Snippets, Omakes and Short Stories

[AntonioCC]

DuBois Manor. Close to midnight​

Sidney awoke suddenly when the door to her cell opened suddenly. The Moon light that filtered through the small window of her cell illuminated two people... no, not people, as she noticed the ridged faces and yellow eyes. More like monsters. One looked like a big man dressed in business clothes, who acted subserviently to the other, a black haired woman dressed in a black t-shirt and pants ensemble.

"Pathetic." She said with a sneer, speaking with a southern accent. "You should have fed her better. She'll have to do, though. But I'll supervise personally the next batch, understood?"

"Yes, Mistress Dala." He said, producing a dart gun from a pocket in his jacket.

"No, keep her awake. I want to savor the fear in her blood, when we drain her." She said, licking her lips.

The man nodded and went toward her, taking her by the neck, while with the other he was opening the manacles. After that, with a single movement, he put her on his shoulder and carried her through the corridors until they reached a big room with several people..., no, several monsters. They were in a circle around a dais with chains on it, chains much like the one in her cell.

With a shiver she realized that they were to chain her there, and then the monsters would do... whatever they had done to the others. And given that they were looking at her like she was a piece of meat... she shivered again, realizing that she wasn't going to get out of here alive. She tried to fight against her captor, but the monster chuckled and grabbed her tighter. Even if she had been at full strength she couldn't have get out of the grip, the monster was too strong.

As they reached the center of the dais, the monster put her on the floor, and kept her in place while the female monster manacled her wrists. She scratched with her long, sharp fingernails on her neck, letting out a bit of blood that the female mon... the vampiress, she ralized, licked with her tongue.

"Hmm... fear and despair, I can taste it in your blood, girl." She said, licking her lips. Then she turned to the other vampires and said, "You know the rules, everyone gets a bite, and the one to drain her fully is the one that will bury the corpse, understood? Well, then, fellow servants of our august Master..."

"...bator." said a female voice over them

"Who dares?" she said looking up, only to see two figures jumping in front of the assembled vampires. She recognized one of the figures immediately. "The Bat!"

"And what I am? Chopped liver?" the other figure, a petite blonde woman, clad in a baggy black hoodie, black pants and boots, said in an aggrieved tone, producing two big knives from somewhere inside the hoodie.

 

[AntonioCC]

"And what I am, chopped liver?" Buffy said, her eyes never leaving the assembled vampires.

"The Golden Slayer." Hissed the vampires in the dais.

Batman quickly assessed the situation as he got up from the jump from the hole in the upper floor, there were fifteen vampires. All of them were on what Buffy had called their game face, so they wouldn't hold back. Neither should he.

For a moment, after Buffy's quip, things stood in an impasse, but the innate aggressiveness of the vampires won and they attacked the pair. Buffy found herself facing no less than ten of the vampires, while four others focused on him.

His first hits had not much effect and he barely escaped the hold of one of the vampires. He berated himself mentally, he was not fighting men, but monsters out of nightmares.

"What are you doing, Batsy? We don't have all night!" Buffy said as she was dispatching the third of the vampires that were fighting her, who despite seemingly being better fighters than usual they were only slowing her down.

He didn't answer, but he shifted gears mentally and activated a device in the heavier than usual gauntlets that he was wearing. The short wings on the gauntlets lengthened and sharpened and the next vampire he hit found himself shaking from the electric charge of the built-in tasers in the knuckles, and another had barely time to gasp before the wings cut his neck.


The vampiress looked at the fight, and frowned, ignoring Sydney's struggles to free herself from the chains, and with good reason, as the chains were too strong and were too well lodged onto the floor to even budge a bit with the strength that a half-starved young woman could exert.

The vampiress then turned to her, a calculating look in her face, and smiled. Sydney then realized that this was it. She was going to die here, just when people had come into her rescue. She just knew that it was impossible for her to survive tonight.

And then, the impossible happened. At the same time that in another continent a young woman died by a werehyena before her lover, she heard a voice, the voice of a young woman speaking in a Cali accent, asking her:

'Do you want to be strong?'

"Yes." She said aloud, and she felt... weird, but also, strong, as if she could lift a mountain over her head. She pulled from the chains, and the metal groaned, until, suddenly, the chains snapped.

The vampiress stood there for a moment with an expression of incredulity, looking back between Sydney and the Slayer.

"Fuck it, Nick was right. This changes everything." She said, before turning into a bat and fleeing into the darkness.

 

[AntonioCC]

Keystone City.​

The taxi arrived to the address that Ma had given her, a small apartment building just outside a zone of the city that seemed to be completely surrounded by thick concrete walls. She shrugged and went to the second floor.

The apartment gewas well kept, although the furniture looked to be a bit old, as was the TV in the living room. One of the rooms seemed to be a complete chemical lab, weirdly enough, and the books seemed to be all science related, except for a single and a dog-eared old-looking copy of a book called "Behind the Mask", by a guy called John Law.

She lied down on the bed, thinking about what she had to do tomorrow. The idea of going to Topeka didn't appeal to her, but frankly, with the FBI going after her, she didn't have many options, other than trust what Irene had ready for her. Maybe tomorrow Irene would have sent something. She closed her eyes. It had been a long day, and sleep soon claimed her...

She stood inside a cathedral-like building made of crystal. A young black haired man with the bluest eyes she had ever seen, dressed in a flannel shirt, a burgundy leather jacket, and jeans was talking to her, but she couldn't hear the words, because of the intense cold she was feeling. The man bopped his forehead, and removed his jacket, putting it over her shoulders. When he did that, she felt... safe, and looked back at him with a smile in her lips...

He was gone, as it was the crystalline building, and the jacket. But she was not feeling the cold anymore. She was in a fighting stance against a dark haired woman, who smirked and attacked her faster than she believed possible. She could barely block her and the hit hurt a lot. She braced herself for the next hit…

The girl was nowhere to be seen now, instead she was in a dark corridor, stepping back from some kind of purple… slimy… thing, with glowing red eyes that extended a dripping hand to her. Suddenly the hand was on her shoulder and she screamed…

…Just to awake in the bed with Ma Hunkle trying to wake her.

"Sorry, a nightmare." Rogue said, and by the light that filtered through the window it was already early in the morning. "What time is it?"

"7:30, and I called one of my sons to take care of the inn this morning." Ma said.

"Did the FBI agents arrive." Rogue asked, as they walked to the small kitchen.

"Twice. The first time they were fakes, probably the same people that are after you and Irene." Ma said, serving herself a cup of tea, "The second time, I repeated what I said them and informed them of the fakes. As they were leaving, Fred called and told me that it had been some hacker sending a fake warning, as the central office has no record of sending it."

"And you believe it?"

"Well, the fakes seemed to be surprised that I had received a call from the local FBI office." Ma said, "And you?"

"Fine, actually. What is with the walled area, though? There is nothing inside." Rogue said, curious.

 

[AntonioCC]

Wanted to do something different this time, looking at how the not-quite-AI of the drone would "think".

---

Kansas cornfields. Close to Smallville.​

The drone had been pursuing its last objective for 29.7 millicycles. The damage sustained in the crash on the surface of the unknown planet had been more destructive than originally estimated and the self-diagnosis programs estimated that it would be 152.7 millicycles of continued activity until the fissures grew to a size that would threaten the structural integrity of the drone.

It revised the estimated time until completion of the task, if no external factors intervened. The primitive combustion engine powering the conveyance that was carrying the objective would consume its last fuel in 59.7 millicycles. The drone would then reach it in 2.3 millicycles. If the primitives carried the objective further, the probe estimated 6.4 additional millicycles until the termination of the objective. The drone AI deemed it was acceptable, but it prepared the infiltration mode for detachment, just in case.

7.8 millicycles passed until the vehicle driver made a sub-optimal decision and steered it too much to the right, causing it to fall into a small body of water. As it seemed that the vehicle engine had stopped, the drone kept its pace toward them ignoring the aerial vehicles coming up at great altitude. It only had a few moments to register the detachment of primitive chemically powered missiles, before they impacted on its surface.

