Snippets, Omakes and Short Stories

"And what did the geek have?" Buffy asked.

"No idea, He hadn't answered, sent any message, skyped, or anything yet." Dawn said with a shrug. "I'll check again after we get installed."

"Let's hope that he didn't get involved into another WoW raid, last time we didn't see him again for two days." Buffy said, with an eyeroll.

"That's nothing, Xander told me that he has already organized a Warhammer 40000 tournament between the interns." Dawn said with a half-smile, as the elevator doors opened.

Buffy shook her head, but whatever witty reply she was going to make died in her lips as she watched the penthouse for the first time.

"Wow." she finally said.

It was not extravagantly opulent, in fact if anything it was in the austere side, but the furniture and the decoration that were present spoke of taste and money. They separated to look around, and get their luggage in their respective bedrooms.

"Dibs on the Jacuzzi!" said Dawn from the bathroom.

"Dibs on the gym!" replied Buffy.

After and Dawn tried the Jacuzzi, and Buffy made some exercises, Dawn sat down in the comfortable and stylish sofa in the living room, while Buffy was using an exercise bike that she had gotten into the room. Before powering up her laptop, Dawn took a Tylenol with a glass of water.

"Headache." Dawn said, answering Buffy's unasked question. "Let's see if Andrew have found something. Why don't you come here, it's comfy."

"Sorry, I'm feeling very antsy." Buffy said, dismounting "I think that I'm going to go on patrol tonight. "

"You know that is going to rain, do you?." Dawn said, looking at her.

"I know." Buffy said with a sigh "But I'm feeling... Don't know, it's like an itch I can't scratch. I need to go out and kick some evilness."

 

"Weird." Dawn said, as she opened the e-mail client. Willow had enchanted the laptop so it would always have Internet access. "Andrew came through. Let's see what he has found."

She opened the e-mail, and she stood there, dumbfounded.

"Okay, this is really of the weird." Buffy said.

According to Andrew, the Council had noticed how, for a major city, Gotham's supernatural element was almost non-existent. A few magic users in the countryside, a periodic murder spree in the Narrows and the Bowery...

"Could it be a werewolf?" Buffy wondered aloud.

"It seems to happen every six weeks or so, so I would say no." Dawn replied, shaking her head "Though the council didn't had much other than the fact that it happens."

"Okay." Buffy said "Why didn't they investigate it? I can remember, like, three demons that need to kill people on a schedule without much effort."

"Gotham, home of the best and brightest, and the worst and craziest. That was the title of an article that I read on the way here, about how a lot of high tech industries and a number of genius in several fields live here, but also a bunch of gangsters that have done things that would made Angelus swoon or decry them as crass, not to speak of an abnormally big number of serial killers." Dawn said "Between all that crazy, and the fact that it started like two years and a half ago, I guess that by the time they took notice of it, they had their hands full with the Bringers and the First. And we all know how that ended."

"Caleb kabooming the Council." Buffy said, nodding. "When is going to be the next rampage?"

"If it keeps to schedule..." Dawn said while checking the dates of the last attacks, which Andrew had added to the document "This week."

"Of course it is." Buffy deadpanned "The Powers seem to have forgotten the meaning of the term 'subtlety'." She stood up and went to the bathroom "I’m gonna take a shower, change clothes and go on patrol."

"I'll contact Giles to see if he can send Rona or Vi's teams to help you." Dawn said.

 

Half an hour later, Buffy appeared back in the living room wearing a ratty grey hoodie, a quite worn belt purse, black pants that had seen better days and somewhat worn out combat boots. Dawn made a double take, her very fashion conscious sister wouldn't be caught dead in such clothes, usually, unless...

"I'm in disguise!" Buffy exclaimed, after noticing the look that Dawn was giving her.

"Yeah, I can see that, nobody that knows you would identify you in those ratty clothes." Dawn said.

"Ha, Ha. Look, I thought that it would be better to be wearing something that didn't draw attention to poor me." Buffy said "Besides, Willow enchanted them to be waterproof, so I won't get drenched if it starts to rain."

"Take these at least." Dawn said, throwing her a bluetooth headset and a smartphone. "Willow gave it to me before we left. The headset is already synched with the smartphone, that also has an GPS locator, so I can give guide you through the streets."

"Cool. See you later, Dawnie." Buffy said, already walking to the door.

"Did you take your weapons?" Dawn said, before Buffy got out the door.

