Snippets, Omakes and Short Stories

[AntonioCC]

Buffy shuddered. Her one time going with Strange had been... unsettling.

'Unsettling? Face it, Buffy. You were terrified.' she thought. The set of dimensions that Strange usually played in was far different from the ones she was somewhat familiar. Not even the one where she had freed the slaves had felt as wrong as some of the realms where Strange had led them.

"Buffy!" Willow shouted at the phone, attracting her attention again.

"Sorry, I was woolgathering, what you were saying?" Buffy said

"I was asking if you had talked with Riley about that 'Hulk'." Willow repeated.

"Yes, but he couldn't tell me anything. He implied that his people were being kept out of the loop about the 'Hulk'." Buffy explained, "And that was all." She then looked at the time, and said, "Well, I have to tell you, I was talking about Dawn's new High School when Izzy called, and before you ask, that is one of the things we shouldn't be discussing by phone."

Gotham City Library​

Julie Madison had been looking for records of the fate of the Kyle Collection. So far, she had records of some pieces being auctioned after Felix Kyle's suicide, but the bulk of the collection seemed to have been missing sometime between the Crash of '29 and Felix suicide. And trying to find surviving family had been a dead end. There was a great-granddaughter that worked as a stewardess, but she doubted that Selina Kyle knew anything about her great-grandfather's old collection.

No, she felt that her best bet to learn what happened to the Kyle collection was the Waynes. Felix sister, Constance, had married Charles Wayne, and he had also been a collector. If somebody knew what had happened, that person was Constance only surviving son, Silas Wayne. And given that Bruce was a good friend, she hoped that he could put a good word for her to be able to talk with the reclusive elder Wayne.

Silas Wayne's home​

Bruce was listening to the fascinating discussion between Xavier and Silas, when he noticed Buffy had come back, and her face told her that something had happened. He observed that Dawn had noticed it too and as soon as Buffy sat down they talked quietly, at least until Dawn gasped audibly, drawing the attention of the rest of the table.

"Something that we should know, Buffy?" Silas said looking at the young woman.

Buffy then briefly explained about the situation in Africa, avoiding mentioning Slayers and werehyenas.

"...I hope that you don't mind that I asked them to come here, Bruce. They are my best friends, and we have been through a lot together." Buffy said, "They'll stay in the penthouse, of course."

"I don't mind, Buffy." Bruce said, with a sad smile, "And I wouldn't mind meeting them either, because I assume that you are going to disclose..."

"Us being brother and sisters?" Buffy said, understanding what Bruce was leaving unsaid, "Of course, besides if that Vicky Vale is that good a journalist as you said, she'll unearth enough things to suspect the truth."

 

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"And what is a P. I. Firm doing investigating some gangbangers?" Jen said, suddenly wary.

"We deal with weird stuff." Gunn said, "Things that go bump in the night, as an old girlfriend of the boss-man said."

"And we are not going to ask about your... abilities, if that is what you fear." Wesley added, "Where do we leave you?."

"Actually, can we talk with your boss?" Rica said, "His name is Angel, right?"

"Yes, do you know him?"

"Not exactly. He helped one of my cousins, like four years ago." 'Rica said.

Genesis Institute Gym Lockers​

The physical training had proven to be as exhausting as it seemed, it didn't help Grant and the Callahan siblings telling them that they were going easy on them, being the first day and all of that.

"Well, both my parents were in Special Forces, so I had a quite strict training regime from childhood." Grant commented to Matthew while they were showering afterwards... well Grant, Bobby and Matthew were showering, while a guard was keeping Grunge's stall door closed with him inside under the water while an orderly was using a big sponge tied to a broomstick to wash him.

"Hey Grunge, if you bathed regularly, you wouldn't have to be treated that way." Bobby said, not paying attention to what the other two boys were saying.

"Special Forces? What outfit?" Mattew said, continuing the rehearsed conversation.

"Some kind of black ops, no idea which it was all very hush-hush." Grant answered with a shrug, "Why do you ask?"

"...No reason." Matthew said, knowing well that in the girls locker Nicole was seemingly babbling to the girls roughly the same info, so it would push one of them, probably Caitlin, into investigating a bit more. It had been a fortunate coincidence that the siblings had managed to talk a bit earlier the day, realizing that the three teens shared a quite low opinion of their current employers, and they had hatched this little plan to give them a bit of grief. Little they would know what would result of it.

A short while afterwards, just as the other boys had finished and judging that Grunge was clean enough the janitor stopped with the sponge bath and the guard opened the door letting the Asian teen get out looking at the winged skull tattoo on his chest with a downcast expression.

"The tail is gone." he said.

"What?" Bobby said.

He pointed to his chest, just under the skull. Bobby looked and noticed something different about the tattoo.

"Didn't the Skull used to have a tail?"

"Yeah, the tattoo guy didn't do the tail that I wanted, so I painted it." Grunge said, "I was going to go to another tattoo place that I know the same day the Genesis people came for me."

"That was why you didn't bathe since we came here?"

"Yeah, I may be a bit indifferent to hygiene, but not that much."

"Just you, Grunge. Just you."

Hyperion Hotel​

"Wow, what a dump." Jubes said when they arrived at the hotel.

"I've seen worse." 'Rica said, "Besides, with some plaster and new wallpaper it would look much better."

"Who are the kids?" a woman with short, brown hair said.

"Rica Chavez, Jenny Hayden and I am Jubilation Lee." Jubes said, pointing to each one as she said their names, "We came to talk to Angel."

 

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Hartley rolled her eyes, she had heard about Blake's hardliner stance about 'gifted'. She wasn't all that fond of them, herself, but... Well at least none of them were Trask, good riddance to that ass.

"Things had been quieter lately, thanks to the Superboy." she said.

"Ah, yes, him." Blake said with a frown, "What the Hell is the director thinking? That kid is powerful enough to be a real problem in the future, no matter how friendly he is now..." he stopped the tirade and took a deep breath. "Sorry, Agent Hartley, it's just... You heard about Bahrain, right? I nearly lost good friends there."

She nodded sympathetically. That mess in Bahrain had been out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s worse nightmares. A psychopathic child with mental domination powers that had left a bloody trail all over several countries, aided and abetted by her mother. A monster child, but still a child. May had not been the same after that mess.

"Let's get to the matter that brought you here, right?"

"Yes, of course. Sorry for the outburst." Blake said, "So, I came because you reported something strange going on at a housing project?"

"Yeah, the housing project has been abandoned for years." Hartley said, "The area was flattened by the meteor storm and the housing project was built over it, but after a few strange incidents, everybody left."

"Define strange." Blake said, frowning.

"Strange noises in the middle of the night, a general feeling of weakness and not having rested well, nightmares full of glowing green eyes and the clincher, a mother killing his own son and drinking his blood." Hartley said with a grimace, "And before I started to investigate it because of the disappearance of some hobos, I didn't know anything about it."

"Jesus." Blake said, "DO you think it was meteor contamination or a supernatural event?"

"No idea, some things point in one direction and others in another." Hartley said, "But something else did happen."

"And, why it is not in the report?" Blake asked.

"Because it happened yesterday night, during the storm." Hartley answered, "An electric creature appeared out of nowhere and started to wreck several houses in the housing project, until it was stopped by the Superboy."

"I hope that that thing is contained." Blake commented.

"Yes, and ready to be sent to the Vault from a safe house well out of town."

 

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"That's probable. And that means that she'll probably learn some things about your school, Charles." Silas said.

"She is welcome to," Xavier said with a smile. "I have always kept the school separate from my research about mutation, and I doubt that she will find any clue of what I do. Besides, it's not like schools with somewhat opaque admission criteria aren't a dime a dozen." He then looked at Scott, Jean, Kitty and Kurt, "And the results of our pupils in Bayville High speak for themselves. They are between the top students in the high school."

"Charles, shouldn't we go to check in our hotel?" Ororo said, looking at the time.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't notice the time. I hope that it isn't any problem."

"No problem at all. It's getting late, anyway." Buffy said, "Tomorrow we should have a definite answer about Dawn."

"That's all that I ask." Xavier said, as Ororo stood up.

They said goodbye, and left. After they left they sat back on the table.

"If they would have told me a week ago all of this I wouldn't have believed it." Buffy commented.

"Yeah, how many cousins do we have now, for example?" Dawn said.

"There is the Kanes... We'll have to tell them, of course." Silas said, and then turned to Bruce, "Part of the legacy comes from Martha's own money, I presume."

"Yes, from what I remember." Bruce said, "It would be a simple question of asking Mr. Cobblepot."