The damage would have been negligible if the probe was intact, but on its current weakened state, the explosions had worsened the damage suffered in the crash, reducing the time until structural integrity failure to 98.2 millicycles, and allowing the primitives time to restart the vehicle and continue the chase. Another pass by the same vehicles using chemically launched metallic projectiles further reduced the operating time to 91.6 millicycles, before they disappeared.

The self-diagnostic subroutines informed the drone's decision program that the attack had damaged its structural integrity, causing it to slow its advance adding another 14.2 millicycles to the project pursuing time. As it was processing this, its sensor warned it that a different group of aerial vehicles was approaching from the opposite direction of the first one, and it would reach the location in another 12.3 millicycles.

If the new group of vehicles was similarly armed to the last, it would severely jeopardize the completion of the mission, so it decided to detach the infiltration unit. Following pre-programmed protocols, the unit would burrow under the surface and activate if the main unit was disabled.

 

[AntonioCC]

DuBois Manor​

Batman's strategy of approaching the manor by foot had been successful, as well as her idea to go first through the clearly abandoned upper levels. Buffy had been ready to launch a silver throwing knife to the vampire leader when she had felt it, the death of a Slayer and the activation of another. And just afterwards, the girl who had been prepared as the main course by the vamps, snapped the chains holding her as if they were made of tinfoil.

The head vampires, after looking both at her and the girl with a confuse expression, had turned into a bat and fled, something that set a Snake-Mayor sized alarm bell on her head.

'I thought that only Dracula could do that.' she thought, just as she dispatched the last vamps. 'Things to check later with Giles.'

She ran toward the newly empowered Slayer, opened the manacles and removed them from her wrists.

"Were those...?" the girl asked.

"Vampires? Yeah, pretty much. And you have been just empowered as a Vampire Slayer." Buffy said, "There used to be only one, but recently we changed the rules." She looked around for a moment, stopping at Batman who was looking at them with an unreadable expression.

"Do you work with him?" the girl said, a bit of fear on her voice.

"I only met him today, but he doesn't look like bad people." Buffy said, before reaching a decision and saying, "Look, I can give you the usual song and dance about how the world is older that you know, and all that jazz that sounds way better said by a stuffy and tweedy Englishman, but that bitch could be coming back with friends at any moment."

It was with some difficulty, that they managed to get out of the manor, to the Batmobile that had, upon a signal from Batman, self driven from its hiding place to the front of the manor. After accommodating the girl behind the seats, she quickly fell asleep.

"Did you do something to her?" Buffy said, frowning.

"A mild anesthetic gas. On a normal person it would keep them asleep for three to five hours." Batman said, "I wouldn't normally had done it, but I need to ask you some questions, and better not to be overheard."

"She'll stay asleep for an hour tops, then." Buffy commented, as she sat on the passenger seat, "Very well, ask away."

"I was under the impression that when you, as you said, 'changed the rules', you activated every Potential Slayer in the world." Batman said.

"That was our intention, but well, the old Council fucked it up." Buffy said, "Not a great surprise there." She took a deep breath before continuing, "Will had to use the spellwork they used to locate Potentials as a base for the activation spell, and it turned out that the Council had put the bar too high in the selection. So, there is a fuckton of Potential Slayers out there, and when one of the Slayers that got activated by the spell, dies…"

"They become newly activated Slayers." Batman completed, "It is normal to have another Slayer present?."

"Not at all, I suspect that the Powers that Be are feeling clever again, with this crap."

"Powers that Be?"

"Lazy, manipulative assholes, who claim to be the Big Good, but leave the footwork of saving the world in the hands of yours truly."

 

[AntonioCC]

"Lazy, manipulative assholes, who claim to be the Big Good, but leave the footwork of saving the world in the hands of yours truly." Buffy said, "I was the typical Cali teenager, only thinking of clothes, boys and my upcoming sweet sixteen. And then, I was thrust with that responsibility. What kind of madman would think that I was world-saving material?"

"But in the end it worked out."

"Sometimes, it was more luck than anything. Other times, it was the help of my friends." Buffy said, "But at the end it was me, the girl with the power. When I thought that I had everything under control, the world threw me one curve ball after another." She then smiled weakly, "Not to speak of the effect on my love life. My first love? Vampire. My first long relationship? A wannabe Captain America with self-confidence issues. And then I died."

This prompted a raised eyebrow from Batman.

"I got better." She then winced, "That sounded straight from Monty Python, didn't it?"

Batman nodded.

"But it's true. Willow managed to resurrect me, but it was a one-time deal, and it had consequences." Buffy said, "I was near suicidal and very self-destructive for months afterwards, Wills had to deal with addiction problems, Xander and her fiancee broke up just as they were about to marry... I could go on and on."

"The world is never going to be fair, but we fight on regardless." Batman said, "Because every person we save, every life we protect, every children who can grow with their parents, it counts."

"If nothing we do matters then all what matters is what we do." Buffy said, "Angel said that to me, after the sinking of Sunnydale. But enough of the heavy stuff, where are you going to leave her?"

"Leslie Thompkins, an old friend of Thomas Wayne, has a clinic on Crime Alley. She has helped me sometimes." Batman said, "She doesn't fully approve of what I do, but she helps... and there is somebody else I have to call."

G.C.P.D. HQ​

Captain James Gordon was in the washroom, washing his hands, when the "new message" tone from his cellphone startled him. He quickly dried his hands and looked at it. It only said TWMC and Ripper, with no sending address. The Bat has probably found some clue about the Ripper. He really hoped that it was, Loeb was looking for an excuse to get him out of Major Crimes, now that he was proving to be even more of a thorn in the side of the mob that he was before.

He quickly erased the message, knowing from past experiences that the Bat wouldn't have left a trail of what he had just done. Now, what it was TWMC? Ah, yes, Thomas Wayne Memorial Clinic, Leslie Thompkins clinic in Crime Alley.

 

[AntonioCC]

He passed through the offices of Major Crimes to see if Harv was still there, and indeed he was there, glaring at the paperwork in his desk.

But before he could say anything, his cellphone rang. When he looked the Caller ID, it was Dr Thompkins. He suppressed a smile, the Bat was always one step further than everybody.

"Yes, Doctor Thompkins?" he said, playing his part on the charade. "What can I do for you?"

"Less than five minutes ago a girl entered the ER claiming to have been a prisoner for the last six weeks, and that her captors had killed at least six other people."

He frowned. At first sight it didn't seem to have anything to do with the Ripper, but...

"Very well, ma'am. Detective Bullock and I will be there as soon as possible." He said.

They said goodbye, and when he cut the call Bullock was looking at him.

"So, Crime Alley again?" Bullock said, "Sometimes I wonder about you and the good doctor."

Jim rolled his eyes, good natured or not, Harv jibes about his newly found single status after his divorce still stung a little. Besides, the one time they went in a date... it just didn't work, they were better as friends.

"Sorry, Harv, but it's business…"

While on the way to the parking lot, Gordon explained what Doctor Thompkins had told him, keeping the call from Batman to himself. Bullock didn't like much the vigilante, although he had grudgingly recognized that he was at least doing more to fight the scum that half of the police department.

Harvey drove them, he knew more shortcuts through the twisting maze of narrow streets, helped by the police siren in the dashboard. When they arrived to Crime Alley, Jim looked to the side, where a small plaque could be seen.

"Yeah, the Waynes were good people, I wonder what they think about their son the playboy, wherever they are." Bullock said, "He looked like a good kid back then."

"People change." Jim said, not wanting to reminisce about those times. The Wayne's murders had been his first case in Gotham, and he still couldn't shake the feeling that there had been more to it than a mugging gone wrong.

The clinic was in front of the memorial plaque, and Doctor Leslie Thompkins, a grey-haired woman around Gordon's own age was waiting for them.

 

[AntonioCC]

Watchers HQ. Scotland.​

Isabella "Izzy" Ferguson didn't look like the usual Watcher. For one, she wouldn't be caught dead wearing tweed and in fact she rocked a Goth look, although she dyed her hair a vibrant red, and for other, she had treated the Potentials she had been charged with as people, not as potential tools. Of course that meant that she had been given the boot as soon as possible under Travers... and hence, that she had been one of the few veteran Watchers who had survived the bombing.

Naturally, that meant that until the kids got some experience, she was stuck manning the fort on the new HQ. And so, she was the one to answer the phone when Buffy Summers called... or at least somebody emulating the erstwhile Slayer phone.

