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To Be a Hero: Family

Reader mode
Family.10
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter Ten: You don't choose family...​

    Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

    Spoilers: to the end of season 7 of Buffy (I'm not including the season 8+ comics in this continuity), general spoilers for Batman and mild spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1.

    Author Note: the version of the Batman that will appear here draws from several versions.

    A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.

    I wish to give thanks to JediKnight for betareading and general creative input.


    Xavier School private jet.​

    "...He hasn't spared any expenses, has he?" Scott said, and then noticed Storm signaling him to hang up, "Sorry, I'm going to cut this short, 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 as well as it could be expected, although she sounded a bit suspicious."

    "Yes, as anybody would be in these circumstances." the Professor said, "Specially, because they just had learned that the Waynes left some money to them." he paused for a moment to take a glass of water, before 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, before anybody could ask.

    "She was one of those Kanes? The Gotham Kanes?" Jean said, incredulous, "God, they are loaded."

    "Not her branch of family. Joyce's father was the black sheep, 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 the most receptive to the idea, I think. She asked if she could transfer to the School, after all... From what she said, I think she was bullied."

    Monarch Chemical Plant​

    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 clammed up) that corroborated Batman's account.

    Unfortunately he had arrived too late to avoid the escape of the meta "Blackout", despite the warnings he had given, and what was more important, the killing of two police officers at the meta's hands. He had said some words to that effect to 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 even if he wasn't, his body should be down there." he produced a nicotine gum from his pocket, and starte dto chew on it with an expression of distaste, "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 so-called 'Blackout'?"

    "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.

    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.

    Wayne Tower Penthouse​

    "...Simply open your mouth, I only have to take a swab of 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, and we'd get back on time for meeting Uncle Silas."

    "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​

    A black jet, with the Xavier School logo on the tail landed without any problem in the little privately owned airport, 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 on the tarmac with the old school van.

    "What are you doing here?" Scott asked, 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 back.

    "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.

    They packed the luggage as best as tehy could, because they had misjudged a bit its volume, so Buff's arrival was a godsend in that regard. With a bit of delay on their schedule, they got in the way, and 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 off 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 on the backfoot.

    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 new 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?"

    TO BE CONTINUED...
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Side Story: Osborn: Genesis
  • Extras
    • Osborn: Genesis​

    Disclaimer:all characters are property of their respective owners

    Spoilers: general Spider-Man spoilers.

    Author Note: as you can probable guess, from teh story, this version of Spider-Man is a meld of many versions.

    A.N. 2: Thanks to Jediknight for betaing it.


    Four days after the Great Storm. Norman Osborn office in the Oscorp Building​

    Norman dismissed the lawyer, and waited for his head scientist to arrive. It grated him that they couldn't sue Dillon for the crap in the facility. For one, just like Octavius, he was in coma, after his stunt with the lab computer system that caused the electrical overload, and for other, while they had probably enough against him, it would also give him a venue to air Oscorp dirty laundry.

    'And it is dirty, indeed, but, as Luthor said, you don't reach my position without dirtying your hands.' Norman thought. He could disagree with that German bastard in many things, but they were of one mind in that.

    His thoughts were interrupted by a call of his secretary. Ah, the researcher was here. He told her to let him enter.

    Doctor Curt Connors entered Norman's office with a tablet in his only hand, and a worried expression.

    "So, I gather that the results aren't good, doctor." Norman said without preamble.

    "No, they aren't, Mr. Osborn." Connors said, shaking his head, "Whatever that chemical mix you got exposed to was, it is doing a number on your health."

    "My son was exposed for a few seconds, until I got him out of the way. Is he...?"

    "No, fortunately Harry didn't get more than a very small dose. While I would like to keep an eye on his blood work for the next few months, just in case, I think he will be fine." Connors, said, causing Norman to relax minutely.

    "But I got exposed for a fairly long time." Norman said, "And seeing your expression I presume that there is no treatment possible."

    "No, unfortunately." Connors said, apologetically, "We have recovered enough to know that is a mix of OZ and an unknown agent, probably caused by the accident..."

    Norman repressed a grimace when Connors said accident. Dillon's idiocy, and the Great Storm, as it was starting to be called, had caused a series of failures on the electrical systems of the compound, causing Octavius's high energy Physics experiment to destabilize and explode, and in turn causing all kind of chaos, just when Harry and his class in the Midtown School of Science and Technology was visiting.

    "Once absorbed, the compound decomposes back in its components, an OZ variant that had barely started testing, and the unknown agent..." Connors tarted to say.

    "Actually, it isn't unknown." Norman interrupted, producing a folder, filled with documents with the seal of one of the companies that Oscorp had acquired over the years, "You recognize the logo, don't you?"

    "Yes, I do. You bought them several years ago." Connors said, and then remembered something, "Weren't they a Defense contractor"

    "Yes, the story is all in those documents, but the gist of it, they were developing a chemical agent for Defense, when the Chemical Weapons Convention was signed. Instead of destroying the samples, and after it became clear that Defense wasn't interested, they tried to sell it to several tin-pot dictatorships." His contacts in Defense had been alarmed enough that they had directed him to buy them, and put an end to that nonsense. That's how he had gotten the contract to recreate the supersoldier formula, as the OZ serum. "I stopped that idiocy when I bought the company, and the last canisters were scheduled to be transported to the disposal center on the day of the storm."

    Connors didn't answer, immersed as he was on the documents, but he was a quick reader, and with each page his frown deepened.

    "It's worse than I thought." he said, rubbing his eyes. "You probably have already started to notice some of effects of OZ."

    "Increased stamina, physical fitness and muscle mass." Norman said, "No other physical mutations, though."

    "And probably there won't be. That OZ variant was supposed to be more stable than the earlier batches, and the initial reports of its effects on invertebrates showed promise. We don't know what the long term effects are though." Connors said, "But the chemical agent is the real danger. According to this, if it didn't kill immediately, it was designed to accumulate in the fatty tissue, suffer a chemical transformation there, and be released with heavy exercise..."

    "Where it would start to accumulate in the brain. Yes, I know that." Norman said. It was easy to forget that the man held a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and had been his own head researcher for years.

    "Sorry, ehm, well, a combination of chelating agents and hemodialisis could stave the worst symptoms for close to a year, but that's it." Connors said.

    "And those symptoms are?" Norman asked, although he thought he knew the answer.

    "It would start with a progressive deterioration of cognitive functions and bouts of paranoia, followed by loss of motor control until you would be reduced to a vegetable, and then death would follow after a indeterminate amount of time." Connors said.

    Norman didn't answer immediately. That situation would be his worst nightmare, as his mind flashed to the last years of his mother, prostrated in a bed, unable to talk or even understand what had happened to her, just waiting for death to come. No, he owed something better to Harry.

    "Would the OZ formula be able to heal me?" Norman asked.