"Ah, old Edwin. He is a good man, not like the harpy of his sister-in-law or his scoundrel of a nephew." Silas said, shaking his head.

"What can you tell me about them? The Kanes, I mean." Buffy asked, "Beyond our grandparents, we never knew much about our mother's family."

"Well, your great-grandfather Robert was an ass." Silas said, and then added to the surprised expression of Bruce, "What? Can't I swear if I feel like it, because I'm an old man?"

"Ah, well, you always looked so... so..."

"Prim and proper? Bruce, you didn't meet me in my youth, I was a bit of a wild man back then, something that didn't help with my relationship with Patrick. I settled down after the marriage, and the birth of Maria."

"Maria is your daughter?" Dawn asked

"Was. She died in a car crash twenty years ago." Silas said, somberly.

"Ahhh, let's go back to the Kanes, then," Dawn said, awkwardly, "You were talking about our great-grandfather Robert Kane."

"Ah, yes. Robert Charles Kane, he basically threw your grandfather Richard out of the Kane Estate for daring to think for himself in several matters. And instead of groveling back to ingratiate with his father, he went to California to start a new life." Silas said.

"So that's the story of Grandpa Richard. He was always very tight-lipped about what he did before going to Los Angeles." Buffy said, "And Richard's brother? How was he?"

"Robert Foster Kane was a weak man, from being dominated by his father; he came to be dominated by his partner, my brother Patrick."

"Ouch."

"Yeah, he even died a year after Patrick." Silas said, "It wasn't a surprise that all of his three children were rebels on one way or another. Martha became one of the best social workers this goddamned city has known."

"And her siblings?."

"Well, Martha had an older sister, Gabby and one younger brother, Robert." Silas explained, "Robert is alive and has a daughter, Bette, around Dawn's age. He basically directs the R&D in Kane Enterprises."

"And Gabby?"

"She was always a free spirit. She ended joining the Army and ended marrying Jacob Kane, no relation, a man she met in West Point." Silas said, "She died fifteen years ago, in a mission, leaving two daughters, Elizabeth and Kate. Liz should be a couple years older than you, Buffy, but I haven't heard of her in a couple years."

"And Kate?" Dawn asked.

"She is roughly around Buffy and Bruce age." Silas said, "She went into the Army, the Rangers, I think, but she left it this past year."

"I didn't know that Kate had left the Army, what happened?" Bruce asked.

"You know how abrasive can she be, Bruce." Silas said, "From what I have heard, she dared to tell the wrong general he was wrong, and being right in doing so, to boot."

 

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"Good for her." Buffy said, and then added when Silas arched a eyebrow quizzically, "Military ex-boyfriend, he was a good guy, but his boss, and the boss of his boss..." she shook her head.

<O>​

Meanwhile, after taking a couple shortcuts, the X-Men had arrived to the hotel where they would be lodged for the night.

While the kids went to their rooms for the night, Charles and Ororo stayed to talk.

"What's your opinion about our prospective new pupil and her family, Ororo?." Charles asked-

"I'm not sure, Charles. There is something about Buffy..." she paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts, "She reminds me of Logan on some moments."

"How so?" Charles said. He had the same impression, but he wanted to know what had led her to make that comparison.

"I saw a few glimpses when we were talking yesterday morning, but they disappeared so quickly that I thought that I was imagining things." Ororo said, "But when she came back and told us about the death of that girl in Africa... It was clear as day."

"I suspected as much, all over the talk, I kept getting glimpses of something... primal, for lack of a better word, in the back of her mind. Violent, yes, but reined in by her own willpower, and she has more than anybody realizes." Charles said, "Dawn is more normal, though surprisingly mature for somebody of her years... And Bruce is an enigma."

"What? How?" Ororo said, "I mean, it's obvious that he is quite a bit more intelligent than his reputation says, but..."

"You know his story?" Charles asked, and then continued when Ororo shook her head, "His parents were gunned down before him when he was eight."

"No, I didn't." Ororo said, "That must have been..."

"Extremely traumatic, yes. But I didn't even get a glimpse of the trauma on a surface reading, and that may mean two things: that it doesn't affect him, which would point to an antisocial personality disorder, which would merit watching, if only to ensure that Buffy or Dawn don't get hurt, or he has one of the more disciplined minds I have found, which also merit watching, if only because there is no way that such a person is just an indolent millionaire playboy."

 

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"Oh? What do you three want with Angel?" the woman said.

"I don't think that's something for the secretary to know." 'Rica said.

"Secretary. Right." Gunn said, with a snort, "Girls, Cordy is the boss when the big boss isn't here."

"What?" 'Rica said, "But she dresses like she had raided a thrift store."

"Because all my clothes were blown up with my apartment, kid, so I really had to raid a thrift store for clothes." Cordy said, "Not that you have much to talk about clothes, Miss America."

"Hey, I like the American flag. You have a problem with that?"

"The color of your pants clashes horribly with your shirt, not to talk of those sneakers, seriously? If they were louder they would be singing heavy metal." Cordy said, "Also you could use a hairbrush. That hair looks like a bird nest from here."

"Try to keep your hair presentable when you have been thrown at the back of a car, fleeing from gangbangers." 'Rica replied. Who the Hell this gringo bitch thought she was to criticize her clothes. 'Fucking pendeja.' she thought.

"Hairspray is good for that," Cordy answered, and then looked at Wesley, "How do you think my kept looking so good back in Sunnyhell?. Fleeing from all those... gangs on PCP was hell on my hair."

"Never change, Cordelia. Never change." said a tall, dark-haired man from a corner in the back. They hadn't seen him at first, as the corner was heavily in shadow.

"Angel, how long have you been there?"

"Since they arrived." Angel said, and then looked at 'Rica, "You are Samara Chavez cousin, I think that I met you briefly when we... helped her."

"Yeah, I'm America Chavez. And sorry for what my uncle said of you." 'Rica said.

"I have been called worse." Angel said with a shrug, "I gather that you want to hire us."

"Yes. I have some money from athletic competitions, enough for a couple days at least."

"Okay, let's go to my office to discuss it." Angel said, and then turned to the others, "Cordy, Gunn, come with me. Wes, call Fred, we may need her."

 

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The office was small and with the windows covered by heavy curtains. A battered desk with an equally battered chair behind it, and three other chairs that had seen better days, were the only furniture in the room.

"Sorry, my old office got wrecked." Angel said, excusing himself for the shabby room when he noticed their faces, "This is the best we can do until it's fixed."

He then sat down, behind the desk, while the three teenagers each took a different chair, Gunn leaned on a wall, and Cordy sat on the desk.

"So, what brings you here?" he said, in a professional tone, as he took a pen and a notebook.

The three girls looked to each other, until 'Rica started to speak.

"Okay, we all three go to Hemery High..." Rica started to explain.

'Hemery? What a coincidence.' Angel thought while he started to take notes, but he kept his face in an attentive, but otherwise neutral expression. Cordelia didn't seem to recognize the name, something to ask her later.

"...and Marcy Monroe, a classmate, has enrolled out of the blue in a private school sponsored by some foundation." Rica explained, "When we went to check in their offices in L.A., it turned that they had disappeared just as they finished the recruiting. Their site was where your guys rescued us."

"Interesting, and they only recruited your classmate."

"Actually no, Jubes saw her going with another girl." 'Rica said, gesturing to the other girl.

"Yeah, I saw her, Marcy, I mean, getting in a minibus with a big G on the side, together with Rox."

"And Rox is...?" Angel asked.

"Roxy something...," she tried to remember, until she snapped her fingers, "Spaulding! Roxy Spaulding! I know her from the mall."

"Anything in common with Marcy?." Angel asked.

"Not really... Wait, 'Rica, didn't you tell me that Marcy dad was in the Army?"

"Yeah, as it was most of his family, I think, why?"

"Rox's grandpa was an Air Force bigwig, I think, and Rox mom was in the Air Force for a time."

"It could be a coincidence, but it merits investigation." Angel said, and looked at the notes he had been taking, "What was the name of the Foundation, by the way?"

"Genesis Foundation, why?" America said.

'Genesis? Fuuuuuuuuuck.' thought Angel, only a slight pursing of his lips betraying his reaction.

 

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"That's something, I suppose." Blake said, before looking at the other agents in the room, "Now, do you have an office or something where we could we speak somewhere privately?"

"There is a storage area in the back." Hartley said, pointing to a half-hidden door on a corner of the room.

"Let's go then."

They walked silently into the storage are, and Hartley closed the door behind her.

"You know that they are going to be speculating about what we are talking about."

"So?" Blake said, "That happens everywhere."

"Very well," Hartley said, going back to her "professional agent" demeanor, "what was so important, then?"