"Bramsworth Castle School." she said, using the established cover for the Castle facilities, "Our office hours are…"

"Hey, Izzy, it's Buffy." a voice she knew well cut her, "And don't get your panties on a twist, Fergie."

Izzy couldn't avoid sighing in relief. She had used the codewords to mean that everything was well, and that nobody was listening.

"Consider my knickers unbunched, Buff." she answered, using her part of the code. "I presume that this is not a social call."

"Nope, I managed to track the Bowery Ripper, with the help of the Batman, and it turned to be a nest of vamps playing musical draining chairs with their prisoners." Buffy said, the disgust evident in his voice, "The thing is that the last prisoner, was Called when we were just there, and you know what that means."

"I'll start to check on all our teams abroad, starting with…"

"Please, start with Xander team in Africa, the girl said something about dreaming with the savannah just before she was carried to be drained." Buffy said, a bit too quickly.

"You're worried?" Izzy asked.

"Yeah, well, he's got Faith and Ayesha with him, but I got a bad feeling about this." Buffy explained.

"Okay, I have been long enough in this business to dismiss a Slayer gut feeling." Izzy admitted.

"Thank you." Buffy said, relieved, "Ah, can you get Andrew and the rest of the Geek Squad to check on the Dubois family from Gotham? They should start with Nicholas and Dala, brother and sister, in the 1850s. I think that those two were turned, and now they are pulling 'I'm my own granpa' for real."

"Okay, I'll call them. Anything else?"

"Not right now, but I'll call you again if I remember something." Buffy said, "If something comes about what I asked, we can be reached on Wayne Manor."

Thomas Wayne Memorial Clinic. Crime Alley. Gotham City.​

Jim Gordon walked onto a balcony that opened over an inner patio of the building. He was craving another cigarette, so he took a candy from his pocket. It did help somewhat, although he knew that when he came back to his apartment he had to apply another nicotine patch.

"Rough day, Captain Gordon?" said a gruff voice from above.

"The same as always, Batman. This city…" He said with a sigh, without looking up. "Now, I have seen enough things to know that there was something weird at work here, that the girl is keeping mum about it."

Batman silence spoke volumes.

"I thought so, and you can't tell me about it." Gordon said.

"No, I'm sorry, but I have a source that tells me that it won't repeat." Batman answered.

"Not happy about this, but I'll take what I can get." Gordon said, "Where was she kept?"

"Dubois manor." Batman said, "In the countryside. Get a SWAT team with your people, just in case."

 

[AntonioCC]

"It happened a decade ago. A couple blocks of the city simply disappeared overnight." Ma said, "Nobody knows what happened there. After months of investigation some Federal agency dictated that it would be better to simply wall the zone. Something about radiation."

"And that's all?" Rogue said, "How many people were lost?"

"Too many. All my family was spared, thanks God, but I lost a couple of good friends, Jay and his wife Joan."

"But..." she started to say, but whatever she was going to say was lost, when the doorbell interrupted them.

They looked at each other, wondering who could it be. Ma went to look through the peephole to see who it was.

"Mercury Messages?" she said, with a confused expression. She left the chain on and opened the door.

"Abigail Hunkle?" said the message boy.

"Yes? Who it is?"

"I have a package for you, from a... Sherrell Moriarty?"

She opened the door, took the package, and signed on the order. After he went his way, Ma closed the door and brought the package to the kitchen table.

"Who is Sherell Mo...?" Rogue said, trailing off when she noticed the name combination, "It's from Irene, isn't it? She loves her Sherlock Holmes references."

"Yeah, and that was the name she was using when I met her." Ma said as she opened the package.

Inside there was another note, a bus ticket and a cellphone. Rogue took the note before Ma could do anything about it, and started to read it silently.


Dear Marie, the Walled Area in Keystone City is something that nobody can resolve in the present. But, don't worry, the person who will undo what happened will appear soon, like a bolt from the blue.

The bus ticket is for the last bus out of Central City today, take it. And the cellphone has in the memory a few numbers of people who can help you, if you are in trouble in Kansas.

Another thing, this is the last time you will hear of me for a long while. There is a person I must talk with, about something that I have seen in the future, and try to talk him out of something he is planning to do.

Love, Irene

 

[AntonioCC]

Over the Potomac river from the Triskelion​

One of the Rangers squads had entered the tunnel and was in communication with the base camp set in the entry. As Lane was the one in effective command of the Rangers deployed ehre, he was directing the squad through radio, as well as the two members of the HRT team added just in case, and receiving their reports.

"According to my people, the tunnel seems to be well preserved..." Lane started to say, informing Jones of the situation, "Hold on, there is a big steel door at the end, no keypad or anything." Lane said.

"They were supposed to open from inside." Gabe said, thinking, "But, if I remember correctly, there was a quick release mechanism, mounted on the frame. Tell them to look for a maintenance access."

"...They found it." Lane said a few minutes later, "And they have opened it...there is a wall... Plaster apparently."
Lane said, "They are going to try to have a look with a mini camera... There are people inside, armed."

"Can they transmit the signal here?" Gabe asked

"One moment" Lane said, before giving instructions, turning on a small screen, and motioning Gabe to get closer. "Do any of them look familiar?"

"Not really, they look like administrative... one moment, that thin guy, he looks familiar..." Gabe said, getting closer, before opening his eyes wide, and saying, loudly, "Good God, it's John Lynch!"

"Good or bad news?" Lane asked.

"Good. I'm not going to enter into details, because they are very classified, but there is no way that he is part of whatever is happening in the upper levels." he said, obviously relieved, and then he noticed John shifting his stance, "And, if I'm not wrong, he have just noticed your camera."

Triskelion subbasement level​

The room was surprisingly defensible, and once they had rearranged a few file cabinets to provide better cover, he was pretty sure to be able to hold it here for quite a while. They even had managed to scrounge food and water on the way, courtesy of the snack machines in a rest area they had passed on the way here. So, in short, they were ready to resist quite a bit here.

Then, why he was so worried about the back wall? It was a persistent feeling that there was something there, not unlike the 'flashes' that he had got since IO had experimented on his team. He frowned. He was not sure, but he had thought he had heard some mechanical noise from there. And now some scratching noises.

There! An fiber optic camera thrust through a small hole in the wall. It was clear that someone was there, on the other side. He picked a notebook and quickly wote, after signaling the others to take cover, 'WHO ARE YOU?'

As an answers he got a series of knocks. Morse code. A...R...M...Y, and after a pause, another set of knocks, H...R...T. Relieved, he got near the hole and spoke to it.

"John Lynch, SHIELD. Please, identify yourself." he said.

"Lieutenant Somoza, U.S. Army Rangers, with me there is a platoon of Rangers, and agents Wright ans Stokes, FBI." said a voice with a slight Hispanic accent.

 

[AntonioCC]

"Okay." Gordon said. Something in the tone of the answer, and its own nature, as Gordon always questioned his suggestions, made Batman give him a closer look. His expression made it clear, to him at least, that his mind was elsewhere.

"Jim, you seem distracted." Batman said. "Something wrong?"

"No, why do you ask?" Jim said

"You haven't even asked why you would need the SWAT team, for example." Batman said

Jim unwrapped another candy before he answered the question.

"Sorry, when I was coming here I got a call from Chicago" Gordon said, "Barbara is coming back to Gotham."

"Barbara, your niece and adopted daughter, not your ex-wife, I presume." Batman said, unsurprisingly well-informed about Gordon family situation, and prompting a nod from Gordon. "I thought she was sixteen."

"She is sixteen." Gordon remarked "I always knew she was smarter than anyone else that I know, except possibly you, but it turns out that she is a certified genius. She has managed to skip a couple courses in High School in Chicago, and is coming back here to study something to do with computers." He then removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes, "Frankly, I don't know what has possessed her to come back here, to the madness of this city."

"Maybe because you are here. She and your ex never really got along, if I remember correctly." Batman said, and added when Jim looked at him inquisitively, "There were a few very public altercations. Add to that the body language when both of them were together, and it's easy to read between lines."

Jim nodded, acknowledging his point. It had been clear since she was a kid that Babs had fully inherited the Gordon temper, and Barbara's own problematic character didn't help things.