    Connors didn't answer immediately, blinking owlishly behind his glasses, before checking some data on his tablet.

    "Maybe... But as I told you before, we had just reached the step of animal experimentation on the facility when the accident happened." Connors said, "We have managed to recover all the test animals, or their carcasses, by the way. But going back to OZ, we don't know its long term effects on humans, or the interactions it could have with the subproducts of the toxin or the version of it that is already present in your body."

    "Are there any other options?" Norman asked

    "...Not in the timeframe we have, Mr. Osborn." he took a deep breath before continuing, "Very well, I'll start developing the cure, as soon as I can. Perhaps a boost to regeneration..."

    "You can develop that in your lab. We haven't finished yet." Norman said,a bit more acidly he wanted, "Sorry, it has been a couple grueling weeks, and the Board is harping on about supposed security deficiencies hasn't helped any. "

    "I understand, Mr. Osborn." Connors said with a placating gesture, his face carefully blank, "What do you want to know?"

    "Octavius. How is he?" Norman asked.

    "Still in coma, and that's not the worst thing, the explosion seem to have fused the control mechanism for the harness to his spine." Connors said, "Frankly, the doctors are astonished that he is still alive."

    "Damn it. And his research? I invested millions on it." Norman said, and winced, "Sorry that came out wrong. But it is another of the things the Board have been hammering me about."

    "The data was backed up offsite, but the instruments don't seem to be recoverable. That's what Octavius's aide told me, at least, High Energy Physics is not my field." Connors said, his face still blank, "He said something about a safety system that didn't engage."

    "Of course." Norman said, "Goddammit. Octavius told me that he was worried about it, but... the board didn't want to allocate the money for an overhaul."

    Connors didn't answer, and he was glad he was looking down, reading the next item of the list when Osborn said that, because this time he couldn't suppress his grimace. After all, Norman and his stooges controlled the board, so complaining that the board didn't let him do something, or that they were badgering him, was disingenuous, at best.

    "At least none of Harry's classmates are gonna sue us. Thank God for small favors." He said, leaning back on his chair, "Any luck with...? No, wait, you said that all the animals had been recovered, right?"

    "Yes, all of them or their carcasses." Connors said.

    Norman nodded, and opened his mouth, but he didn't say anything as his secretary chose that moment to call him.

    "Mister Osborn, the Lexcorp representatives are here."

    Surprised, he looked at the time, and then at Connors.

    "I'm going. I should have some chelating agents and the dialisis machines ready in a couple days, and a preliminary report on what can be doing with OZ in a week." Connors said, getting up.

    "Thanks, Curt." Norman said before opening back the communication with his secretary, "Let them in, Sally."

    Midtown School of Science and Technology​

    At the same time that Norman Osborn hammered the details of a joint venture with Lexcorp, his son Harry was hanging out with his best friend, Peter Parker.

    "Yeah, I was taking a picture of Cindy and Gwen posing for the camera when all hell broke loose." Peter said, "Why did you disappear?"

    "I went to look for my father." Harry said, looking at the distance, "He had gone to the section that had exploded."

    "Oh. But he is well, right?" he might think that Norman was a bit too demanding with Harry, but he seemed to be a good parent.

    "Yeah, he is. Thanks god." Harry said. When his father had pushed him through the closing door as the green gas filtered through a crack in the top, he had feared the worst. Fortunately, he had managed to escape through an emergency access, only needing a bit of oxygen afterwards, "By the way, I heard that Flash did a number on you trying to escape."

    "Nah, it was just that the door cages opened all at once when the light went out, and when he saw the spiders and the scorpions he ran out screaming like a little girl, throwing me against Cindy." Peter said, rubbing unconsciously the part of the hand where the spider had bitten him.

    "So that why Gwen was calling him 'gone-in-a-Flash' today."

    "Yep." Peter said.

    The two friends continued speaking until the bell rang, ending the recess, and each one filed to their next classes. Neither would know then, but it would be one of the last times they would met with their lives unburdened by tragedy.

    THE END... for the moment at least.
     
  • Extras
    • Side Story: Snakes, agents and Slayers! Oh my!
  • Extras
    • Snakes, agents and Slayers! Oh my!​

    Disclaimer:     all characters are property of their respective owners

    Spoilers: spoilers for Thor (the movie), and general spoilers for BtVS.

    Author Note: Thanks to Jediknight for betaing it.


    Two weeks after the Great Storm. A restaurant.
    London, United Kingdom    ​

    Rona hated being the senior Slayer, but with Buffy still on personal leave and Faith in Africa helping to organize the new school, she was the one in charge. At least, Izzy was the senior Watcher this time, instead of one of the surviving fossils of the old Council. The restaurant they had chosen was almost empty at this time of the day, a definite plus if they didn't want to be overheard.

    Fortunately for them, the people they were going to talk with arrived at the same time than them. Two of them were already known to her from the file, Riley and Samantha Finn, but the third, an average sized man with a receding hairline and a friendly face, was unknown to them, although she suspected that he was the one who called the shots here.

    "Hello, I'm Phillip Coulson, from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, or SHIELD for short, and you probably already know Riley and Samantha." he said.

    "Only by reputation." Izzy said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Isabella Ferguson, the acting senior Watcher."

    "And I'm Rona Mitchell, the acting senior Slayer." Rona said.

    "Fancy place you chose for a meting." Riley said as they entered the building.

    "It's discreet." Izzy said, "The old Council used this place regularly because of that."

    A nervous waiter guided them through the stairs to the first floor, where there were a series of small private rooms for those who wanted to eat without being disturbed.

    "Discreet, indeed." Coulson said, "I gather that it would cost a pretty penny to eat here."

    "Quite, but there is an... arrangement with the owners." Izzy said, unwilling to say that the Council owned the restaurant through several cutouts.

    "Ah." Coulson said, while thinking, 'I bet that either is owned by the Council or by one of the families associated with them.'

    The waiter guided them to the room and took their orders, scribbling with a trembling hand in a notepad, before leaving.

    "So, what brings you to old jolly England?" Izzy asked as they sat down.

    "We need information about an... artifact." Coulson said, "Some time after the war, World War II, I mean, we, meaning SHIELD, came into possession of an artifact, the Tesseract, that HYDRA..." he paused for a moment until Izzy nodded, yes they knew who they were, "...had been using as a power source. It seems to have been inert until very recently..."

    "The night of the Great Storm, I suppose." Isabella said, "When Mjolnir, Thor's hammer, fell to Earth on New Mexico."

    "You are good." Coulson said.

    "It wasn't that difficult to make a guess, the story of the hammer was all over social media the day after the storm. And then, poof, everything vanished from the net." Isabella said, "Your doing, I suppose."

    "Yes." Coulson said, but he didn't elaborate. "We want information about the Tesseract."

    "And what would you give in exchange?" Izzy countered.

    "What we have learned about it and the hammer."Coulson said

    "Interes..." Izzy started to say.