"Of course." Bufy said with an eyeroll "Three stakes, two knives, one silver, one cold iron, cross, holy water, a few charms for protections, and a first aid kit. Baggy clothes are a fashion disaster, but are good for hiding things."

Rooftops, somewhere in the Bowery.​

Hiding in the shadow under a gargoyle, Batman had stopped a moment to think. Out of the blue he had found himself with two sisters, one of which was probably involved in activities related with the occult. What worried him, was how could this interfere with The Mission.

But it was no use to fret, prepare yes, fret no. He stepped out of the shadows, and climbed down a tube toward the street. Forty days ago, three people had been found here dismembered, another one of the series of what the press had come to call the Murders of the Bowery Ripper.

 

Like in all the other cases, no trace was found of the perpetrators, or rather, it was lost into the mountain of evidence. The few things that were determined by the forensic team were that they weren't killed here, that the dismemberment had been done postmortem, and very crudely done at that, and that they had suffered... He paused when his earlier thoughts allowed him to make a connection he had not made before.

'The victims had, as far as it could be determined, died from blood loss ... could it be so simple?' Batman thought.

But all thought related to the Ripper went to the back of his mind when his mark, a two-bit hoodlum from New York called Turk Barrett, stepped out of the cheap motel where he had been living since arriving to Gotham four months earlier. He was carrying a worn out suitcase, and a backpack, both filled to the brim.

He was well hidden from view, and Barrett was going to walk less than a yard from him. So he decided for the more direct course of action.



Barrett suddenly felt a powerful arm taking him by the scruff of his neck and throwing him against a pipe. Before he could react, he found himself zip-tied to the pipe and then all thoughts of fighting fled him when he saw what had captured him.

The Bat. He stood there, all black and gray with pitiless white eyes that seemed capable to look into his soul. And when he spoke, he did it in a voice that seemed to be coming from Hell itself.

"Turk Barrett. From Hell's Kitchen, New York." The Bat said.

'Shit, shit, shit.' Turk thought. 'He knows who I am.'

"I want to know about the Red Hood."

"I... I don't know..." he started to say, frightened.

"'The Bare Beaver' strip club, past Friday. You and Smilin' Jack." The Bat said matter of factly. "What did you talked about?"

Barrett gulped. The Bat knew. So he decided to cut his losses, he was leaving this crazy city anyway, and the number two of the Red Hood gave him the creeps.

"Jack... Jack wanted to know if I knew somebody who had worked in Monarch Chemicals." Barrett said. "I gave him the name of a guy, one of the paper pushers."

"Why Monarch, they have been closed for months?" The Bat said, after a pause.

"I asked the same to Jack, and the grinning asshole said that one of the owners was using the facilities as a drug lab. And he wanted a piece of the action." Barrett said.

"The name of the ex-employee."

Barrett gave it to him. "Not that it going to be of much help. I heard that he died when his apartment building took fire yesterday."

"Anything else?"

"I asked him if he wanted to hire some local guys, but no, he said that he had brought some talent from out of town, in case you appeared."

The Bat stood there, waiting. He tried to remember if there was anything else about his meeting with Jack, but he came out blank.

"Why are you leaving Gotham?." The Bat asked, after what seemed like an eternity had passed.

"Are you nuts?" Barrett said, clearly angry. "Of course you are nuts. You live here." He then started to rant "I came to Gotham because I heard that things were easy here for people like me, with half of the force on the take and the bosses ruling the roost. What they didn't tell me is that they're all fuckin' nuts!"

 

Batman retreated into the shadows, he had heard enough, while Barrett keep ranting about how honest crooks in New York weren't accosted by people dressed as a demon. He had left the ziptie loose enough that he could free himself in a few minutes, if he kept struggling like this.

The drug lab in Monarch was a real worry. If somebody started to produce synthetic drugs on a real industrial scale they could dominate the East Coast market easily. And who was the "out of town talent" Jack and the Red Hood had hired?

He used his grapple gun to climb back again to the rooftops and started to run. This part of the Bowery had been part of a big housing project built by his great-grandfather Solomon Wayne to house the people who was coming to the city to get employed in Gotham then booming industry, so most of the buildings were roughly the same height, built in a simplified version of the same Neo-Gothic style than Solomon had favored, so there were arches and catwalks built over the alleys that crisscrossed the maze of brick and concrete buildings that had become one of the worst zones of Gotham.

He then heard it, soft steps over the rooftops. Somebody was following him over the rooftops. He didn't show anything and went toward his destination using the longer route. When he reached the edge of a building, over the street that separated the older part of the Bowery from the more conventional building that dated from the 40s, he took his grapple gun and without missing a step he fired it to a water tower in the other side, and jumped toward the other side.