"I don't have much family left, Batman. Barbara's parents, Roger and Thelma died in a car crash, my sister Jess is an alcoholic, and she has a son that I have never met." Jim said, "I would prefer to know that Barbara and James Jr. are safely away, than to have any of them here in danger." he paused for a moment before continuing, "But what can I do?."

 

[AntonioCC]

"But what can I do?" Gordon asked, rhetorically.

An awkward silence followed, until James spoke again.

"I heard that you were involved in the Monarch Chemicals explosion tonight." James said, clearly trying to steer the talk out of personal matters. "Alongside a young woman in black. I thought you worked alone."

"It's a one-off thing. She had business in Gotham and we helped each other." Batman said, and then he remembered something, "One of the men caught is a metahuman, he calls himself Blackout. He is faster and stronger than a normal human, and can generate a... cloud of complete darkness around him."

"I'll see if I can make those idiots listen before he manages to escape." he said, "What happened there?"

"A group of chemists and lab technicians from the old plant had set up a drug lab on the premises, and the Red Hood tried to muscle in. We intervened, and it turned out that the Red Hood had always been a decoy, Smilin' Jack being the real brains behind the Red Hood." Batman said, "I chased him to a corridor over the vats where the residues of the chemicals spilled the day of the fire, the one that closed the plant, had been stored, and one of Jack's bodyguards tried to shoot me there, precisely in the place where the air was saturated with flammable gases. Jack, the bodyguard and a hostage were caught in the center of the explosion"

A dead-end, close to Crime Alley
​

Doctor Leslie Thompkins went to take a look outside. She had a hunch on who the woman could be who had helped Bruce in his mad crusade tonight, and wanted to try to talk her out of following him. And there she was, leaning on Bruce's car was a young blonde woman who immediately noticed her arrival, and tried to hide herself further into her hoodie.

"I can see you just fine... Buffy Anne Summers." she said.

With a defeated expression, she lowered the hood and looked at the woman, and did a double take.

"I know you... you were the woman that took our blood, all those years ago."

"Yes, that was me, Doctor Leslie Thompkins. Thomas thought that it would attract a lot less attention if I ordered the analysis, instead of him." she said.

"But didn't you used to have grey hair?" Buffy asked looking at her dark hair.

"Clairol. I was already greying when I was in college. And I dye my hair when I feel like it." She said with a smile, that vanished in an instant, "How did Bruce get you involved in this?"

Buffy looked at her with a confused expression before starting to laughing out loud.

"This is not a laughing matter, girl!. Bruce may be decided to go down this path, but..."

"Do you really think that Bruce put me to this?" Buffy said, mirthfully. "Leslie, I have been patrolling since I was fifteen."

She suddenly jumped impossibly high and landed on the scaffolding over the side door that Leslie had used.

"I have been given this gifts to fight creatures out of nightmares." Buffy said, "Long before Bruce donned the cowl, I was already fighting them."

 

[AntonioCC]

Leslie looked up incredulously for a moment, before sighing, and saying:

"Can you get down? So we can discuss this over a hot coffee?"

As an answer Buffy slid down the scaffolding until she stood before the doctor.

"Let's go." she said.

A few minutes later, they were both in an unused wardroom. Leslie having managed to prepare a passable cappuccino for Buffy, while she got her usual Navy-style black coffee, a taste inherited from her father.

"Not bad, doctor." Buffy commented, sipping from her cup.

"I worked part-time as a barista to pay my career. I mean, I had a scholarship, but it didn't pay for everything." she said with a shrug, "Your mother loved coffee with cream and a touch of black chocolate... What is she doing now, by the way? Last thing I heard from her was that she was in the hospital, around three years ago."

Buffy closed her eyes for a moment. Time and her own experiences with death had dulled the pain, but it was still there.

"She had a brain tumor. The doctors managed to extract it, but there were... complications." she said, flatly.

"I'm sorry." Leslie said sympathetically. 'Good job, Leslie.' she thought, berating herself for the faux-pas. "I had no idea..."

An awkward silence followed, until Buffy decided to break it.

"How was she, my mother, I mean, in college?" she asked.

"I didn't know her all that well back then, really. It was more that we had common friends, Thomas and Martha, than anything." Leslie said, "But she seemed to light a room when she entered it, as if she had brought a bit of California with her." She smiled for a moment in remembrance, and then she pursed her lips, "And then Old Man Wayne had to stick his oar."

"Patrick Wayne, Thomas' father, I suppose." Buffy said, "Mom called him Old Man Wayne in a letter she left us."

"Yes. I heard that they called him Old Man Wayne even when he was young, because he was really old-fashioned, 'born in the wrong century' were the textual words." Leslie said, "I never met him, so I can't say how real it was. You should ask Silas about him, if you are interested."

"Silas?"

"Silas Wayne, Patrick's much younger brother." Leslie said, "But this is getting away what I wanted to discuss with you."

"About my gifts." Buffy said with a sigh, "Do you believe in the supernatural?"

'Oh, God.' Leslie thought, flashing back to a rather unpleasant incident back when she was in college.

"Vampires, isn't it?" Leslie said, placing her hand on her forehead, "And, no, I'm not humoring you. I minored in forensics in college, and, well..."

"Oh, yeah, I get the picture." Buffy said, "How bad was it?

"Not very bad, but it was a real scary thing, seeing its eyes open and its face morph into that fucking ridged thing." Leslie said with a shiver "After my professor drove a stick on its heart, he gave me a lecture about vamps, and what I should do if I notice a corpse with those signals."

"Good, good. That professor saved your life, and more." Buffy said, "And yes, well, for thousands of years, there has been a girl given enhanced strength, agility and resilience, as well as more exotic gifts, to deal with vampires and other supernatural pests. That girl is called the Vampire Slayer or Slayer for short."

 

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A few minutes later, after Buffy had explained succinctly what being the Slayer meant, as well as her story as such, leaving out some details, like her death and resurrection. Leslie was beyond livid, she was furious.

"Those fucking old men, how dare they...?"

"Because that was the way they had always done things, as stupid as it sounds. Barely any support, beyond a stuffy Watcher, and if you were one of the Potentials that escaped through the cracks, like me, well, tough shit, you learn on the job, hope that you survive the experience." Buffy said, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

Leslie was going to retort something when she noticed something in the way she had phrased things.

"You are talking about them on in the past tense." She said.

"Did you hear about the club that was blown in London almost a year ago?" Buffy said, and when Leslie nodded, she explained, "It was Watcher Central. The big cheeses and a lot of the middle size ones became dust in the wind in the explosion. I never liked the bastards, but even they didn't deserve that."

"But you have some support structure, right?" Leslie said, an idea starting to take shape in her mind.

"You see, the Watchers that didn't toe the line were given a stern warning, and then, if they didn't follow the party line, kicked out." Buffy explained, "Thanks to all those ex-Watchers, and the survivors from the old Council who agreed to the new status quo, we are establishing a new Watchers and Slayers Council."

"But how did that started out?" Leslie wondered aloud, "Why it is always teen girls?"

"Beats me, even after having talked once with the Shadowmen..." Buffy said with a shrug,

"The what?"

"The Shadowmen. A group of Bronze Age Shamans too full of themselves." Buffy said, and then added, to clear Leslie evident confusion, "Remember what I said about more exotic abilities? Having dreams of things pasts and things to come is one of them." Buffy stood up, and paced the room, "You see, once I dreamed of how the first Slayer was created, and it was not pretty. At least things are better now."

"I can see that with all that many Slayers, any Watcher would think twice of trying to reinstate the old ways." Leslie commented, "And then you came to Gotham and met Bruce on his 'night job'."

"Yeah, I can see why this city needs somebody like him. But all that gear must have cost a pretty penny." Buffy said, "I wonder if he'll share some of it."

"Maybe, but he can also help openly. I figure that you have some NGO as a cover for some of your activities." Leslie said.

"Yeah, in between learning a completely different system of magic, Willow is helping Andrew and Giles to set the whole shebang." Buffy said, "It's supposed to be set as a chain of All-Girl Academies throughout the world. We haven't yet decided on the name, though."

"Talk to Bruce about it, he could funnel some money into it through one of the charitable foundations that he chairs." Leslie said.