    "It's odd, some of the waiters are gathering at the corridor." Rona interrupted, before cursing, and starting to search for something in her handbag

    "How have you seen it? The frosting in the glass..." Coulson asked, while Riley and Sam looked to each other and took their cellphones.

    "The glass in the door has a small defect in the frosting. I noticed that all the 'waiters' seemed to have ill-fitting uniforms" Rona answered, as he took her own cellphone, "No coverage, we're being jammed."

    Coulson took a device from his pocket, looked at it and shook his head.

    "They are jamming SHIELD frequencies, too." he said.

    "It seems that the head honcho is here, a big guy wearing a sleeveless tunic." Rona said, while looking around.

    "Big as in fat, or..." Coulson asked.

    "Muscle, definitely muscle." Rona said, "And he has both his arms tattooed."

    "What kind of tattoos?" Coulson asked, pursing his lips. He had a suspicion of where this was going.

    "Snakes. A cobra on the right, and a normal snake, maybe a viper on the other."

    "Goddammit." Coulson said under his breath, "The Kobra Cult."

    "Who?" Rona asked, while Izzy looked as if she was trying to remember where she had heard that before.

    "Some kind of doomsday cult, who seems to be better financed than usual for those kinds of cults." Coulson explained, "SHIELD has had several confrontations with them in the past. "

    "Oh, for god's sake." Rona said, rolling her eyes, knowing where this was going, "And they are following some prophecy or something like that."

    "If Agent B... one of our agents is right, yes, something like that. Their followers are all fanatics, also, so we won't be able to get out of here by talking." Coulson said, and looked at the Finns and then to Rona and Isabella. "We are in the first floor, there are no windows, and the only way out is controlled by the enemy."

    "Actually..." Rona said, poking at a wood panel with her fist. It sounded hollow.

    "Of course." Isabella said, snapping her fingers, "This building was built in the Victorian era as a manor. There would be a lift to move the dirty dishes to the kitchens to be washed. But it could be completely walled out."

    "I don't think so. I have heard noise from the parking earlier." Rona disagreed.

    "Can you open it?" Coulson asked, while Riley, Sam and Izzy took the table clothes to make a makeshift rope.

    "Of course. But it's going to be noisy." Rona said, and then she noticed something in the corridor, "But I think that it's going to be the less of our worries. There are a few other big bald men in the same kind of tunic entering the corridor, and the 'waiters' are shedding the uniforms."

    "Let me guess, more snake tattoos." Coulson asked.

    Rona nodded as she managed to slip her fingers behind the panel.

    "When I say three, I'll get the panel loose. You throw the rope and start to go down."

    "And what are you going to do?."

    "Don't worry, I don't plan to break rule one." Rona said, and looked out, "No time, they got weapons. One... Two...Three!" She ripped the panel from the wall and in a single movement used it to cover the crystal at the door, while using her strength to keep the door from opening.

    While the rope didn't reach all the way down, it was long enough for Coulson, Sam, Riley and Izy to jump down without problems, landing in a place without any light.

    "Is everybody alright?", asked Coulson producing a flashlight from a pocket.

    "I'm fine." Riley and Sam said simultaneously.

    "I think I'm well." Izzy said, "Where are we?"

    Suddenly a door was kicked open and they could see against the light of the underground parking several members of the cult standing there with blades on their hands. But before they could do anything Rona fell through the shaft and dispatched them in a few seconds.

    Unfortunately they weren't the only cultists in the parking lot, and as they tried to run away, they found themselves chased by them. After a series of fights, they found themselves with half of the cultists blocking the exit of the parking lot, while what remained of the other half was approaching from behind.

    They stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do, but suddenly a car could be heard just a moment before a big metallic shape passed through the cultists blocking the exit, rolling over the ones that where too slow to get away. The car, a big pink SUV made a sharp turn as it went down the ramp, drifting until it stopped barely a foot before them.

    "Get inside, por Dios!" a Mexican accented voice said from inside.

    "Anita!? What the Hell...?" Rona said, recognizing the voice.

    "One of yours?" Coulson asked.

    "Yes, a Slayer." Izzy said, which prompted Riley and Sam eye-rolls, all too familiar with Slayer driving

    They quickly boarded the vehicle, packing themselves inside as best as they could given the space available.

    "Secure yourselves, this is going to be a ride." Riley warned as he and Sam buckled themselves with the seatbelt. "I have experience with Slayers driving."

    "He is not kidding." Izzy said from the front seat doing the same.

    "Come on, we are not that bad." Rona said, as she threw a dagger to one of the cultists who were approaching them.

    Coulson decided to listen to the voice of experience and buckle up too, not a moment too soon, as Anita stepped on the accelerator, burning rubber before disengaging the handbrake, and shooting up the ramp. The maneuver embedded him in the back seat as the car ran over a couple cultists too slow to jump away or too crazed to care. With some difficulty, Coulson produced his communicator, and turned it on as soon as it started to receive a signal.

    "Coulson to Brand. The building was full of Kobra cultists." he said, "Don't shoot the pink SUV, we're inside."

    "Brand to Coulson." answered a female voice with an unidentifiable accent, "We saw it plow into the underground parking entrance before we could react. I assume that they are Council operatives."

    "Yes, she is. Apparently they also had back-up on site." Coulson said, "Kobra seems to have laid an ambush for us in advance."

    There was a pause before Brand answered.

    "I understand. " she said in a meaningful tone, "Do I assume hostages?"

    "Proceed as if that was the case." Coulson answered.

    "...Very well." she said after a pause, "See you later, Phil."

    "See you, Abby." Coulson answered before turning off the device.

    Next day. SHIELD London HQ​

    "...And afterwards we talked and they got us the translations, copies of the originals and the name of some books we can check to see if we can find something they have missed." Coulson said to the screen where director Fury was debriefing him and the Finns.

    "Pretty generous of them." Fury answered, "Do you think that giving them the results of what we got from the New Mexico incident is worth it?"

    "From what I have seen of the documents, it is, and more." Coulson said, "If the investigation clears them of any involvement in the incident, I want to establish a permanent liaison program with them."

    "And that's a big if, Phil." Fury cautioned.

    "Yes, sir." Coulson said, "But this attack had all the hallmarks of something done on the fly. Hell, a part of the restaurant staff was still alive, despite the Kobra cult usual practices."

    "You think that the leak came from our side?." Fury said, understanding the implications almost immediately.

    "Maybe, sir. God knows that I have some suspicions about Burr and his aides." Coulson said, "But, I could be wrong. According to our reports, the Council has recently suffered a complete upheaval, and it could have been done..."

    New Council London HQ. The same time​

    "...by a faction of the old guard." Izzy said taking to Giles, Buffy and Willow through videoconference.

    Giles took his glasses and cleaned them, before talking, signifying his distress.