"Officially, I'm just for a routine evaluation of this office," Blake said.

"And unofficially?"

"Fury wanted me to tell you that some... interested parts are pressuring the Council to close this office." Blake said.

"'Interested parts', my ass." Hartley said, "It's Luthor Senior, right?"

"You didn't hear it from me." Blake said, "What does he have against S.H.I.E.L.D.'s presence here?"

"You have heard about what he is doing here, in Smallville."

"Yes, he is supposed to be dedicating a good part of his money to developing this whole area after the meteor storm out of the good of his heart, including buying the local fertilizer plant and making it a top of the line agronomical research facility." Blake said, managing to keep an straight face, "How much of it is true?"

"Almost none of it. The agronomical research is true enough, but I think that he is using it as a cover for other things."

"Such as...?"

"Research over the meteor mutagenic properties." Hartley said, "And before you ask, I don't have much solid data to support it, only than the meteor's quantities that Luthor's people delivers are always smaller than initially reported, and that several of the incidents happened to people related to the facility..."

"I assume that you reported everything to the Director."

"Of course."

Luthor Manor. Smallville.​

Lex Luthor junior awoke with a start, and closed his eyes immediately. The party last night must had been impressive if his hangover was so big.

 

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"Can you tell me anything else about that Foundation?" he asked.

"Not really, we just know what Marcy's parents told us. You could go to ask them."

"I'll probably do that later." Angel said, "I don't think it would be right to alarm them unnecessarily."

"Does that mean that you accept the case?"

"Yes, it's a bit different from our usual but we'll do it." Angel said, making a small gesture with his hand that stopped Gunn and Cordelia's protests on their tracks.

"Do you want to need some payment upfront?"

"Not at all. If this isn't a bust we can discuss the payment options later." Angel said, "But there is something I want to ask about that burst of green energy one of you did."

"Why do you ask?" 'Rica asked, suddenly on guard.

"Because if it is like Wes told me, I have seen something like that before, many years ago." Angel said.

"Fine." Jenny said before any of the others had time to say anything.

"Jen, you don't have..."

"I have always wanted to know where this..." she said, while a green light glowed around her hand, as her skin briefly changed colors to green and back, "...came from."

"Okay, you know that there were superheroes before Stark started to fly around in his armor, right?" he said, and followed when Jen nodded, "Thirty to twenty-five years ago, there was this guy in Gotham, the Green Lantern. I know about him because he saved me, and I can say that he had abilities similar to yours."

"Is he still around?" Jen asked with a strange note in her voice.

"I don't know, he sort of disappeared twenty-five years ago."

"'Sort of' disappeared? How can somebody 'sort of' disappear?" Jubes asked.

"There were some sightings of him, and others like him, in the decade afterwards that was when I met him, by the way." Angel said, "But even that stopped around fifteen or sixteen years ago." he said, looking at Jen intently.

"I'm adopted, actually, and that would explain a few things" Jen answered, understanding what he was not asking.

"Okay, I know some people who know more than me about this, and I can ask around. Completely free of charge, even. As I said, I owe that man my life." Angel said.

"Okay, I have always wondered about my biological family." Jen said.

"I need to go; I have track and field training today." 'Rica said, looking at the time.

"Wesley or Gunn can leave you wherever you want." Angel said.

No sooner than the teens had left the building with Gunn, Cordelia asked him.

"I saw your face when they mentioned that Foundation. What is it?"

"Close the door. This is private." Angel said, "Roughly thirty years ago I was tracked by... a person who I had worked with during World War II. He was now working for the Genesis Institute, which supposedly worked to research the paranormal."

"And in reality?"

"They were a front for a secret agency, International Operations or something like that. I was experimented upon; apparently somebody wanted to know if there was a way to become a vampire without the traditional weaknesses." Angel said, his eyes closed, "I barely escaped them. Others were not that fortunate."

 

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Silas Wayne residence​

After talking for quite a bit with Uncle Silas, Bruce and the sisters decided to go back to the manor. Bruce went to pick his car first, and found to his surprise, that somebody waiting for him in a sports car.

"Julie! What brings you here?" Bruce said, getting out of the Lamborghini as he saw the redhead walked toward his car.

"Hi, Bruce. And it's something better to be discussed..." Julie started to say, as the Summers sisters arrived in their borrowed SUV, "...here outside."

"Hello, I'm Buffy Summers." Buffy said, getting out of the car in her best Valley Girl impression.

"Buffy, this is Julie Madison, one of my best friends. Julie, Buffy is... a relative on my mother side."

"Yep. Mom was, like, from the black sheep branch of the Kanes." Buffy said.

"Joyce Kane, right?" Julie said, and then explained, "She caused a bit of a ruckus in the society pages back in the day, the prodigal daughter of one of 'Gotham Four Families' returning home."

"And you would know, as a librarian of the Gotham City Library."

"Just an assistant librarian and even that only part time." Julie said, with the easiness that denoted an old 'back-and-forth' between the two of them, "Anyway, I was going to call you to vouch for me, he has a reputation as a bit of a hermit, but finding you here it's even better."

A few minutes later they were back into Silas study.

"Julie Madison? You are Norman Madison's daughter, right?" Silas asked after she was presented to him.

"Yes, do you know him?"

"Only by reputation, actually. I had retreated from Gotham high society when your family moved to Gotham from L.A."

Buffy frowned when she heard this. 'Could she be related to Amy? There is some resemblance...' she thought.

"Yeah..." she said, the silence stretching for some time, until she started to speak again, "Well, the reason why I came was to ask about the Kyle collection."

"So, somebody finally joined the pieces." Silas said.

"So it's true that your father Charles bought most of the Kyle collection."

"Yes, Father had been lucky in 1929; he didn't lose almost everything like the Kyles or the Queens, and was able to help the Kyles to at least pay the debts. Unfortunately he couldn't avoid Felix Kyle's suicide."

 

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"He killed himself?" Dawn asked, while Julie noted it down.

"Officially it was ruled as an accident, but, well, he was found drowned in the riverside in November 1929, despite being a great swimmer, wearing his usual clothes, and before disappearing he had left everything ready for his wife and child, so they could have a comfortable life." Silas said, "A bit surprising, given that from what Mother told me, he was not in his right mind in his last weeks, talking at all hours about owls wanting him dead."

"Owls? Why, owls?" Julie asked.

"I don't know, but Mother thought that it had to do with a piece of art from one of the tribes that lived in the area before Gotham was settled, representing a creature with the head of an owl."

"That would be the piece that was called the 'Owl Witch-Doctor'." Julie said, before explaining, "I have been looking for clues about the Kyle collection in the last weeks, including looking at pictures of the more unique pieces. That piece was part of a set with a warrior with the head of a bat..."

Buffy looked at Bruce and arched an eyebrow, who shrugged.

"...and possibly other pieces, but the 18th Century manuscript that described the... acquisition of the pieces by Jeremiah Kyle was damaged in the Great Fire of Gotham of 1889." Julie finished.

"Acquisition? Given the stories that I have heard about Jeremiah, he probably stole them." Silas said, and then explained, "He and Samuel Kane were highwaymen in England and when they came to the New World they become pirates before settling in Gotham as rich men."

O'Hare International Airport. Chicago​

"Dad? Barbara, I'm in the airport, my flight will depart in an hour." Barbara Gordon told to her adoptive father voicemail. 'He is probably working in a case. Typical. I'll call again before embarking.'

She took her laptop and started to work on the software project she was working on, automating database searches for police work, inside a series of parameters to minimize the amount of false positives. Unfortunately, in its current state only she could use the program, and she didn't fancy being an oracle when she had better things to do with her time.

"Barbara Gordon?" she heard a voice say, interrupting her train of thoughts.

She looked up and saw a brown haired young man with an athletic build looking at her. He looked familiar for some reason, but she couldn't place her.

"Yes?" she asked warily.

"Ted Kord, from..." the man said.

"Kord Inc. Yes, you were one of the sponsors of that science festival past year." she said, recognizing him.

 

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Luthor Manor. Smallville.​

Lex Luthor junior awoke with a start, and closed his eyes immediately. The party last night must had been impressive if his hangover was so big. A pity he couldn't remember it. 'Note to myself: stop getting that shitfaced in parties.'

Now if he could remember where he had ended last night... His last memory was of picking up a stunning brunette in an after-hours, and even that was blurry. But giving the fact that she wasn't here, in the bed, with him, she must have gone her own way some time afterwards.

'Time to get up." he thought as he stretched out.

He got up and went to the bathroom. It was then when he noticed the faint scars on his bald head, and his back.