After he landed the grapple line collected automatically in the gun, and he kept running without missing a movement, all the time keeping track of his mysterious pursuer. Once he reached the ledge, he heard his pursuer curse to him... to herself. The voice was clearly female, despite being too far for him to understand the words, and sounded familiar.

He heard her back down and started to run. Surely she wouldn't be thing of... Yes, she did. She had crossed the street in a single leap. He notched another item of his mental list of his pursuer qualities. Female, skilled at stealth, (probably) superstrong, and quite fit and fast, given the fact that she was gaining on him.

Could she be the "talent" that the Red Hood had hired? Doubtful, but he didn't discount the possibility. At the pace she was going, she would reach him in less than five minutes, so he decided that if she wanted a fight it would be in circumstances under his control.

 

Buffy stopped when she reached the edge of the rooftop, and cursed softly. While the Bat kept running over the rooftops of another block of buildings. There were no arches or catwalks between this block and the next, and the Bat had crossed it with some kind of grapple gun like the one that Angel had used in LA, but more sophisticated, and kept running. She estimated the distance, she would need to do a running jump, but it was doable.

After she landed in the other side, she looked and saw the Bat in the distance, and kept trying to reach him. These block rooftops weren't so flat as the earlier one and she had to use her scarce knowledge of parkour to the max, to start gaining on the Bat. They kept doing this for a few minutes, she gaining on him steadily, until he suddenly made a sharp turn and disappeared behind the rooftop access of one of the buildings.

She heard, weakly, a sound of groaning metal, and the sound of something dropping on the ground. When he reached the point where he had disappeared, she saw that there was an open trapdoor in the rooftop, the source of the metallic sound she had heard, and where the Bat had presumably descended.

She closed her eyes and listened. Other than the noise of traffic and the usual background noise of a city, loud enough to drown a heartbeat, she didn't hear anything. She pursed her lips; this had "trap" written all over it. He estimates of the Bat grew several points, as she hadn't noticed anything that indicated that he had detected her...

She smacked her head in realization. The jump over the street, of course. And now, thanks to that and the subsequent obstacle course through the rooftops, he probably had an estimate of her capabilities.

"I fucking hate smart adversaries." She cursed under her breath.

She looked at the trapdoor, and didn’t saw anything. It was dark as a dungeon down there.

“Well, may fortune favor the bold, and all that jazz.” Buffy said to herself before jumping inside.

 

"Ah, yes. Sorry." Said Gonzalez, taking a tissue to clean the sweat from his face. "The President wants those things dealt with before they reach Flores."

"We'll do what we can, Mr. Secretary." Riley said, diplomatically, curtailing a hot answer from Rumlow. "Now if you excuse us, we have to plan our deployment with Major Molina."

"Ah..." Gonzalez said, clearly wanting to say something more, but recognizing that a civilian busybody was not welcome here "Very well, but..." he said, lifting admonishingly a meaty finger "The President will want to know about your plans..."

"We'll inform you, don't worry." Molina said "Now, I think that the administrative offices have air conditioning, why don't you wait there?"

Gonzalez stood there, his desire to escape the heat clearly fighting his self-importance.

"I expect your report." Gonzalez said, wobbling toward the offices.

"Maldito imbécil." Molina said under his breath, and then added to the Americans "Sorry about that. Gonzalez is too full of himself, and with the last scandals, he want to get the best position he can for the next round of musical chairs in the leadership of the ruling party."

"I think we all have met people like that." Miller said, diplomatically.

"Do you still have the documentation from our last visit?" Riley asked Molina

"Yes. Half of my team are newbies." Molina said.

"We have also a good number of rookies here." Kane said, avoiding looking at Rumlow directly. "We'll need that briefing."

Conference room. Not too long afterwards.​

An image of a vaguely bat-like creature appeared on screen.

"This is a Camatzotz demon." Riley said "There are small nests of the things all over Central America. They are not very intelligent, and they usually prey on small animals to feed..." One of the troopers raised his hands "Yes, Sanders?"

"If that is true, why are we here, then?"

"Because when a nest grow beyond a certain number, their behavior changes, becoming something more like a locust plague." Riley said "They assimilate other nearby nests, swelling their numbers and then they start a feeding frenzy."

"If they are so dangerous, why we don't exterminate them?"