    "Unfortunately, I agree with Isabella." he said, "The ultraconservatives are panicking now that the moderates, their former allies, are reaching an accommodation with the new order."

    "Do you really think that they would do that?" Rona said.

    "Yes." Izzy and Giles said simultaneously.

    "Allow me to work as the Devil's Avocado..." Buffy started to say.

    "Advocate." Giles corrected in a long suffering tone.

    "Yeah, that. But are we sure that the leak didn't came from their side?" Buffy said.

    "No, we aren't. But we didn't tell them about the meeting place until an hour before." Izzy said.

    "Actually, the ambush looked like something done in a hurry. The waiter that received us was nervous as hell... and he was sloppy in taking our orders, as if it wasn't his usual role." Rona said, and then added with a shrug, "What? My dad had a restaurant, and the Watchers only caught up to me just before the whole fracas with the Bringers."

    "Okay." Izzy said, "So, at the moment, we don't know one way or another."

    "That seems to be the case." Giles said, "What do we have on the Kobra cult?"

    "Not much. The old council investigated them and it seems that they thought they were like many other doomsday cults, nasty, but with no supernatural involvement." Izzy said, "We are revising our estimations, but it's an involved process."

    "Can you send me a copy of the report about New Mexico that they give to you?. I have read about Jane Foster, and her theories are brilliant, and put a theoretical basis much firmer than I had on my thoughts on the relation between magic and physics. If she was able to detect the arrival of Thor, that's Big, with a capital B."

    "SHIELD seems to think the same, given that they are financing her research now." Izzy commented, "Now that I think about it, didn't Fred Burkle have the same specialty as Doctor Foster?"

    Heathrow Airport. International terminal.​

    Her work here was done, and now both the Council and SHIELD would be too focused on those idiots of the Kobra Cult to keep track of her doings. It had been a child's play to manipulate the London cell of the cult to do her bidding, now back to the States to torment her brother a bit more. She hated going through plane, but giving that Dad was not happy with her right now, it was a bit risky to teleport through Hell.

    "Go'n somewhuz, luv?"* a scruffy blonde man wearing a trenchcoat said to her, interrupting her thoughts.

    "Excuse me? Do I know you?"

    "Nah, luv, but me and yer da' 'uv met."* he said, before sprinkling something on her, "Tell yer da' dat John sent yous!"*

    She disappeared with a bout of flame and the man removed the paper with an strange set of symbols he had just stuck in a column before talking to the succubus. He lit a cigarette and went to the door.

    THE END

    *Translated to normal english:
    "Going somewhere, love?"

    "No, love, but me and your father have met."

    "Tell your father that John sent you!"
     
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    • Family.11
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    • Family

    Chapter Eleven: Getting to Know You    ​

    Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

    Spoilers: to the end of season 7 of Buffy (I'm not including the season 8+ comics in this continuity), general spoilers for Batman and mild spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1.

    Author Note: the version of the Batman that will appear here draws from several versions. And the X-Men jails from the X-Men: Evolution cartoon, although I'm not above drawing from the comics.

    A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.

    I wish to give thanks to JediKnight for betareading and general creative input.


    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?" she said, and then quickly added, as the Professor was about to speak, "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 pretty 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 savanna, 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 she intended.

    "Unfortunately." The Professor said, "You have to understand that the awakening of mutant powers is sometimes a traumatic event, and coming on top of most mutants discovering their powers during their teen years..."

    Buffy winced, and thought back to the events of Sunnydale High School. While the general atmosphere of the Hellmouth had helped things going far, far worse that they should, a lot of stuff that happened came down to teenagers being teenagers. Thinking back to some of the stuff she had done those years... was she better, or just luckier?

    "And I assume that you are not the only adult mutant, and that their agendas can be very different from yours." Buffy said.

    "Exactly, " Xavier said, surprised at the insight that the young woman showed, "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.

    "Correct, but others have... different points of view." Xavier said.

    "And they are charismatic enough to impress an angry and disoriented teen with their world view." Buffy said, "I have seen it before. Sunnydale had a problem with gangs that preyed on highschoolers."

    She was proud of having managed to say that without snorting or outright laughing. It was technically correct, but the preyed part was more literal than metaphorical. A tense silence followed this, only broken by the ringing of the phone. Buffy answered, and after a few words she hung 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 to."

    "Thomas Wayne, I suppose." Buffy said, with a bit of chagrin, suddenly remembering what she had to say to Scott, and the 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 the entire 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 the cops' ambush, and then 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 transforming 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, which 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 that 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, a ladder that gave access to a trapdoor in the ceiling, a couple chairs and a sofa.

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

    "So, ...ah, what 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 underestimated the Bat, especially given how 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 phenomenon 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 of lately.

    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 mean 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... This 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?" Scott said.

    Buffy's only answer was a smirk as she went toward the living room.

    "I have told them," Dawn said when they came back, "About the Waynes."

    "Then, you already know." Buffy said, "We still don't know what we are going to do about that."

    "Yeah, that's right." Jean said, "That man is coming, Silas Wayne, right?"

    "Yes, Silas Wayne, he was Thomas Wayne's uncle and Bruce Wayne's great-uncle." Professor Xavier said, earning a look from Buffy, "I know him. Thomas presented us, shortly before his death. A pretty interesting man, but, it has to be said, more than a bit cranky and opinionated. "

    "Wonderful." Buffy commented sarcastically, just as the buzzer rang.

    She went to open the door, showing a frail white haired man riding a motorized wheelchair. The man stopped when he saw the people gathered there, and smiled wryly before addressing the other man in a wheelchair.

    "Hi, Charles, and these must be students on your school." the old man said, talking in a snobbish tone, belied by the smile in his face.

    "Actually Ororo, whom you have already met, is part of the faculty now." Charles said, unfazed by the tone in the other man's voice, "As well as my right hand, as you well know. That was good imitation of your brother, by the way."

    "Yes, Patrick grated on everybody nerves." the man answered in a more normal tone, "Anyway; I came to visit my grandnieces... You don't seem all that surprised."

    "I just told them... Ahm... How do I address you?" Buffy said.

    "Uncle would be nice, but I would settle for a simple Silas." Silas Wayne said, "And can you introduce me to your visitors?"

    After introducing everybody, Silas looked at Scott with special attention.

    "Scott Summers? Any relation with Hank Summers?" he asked with a frown.

    "My uncle. But I haven't seen or heard of him since two years ago, and even then it was because I was looking for him." Scott said, and then looked down, "It went... poorly." He gathered himself quickly, and looking to the old man eye to eye... well, eye to sunglasses, rather, he added in a challenging tone, "Whatever the blood relation, to me, Buffy and Dawn are family."

    "Good." Silas said with a smile and then turned to look at Xavier; "You have a good one here, Charles." he turned back to Scott and said, "In that case, I hope that will forgive this old coot if he considers you family too."

    "Ah... Thanks?" Scott said.