'It seems whoever she was, she was a bit wild.' he thought with a faint smirk. It wasn't the first time he had picked up such a woman, and the scars always healed quickly.

After getting himself presentable he went to take a breakfast, and his good mood evaporated when he saw his father in the kitchen, drinking a mug of coffee and reading the Daily Planet.

"I heard that you enjoyed yourself last night." Lex Luthor senior said, his voice completely free of any trace of the German accent he still affected in public occasions, without lifting his eyes from the paper, "Getting that drunk in public, disgraceful. What would Lillian say?"

"Don't act as if you cared about my mother when she was alive, father." Lex said, moving toward the coffee maker without sparing a glance to his father, "You were screwing that soap opera actress behind her back when she was in her deathbed."

"I loved your mother, but I'm not perfect." Lex senior said in answer.

"Ah, yes, 'I'm not perfect'." Lex said, airquotes included, "You are not even trying anymore with your excuses, right?."

"Alexander, be careful with what you say to me." Lex senior said, looking up from the paper, "You are my only legitimate son, but..."

"One of your legion of bastards could replace me, I'm perfectly aware of that." Lex replied, getting out of the kitchen. "Don't worry; I won't damage your precious reputation. In fact I'm going to spend the morning out."

"Where are you going, Lex?"

"To Smallville."

Lex senior stood there as Lex went back to put on clean clothes, not allowing himself to smile as his words did exactly what he hoped. Lex was so easy to manipulate...

 

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"Kord Inc. Yes, you were one of the sponsors of that science festival past year. What can I do for you?" Barbara asked.

"I was quite impressed by your work in the science fair, and I wanted to know if you would be amenable to work part time on Kord Inc..."

"I would be interested in that, but I have already enrolled in Gotham U..." Barbara started to say before being interrupted.

"I'm aware of that, but the job I'm proposing it can be mostly done from home, only having to go in person to my offices monthly, if that." Kord interrupted her.

"...What part of my presentation are you interested in?" Barbara asked.

"The self-piloting software for the drone." Kord asked, "I assume that it can be applied to full scale flying vehicles."

"In theory, but it would need to be refined quite a lot." Barbara said, "With a five pounds drone you can ignore several factors that become important once you increase the mass by one or two thousands."

"And the converse is true." Kord replied,

"Pretty much, Mr. Kord." Barbara nodded, "Furthermore..."

Silas Wayne Manor​

While Bruce and his cousins left probably for Wayne Manor, Julie checked the notes he had taken from what Silas had told them. In between notes about the Kyle collection, and Jeremiah Kyle and his obsession with murdering owls, she had amassed a good collection of stories about Gotham Four Families, the Waynes, the Kanes, the Kyles and the Queens, and their origins.

Apparently, a sizable part of the collection was still in Wayne Manor, the pieces that Patrick Wayne hadn't donated to museums or sold to collectors, probably because they were curios without real value. A significant exception, at least according to Silas, was the owl-headed figurine that had been the probable source of Jeremiah Kyle obsession, and some ancient books. Bruce had invited her to look at them tomorrow...

Julie wasn't conscious that her hand, where she kept her phone to take verbal notes was moving on her own volition, sending a call to a number that she had in the memory of the phone, and cutting the call immediately.

She had just finished revising her notes, while thinking than some of the stories that Silas had told about Gotham past, when the phone rang.

She looked at the number and recognized it as Dala's, and unknown to her, the same number she had unknowingly called a few minutes ago.

"Yes, Dala?" she asked, knowing that the Monk didn't like modern devices.

"Hi, Julie." Dala said on the phone. "May the Master blessing be with you."

Upon hearing the code phrase, Julie entered a trance.

"Yes, Mistress?" she said, in a flat tone.

"Report."

"Found the whereabouts of two of the tomes." she said mechanically, "They were part of the Kyle collection, but after the Crash of 1929, Charles Wayne bought the bulk of it to help his brother-in-law, and despite Patrick Wayne divesting himself of most of it, they are still in Wayne Manor."

"Can you get access to them in the next days?"

"Bruce Wayne invited me tomorrow to give it a look."

"Make some excuse to stay that night and take them to us." Dala ordered, "Is there any other piece on the collection that may be of interest?"

"There is a figurine which may be the Owl Shaman."

"Really? Interesting." Dala said. "Bring it to us, also."

"Yes, Mistress."

"You'll wake up from the trance at the count of three and you will remember that you called me by accident, and that we chatted a bit about the next session." Dala said, "One, two..."

 

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Thomas Wayne Memorial Clinic​

Sidney DelVeccio had just finished her dinner, and after disposing of it she sat down on the bed to think about her future. A month ago she was just a waitress who dreamed to escape the dreariness of life in Gotham City, but that life was long gone by now.

Her reflections were interrupted by the arrival of Doctor Thompkins.

"Hi, Sydney, how are we today?"

"Physically, well enough, I suppose..." she said, trailing off at the end.

Leslie understood what had been left unsaid, and resolved on talking to Buffy as soon as possible. She had confided her plans to offering Sydney a place in one of the Slayer Academies they were setting up, and she thought that this girl needed heavy counseling before even thinking to fight against those... monsters. Something she wasn't really happy about, but...

Her train of thoughts were interrupted when her phone rang.

"One moment," she said as she stepped out of the room, one of the few that the clinic had for patients that needed a longer stay, and looked at the caller ID. To her surprise it was Bruce, by his normal number, not the special line he had for his... night work.

"Hi, Bruce." Leslie said,

"Hi, Leslie. Do you remember Buffy and Dawn, Joyce Summers daughters?"

"Vaguely, it has been... what? Fifteen years?" she answered. 'So, this is how you are going to play this, right? Maybe there is still hope for you, Bruce.'

"More or less. Well, they are in town."

"Ah, yes, Dawn is sixteen now, right? I was one of the witness for you father's will, remember."

"O..kay," Bruce said, she had to give him points for naturalness, "They want to visit you, having being a friend of her mother and all that."

"Of course, I have no problem. Are you coming too?"

"No, I have... other commitments, sorry." Bruce said.

"Ah, okay." Leslie said,while thinking, 'Meaning, of course that he has to skulk around in his bat-costume somewhere.'"I'll go to receive them at the door"

DuBois Manor​

Jim Gordon had needed most of the morning to get the Sheriff to agree to this, and he only did after he pointed that Gotham's County Sheriff Department lacked a dedicated SWAT team. Not that they have needed it at the end, as they found the manor abandoned in what seemed to be a hurry.

Now the CSIs were pottering around recovering traces and unearthing the corpses. So far it served as a grim reminder of the evil of man, not that anybody serving as Law Enforcement in Gotham needed such reminder.

 

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"Captain Gordon?" one of the sheriff deputies called him, interrupting his thoughts. He was tall, but slightly overweight, and his red hair was starting to thin on his head, not unlike his old friend from his time in the Department of Homicides, O'Hara. The bushy moustache, mirrored sunglasses and raspy voice completed the image. A false image, because they had already talked earlier, and knew that Batman was under the makeup and prosthetics.

"Yes, Deputy... O'Bannon?" he asked, pausing just enough to look as if he barely remembered the man.

He didn't say anything, but motioned Gordon to follow him, which he did, because there was something that he wanted to see, to confirm some of his suspicions.

They only walked a few steps, finding themselves close to one of the manor broken windows, where they could see the ballroom where most of the action had taken place.

"What have you discovered?" Gordon said, while looking to the ballroom. 'Ashes all over the place, in clumps that couldn't have been made by the wind. Just like I suspected.'

"Nobody has come since yesterday, also, the results of the autopsy of the two officers dead when transporting Blackout should be in your desk when you come back." Batman said.

Gordon looked at the time and frowned.

"No time today, I have to pick up Barbara at the airport." He said, and then added, to confirm a suspicion he had since he saw the state of the corpses, not to talk of what he had just noticed here, "I assume you have read it, can you give me the cliff notes version?"

"Officer Barr's neck was broken, and officer Wein died of blood loss..."

"Caused by the bite on the neck." Gordon said, and then he asked, after Batman's nod, "Blackout in both cases?"

"No. The broken neck was undoubtedly caused by Blackout, but the bite marks were too small to be from Blackout, and apparently there were signs that another person handled officer Wein's body perimortem."

"A vampire, right?" he said, and then added, seeing Batman expression, "I noticed that there was a lot less blood than it should have been from that wound in the neck, not to mention how the Ripper seemed to kill their victims from blood loss and paying special attention to wrecking the neck."

"You noticed the same things that I did, but how did you attributed it to vampires?"