 

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"And I suppose he has access to people that can follow the money trail. We are having problems locating a lot of the money of the old council." Buffy said.

"That would help, I suppose" Leslie said, "There is another thing, maybe with your help we can get him to be less....hmmmm, how would I say it?"

"Intense? Driven? Obsessed?" supplied Buffy.

"That too, although I was going for paranoid and self destructive." Leslie said, and sat down with a heavy sigh, "I fear that one day he'll sacrifice everything for his 'mission', that in order to avenge his parents, he'll become something they would have despised, and what is worse is that he'll drag everybody with him."

Wayne Manor. Next morning. Kitchen table.​

"...totally unexpected storm seems to have barely affected Gotham, as the explosion in the abandoned Monarch Chemicals factory seems to have been caused by gang activity...."

Dawn hopped channels, before taking the last spoonful of her cereal.

"...Oscorp has issued a press release informing that the damage to their experimental facility had been minor, and that the members of the school visit were evacuated without problems..."

Dawn looked worried. While it hadn't been from her high school, it was in Queens, if she remembered correctly, she knew a couple people from there. She'd call Liz as soon as she could. Meanwhile, the newscaster continued droning about the damage caused by yesterday nights storm.

"...Von Doom Industries is denying that the damage on their aerospatial facility was as severe as the first reports suggested. The CEO, Victor Von Doom, wasn't available fo..."

Dawn hopped channels again. If she didn't see Doom's smarmy visage again, she would be much happier. The damned ass had come personally to recruit Willow for some secret project and had not taken her no gracefully.

"...particle accelerator in Central City STAR Labs..."

Dawn turned off the TV. Maybe it was all the crap she had seen in Sunnydale, but the biggest and most destructive storm in decades, appearing suddenly, wrecking a lot of infrastructure from Boston to Miami, all the way to New Mexico, and barely touching Gotham? Suspicious on the extreme.

"'mo'ning." Buffy said, carrying a tray full of pancakes, strawberry jam and honey, with one in her mouth.

"When did you get back?" Dawn asked.

Buffy removed it from her mouth, though not without taking a good sized bite of it.

"'round four in the morning. Bruce stayed some time afterwards, but I went straight to bed." Buffy said, "And now, I suppose he'll sleep all morning."

 

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"Probably. What are we doing to today?" Dawn asked.

"Well, we have to go back to the penthouse. That is where we have our things, and where the people that will take the samples for the DNA analysis will come." Buffy said, "Oh, and there is cell coverage."

"I told you we should have taken one of Willow's enchanted cellphones." Dawn said.

"And hear Ken's crowing again about how she had an idea that not one of us thought about? No, thanks." Buffy answered.

"To be fair, she has mellowed somewhat since Sunnydale." Dawn said, "At least, now she listens to others."

"That's something, I suppose." Buffy conceded, finishing her pancakes and putting the dishes in the dishwasher.

After Dawn had finished breakfast, they went to say goodbye to Alfred, as Bruce was still sleeping, and Dawn opened a portal to the penthouse. They hadn't even started to tidy things up when Dawn's phone started to ring.

"It's Scott." Dawn said, looking at the caller ID, and she answered immediately, "Scott? Dawn here."

"Finally! I have been trying to talk to you since yesterday evening." Scott said through the phone.

"Ehm... sorry? We were invited by Bruce Wayne to his home and it turns out that Wayne Manor is a big cellphone blindspot." Dawn said.

"Oh... okay, listen." he said, "We have to talk to you about something."

"About what? And who is we?"

"Several of the students and most of the Faculty." he said, "The Professor is very interested in talking to you."

"...Okay, what has changed?" Dawn said, trying to hide the suspicion from her voice.

"That's one of the things we need to talk face to face."

She looked at Buffy, who seemed to find it as suspicious as herself. With the life they both had, you learned very early not only to look the gift horse in the mouth, but to check if it had fangs or tentacles. But she nodded.

"Very well, we are in the penthouse of Wayne Tower." Dawn said.

Xavier School private jet.​

"...He hasn't spared any expenses, has he?" Scott said, and then noticed Storm signaling him to close the line, "Sorry, I'm going to shut this, we are about to take off."

"Take off? You are coming in a plane?" Dawn said.

"The school has a private jet. The Professor was using it, but now that he has returned..." he interrupted himself when she saw Storm making a gesture of impatience, "See you, Dawn."

"See you, Scotty." he heard before he pressed the red button to cut the call, and then he turned to address the professor, "She seems to have taken it well."

 

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"She seems to have taken it well." Scott said, before correcting himself, "As well as could be expected, rather. She seemed to be a bit suspicious."

"Yes, as anybody would be in this circumstances." the professor said, "The Waynes left some money to the Summers sisters." after a moment, he elaborated, "I knew Thomas Wayne. He financed some of my early research, and he named me one of the trustees of a fund set aside for the children of Joyce Kane."

"That was Aunt Joyce maiden name." Scott explained.

"She was one of those Kanes?" Jean said, incredulous.

"Not from the main branch, I think." Charles explained, "But that doesn't pertain to the issue at hand. Scott, you know them. What can we expect?"

"I don't know them all that well; our parents didn't really get along. And before today I hadn't met them for eight years." Scott said, looking down, "But between what I remember from back then and what I have seen today, I can tell you this, don't let Buffy's Valley Girl persona fool you. She is not book smart, but she is more intelligent and perceptive than she looks."

"And Dawn?" Xavier asked.

"She is a brat. A smart brat, though." He said, after a pause, "She'll be best disposed to the idea, I think. She asked if she could transfer to the School, after all."

Monarch Chemical Plan​

Jim Gordon shook his head and let the sheet down. They had fished the corpse from the mess under the plant, but the chemicals had left it pretty unrecognizable. But the surviving members of the wannabe drug kingpins had given a recount of the events (the Red Hood gangbangers had said nothing) that corroborated Batman's account.

Unfortunately he had arrived too late to avoid the escape of the meta "Blackout", despite his warnings, and what was more important, his killing of two police officers. He had some words to that effect with the head of the precinct, and some of them could be even said before children.

"Do you think he was Jack?" Bullock asked.

"No idea. The chemicals did a number on him." Gordon answered, "But if he wasn't, his body is down there. Good riddance. He and Jerome were birds of a feather."

"Ah, yes, the little grinning punk." Bullock said with a grimace, "Is he still in Arkham?"

"Yes, thank God." Gordon replied, "Any luck with the meta?"

"Not at all. He is probably half-way to New York or Metropolis by now." Bullock answered.

Focused as they were in their talk, they didn't notice a man in tattered purple clothing disappearing in an alley just outside the police cordon. To be fair, the cordon was more concerned in keeping the press out than in keeping anybody in.

 

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"Spooky, isn't it." Ma said after Rogue finished reading the note.

"How do you know what Irene wrote there?"

"I don't know it, but it's not the first time she does the note thing, sending one what you were thinking about in that moment" Ma said, ".So what does she says?"

"In short, that the walled area is not my concern and that she may be out of contact for a while." Rogue said, "So, what we do now?"

"I'm going to buy a set of less distinctive clothes for you. Those people may still be watching the stations."

"...Fine." Rogue said, sitting in an armchair. Meanwhile, Ma Hunkle said goodbye as she got out the door.

She took her a notebook, remembering Irene's caution about the visions and started to list all what she remembered about last night dreams. While she was doing this, she started to sketch in the margins, some of the things she remembered. Progressively, the sketches became bigger and bigger, until she found herself with a full page picture of the boy that had given her a jacket in that icy place.

When she had finished, she looked at the picture with amazement, and a bit amount of fear. She had never been able to draw beyond stick figures, but Cody had won several contests with his skills. And it wasn't only his skills. She looked at the writing, that started recognizable as her own, but over what she had written it wavered between Irene's clear and precise handwriting, Cody's sloppy, though readable, one, and her own tighter, rounder letters.

It had been completely unconscious on her part, as if pieces of Cody and Irene lingered somewhere in her. If this happened every time... she shuddered, the thought of losing herself to the fragments of different people she absorbed terrorized her, and the only thing that prevented her from bolting out was Irene reassurance that everything would work out at the end.