    "Don't thank me yet, kid." Silas said, with a smile "I can be a terrible nag at times, as Bruce can probably tell you." He took a deep breath, and turned to Buffy, "As a said, I came to visit you two. I didn't expect a full delegation of Xavier to be present."

    "We were discussing Dawn enrollment in Xavier's school, actually." Buffy said, "They have an opening, and Dawn isn't happy in her current High School."

    "Interesting. Do you need any help with tuition, or...?" Silas said.

    "No, even before we knew about the money that Thomas and Martha left us, we had enough." Buffy said.

    "And you, Buffy? What are your plans for the future?" Silas asked.

    "...I don't really know." Buffy said, "The last years in Sunnydale were so much of a nightmare, that I never had time to think about what I wanted to do with my life."

    "That bad?" Silas said, arching an eyebrow.

    "You have no idea." Dawn said, her hand, unconsciously, going to her abdomen.

    Silas noticed the gesture, but decided to leave it for the moment. Instead he focused his gaze on both Summers sisters and he didn't like what he saw. He prided himself in knowing what made people tick, even if his grandnephew baffled him on occasions, and there were hints of things he had only seen in war veterans.

    He decided that he had to research Sunnydale in depth as soon as he could, because if things were as bad as he suspected from the sisters demeanor the city destruction had been a blessing in disguise, for everybody involved.

    "What do you think?" Dawn said, which brought him back to the present, realizing that in his introspection, he had missed a chunk of the conversation.

    "Sorry, what were you saying? I was woolgathering" Silas said with a sheepish expression.

    "Scott had suggested that Buffy could go back to college here in Gotham..." Dawn explained

    "Yes, Gotham University has a great reputation. The Psychology School in particular is one of the best of the country." Silas said.

    "Really? I studied Psychology on UC Sunnydale." Buffy said, interested, "But with my work in the NGO, I don't know how much I could go to class."

    "I could always talk with Hugo to see what can be done."

    "Hugo?" Buffy said, "Sounds like a fashion designer."

    "Maybe, but I'm talking about Professor Hugo Strange. A good friend and he is the dean of the School." Silas explained, missing Xavier's frown upon hearing the name, "I'm pretty sure we can hammer an arrangement about your classes."

    TO BE CONTINUED...
     
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    • Oh, dear. Silas may find himself regretting his considering Hugo a friend.
     
    Family.12
  • Threadmarks
    • Family

    Chapter Twelve: Developing Plots​

    Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

    Spoilers: to the end of season 7 of Buffy (I'm not including the season 8+ comics in this continuity), general spoilers for Batman and mild spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1.

    Author Note: the version of the Batman that will appear here draws from several versions. And the X-Men hails from the X-Men: Evolution cartoon, although I'm not above drawing from the comics.

    A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.

    I wish to give thanks to JediKnight for betareading and general creative input.

    A small cabin, close to Gotham​

    The redhead parked her car, a robust SUV with good off-road capabilities, in a clearing of the woods. She could already see the cars of the other members of the circle parked here, and a short distance away, the cabin she had come to visit stood under the shadow of the trees. She shivered for a moment, thinking of the proximity to Slaughter Swamp and all the legends that came with it, and not for the first time, she desired that the Monk had chosen a different place for the meeting of the meditation circle.

    She took a deep breath and walked resolutely toward the cabin and knocked on the door.

    "Ah, Miss Madison, we were expecting you." said Dala, the Monk assistant, who was the one who opened the door.

    "Sorry about being late." Madison said.

    "Actually, we hadn't started yet." Dala said with a close smile, "Enter, please, out of your own will."

    Julie rolled her eyes at Dala's dramatic invitation as she stepped into a big room with a tarp engraved with mystical designs covering the floor. Her fellow members of the circle, socialites, a couple college professors and a curator of the Gotham museum were already there, all of them sitting on the tarp on a circle, with their legs crossed. Dala went to the back and returned almost immediately with the Monk in tow.

    "Greeting, my pupils." he said in an affable tone, speaking with an unidentifiable accent, before he sat down, Dala to his side. "We'll start with the meditation exercise we practiced last time. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and void your mind of all thought." He said after a pause, an odd cadence to his voice, "Now, hear my voice, and follow my words, empty your mind. Hear my voice, follow my words, and empty your mind." as he repeated this she felt herself fall into trance.

    /\​

    Nicholas Dubois, as the Monk preferred to be called when he wasn't spouting pseudo-mystical mumbo-jumbo, lowered the hood of his habit when every single one of the fools they had bamboozled into this charade, had fallen into his thrall, and then quickly removed it. He hated the thing, it was heavy, sweltering and despite several washing it still smelled weird. But the results spoke by themselves.

    'Suck it, you Wallachian dandy.' he thought, surveying the empty faces of the "meditation circle", now his thralls.

    It hadn't been easy, but by a combination of hypnotic techniques and his natural skill at enthralling humans had allowed him to develop this way to enthrall several people at once. It wasn't as strong as the natural enthralling, but it could be reinforced and now these fools were wholly under his power. Going back to the present, he turned to face the curator of the Museum.

    "Did you bring it?" he asked.

    "Yes, Master." he said, using a subservient tone, "They were in storage, so nobody will notice that I replace them with replicas."

    The curator opened his suitcase and produced a small statue of some kind of hooded demon with bat wings, and a clay tablet enclosed in plastic, with several inscriptions on an ideographic alphabet. Nicholas knew that it had defied translation for quite some time, which it wasn't surprising as it wasn't an human langauage or alphabet.

    "Excellent, give them to me." the Monk said, taking them carefully from the hands of the man and handing them to Dala who placed in a shelf, with other artifacts.

    He repeated the action with each one of the members of the Circle, each one of them bringing some artifact or information where it could be, until he reached Julie.

    "I looked through the ruins of Kyle Manor, Master, even in the basement, and I couldn't find any of the objects you tasked me with." she said, "I investigated, and Felix Kyle sold several pieces of his collection when the Kyle fortune was lost in 1929 to give his widow something to live with, before killing himself."

    "You are a friend of Bruce Wayne, aren't you?" the Monk said, lost in thought.

    "Yes, Master." she said, vaguely puzzled by the Monk's sudden topic change.

    "Kenneth Wayne's wife, Katherine, was Felix' sister. He, like Felix, was a collector of antiques." he said, more talking to himself than to the young socialite, and then he turned his gaze to her, "You are going to visit Wayne Manor, and ask about the old Kyle collection. Do a bit of research on your own, so it sounds more authentic."

    "Yes, Master." she answered, obediently.

    After that, he gave instructions to all of them, some of them about more artifacts they had to retrieve, in another cases he gave some of the other artifacts on the shelf, pointedly excluding the statue and the tablet delivered by the curator, to others, as well as instructions to place them in specific places inside the city, always out of the way places like basements, abandoned sewers, and other similar places.