"I didn't do it, not immediately, but I didn't dismiss it out of hand, and this finally clinched the deal. You see, I have dealt with them before, in Chicago." Gordon said, before chuckling mirthlessly, "'Dealt'. I was saved from being their dinner by a slip of a girl no older than Barbara is now, and then pressured by a British guy to keep it on the down low." He then looked at Batman, "The woman who helped you...?"

"It's a long story, but I can tell you, that while there is a connection, she's not the same woman." Batman said after a pause, "Anything else, Jim?"

"No, in fact I should go to. Barbara is going to arrive..." he started to say, before he heard somebody calling him. He turned his head and saw a rookie officer, Montoya he thought she was called coming to where he was together with Steve "Shotgun" Smith, one of the Sheriff Deputies and a damned good cop before being pressured to resign.

"As I was saying..." he turned his head only to see that Batman had vanished, "Typical." he said under his teeth, before turning to face Smith and Montoya.

Gotham Gazette. Vicky Vale's desk​

Vicky was reading the results of Nashton search. Buffy and Dawn Summers, 23 and 16 years old respectively. Both born in L.A. to Hank Summers and Joyce Summers, nee... Kane. Curious, that could be a connection to the Waynes. She filed it for later and kept reading.

 

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Hayden home, the next day​

"So... You want to know my story?" Jenny said, nervous, to Rica and Jubes.

"Well, yesterday it was a bit late when we got home, and given that your parent's aren't home..." Rica said.

"What she said." Jubes said, fiddling with her tablet.

Jenny took a deep breath and removed her right glove, showing her palm, and on it there was a stylized dark green starburst with an empty space in the center that showed her normal skin.

"It wasn't always like this. Before last year, it was just a weirdly shaped birthmark, just a bit darker than the rest of the palm, and the shape a lot less defined than now." she said, "Afterwards... Well, you see it, and also..." On cue, her skin changed color to a vibrant green, a quite lighter shade than her birthmark. Her eyes had already been green, but now they looked almost as if they glowed, and even her black hair had now green highlights.

"And now you control a green sort-of-forcefield, which can take any shape you want." Jubes said, looking at her.

"...Yes, how...?" Jenny answered.

"Internet. It wasn't easy to find... In fact I had to take a plunge into the deep web to find some of the videos." Jubes said.

"Videos?"

"Of the guy with powers like you, the Green Lantern." Jubes said, "As I have said, they haven't been easy to find, it's almost as if somebody had been suppressing evidence of the existence of metahumans."

"Metahumans?"

"A fancy name for people with powers on some Internet cesspools. 'Enhanced' or 'gifted' seems to be also used too." Jubes said with a shrug, then gave a good look to Jenny, "By the way, have you ever cosplayed as an Orion? You wouldn't even need makeup."

"What?" Jenny said, confused for the apparent non-sequitur.

"Jubes, can we get back to Jenny's powers, before you got into other of your weird tangents?" 'Rica said.

"Ah, sorry, I get distracted easily." Jubes said with a blush, before starting to fiddle again with her tablet, "Anyway, here are the videos; you could get at least an idea of what you can do."

Genesis Institute, Students Mess Hall​

"So, what do you think of our schedule?" Roxie asked to Caitlin, who seemed to have problems, getting both her notes and her food on the table without problems, "Let me help you with that." She said, taking the tray with the food from the slightly taller redhead hands.

"Thanks, Roxie." Caitlin said, putting her papers on the table. "And, well, I hope not to screw it up for you much in the PE classes, I have always been a bit of a klutz."

"Well, I'm not that good in Maths, but I did dance and rhythmic gym in high school, I could help you with that, if you help me with Maths, deal?"

"Deal."

 

[AntonioCC]

Hayden home. L.A.​

"There is something weird here." Jenny said, after watching several of the videos.

"So, you have noticed it too?" Jubes said.

"What are you two talking about?" 'Rica asked.

"Look at this." Jenny said, replaying one of the videos where the Green Lantern had stopped a runaway truck on a busy street, "When do you think it was recorded?"

"Dunno, the '60s?" 'Rica said with a shrug.

"Late forties, or early '50s at most." Jenny said, "The hairstyles and the fashion are a dead giveaway."

"Well, I noticed the cars and the articles on that store window actually, but I concur."

"I bow to your expertise." 'Rica said, in a slightly mocking tone, "But what does that mean?"

"Alone, not that much. But... well, I ordered them more or less chronologically." Jubes said, and then replayed another video, of the Green Lantern stopping a bank robbery, "This is the next in the series."

"Are you sure? Even I can tell that it's a lot more recent than the last. The 90s?"

"Late 80s. '88, to be precise, there were Bush/Quayle posters all over the bank wall. And before you ask, no, there are no other videos in between." Jubes said.

"It could be his son, or his grandson, though." Jenny said, "I don't think that anybody with that power would have passed all those years inactive, not to mention that the '80s Green Lantern doesn't noticeably older than the '40s one."

"It's possible." Jubes said.

"It's not like he could have been magically transported from the '40s to the '80s, right?" Jenny said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, that's crazy." Jubes said

"I'm sure that you have read crazier stuff in your comics." 'Rica said

"Well, yeah, but If you want really crazy stuff go the Silver Age comics. Or almost anything by Grant Morrison or Neil Gaiman..." she said, "That reminds me, I have to give a look to the American Gods TV series. And now that I think about it...."

"Jubes, focus." 'Rica said.

"Sorry." Jubes said, before turning to Jenny, "Well, what do you think about the videos?"

"It has given me some ideas, but I'll need training." Jenny answered.

"Cool, we can help you with that." Jubes said, "What do you think Rica?"

"It depends on what you want to do with your powers, Jenny." 'Rica said.

"I... I really don't know." Jenny said.

 

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Kent farm​

"Rogue, this is Lana Lang, my best friend. She lives the next farm down the road with her aunt. I trust her in everything." Clark said, emphasizing the last word, but before he could say anything else, he looked away as if he had heard something that only he could hear.

"A runaway truck at the fertilizer plant, sorry, gotta go!" and he disappeared in a woosh of displaced air.

"Does he do this all the time?" Rogue asked.

"Running away to prevent some disaster? All the damned time." Lana said, "I assume that's how he met you."

"...Not exactly." Rogue said, "Ah'm a mutant... a genetic mutant, not somebody affected by meteors..."

"Okay." she had never thought about that, but it stood to reason that it could happen, "And I assume you have powers of some type."

"Yeah, Ah can steal memories and powers with a touch, but it's not pretty." Rogue said with a shudder, "Neithah for them or for me. Three days ago, Ah was kissing a boy Ah liked when...well, yah know, my powers activated."

"Ouch." Lana said, sympathetically, "That's horrible."

"Ah know." Rogue said with a sigh.

"And what did your parents...?" Lana started to ask, stopping herself when Rogue shook her head.

"Ah don't remember them. From what Irene, my guardian, told me, they died in a car crash when Ah was a toddler." she sighed, "Irene... she managed to get me out of town before some bad people came for her."

"What?" Lana asked.

"She was also a mutant, and she got warning that some kind of anti-mutant group was gunning for her. Ah thought Ah had lost them, but they had managed to track me to Topeka, where Irene had some kind of safe house, that's where Clark saved me from them." Rogue explained, "Irene managed to escape, and Ah think she knew of Clark… or rather of the Superboy, before, and managed to get some kind of warning to him."

"I wonder how did she do that," Lana said, "I mean, Clark tries to keep thing separate. He didn't tell me until the prom..." She fell silent for a moment, before continuing, "At least he doesn't have to invent stupid excuses anymore, with me at least."

"That sounds like standard secret identity stuff, like in the comics."

"Yeah, pretty much. Not really a comic-book fan, but both Clark and Lex are both big fans of the Warrior Angel... I think Lex has every issue published in the last decade… and speaking of the devil..." she said as a completely bald young man opened the kitchen door.

"Hello Lana, and… company. I came to talk with Clark."

"He has some errands to run." Lana said.

"Ah, okay." He then turned to Rogue and extended his hand,Lex asked. trying for a charming smile, "I'm Lex Luthor junior, miss…"

"Call me Rogue, sugah." Rogue said with a smile of her own.

"Rogue, what kind of name is Rogue?."

"A teacher always called me 'the rogue element' in junior high, and Ah ended making it mine." Rogue said, and then waved to herself, "The Goth stuff cemented the image, and it helps that I like the style."

 

[AntonioCC]

Close to the Smallville Fertilizer Plant​

As he ran toward the plant, Clark saw that the situation was dire. The truck's driver was suffering a heart attack just as he was about to take the turn that would keep the truck from the cliff that overlooked the plant fuel depot, the cliff that the now out of control truck was heading to. He ran as far as he could but he just arrived in time to move the truck away from the edge of the cliff, with the bad luck that the violent maneuver broke the hook that kept the trailer attached to the cabin.