Central City Station​

"HQ called, they examined the videos and the little bitch didn't appear anywhere here or in the bus station." Trent said as he came back to the van from where they were coordinating the search for Rogue, "So, we got new orders."

"And those are..." Lang said, rolling his eyes. Since the visit to the old bat, he had been convinced that this was a whole waste of time, better employed in more interesting things, like improving Trask Sentinel project.

"Jackson, Ashford and me will continue looking for the little bitch, and you and Sanderson go back to HQ." He said, "Trask wants you for something."

 

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"So, gentlemen, what do you intend to do?" Lynch said, somewhat flippantly.

"We are going to bring down the wall, to evacuate all the civilians we can and get our people in position." answered the Ranger.

"I hope that you aren't going to use explosives." Lynch said, "That would attract the attention of everybody in the underground levels."

"We brought a ram. It's overkill for plaster, but a lot more silent than explosives." the sergeant said, "And now, if you can get away a bit..."

Lynch did as instructed and in a few minutes there was a hole big enough to let people out. Lynch remained behind to brief the teams on the conditions inside the building.

Smallville, Kansas​

The Kryptonian drone calculations told it that it was not going to reach the target on time. The natives' flying machines had already launched missiles, and were getting ready to attack it with chemically propelled bullets, that, it noted, were of a much heavier caliber than the previous attack.

Following its previously devised plan, it established a connection with the already detached Infiltrator unit in order to transfer the core program to it. Just in time as the missiles impacted less than a second afterwards, destroying a foreleg and a hind leg.

Balance was seriously compromised, and the explosion had caused a cascade failure on several subsystems and it was spreading. A quick calculation showed that the possibilities of surviving the following attack were negligible. Hence the transference protocols were initiated, as well as the self-destruct.

Kent's pick-up. Not too far from there.​

"Finally!" Nick said, when two of the thing legs were blown, "The Chair Force took their sweet time to arrive, and deal with that thing."

"It's still stan..." Jonathan started to say, when it blew up, just as the A-10 were making their first passes. He leant back on the seat and slid down the seat, "It's over."

"Thanks God." Martha said, while looking at the baby who seemed to have fallen asleep, "And now what we are going to do?" she added, looking pointedly at Nick.

 

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Wayne Tower Penthouse​

"...Simply open your mouth, I only have to take a swab on your mouth with this, and we're done." the lab technician said.

"Okay." Buffy said, opening her mouth wide.

The technician did so, and then repeated the procedure on Dawn, and once he had sealed the swabs, under the watchful gaze of Buffy, he said goodbye and got out of the penthouse.

"Thank God that they didn't need to draw blood for the DNA tests." Buffy said, "I always get nervous when somebody draws my blood. I swear that there must be some book entitled 'The 1001 uses of Slayer blood in badness', given how much crap that requires Slayer blood we have found."

"Are you sure? I only remember strengthening vampires." Dawn said.

"And it could cure the effects of the Killer of the Dead, can be used in a lot of rituals, and it's an aph..." she stopped herself from continuing, but unfortunately for her, Dawn had heard it.

"Oh? And how do you know that?" Dawn asked, interested despite herself.

"Spike." Buffy said, "And don't ask the details, please."

"Why?" Dawn asked again, clearly thinking of how could she have come to know that tidbit.

"Believe me, you don't want to know. And it's not what you are thinking." she said with a grimace, and then looked at the time, "Do you want to get Scott at the airport? If Gotham's traffic is anything like New York's, we should be able to get there on time, if we get going now."

"Nice deflection." Dawn said under her teeth before asking aloud, "And if it isn't?" She had looked at the general layout of the city, and it reminded her more of London than of New York.

"Bruce showed me a couple of shortcuts yesterday." Buffy said confidently.

Dawn thought about the kind of shortcuts Bruce would take in the Batmobile and the type of driving that Buffy was prone if she was in a hurry, and grimaced.

Mercey Island Airport, Aparo Airfield​

The jet, a black one with the Xavier School logo in the tail landed without any problem in the little airport, a privately owned one that catered to charter flights. By the time every I had been dotted and every t crossed, and they could disembark, Buffy and Dawn were waiting for them in the tarmac with the old school van.

"What are you doing here?" Scott asked, surprised of finding them there.

 

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"What are you doing here?" Scott said, surprised at finding them waiting in the tarmac, while he walked from the bottom of the stairs until he was a couple meters from the van. The other students followed behind him.

"What do you think? Waiting for you, silly." Buffy answered with a smirk, "Besides, this..." she said, with her hand on the vehicle, "...is yours, after all."

"So, these are your cousins?" Kitty said looking from behind Scott.

"Yeah, the blonde is Buffy and the brunette Dawn." Scott said, and then moved aside, so they could see who had talked "Buffy, Dawn, this is Kitty Pryde..."

"Hi," the brunette girl with the bangs and the ponytail said.

"..Jean Grey, my best friend..." Scott continued, as a tall, leggy redhead walked past him toward the two girls.

"Hello, how are you?" she said with an easy smile.

"...Kurt Wagner..." Scott kept going, as a short kid with black hair walked toward Kitty.

Kurt waved, but didn't say anything. There was something on Buffy that was unnerving him for some reason, as if some primal part of his own self was telling him to run away.

"...you already know Ororo, and this is the Headmaster, Professor Charles Xavier." he finished as Ororo pushed Charles' wheelchair.

"Charmed to meet you, Miss Summers." the Professor said with a benign smile, "It was not necessary for you to come; we did make arrangements in advance with the airport."

As if summoned by his words a white SUV approached the hangar in front of which the plane had ended.

"Oh," Buffy said, and then added with a fake British accent, eliciting a chuckle from Scott and Kurt, "Drats, foiled again."

"Actually... Professor, may we go with Buffy?" Scott said.

'What are you planning, Scott?' Xavier sent telepathically, while appearing to consider Scott's petition.

'To gauge their mood, and prepare for the big reveal.' Scott thought.

"Who wants to go with Scott and Buffy?" the Professor asked, and Jean and Kitty raised their hands. Kurt looked as if he was going to go with the others, but in the end he decided to go with Ororo and the Professor.

 

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A bar just outside Bayville​

Logan walked in and looked around. Unsurprisingly, given the early hour, it was almost empty, the barman and a middle-aged woman with sunglasses sitting on a table were the only people inside.

"Hey, Logan. The usual?" Rob, the barman, said.

"Yeah." he said, sitting on a stool.

"It isn't a bit early for you to come here?" the barman asked as he opened the bottle.

"Somebody sent a note asking me to come here." he answered as he took the bottle.

"Well, nobody has come asking for you. In fact, other than the blind lady, you are my first client." Rob answered.

"Actually, Logan, I was waiting for you." he heard her say, "I was the one who sent the note."

He looked back and saw her looking at him, the white baton that had been hidden by the table prominently in display. Taking a sip from his beer, he shrugged and went to sit with the woman.

"Do I know you? Because your note was addressed to a name that I haven't used in many years." Logan said in a low voice.

"No, but we have common acquaintances, like Mystique or Creed." she said, as Logan started to take another sip from the bottle.

Upon hearing those names, Logan did a spit-take.

"Do you work for...?" he started to say, narrowing his eyes.

"Occasionally." she said, "Don't get it wrong, I do it because I owe Mystique my life, I don't agree with either Magneto or Xavier's vision." she said, "And no, I'm not working with them right now."

"Are you..?"

"A mutant? Yes, precognitive, I see how events may develop." she said, "And that comes back to the reason I asked you to come here."

"Let me guess, you came to warn me of something bad that is going to happen." Logan said, his voice full of skepticism.

"Hardly." the woman said with a snort, "I was the legal guardian of the girl that you and Xavier's people tried to recruit two nights ago."

"Oh, that's how she disappeared." Logan said, "By the time we got rid of Creed, she was gone."

"Yes, I was the one who sent her away." the woman said, "My power told me that if she was not there when any of you arrived, she could have a much better future."

"How do I know you are telling me the truth?" Logan said, still skeptical, "You haven't even told me your name."

"You don't, and my name is Irene, by the way. Irene Adler." she said.

"Seriously?" Logan answered.

"Yeah, I have heard all the Sherlock Holmes jokes already."

Logan sat back and looked at her thoughtfully.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" he said, finally.

