a Sunnydale Power van and entered the Magic Box.
In the meantime, Tara opened her door to see Willow on the verse of tears with Buffy beside her. Surprised at her girlfriend being so upset, Tara was about to ask what happened when Willow walked into Tara's room while Buffy followed closely behind shrugging her shoulders and saying she had no idea what was going on.
"Willow? Sweetie?" asked Tara as Willow took out her laptop, and then placed it on Tara's table without a word. She then opened the top and woke up the screen. Tara and Buffy's mouth's hung open when they watched Buffy and Willow's room with the redhead whispering that the camera wasn't hers. She said that someone left a newspaper hanging on the railing in their floor before telling them what the voice had told her. Willow then said that Barry could very well find some finger prints while she used her skills to find out where the feed was heading.
"Magic skills?" asked Buffy as she took out the phone Barry gave her as the Flash.
"Hacking," said Willow as she started typing, "I promised Tara that…"
"Use magic to find out who did this," said Tara who was giving Willow a stern look. She was angry that someone not only violated Buffy's primacy, but Willow's as well. And she was not going to take it. She told Willow that she would help her to do whatever spell she needed while Buffy called for Barry.
"No need," said Willow as she looked at Tara and then at her computer while placing her hand into the keyboard. Willow used her magic to follow the signals to a bank of computers, and then overloaded the system. She wasn't able to tell who was spying on them but, as she put her hand out of the computer and looked up at Buffy and Tara, she was sure that they wouldn't be looking in on them again.
Back in the van, Warren and Andrew had just gotten back after placing a miniature camera I the Magic Box when Jonathan heard a humming sound from the computers and bank of monitors on the table. Warren and Andrew looked back at Jonathan who was backing away from the bank of computers when there were sparks that erupted followed by smoke which encroached the interior of the van.
"Get out!" cried Jonathan as he opened the side door, and Warren and Andrew rushed out the drivers and passengers side respectively before running away on foot as smoke enveloped the interior of the van and started to pour out.
TBC