The trailer that was headed straight to the cliff, but before he could react, a black haired teen wearing black clothes, except for the purple band on his jacket, landed before him and moved his hands, and the trailer stopped. He made another movement and trailer started to move back toward the cabin, as a couple of other two teens, a boy and a girl, landed before him.

"Can you help me? I think the driver is suffering from..." Clark said as he opened the cabin and removed the truck driver, who fortunately was still alive.

"A heart attack." said the girl, a blonde wearing a red and white t-shirt with a Saturn-like symbol on it.

"Yeah, yeah." the other guy, a dark blond with a blue and white t-shirt with lightning motifs, "Allow me." he said, putting one finger of each hand on two points on the chest, and closed his eyes. Suddenly two sparks jumped from his fingers and struck the driver like the pads of a defibrilator.

To Clark relief, the driver's pulse normalized after that, just in time as a vehicle was climbing the road from the plant. A quick look confirmed that it was the emergency services from the plant; somebody must have seen the truck lose control. The driver seemed to be unconscious now.

"Damn, I wanted to introduce ourselves on a more peaceful way, Super… err…, Superboy. " The black haired teen said, speaking English with an unidentifiable accent, while the blonde girl waved a device over the driver.

"He is stable, Rokk." She said.

"Good." He said, sighing in relief, "Look, Superboy, I know that you have a lot of questions about us, but I don't think that this would be the best venue to discuss it."

"…You're right. Three miles to the west there is an water tank. It's nicely isolated, and no people go there." Clark said.

 

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A biker bar, just outside Smallville​

Logan parked his bike in the parking lot before the bar, and after securing it, he started to walk down the street to the town. He had never had any intention of entering the bar, but he reasoned that it was a good place to hide it. After a few minutes walking he caught again a whiff of the smell of one of those things he had met in Africa long ago. He thought he had left all of it behind after blowing up that cult's headquarters, but it seemed that some of them had escaped.

Unfortunately, by the time he had arrived to the town proper all hopes to find those things in town had evaporated. It was not that the trail had vanished, far from it, but it had become so mixed with older trails that it had become hopelessly muddled. Maybe if he walked to one of the town other exits... One moment, what the hell is that? He breathed deeply, and frowned. This one was clearer, as well as stronger. It was equally muddled, and equally non-human, but completely different. What the hell was going on this town?

So focused he was on this that he almost missed the well-dressed man getting out of a shop on the other side of the street. He reacted quickly, through, crouching as if to tie his boots.

'Blake.' he thought. Of all the SHIELD agents he had known, Blake was... competent, but not exactly friendly. But at least he now knew where he could go for help if thing went awry.

On the other side of the street, agent Blake forced himself not to react when he saw the infamous Logan in the other side of the street. He had to give him points for his quick reaction, most others would have been fooled, but his specialty was reconnaissance. He was going to contact the director as soon as he reached his car, though. He had to know that one of Xavier's freaks was in this town.

A water tower, not too far from Smallville.​

Clark arrived a few minutes after the incident with the runaway truck at the plant, but there was no sign of the three teens that had helped him there. At least until a door opened out of nowhere, revealing a spherical interior with three seats, where the three teens were seated.

"You can come in, Superboy." said the black haired one of the group.

Clark breathed deeply and entered the sphere, which looked... pretty much what one could expect from it, three seats with some kind of holographic consoles before them, and a 360 degree view.

"You know, I hoped for this to be bigger in the inside or something."

"Maybe next model, this time sphere was more of a proof-of-concept than anything else."

"Time sphere? Are you time travelers?"

"Yes, from the 31st Century. I am Rokk Krin, also known as Cosmic Boy."

"Imra Ardeen, Saturn Girl."

"Garth Ranzz, Lightning Lad. You know when I was told that we are going to meet the legendary Super... Superboy, I thought you'd be taller."

Rokk rolled his eyes, and ignoring Garth remark he continued.

"We were inspired by you, and ..., well, others, to form a group that uses our powers to make a difference." Rokk said.

"I hope that you didn't go for all of this to ask me for an autograph..."

"What is an autograph?" Garth asked.

"Some kind of memento of famous people, I think." Imra said.

"No, nothing like that. Bra..., I mean, Querl, one of our own, managed to develop a safe way to time travel, but Tharok, one of our enemies stole it, and with his allies, who call themselves the Fatal Five they traveled to the here and now." he forestalled Clark agitation, by continued to explain, "Querl managed to send us before they arrived, fortunately."

"What are they after? Me?" Clark asked.

"We don't think so, Tharok is the brain of the group and he is well aware of the consequences of messing with the timeline that badly." Rokk explained, "We think he is going after something here. What, exactly, we don't know."

"You seem to have taken this quite well." Imra observed.

"You are not the first time traveler I have met. Have you met a kid who calls himself Impulse? Or Bart Allen? He says to come from the 31st Century." Clark said.

"No. I vaguely remember an Allen marrying the daughter of former vice-president Thawne, but I think he was called Don." Imra answered.

 

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"Well, there are a lot of those green meteors, some old Indian ruins and whatever Lex senior is cooking in that secret lab under the plant." Clark said, so focused on his recollection that he didn't notice the look they shared when he mentioned the meteors, and Imra pursing of her lips at the mention of Lex senior.

"I doubt that the Five would have bothered to steal time travel tech for something like that." Rokk said, scratching his chin.

"What if it's not something, but somebody?" Clark ventured, "What do you know about mutants."

Rokk chuckled, Imra rolled her eyes and Garth smirked.

"By the standards of this era, that's what we are..." Rokk said.

"I have some Eternal ancestry, but the point stands." Imra pointed out, and then added when she noticed Clark's curiosity, "The Eternals are a Human offshoot, created by alien experiments. But that's not important right now. Why do you ask that?"

"Just yesterday I saved a mutant girl from..." Clark started to say.

"Anti-mutants bigots, we know. We were ready to do it ourselves when she ran into you." Garth said, and then thought for a moment, "You brought her to Smallville, didn't you?"

"Do you think those Five can be going after her?"

None of them answered immediately, just looking to each other.

"Maybe..." Rokk finally said, "We recognized her. Rogue, right?"

"Yes, is she important?."

"Yes, and if you are right and they are going after her, things just got a lot more complicated." Rokk said, "She is... connected to many people, human and mutants alike, good and bad. I can't tell you much more, because, well, time travel."

"Alright. Can you at least detect if those people arrived to this era?"

"Yes, it's not 100% foolproof, that's why we keep an eye on the media." Rokk said, while Imra pressed a button, and an holographic screen appeared showing a newscast, "They are not going to be exactly inconspicuous."

"Look," Imra said, pressing a button, and the image changing to an hologram of five people: a cyborg, a green haired woman with a floating green orb, a guy wearing what looked like a white spacesuit, a guy wearing furs and brandishing a weird looking axe and a gigantic white and purple creature with an exposed brain.

"Yes, they'd stand like a sore thumb... unless they appear at a comic-con." Clark.

"A what?" Garth asked.

Clark sighed, this was going to take a while.

Kent Farm.​

"...And then Clark tripped on something, fell down and and the whole five-gallon jug of milkshake fell all over him." Lex said, "He was covered from head to toe in strawberry milkshake, and he looked at me and did that thing he does..."

"The 'it can't be helped' gesture? Yeah, that's so... so... so Clark." Lana said, laughing, "And I suppose that he went to clean up himself afterwards."

"Yeah, he went and..." Lex started to say, stopping when he saw the time, "Sorry, as much as I'd like to keep talking with two charming women like yourselves, I have a business meeting to go." he said as he got up, and started to walk to the main door.

"Don't be a stranger, Lex." Lana said, as he accompanied him to the door.

"See you Lana." Lex said as Lana was closing the door.

They got back to the kitchen in silence, until they heard Lex car start.

"I assume that Clark's clumsiness is just an act." Rogue said now that she was sure that he couldn't overhear.

"Mostly. It provides an excuse to get out and go to help people as Superboy." Lana said, putting the glasses in the dishwasher, "Me and Pete, Pete Ross, Clark's other best friend, had suspected for some time that he was Superboy, but it wasn't until the prom when I knew, and convinced him to tell Pete. Now we cover for him as best as we can."

"And why Pete and not Lex?" Rogue asked, curious despite herself.