"Mystique wanted to recruit her, that's why you found Sabertooth and the others there." she explained.

"And you agreed with her working for Magneto?"

"Even if I had said no, Mystique would have tried to recruit her anyway." Irene said "But that night, I had a vision that showed me a much better outcome if I sent her... elsewhere. A much better outcome for her, and for everybody, human and mutant alike."

Logan waited, his face impassive, sensing an incoming 'but'. And the woman didn't disappoint him in that regard.

"...But even that is dependent on you, and you alone, without the rest of the X-Men, going for her." Irene said, "And there is something else for you, in this. Exactly what it is, I don't know, only that relates to Nick Fury."

Logan didn't answer immediately thinking about what he had just been told. His augmented senses hadn't picked any sign she was lying, but she was friendly with an expert dissembler, so he didn't really have any motive to believe her. On the other hand, Nick Fury. If he was somehow involved on this, he needed to see it and pronto, and have the X-Men on speed dial.

"Where do I have to go?" he asked, and Irene promptly answered, "Kansas, eh?"

 

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"On my part, I have to report to my superiors. But I think that I'll let out one thing." Nick said, looking at the kid meaningfully, "And I think I can use my contacts to expedite the adoption."

"Why? What do you get from this?" Jonathan asked looking at Nick with suspicion.

"Doing a genuinely good thing for once." Nick answered with a smile, "My line of work is all about the lesser evil, and that ends eating on you."

"Thanks." Jonathan said, looking back at Nick, "Someday, if you feel that the work is getting to you, you can come to the farm."

"A bit of honest work to keep the demons away?" Nick said, his expression growing wistful, "The man who recruited me used to say that, to explain why he started to build models."

Triskelion Basement​

The civilians had been evacuated through the tunnel and Lynch, now clad in a spare HRT getup, looked every inch the Special Forces soldier he had been. Unfortunately he couldn't add much more to what they already knew. But what he said had added a new wrinkle to the problem, besides confirming Jones' fears.

"Are you completely sure?" he said, once he arrived to the basement and could talk with Lynch face to face.

"Unfortunately, yes, I am, general." Lynch said, "The patrols are being conducted, partially, by elements of SHIELD security branch."

"And the rest? I noticed you say partially?"

"I don't know, but if I would hazard a guess, they're PMCs."

"Mercs. Of course." Jones said, rolling his eyes. He sighed and motioned Lynch to come to where they were planning the assault.

"Mister Lynch." Colonel Lane said, "What can you tell me about the hostiles?"

"I saw patrols here and here." Lynch pointed in the map, "And here. There are probably more, but not all that many, given the scarcity of patrols."

 

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A manor in Gotham City​

The old man in a wheelchair hung the phone before snorting. So Joyce Kane's daughters have come to Gotham, and he could guess the reason, and probably be right. Thomas had been a very different man than his father, and he and Martha had confided in him about both kids shortly before their death.

He thought on calling Galton, his butler, but decided against it. He dialed a number from memory and he was not surprised when the call was answered promptly.

"Wayne Manor. Who I am talking to?" answered a British-accented voice, that brought pleasant memories.

"I am Silas Wayne. Can I talk with Bruce, Alfred?" Silas said, in a matter of fact tone.

"Sorry, Master Silas, Master Bruce is... indisposed." Alfred said, his hesitation before the last word telling Silas all he wanted to know about Bruce real state.

'Typical.' he thought, 'Sleeping late because he arrived drunk as a skunk, and probably with a blonde bimbo on his arm.'

"All right, Alfred. I know about Bruce sisters, and I wanted to know where they were lodged."

"I presume that your intentions are to make the acquaintance of Mistress Buffy and Mistress Dawn, Master Silas." Alfred deflected.

"Indeed, Alfred." Silas said with a smile, Alfred, despite his more... colorful past, was really his father son, down to the protectiveness of the Wayne family.

"They are in Wayne Tower's penthouse." Alfred said, after a small pause.

'Bruce bachelor's pad. Of course,' Silas thought, with an eyeroll, "Thanks for the information Alfred. If he feels better soon, tell him that I have gone to visit his sisters."

"I'll do it, Master Silas." the old butler said.

After the goodbyes, Silas manouvered the wheelchair through the corridors of the manor. Galton, if he remembered correctly, which, at his age, it was not a given, was in the garage, checking the engine of the Rolls.

 

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Mercey Island Airport, Aparo Airfield​

They had barely cleared the gates of the airfield when Dawn started to ask questions.

"Sooo... why the change of opinion, Scotty?" she asked, "You didn't give me much hope when I asked yesterday."

Scott, caught by surprise, stammered a bit before starting to talk.

"Ehhh... ahhh... What I said was that the Professor was selective." Scott said, caught out of guard by Dawn question, "And, ehhh, there were things that, ahhhh, I didn't know back, ehhhh, then."

"Things such as...?" Buffy said, without looking at him, her eyes still locked on the road.

"Ahhh...., well, eehh,.." Scott started to say.

"For God's sake, Scott!" Jean interrupted, "Let me talk about it."

"It's all yours, Jean." Scott said, relieved to let it to Jean. He had planned to introduce it gently, but Dawn sudden question had caught him in the backstep.

Jean didn't reply, making a gesture with her hand as assorted dirt and grime in the car started to levitate.

"I'm a telekinetic." Jean said, as Kitty passed through the backseat, and waved from the SUV trunk, "Kitty can phase through solid matter, as you have just seen, and Scott..."

"It's something about his eyes, isn't it?" Dawn said, "I knew those glasses looked weird when I saw them. Is that Ruby Quartz?"

"Yes, he can shoot energy beams from his eyes, and ruby quartz seems to be the only thing that blocks those, while letting him see." Jean explained, "The reason of these powers is in our genetics, there is a genetic x-factor, or x-gene, that seems to be the reason some people got powers and not others. It's a ne mutation and we are mutants." she finished her explanation, and noticed Dawn's expression, "You seem to have taken it well."

"Not the strangest thing that has happened in my life by a long shot." Dawn said, with a shrug, and a brief look to Buffy, who seemed to be thinking the same as her, 'Damned monks.', before Dawn continued speaking, "I can open portals, but I'm still working my limits. What I want to know is how did you know about me being a mutant?"

 

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Wayne Tower Penthouse​

Once they exchanged some pleasantries a silence fell on the group until Buffy tried to break the ice.

"Well, Jean told me about mutants and everything, so what can every one of you do? Well, except the Professor, Jean already told me about your mental powers."

Kurt looked at the Professor, who nodded, and then pressed a button in his watch, switching his appearance to his real furred and tailed self.

"I'm agile and can teleport short distances." he said, making a jump to the higher part of a pillar, before teleporting in a cloud of sulfuric smoke back to the ground.

"Is that Sulfur? I thought that I smelled a bit on you back in the airport." Buffy said.

"Ja, every time that I teleport, I leave a cloud that smells like that." Kurt said, still wary of her.

"On my part I can control weather." Ororo said as she held her hand and a small white fluffy cloud formed over it. She made a small gesture and it changed to a grayish color, before starting to rain. With another gesture the cloud quickly dissolved.

"So that's how you are so good with the weather." Dawn said, remembering the weather prediction back when they had stopped in the manor, when no weatherman had been able to predict until it had been almost over the East Coast.

"In part, but I have always a sense for the weather." Ororo said, "And it's true that I grew up in the savannah, with my sister." she looked through the windows, "I stayed for a while with a tribe that saw what I could do and considered me a Goddess, until the Professor found me." she considered for a moment telling them about her time in Cairo as an street thief under the Shadow King, but she dismissed it reasoning that it didn't have much relevance to the matter. "I have been helping him since, first to set-up and then to run the school. We've met other mutants, some friendly, some... not."

"And there have been fights, I assume with those 'unfriendly' mutants." Buffy said, with a bit more of sarcasm that he pretended.

"Unfortunately." The Professor said, "My objective is help mutants to master their powers in order to integrate peacefully in society, so when it comes in the open..."

"You can point at them as productive members of the society and not ticking bombs, I understand." Buffy said, while mentally making the comparison with some demons, like the Brachen.

 

[AntonioCC]

A tense silence followed this, only broken by the ringing of the phone. Buffy answered, and after a few words she hang up.