    "Focus in my voice. Hear my commands. Feel my will." he said, "You won't remember what happened here until the next time I impose my will on you. But you will follow my commands as if they were your own ideas."

    "Yes, Master." they said as if they were a chorus.

    /\​

    Julie Madison awoke from the trance feeling at peace with herself. Her mind was clearer, and she felt well rested.

    The Monk retreated into the back room, while Dala said goodbye to everybody. She walked back to her car thinking back to her exploration of Kyle Manor ruins. Felix Kyle, the last Kyle of Kyle Manor, had been an avid collector of both antiques and curios. She wondered what had happened to his collection...

    Wayne Manor​

    Bruce Wayne awoke suddenly, and sat on his bed. His dreams had been... unsettling, even more than usual. His nightmares always came to the alley, but this time, it wasn't just his parents, Buffy and Dawn were lying there in apool of their own blood.

    He shook his head, before getting up from the bed, and putting on a robe. As always, he hadn't given a single step after putting on the robe, when Alfred opened the door with a tray that carried a steaming cup of coffee and the morning paper.

    "Thank you, Alfred." he said before taking the cup and and the paper. As expected the storm and the explosion were today's breaking news.

    'Godammit.' He said mentally, when he read that Blackout had escaped. 'Jim must be furious.'

    "I presume you have read about the escape of that criminal, Master Bruce." Alfred said.

    "Yes, I have the feeling we will meet him again." Bruce answered, "Did Buffy or Dawn call?"

    "No, but Master Silas did call, he was going to meet them at the Tower." Alfred answered, "He apparently knew about their real relationship with you before."

    "Interesting. I should be surprised, but I have always suspected he knew more about our family history that he let on." he looked at the time, knowing his uncle, he probably had invited them to his favorite restaurant, and cast aspersions on the playboy image he had been cultivating since he returned. Thinking about that, he had an idea. He asked Alfred about which of the italian sports cars was available.

    "Perfect." he said, already sliding into the playboy persona.

    A top of the line restaurant​

    Vicky Vale had gotten a call from one of her sources. She hated having being exiled to the society pages after her failure to gather enough evidence of foul play in the Dixon case, but she was determined to do the best job she could to go back to real journalism.

    That was why she was in a table of the restaurant wearing a power suit, sunglasses and using a brown dye, studying the people that Silas Wayne had invited to dinner from some distance. She had recognized one immediately as Doctor Charles Xavier, a retired geneticist with some past connection with the Waynes, who now was the headmaster of some exclusive school in upstate New York. From that it had been easy to identify most of the rest as school staff and some students. It was the blonde and the brunette teen that puzzled her.

    She furtively took pictures of both women to identify them later, the Gaette had a good, if somewhat quirky, IT crew, and then went back to watch the group. It seemed like a friendly occasion with Silas showing, despite his infirmity, that he hadn't lost anything of the charm he had made him such a ladies' man in his youth. The contrast with his grandnephew Bruce was staggering, on the charm, not in the ladies' man part.

    Her thoughts were interrupted by the roar of a black Italian sport car, a Lamborghini Murcielago if she remembered correctly, passing before the restaurant and going into the restaurant underground parking lot. There were damn few Lamborghinis in Gotham, who could...?

    'Oh!' she thought, realizing who probably was in that car. The phone she was about to get back in her handbag went to the table, propped up so it would have a good view of the table, and she activated the app that projected the view of the camera into the special Bluetooth-equipped sunglasses she was wearing.

    She kept eating, slowly enough so she would be there for the whole situation, although she didn't have to wait for long as a side door opened, the one that gave access to the lifts and Bruce Wayne stepped in. He was wearing a relatively informal getup, without a tie and with an open neck, as well as wearing sunglasses. Given the wince he gave once he stepped into the full light of the restaurant, last night party must have been one to remember. She'd have to look where he went last night, now that she thought about it, one of her contacts told her that one of his cars was seen downtown, close to a rave that was held last night.

    Bruce went to the table and presented himself. Hmmm..., he seemed to bel more subdued than usual; he usually could give Tony Stark a run for his money in the bombast. Even Silas Wayne seemed puzzled to his demeanor... one moment, the blonde's reaction, she knows Bruce...

    'I wonder on their exact relationship. She doesn't seem his type...' Vicky thought as he kept recording the scene.

    Down at Silas' table​

    Once the presentations had been made, and Bruce had sat on the table, they started to talk.

    "Talking with Buffy yesterday, I got the impression that the prospects of Dawn being invited to your school were not good." Bruce said.

    "You have to be always that blunt, Bruce?" Silas said with a wince, "Although now that he has raised the issue..."

    "It's complicated, but, in short, there was an opening." Xavier said, "I would explain it in depthg, but we are being watched."

    "Yes, a woman in the upper level has not stopped looking at us since we arrived." Buffy said, without looking up, "She is pretty good, though."

    "You mean Miss Vale? She probably got notice of Uncle Silas coming here." Bruce said, in a casual tone, "No offense, uncle, but you have become enough of a hermit in your old age that any outing of yours would attract attention." and then he added to the benefit of the non-gothamites, "Miss Vale is a journalist of the Gotham Gazette. From what I know, she is currently covering society pages."

    "A paparazzi? Wonderful." Buffy said with distaste.

    "She is not really a paparazzi, actually. She is not covering society events because she likes it." Bruce explained, "Her last article couldn't be published because it stepped on the toes of some 'honest'..." he airquotead, "...businessmen without enough proof, and she has been exiled to the society pages until things calm somewhat."

    "By honest businessmen you mean Carmine Falcone and his wretched family, don't you?" Silas said with evident distaste.

    "Unfortunately." Bruce said with a grimace, and then explained, "Carmine Falcone is supposed to be the big man in the Gotham's underworld, with his son and daughter deep into the Family business, but nobody has ever managed to get enough proof to put any of them behind bars."

    "Mostly because the proof disappears, witnesses suffer sudden bouts of amnesia or die on suspicious accidents and things like that." Dawn said, "What? I have seen enough movies to know where it was heading."

    "Yes, that's pretty much correct, Dawn." Silas said.

    The Monk's lair. Blackout's room​

    Dala entered the room, a glorified storeroom with a cot, and asked point-blank.

    "You know people in organized crime here in Gotham, do you?"

    "Not many. Apart from the Red Hoods, who are probably now all dead or behind bars, there is the Middleman."

    "The Middleman?"

    "Yeah, do you want something? Weapons, drugs, antiquities, hitmen, exotic animals, or any other thing? He has contacts that can provide them, and he only collects a fee." Blackout said.

    "Interesting. Could you put us in contact with him?"

    "I don't see why not, but what is in that for me?" Blackout said, looking straight at the vampiress.

    "Do you mind settling in New Orleans?" she answered.

    "Not at all, why?" he asked, thinking about what he knew about New Orleans, and guessing the answer.