"Because of Lex father, Lex Luthor senior, head of Lexcorp, the second or third richest man in the world, and up to his mane of gray hair into shady stuff. He had tried to kill Clark, as Superboy, more than a few times, but there is no way get any dirt to stick to him." Lana said, with more than a hint of bitterness, "Sorry, it's just personal for me. I lost a good friend, because her father trusted Lex senior supposed cure for her illness."

 

[AntonioCC]

Vicky was reading the results of Nashton's search. Buffy and Dawn Summers, 23 and 16 years old respectively. Both born in L.A. to Hank Summers and Joyce Summers, nee... Kane. Curious, that could be a connection to the Waynes. She filed it for later and kept reading... Hmm, actually, Buffy's date of birth made it difficult for her to be Hank Summers daughter, interesting.

Not all much about the, Buffy Summers had apparently won a few ice skating championships in Middle school, and she seemed to be straight toward being the usual Californian blonde... until her first year in High School. The events are confusing, but it seemed that her high school gym caught fire during a celebration and she was blamed for that. Reading between lines, this seemed to exacerbate existing problems between the parents and Hank and Joyce separated, with Joyce moving with the girls to... Sunnydale.

'The city that fell into a sinkhole earlier this year.' she thought, 'Curious.'

From what she was reading it hadn't been a great loss, as it had been controlled by the Wilkins family since its incorporation and it had started to fall apart after Wilkins the 3rd died when the boiler in the high school exploded. It was all interesting but it didn't explain why she seemed to be so chummy with the Waynes all of a sudden. She looked what Nashton had gathered about the mother, Joyce, died from an aneurism, caused by complications of a brain tumor two years ago. An art gallery owner, first in LA and then in Sunnydale, who had studied Art in... Gotham? Nashton had managed to unearth some pictures of the woman during her college years, and she was always with a couple that looked very familiar.

"Thomas and Martha Wayne! Of course, that is the connection." she said to herself, "She was a friend... or more than that." she added when she opened an envelope and saw another group of pictures, showing the Waynes and Joyce acting very intimate with each other, all from the same night, if the dates on the pictures could be believed culminating in the last couple of pictures, one showing the three entering a cheap motel, clearly inebriated, and very amorous with each other, and the following one, clearly shot with a telephoto lens so they could see what was happening inside the motel room, and showed the three... busy with each other.

Something bugged her about that date, she checked again Joyce life story and it was two days before she relocated back to LA... and roughly nine months before the birth of Buffy. On a hunch she checked the birthdate of Bruce Wayne and it was close. Very close.

If this had been published back then, it would have been a major scandal, and given the influence that Old Man Wayne had back then... Yeah, that's why it didn't see the light of the day, and the reason why Joyce left Gotham so fast. From what she had heard from the old-timers, the man sometimes behaved like a mob boss, 'an offer you can't refuse' included.

'What do I do?' Vicky thought.

She liked Bruce, and despite their clashes with the law both Buffy and Dawn looked to have straightened their life, but even if she didn't publish it, somebody was going to do it. Nashton was smart enough to have joined the pieces, and completely unable to stop bragging about what he knew.

'I'll visit Bruce tomorrow.' she thought, 'We need to talk about this.'

 

[AntonioCC]

Rogue wanted to know more, but she stopped before asking more, seeing the pain in the other girl's face. The awkward silence seemed to stretch for quite a long time, but it has actually been less than a minute when Lana said, in a pretty obvious attempt to change the issue.

"So, where are you from? I mean, by your accent..."

"Caldecott county, Mississippi. Not a lot of things to see there, Ah can tell yah." Rogue said, "Ah mean, y'all have a pretty little town in Smallville. Caldecott othah than the rivah and the few mansions that didn't become ruins..."

"I get the idea." she then looked at the time, "Damn, I have to go. I have an appointment with Doc Gannet, tell Clark we'll talk later." And she left, leaving Rogue alone with her thoughts.

Maybe it was the last remnant of Irene's prophetic ability, or maybe it was just her own nerves, but she had the feeling this had not yet finished. She looked out of the farm building. Clark was taking his sweet time with this and...

She saw something, like a heat shimmer pass over the fields, toward the house. She ran out and saw it pass over the building. Running to the back, an area between the buildings, practically invisible from the road, she didn't see it until a door opened out of nowhere, and Clark and three other people walked out.

Hartley Hunting and Sporting Goods​

Isabelle was surprised to see Blake coming back. He had agreed to come back after closing to give a more thorough look to the SHIELD operations in the area, not just barely after leaving.

"Mister Blake, what a surprise! Any problem with the merchandise?" she asked.

"No, no, just remembered something. Say, do you have access to scopes for hunting rifles, I assume." he answered.

"Yes, of course. Anything in particular?" Isabelle said, keeping a perfect professional vendor face to hide her surprise. The mention of the scopes was a code she wasn't expecting, meaning he had seen a Person of Interest.

"Let me see what you have, to check what I need." Blake answered.

"Very well, come with me."

They went the same way than the last time, and the elevator door had barely closed when Blake started to speak.

"That Canadian freak, Logan, is in town, Agent Hartley, and I think he may have recognized me."

 

[AntonioCC]

A parking lot in Los Angeles. Somewhat later.​

Angel was waiting in a car park, far from the sun, when a car parked next to him. Inside the car, there was a mild-looking man in a dark suit and sunglasses. Everything about him screamed federal agent, the dark suit, the sunglasses, the eminently forgettable appearance. The only discordant note was the vintage red sports car. He looked at him with a nonchalant expression, allowing him to see he was wearing several talismans under the jacket that would make an attack by most vampires or demons quite unwise.

"Mister Angel, I suppose?" he said.

"That's me. And you are? " Angel answered. So, this was the 'new boss' that the soldier boy had mentioned when he had contacted him to ask about the Genesis Foundation. He was in town, supposedly on unrelated business.

"Agent Philip Coulson, from S.H.I.E.L.D.. Our agency absorbed the Initiative recently, so Major Finn now works for us." He simply said, as he got out of the car, "Why did you ask about the Genesis foundation?"

"It relates to a current case, related to the sudden disappearance of two teens." Angel said, giving nothing beyond what he had already told Finn.

"Those teens are Ms. Marcia Monroe and Ms. Roxanne Spaulding, I presume." Coulson said.

"Yes, you are well informed, Agent Coulson. Or does your agency already have people working on this? " Angel asked, frowning.

"No comment." Coulson answered with a placid smile.

"What can you tell me, then?" Andel asked, rolling his eyes. He had enough of the cryptic shit with seers. He frankly didn't expect the G-Men to get into it.

"I can tell you that IO was disbanded almost twenty years ago, and a lot of the people involved in its most creepy projects were... dealt with." Coulson said.

"And what is the Genesis Foundation then?" Angel asked, a bit irritated by having to play twenty questions.

"You know how difficult it is to kill cockroaches? And how do they scurry toward the darkest and hardest to reach places? " Coulson said.

"Okay, good metaphor." Angel replied, having seen that happen several times over the years with secret organizations, being seemingly destroyed only to return after rebuilding themselves in secret. "If there is nothing else..."

"Actually, there is. S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to do things differently than the Initiative regarding the supernatural. We also have hints, nothing solid, unfortunately, that there is some level of collusion between corrupt government officials and certain supernatural circles, using a certain law firm as an intermediary." Coulson said

"Wolfram & Hart." Angel guessed.

"Pretty much. From the files of the Initiative, you have clashed with several of their supernatural clientele over the years. We hope you have some idea of..." Coulson started to say.

"Don't look further. It's them. " Angel interrupted, "Wolfram & Hart may look like an extremely sketchy and shady law firm, but its senior partners are actually a trio of extraordinarily powerful demons, called the Wolf, the Ram..."

"...and the Hart. And all the people working there have sold their souls or something like that, I presume." Coulson finished.

"When they aren't outright vampires or demons in human form." Angel confirmed, "I don't really know their ultimate agenda, but they have open and covert branches nearly everywhere, and they fund everything from mundane drug smuggling to esoteric cults, passing through your run of the mill vampire serial killer, mad scientist, or crazy cultist."

 

[AntonioCC]

Gotham Monarch Hotel​

Charles Xavier was lying in his bed trying to sleep, but dream eluded him. He had never liked Gotham City, the aura of darkness and despair around the city was almost palpable sometimes, but this time around it was... different. As if there was a little light fighting against the darkness.

'Very poetic, Charles. But it doesn't help you to sleep any.' he snarked to himself, as he grabbed the wheelchair back handle, brought it to the bed and sat on it, wheeling himself to the desk in the room to use his laptop to work.