"I had forgotten that Uncle Silas was coming." she said as an explanation.

"That would be Silas Wayne, isn't it?" the Professor said, "I know him, from a few social occasions Thomas invited me."

"Thomas Wayne, I suppose." Buffy said, with a bit of chagrin, suddenly remembering what she had to say to Scott, and what was teh reason why Silas was coming to visit, if Alfred was right, "Scott, can you come with me? There is something you should know and I had planned to tell you earlier, but with all the mutant thing it totally slipped my mind."

A cave, close to Slaughter Swamp​

Blackout followed the woman, the vampiress, deeper into the cave. She had helped him escape, and she had offered him a job. They had been waiting in a car, inside the mouth of the cave, until she had told him to follow her inside.

After a while they saw light before them, and soon afterwards they walked into a circular space with a bonfire in the middle. He looked at her quizzically, but she smiled and gave an ear-piercing whistle.

A bat flew down from the ceiling, before transformng into a man with a hooded red robe. Correction, a vampire in a hooded red robe, as his glowing yellow eyes could be seen inside the hood, that hid most of the face.

"Neat trick. You are the first vampire that I have seen that could do that." Blackout said with a smirk that showed his steel teeth.

"It's not a skill easy to learn, not to speak of the cost." the hooded vampire said with a shrug, speaking with a faint New Orleans accent. He motioned Blackout to follow him through a passage athat looked like a dead end, only for the wall at the end to disappear, showing a chamber that was set up as an office and bedroom, with a single king-sized bed and a ladder that gave access to a trapdoor in teh ceiling.

He sat down and teh woman sat to his side, leaning on him on a way that suggested taht they were more than friends.

"So, ...ah, how do I call you?"

"Monk. It's not my real name, no more than yours is Blackout." he said, "And I want you as insurance. I have an operation going on in Gotham, and I had some cannon fodder ready, just in case. But I had really understimated the Bat, specially given how he seems to have secured the aid of a Slayer."

 

[AntonioCC]

"...But I had really understimated the Bat, specially given the speed with which he seems to have secured the aid of a Slayer." he said, "Not to mention that there is more than one now."

"Sorry, but you haven't been living as a part of the supernatural world for a few years, have you?." Blackout said with a snort.

"No, we haven't. This little project has taken a lot of our time." the woman said, "I assume then that it is not a recent phenomena then."

"Not at all. The Slayer was based on the California Hellmouth for a while, but six, no, almost seven years ago..." Blackout started to explain about a second Slayer in the Gulf and Central America, who had disappeared around more than five years, only to be replaced by another in the East Coast, a real psycho, this one, and then in the last half year, teams of Slayers had been appearing out of the blue all over the world. He left out that some of his family was seriously considering summoning grandma Lilith to address the situation, that some of the supernatural heavyweights were starting to get a bit cheesed off with the Slayers, or that the Masters of the Mystical Arts seemed to be somewhat involved with them.

Wayne Tower Penthouse​

"...And that is it. We are no more related by blood than two random strangers." Buffy said, in a rather sparsely decorated studio.

"It doesn't matter." Scott said, "You and Dawn have been more family to me yesterday that Hank had been in the last years. Being family doesn't only means sharing blood, although that helps..."

"I know, believe me, I know." Buffy said, thinking about Willow, Xander, Giles, even Faith and the late Anya, "My friends in Sunnyhell, they have become very close to me, like a family. We have had problems..." she said, thinking back to the events that ended with the fiasco at the vineyard, "...but we have endured... Which brings me to the guy that is visiting, Silas Wayne."

"One of the Gotham Wayne's, I presume." Scott said.

"Yeah, Bruce great-uncle. Well, I suppose that he is also my, well, mine and Dawn, great-uncle, too." Buffy said, "I don't know anything about him, and his brother was the responsible for mom leaving Gotham, so be on your guard."

"And you?"

Buffy's only answer was a crooked smile.

 

[AntonioCC]

Triskelion​

The ascent to the third floor had been easy, too easy in Lynch's opinion. It was there, in the third floor when they found the reason of the easiness. In an atrium there was a firefight between two groups. Well, it had started as two groups, now they were reduced to three on one side, and one on the other. Corpses clad in khaki tactical gear, and the dark version favored by SHIELD security, surrounded both sides. They hadn't yet noticed the third group... and then Lynch recognized the sole survivor.

He represed a sigh before he made a sign to the others to stay put. Taking care of remaining under cover he approached the group until he had a good angle, then he carefully aimed, and with two quick shots he killed two of the three, while the third one was nailed by a shot from the other side as he got out of cover for a small fraction of second.

Lynch stood up without lowering his weapon, as the other guy, a younger blond with a scruffy beard, clad in khaki fatigues with a red bandana around his neck did the same. They gave each other a look, their weapons were still trained to each other and ready to shoot. After a few seconds that seemed to last an eternity, the other man was the first to lower his weapon, soon followed by Lynch.

"Cash, it has been a while." Lynch said, "I thought you were in Brazil, enjoying the beaches."

"Got bored, and signed for a PMC." Cash said with a shrug, "I have been a soldier all my life, Lynch. Besides..." Cash looked away with an embarrassed face.

"Besides what?" Lynch said.

Cash sighed and motioned Lynch to come where he was, and lower his voice.

"We had just finished a job in Central Africa when we ran into Slade. Do you remember him?" Cash said, upon the nod and the grimace on Lynch face, he continued with a smirk, "I see you do. Well, he recognized me, we talked and I presented him to my boss."

"Next I knew, the boss told us we had been hired, with a couple other PMCs, to help root a group of traitors in SHIELD, but things started to look wrong shortly after we arrived." he took a deep breath before continuing, "One of the other PMC groups was too tight with a group of the security people here. And then, less than five minutes ago, those bastards started to shoot at us."

"Any idea about why this happened?"

"No clue, but I recognized one of the head honchos of that PMC. He was in IO, one of Craven enforcers." Cash said, "And yes, I'm positive."

"Did you catch the name?" Lynch asked.

"Then, he used to go by Agent Dean, but I think that the name he don't use that name now. But I have seen him most of the time here with one of the Security bosses, a guy called Priest."

"Priest? Are you sure?" Lynch said, startled.

"Completely. Why?" Cash answered.

"It's bad. Really bad." Lynch said, "Come with me. This is above my pay grade."

 

[AntonioCC]

They came back shortly, having talked with Jones and Lane and gotten new orders, after Cash revealed that all the communications in the assaulting forces were routed through a central node. The orders were to take a mess hall on the fifth level, where they had to wait for more instructions. Cash agreed to accompany the group, with the condition that they try to save the guys from the PMC he had been working with.

They managed to get the fifth level without more firefights, as apparently more and more of the patrols were being needed in the higher levels, close to the director office.

"Why do you think this is happening, John?" Cash asked as they started to secure the room, "And don't tell me the usual crap about how 'that's above my pay grade'. Back in Team 7, you always knew more than you let anybody know."

"...Fine, but not here, Cole." Lynch said, before getting them further from the door, where the troopers couldn't overhear them, "Faraday has always been a bit of a paranoid asshole, and Priest must have been feeding him some bullshit that has fed his paranoia. But for all his paranoia, Faraday is an smart asshole. Frankly, I wouldn't bet on the winner in a battle of wits between him and Craven."

"So, you think that Faraday has clued in that he has been fed bullshit?" Cash said, looking away at how the Rangers and the HRT were covering the entry.

"Probably, I did with you after all." Lynch said, and Cash heard a click as well as a pressure, as if a weapon was being pressed on his side, "Do you want to know a secret? I still have a bit of the psychic powers that the Craven experiments gave us, enough to know when somebody is bullshitting me, like you were when you told me your sob story."

"Goddammit." Cash said, after a few moments, Lynch had hoodwinked him, "Okay, okay. Craven shit left me very messed up, and I was very intent in becoming a violent drunkard in Rio when I met... her."

"Her?" Lynch asked.

"Her. She gave her name as Shannon, but I know that it wasn't her real name." Cash said, starting to reminisce, "Long platinum blonde hair, legs that went and went for hours, tall and fit..."

"Your dream woman, in other words." Lynch said, remembering some talks in the past.

"Yeah..." Cash said with a sigh.