    "We have an... understanding with the New Orleans authorities." Dala said, confirming his guess.

    "Oh?" Blackout said, interested.

    "Yes, you would be one of our security people in the docks, once we finish our things here." Dala said, obviously not wanting to elaborate further.

    "Okay, it will be a change, holding a steady job for a change, even if it is as a legbreaker." Blackout said, "What do you want from the Middleman?"

    "Why you don't give us...?" Dala asked.

    "...the means to contact him? Sorry, lady, but the man is very careful in exposing himself." Blackout said, his steel fangs gleaming in a not quite smile, "I don't think I ever met him personally, actually, all the talk was done through phone or e-mail, or through one of his minions, and even then I wouldn't swear that I could recognize the guy, the minion, I mean, if I saw him walking down the street."

    "Merde..." she said under her breath, before continuing, "There are certain... antiques our agents bought abroad, and we need them in Gotham soon without too many questions."

    "And...?" Blackout asked.

    "And the Batman and that Slayer just disposed of the people we were going to use for that." she said.

    "And they need to be moved here, right?" he guessed.

    "No, we have them in another place." Dala said, smiling for the first time since they had started to talk, "No use in having all our eggs in the same basket, right?"

    A top of the line restaurant in Gotham

    Vicky observed the Wayne group as they finished the meals, and went their way, while she was paying, including a generous tip for the waiter. She then ran through the stairs to the underground parking lot, to arrive fast enough to be able to follow them. It was touch and go, but she managed to tail the cars, that didn't separate until they reached Silas Wayne residence, a relatively modest, for a Wayne, two-story house, with a small garden, in one of the better parts of the city.

    Paparazzi would try to get photos by climbing a lamppost or something, but she was not willing to stoop so low, so she turned around and went back to the Gazette, and there she went directly to the IT guy in the basement.

    "Hi, Ed." she said, giving him the memory card, "I have several pictures and a video recording..."

    "Shhh..." the red-haired guy at the computer said lifting a finger, without even looking at her, "I want to see it for myself, Victoria, and see who is there and what and who are they doing."

    Vicky refrained herself from rolling her eyes. If Nashton wasn't that good in this stuff, his little quirks, like trying to turn everything into solving some kind of puzzle, enigma or riddle, would had him fired long ago. At least he wasn't Day, the other IT guy, with his scheduling mania.

    TO BE CONTINUED...
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter Thirteen
  • Threadmarks
    • Family

    Chapter Thirteen    ​


    Disclaimer:     all characters are property of their respective owners.

    Spoilers: to the end of season 7 of Buffy (I'm not including the season 8+ comics in this continuity), general spoilers for Batman and mild spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1.

    Author Note: the version of the Batman that will appear here draws from several versions. And the X-Men hails from the X-Men: Evolution cartoon, although I'm not above drawing from the comics.

    A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.

    I wish to give thanks to JediKnight for betareading and general creative input.


    Silas Wayne home. Gotham City.​

    Once Silas' butler had served the refreshments, tea for Silas, Charles and Ororo, coffee for Bruce, Buffy and Scott, and soda for the rest, and then removed himself from the room, Buffy was the first to talk.

    "Professor, why don't you start from the beginning?" she said.

    "Silas, do you remember what the grants I received from Thomas were for?" he asked.

    "Something about atypical mutations on human DNA, if I remember correctly." Silas said.

    "On broad strokes, that's right." Xavier said, before giving a condensed and simplified explanation about the x-gene and mutants, and then he told about he being a mutant and about his school, "...some people consider us mutants the next step in human evolution, some kind of Homo Superior."

    "You don't agree." Silas said, recognizing in his tone Xavier's disdain for that notion.

    "The image of evolution as a series of steps from inferior to superior lifeforms is, while attractive and popular, completely wrong, and in fact evolution produces dead ends as much as successes, and frequently the difference between them is sheer chance." Charles explained, "Time will tell if mutants really become a further evolution of Homo Sapiens, or we're just another evolutionary dead end."

    "And Dawn is a mutant?" Silas asked, and then noticed Bruce whole lack of surprise, "You knew?"

    "She appeared yesterday night in the front porch of Wayne Manor, apparently stepping out from a portal." Bruce said, with a nod, "The terrain around the manor is covered by cameras and movement sensors, and Alfred monitors them. And when Buffy told me about your offer, I researched you, your work and your school. Connecting the dots wasn't that difficult, though I have to admit that I suspected less enlightened motives at first." he said with an apologetic smile, "But I want to know how did...?"

    "How did I know?" Xavier said, "When the powers of a mutant awaken, it produces a spike of psychic energy that can be detected by a machine that I have developed, called Cerebro. Unfortunately, it vanishes very quickly, and Cerebro needs a powerful telepath to pinpoint the location and identity of that mutant."

    "And then you offer them a place in the school." Silas said, "But I gather that there are other people doing the same, with less altruistic intentions."

    "Unfortunately, you are right." Xavier said, his gaze on the ground, "One of the first mutants that I met was a Holocaust survivor. I argued for peaceful integration, he was all for direct action, and we ended up fighting. He has his own group of mutant terrorists now, and he is calling himself Magneto on account of his magnetic powers. While I can't blame him, given his life experiences, for not believing on a peaceful resolution, he seems unable to see that his ways will only hasten the war between humans and mutants that he fears."

    "Ouch." Buffy said, but whatever else she was going to say was interrupted by a loud buzzing from her handbag, "What the...?" she said, producing a cellphone from her handbag, "It's Izzy... Isabella Ferguson, from the NGO we are working with, I need to answer, you keep talking."

    Buffy went to the corridor, while she pressed the button to answer the phone.

    "Izzy? Did Xander call?" Buffy asked without preamble.

    "Faith did, from Wakanda..." Izzy started to say, only to be interrupted by Buffy.

    "From where?" She said, before dismissing it, and going back to the matter at hand, "It doesn't matter where they are, how are they?"

    "Xander and Faith are well, but..."

    "Ayesha." Buffy said, closing her eyes.

    "Yes." Izzy said, "She was killed by the werehyenas they were chasing." Izzy said, pausing for a moment, before starting to explain, "They had been magically enhanced, from what Faith could tell me."

    Buffy had to sit down on a nearby chair. A small part of her was relieved that it wasn't Faith, but that part was drowned by the grief on learning that the young Anglo-Arabian Slayer had been killed.

    "Goddammit, I really hoped I was wrong and no one had died..." she said, after a moment.

    "You know that this is not how this thing works." Izzy said, sympathetically.

    "I know, I know, but 'Death is our gift' won't be of great help to the family and friends..." Buffy said, before pausing, "Xander, how is he taking it? He lost Anya and now Ayesha..."

    "...I didn't talk with him, but, according to Faith, he is taking it better than she expected, but you know Xander better than me."