Or at least that was what he tried to, but he had received an anonymous e-mail to his personal account that very few people had. The email told him that a common friend was trying to find frozen goods from outside, and that the email was going to try to dissuade this common friend from doing this. Mostly because those frozen goods weren't there, only old leftovers. A strange message with random capitalization... one moment. If one discounted the words that should be capital letters, the capital letters out of place spelled janhwatson or Jan H Watson...

"Irene and her Holmesian aliases." Xavier groaned as he decoded it.

From there, it was easier. The common friend was Erik or Magneto, as he called himself now. The frozen goods from outside... something alien crashed in the Arctic? And probably it was only an old plane crash, instead, if he was reading this right.

But, that meant that Erik was going to go back to whatever his primary plan was. And he was no closer to knowing about it than before. Though, he had his suspicions that his brother Cain had a role to play on them…

Wayne Manor​

"So, it is pretty obvious that Dala and Nicholas haven't fled Gotham." Buffy said, when Bruce told her the news that Gordon had told him earlier, "And they have recruited Blackout for some reason."

"What interest do they may have in Gotham? As you said, this city holds very little interest for…"

"Not exactly, Gotham has little supernatural activity, but…" she facepalmed as she realized what had been in front of her all this time, "Of course, I have been slightly creeped out since I stepped into here, and my slaydar tends to be somewhat bad in pinging supernatural stuff. There is some bad mojo in Gotham that actively repels supernatural stuff."

"So you think that they are looking into that 'bad mojo'?" Bruce asked.

"Wouldn't be the first time. How far back does the history of low supernatural activity in Gotham go?"

"As far back as the founding of the city, if I remember correctly. Let me check, anyway." he said, starting to key in the Bat-computer.

 

[AntonioCC]

"Interesting…" Buffy said when she read what appeared on the screen.

"Indeed. I would have to make some correlations, but there are some midwestern legends that talk of a similar messianic figure. The fight against a demon of darkness and its sealing is new, though." Bruce said, "I think that there is some additional material in the Kyle collection, including a book of stories collected by one of my… well, our ancestors from the Kyle family, back in the XVIIIth century. It's one of the things I was planning to show Julie tonight, actually."

"That was the manuscript that was damaged in a fire, right? Can you wait until Dawn gives it a look? She is pretty good at researching books for stuff like that." Buffy said, "Actually, what material do you have from the tribes? Just in case there is some kind of curse."

"I remember a few figurines representing Native Americans as their animal totem…"

"You mentioned a bat-headed warrior, now that I remember, any relation?"

"Not that I know of, I was always more into the European knights than into Native American stuff. You see, both our great-grandfather and our great-uncle were great collectors of Native-American antiques." Bruce said,thinking back to happier times when his parents lived, "And I have no problem with Dawn looking it over the collection, and you too. Just because Gotham now is a low magic area doesn't mean it was the same in the past."

He then used the intercom,

"Alfred, can you open the hall of the Kyle collection?" Bruce said "We need to examine some artifacts in it, and warn Dawn to wait for us at the door of the hall."

"Of course, Master Bruce." Alfred answered, "If I may ask, why the sudden interest?"

"Some sudden connection with Native American legends." Bruce said, "In particular, we want to examine the manuscript from Old Jeremiah Kyle."


A few minutes later they met Dawn at the door of the hall that contained the remains of the Kyle collection, which was in the Eastern, semi-abandoned wing of Wayne manor.

"What was so important?"

"We think the DuBois are after something that is sealed under Gotham. There are fragmentary legends of some kind of powerful demon being sealed under the city."

"Of course it had to be something like that." Dawn said, rolling her eyes.

"You should be used to it by now. The Powers that Be have never been remotely subtle." Buffy said with a wry smile, as they entered the room.

It was like entering a closed exposition room of some museum, with shelves covered by tarps, and display cabinets gathering dust. Alfred gave surgical gloves to everybody and cleaned the dust from one such display cabinet, revealing an old book, with some fire damage.

"XVIIIth Century?" Dawn said.

"Good eye, Dawn. This is the last volume of the diary of Jeremiah Kyle, one of my ancestors. He supposedly gathered some of the legends of the native american tribes that lived in the area that would become Gotham in this volume."

"Why isn't this in a museum? Or in a University?"

"Beats me. My grandfather should have been able to sell it to Gotham U, but it's strange that he kept it, while a lot of other pieces were sold." Bruce said, as he opened the cabinet.

Dawn took it with care and started to pass the pages carefully.

"Hmmm… It seems that in his later years Jeremiah Kyle did somewhat repent of his life of crime, trying to use his fortune to help the poor and doing charity work. He protected several members of tribes, and collected their stories in this diary." She passed another page, and read silently."I need to transcribe this, Giles needs to know."

 

[AntonioCC]

"What have you found?" Buffy asked.

"Okay, there are some fragmentary legends here and in the midwest, especially in Kansas, about a messianic figure that came from the sky. The variant of the legend of the tribes in Gotham talks about that figure fighting some dark god or dark devil or something like that and sealing it." Dawn said, "Jeremiah Kyle collected a much more complete version of that legend."

"And let me guess, there is a prophecy of the return of the dark god." Buffy said.

"Not really, but apparently the figure sealed itself with the dark god in the depths of the Earth under the bay." Dawn said, "Basically Gotham is built over the seal of a Dark God."

"Okay, that gives us an inkling about the motives of the bad guys." Buffy said.

"They want to free the Dark God." Batman said.

"Don't think so, even the worst of the vamps didn't really want to end the world, only to end at the top of it. Unless they are completely gone cuckoo, of course." Buffy said, "But, from all that we have seen, they are too entwined in the mortal world for that. No, I think they want power, and they think they can get it from the Dark God, or maybe from the Seal, somehow." Buffy said.

"The book mentions that the shamans of the tribes strengthened the seal by diverting the veins of blood of the earth." Dawn mentioned, "I don't know what that can possibly be."

"Ley lines?" Buffy said, "Hey, I caught some of Giles' explanations."

"And you mentioned that Gotham felt weird to your supernatural senses," Bruce said, thinking aloud, "If Gotham ley lines have been diverted to feed that Seal, the feeling as a repellent for the supernatural could be a welcome byproduct of the Seal." And then added upon the surprise of the sisters, "I studied things like that during my martial art studies. Pretty theoretical, I was more interested in the practical rather than the esoteric aspect of martial arts, but I caught more than a few things."

"Good point, but until Giles comes here, we can't confirm or deny that in any meaningful way." Dawn said, "He is the expert, and the one that would know how to test if that hypothesis is good or not."

Buffy then looked away as if she was hearing something far away.

"I think your friend Julie is coming already." Buffy said, "At least, a car is coming up the road to Wayne Manor."

 

[AntonioCC]

Gotham City International Airport​

Barbara's plane was just about to land. She was finally back with her father after all these years. After so long enduring her mom's...well, attitude about everything, it was a relief to be home again—even if home was here, in Gotham.

When the plane touched down, she waited through the usual disembarking shuffle. Finally, she stepped into the bustling terminal and scanned the crowd until she spotted him. Her father looked older, his face lined with new creases, and gray had started to creep into the sides of his hair.

"How are you, pumpkin?" he called out, a familiar teasing note in his voice.

"Dad, I hated that nickname when I was ten," Barbara replied, rolling her eyes.

He raised his hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright—my bad."

They chatted about family, catching up on lost time, as they made their way out of the airport.

"Did you keep that old jalopy, or did you finally—?"

"For your information, it was a classic," he replied with mock indignation. "But no, it gave up the ghost a couple of years ago, so I had to get a new car after that."

"Good to know," Barbara said with a small smirk as they walked toward the parking lot.

They finally reached the car, and Barbara placed her bags in the trunk. Just then, Gordon's phone buzzed, and he checked the caller ID.

"Barbara, it's work. Just hop in—I'll only be a minute."

She slid into the passenger seat but left the door open, casually listening in on her father's conversation.

"I hope this is important," Gordon said, a hint of irritation in his voice. "I was picking up my daughter from the airport."

The response on the other end was muffled, unintelligible, but Gordon's expression soured as he nodded.

"Another burglary at some rich idiot's mansion right after he threw a party," he muttered, shaking his head. "This really sounds like a case for Robbery and Homicide, not Major Crimes…" There was another burst of chatter from the phone. Gordon sighed. "Ah, right—politics. The Mayor wants to look like he's doing something for his donors."

"Yes, I understand. Harvey and I will handle it professionally," Gordon replied after another round of chatter. "Goodbye, sir."

He ended the call with a sigh, then turned to Barbara. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to drop you off at home and head back to work. Duty calls."

"As always," Barbara replied with a small, understanding smile. "Don't worry, Dad—I'm used to it."