    "Yeah, I do. I'll call Willow, and reserve air tickets for everybody to Gotham" Buffy said, knowing that Izzy knew that by 'everybody' she meant the surviving Scoobies, "Listen, the least we can do for her family is pay for the funeral and everything."

    "I don't want to sound like McAuslan, bloody tightwad that he is, but are you sure?" Izzy said, "The funds are a bit tight right now, and the old coots may use it..."

    "Don't worry about the money." Buffy cut her, "If necessary, I'll pay it from my own pocket."

    "That means that Thomas Wayne left you something, I imagine."

    "You could say that. I don't think that McAuslan and the other old coots keeping control of the moneybags are going to be a problem much longer."

    "That much." Izzy said in a surprised tone.

    "Yes, but it's something that we can't discuss on the phone, okay?" Buffy said, her eyes still closed, "God, what a mess. Well, if that's all..."

    "Hang on, Willow and Andrew are calling." Izzy said, she paused for a moment, muting the phone for a moment, before going back to talk to her, "Hmm, do you mind if I made this into a conference call?"

    "Go ahead." Buffy said.

    "Is this thing on?" a very familiar and unexpected voice said.

    "Giles? I thought it was Andrew and Willow calling?"

    "I asked Andrew to set this... contraption, so I could call Headquarters."

    "Still having problems with modern technology, Giles?"     Willow said.

    Giles tsked, and she could just see him cleaning his glasses.

    "I assume that this call is about Ayesha."

    "In part," Willow and Giles said at the same time. There was a pause for a moment, before Giles cleared his throat.

    "Ayesha's death is a tragedy and I want to tell her parents personally, it's the least that I can do." he said, "Also, I think that we should..."

    "...run with the expenses of the funeral? Already talked that with Izzy." Buffy said, "And if MacAuslan and his bunch get difficult, well, I have alternate means now."

    "So the Waynes left you something in the will." Willow said.

    "You can say that, but there are some other things that we should talk about in person." Buffy said, "Wills?"

    "Well, I didn't know Ayesha much, but Xander had been closer to his old self since they were together, and that is always a plus in my books." Willow said, "Losing Ayesha is going to be hard for him, especially so soon after Anya."

    "That's why I want everybody here in Gotham. He needs our support, something that we haven't given him much over the years." Buffy said, remembering some harsh words several months ago, "But we can deal with that later. What were those other things, beyond Ayesha that you wanted to talk about?"

    "Andrew caught something on the Internet." Giles said, "I'll let him explain it."

    "Buffy, ah, hello, and sorry for the pictures."     Andrew said.

    "What pictures?." Willow said, interested.

    "We'll talk about that later." Buffy said with iron finality, "So, what did you find on the 'net?"

    "Ah, yes, yesterday night, in the middle of the desert of New Mexico something fell from the sky during the storm."Andrew said, trying to sound mature, "A war hammer, with some peculiar inscriptions. I'm trying to get clearer images, but Internet is spotty in that area."

    "A hammer and a storm? Why does that sounds familiar?" Buffy said.

    "Norse mythology, Thor, the God of Thunder, wielded an enchanted hammer, Mjolnir, which only he could lift." Giles supplied.

    "Okay, thanks, so a hammer, maybe Thor's, fell in New Mexico during the storm, right?" Buffy said.

    "More than that. The storm took a wedge shape and started to disperse when the point reached the general area of New Mexico where the hammer fell, not too long after it fell."

    "...Okay, that is quite more alarming." Buffy said.

    "And that's not all; do you remember the 'Hulk' creature that was sighted in Culver U a few days ago?" Willow said.

    "Yes?" Buffy said, it had been just before Dawn and her had to go to Connecticut, and everything that happened. "Ah, yes, when we arrived the area was cordoned by the Army."

    "Well, there was another sighting of him, this time in Harlem, fighting against a similar creature in the midst of the storm." Willow explained.

    "Did you manage to get something this time around?" Buffy said.

    "No, the Army had cordoned the area, again." Willow said, "And Strange was doing his stuff between dimensions."

    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 the death of the head of the Kyle family. 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."

    "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 brothers? What about them?"

    "Richard had an older brother and a much younger half-sister. Genevieve was a free spirit and she had a daughter out of wedlock, I don't know what happened to her." Silas said, "Robert Foster Kane, your great uncle 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."

    "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.

    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."

    TO BE CONTINUED...
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter Fourteen
  • Threadmarks
    • Family

    Chapter Fourteen
    ​
    Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

    Spoilers: to the end of season 7 of Buffy (I'm not including the season 8+ comics in this continuity), general spoilers for Batman and mild spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1.

    Author Note: the version of the Batman that will appear here draws from several versions. And the X-Men hails from the X-Men: Evolution cartoon, although I'm not above drawing from the comics.

    A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.

    A/N 3:Sorry for the long hiatus, but real life intervened. I hope that the next chapter will be here in a more timely manner.

    I wish to give thanks to JediKnight for betareading and general creative input.



    Silas Wayne residence​

    After talking for quite a bit with Uncle Silas, Bruce and the Summers sisters decided to go back to the manor. Bruce went to pick-up 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." Bruce said, gesturing to the redhead, "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's Four Families' returning home."

    "And you would know, as one of the curators of the Gotham City Museum's collections." Bruce said with a smile.

    "Just an assistant curator and even that is 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 looking around with interest, while the old man gave her a deep look.

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

    "Yes, do you know him?" Julie said.

    "Only by reputation, actually." Silas said, shaking his head, "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." Julie said.

    "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." he said, and then sighed before continuing, "Unfortunately he couldn't prevent Felix Kyle's suicide."

    "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." Silas said with a shrug.

    "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, not noticing the byplay.

    "Acquisition? Given the stories that I have heard about Jeremiah, he probably stole them." Silas said with a snort, 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? It's Barbara, I'm in the airport, my flight will depart in an hour." Barbara Gordon told to her adoptive father's voicemail. 'He's 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 him.

    "Yes?" she asked warily.

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

    "Kord Inc. Yes, you were one of the sponsors of that science festival last year." Barbara said in a more relaxed tone, "What can I do for you?"

    "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..." Ted said.

    "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's Four Families, the Waynes, the Kanes, the Kyles and the Queens, and their origins. It could be interesting for a future exposition, though maybe downplaying a bit about the Queens, after last year revelations.

    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 aware 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 of 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." Dala ordered.

    "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?" Dala asked.

    "Bruce Wayne invited me tomorrow to give it a look." Julie replied, in the same flat tone than before.

    "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." Julie replied.

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

    "Yes, Mistress." Julie answered.

    "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..."


    Thomas Wayne Memorial Clinic​

    Sidney Delveccio had just finished her dinner, bland hospital food that after the junk that the monsters had fed her tasted like a piece of heaven, 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 of escaping 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 to 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.

    "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?" Batman said.

    "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.

    TO BE CONTINUED...
     
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