"The Kaibiles..." Riley said, looking in the direction Molina who was giving a similar briefing to his men. "...and their counterparts in the nearby countries has standing orders to destroy any nest of Camatzotz they come across, but given that they retreat into the deepest jungles..." Riley shrugged "But as dangerous as a Camatzotz swarm is, the real danger is if this creature is present."

He changed the image to show a grainy black and white image of something that looked like the older, evil and uglier cousin of old tabloid mainstay Bat-boy.

"This, gentlemen, is a Camatzotz Swarm King." Riley said.

 

Buffy landed gracefully downside, but it was quite dark, the only light came from the trapdoor she had used to enter. Then she heard an electronically distorted voice, coming from several places in the room.

"Why were you following me?"

"Hey, shouldn't you present yourself first?. Common courtesy and all that?" she said.

“You were the one chasing me, Ms. Summers.” The voice said, after a pause “And you know who I am.”

“You are the Bat. Or do you prefer Batman?” Buffy said, sarcastically. She was sure that the Bat wasn’t here, she wasn’t hearing any heartbeats, so he was probably transmitting though some speakers hidden somewhere.

“Batman will suffice, Miss Summers. I repeat, why you were chasing me?” Batman said.

“Oh, I saw you leaving that poor guy tied to a pipe, and…” Buffy said, flippantly.

“That ‘poor guy’ was Truck Barrett, convicted by several felonies, and who admitted when I interrogated him that he had been in contact with a notorious criminal gang, the Red Hood.” Batman said. “He admitted to me that the Red Hood was planning a assault on a competitor, and he provided some contacts to make that assault possible.”

“Wow, wow. Slow down.” Buffy said “So you are a vigilante? And why not let the police do its job?”

“Because close to half of the force is on the payroll of the mob.” Batman said “I know you fight against vampires using your gifts, but what of the people accosted by common thugs? What recourse they have when the police is being paid by the same thugs that are accosting them. That’s one of the reasons why I became Batman…”

“…to help the helpless.” Buffy said, remembering Angel Investigations motto.

“A good way to put it.” Batman said, appearing to her back. “You came there because of the Ripper murders.”

“Yes. Corpses ripped that way? A sacrifice or maybe a demon.” Buffy said “But how do you know that I’m the Vampire Slayer?.”

“I have acquaintances that had dealt with the British organization in the past. Giving Sunnydale history it was not difficult to join the dots.” Batman said “I assume that Rupert Giles was your contact with them.”

“Yeah, he was my Watcher, and all around paternal figure.” Buffy said

“I must warn you that my acquaintances don’t have a great opinion of the Watchers.”

“Join the club. After the Council got blown up a year ago, we have been trying to rebuild them in a less asshole basis.” Buffy said.

They looked at each other. Buffy was seeing a tall, broad shouldered man, close to 6’ 4” or 6’ 5”, dressed in a dark grey bodysuit, with a black belt full of pouches, and pockets, an stylized bat emblazoned in his chest, black boots, black gloves, a cape and a cowl with two long “ears” with a pointed end. His eyes were hidden by some kind of lens that made it look like they were white from some distance. The ensemble should have looked ridiculous, straight from a bad superhero movie, but somehow it worked.

 

Note: I have edited snippet 6 of change of guard. This follows from the revised version.

---

"A what?" Rumlow and other people said.

"A Camatzotz Swarm King." Riley repeated "A Camatzotz swarm in dangerous enough as it is, but if a King is present, things can become very dicey."

"How so?" Sanders said "I mean they look like a bigger and badder version of their normal counterparts."

"It's simple. The Swarm Kings were humans before becoming Swarm Kings, and they conserve their intelligence and memories. And normal Camatzotz obey them without question." Riley said "They are created when a human follows a ritual that involves, between other things, drinking the blood of Camatzotz demons."

"So we are not really talking of vampires here, do we?"

"They are somewhat similar, but yeah, they are quite worse than vamps." Riley said "They can go out on daylight, though it annoys them, they far stronger than humans and can fly. While normal Camatzotz are easily killed by normal weapons, the only way to kill a Swarm King is putting obsidian or jade through their heart. Anything else will only piss them off."

Riley stepped back and added in a tone that did not admit more discussions.

"If you see one of them, DO NOT ENGAGE." He said emphasizing the last words "I repeat, do not engage a Camatzotz Swarm King, and call for reinforcements."

One hour later. Guest quarters of the Base​

"Yes, sir. They are gone." Gonzalez said, talking through his cellphone "Yes, sir. Gómez is with Molina team, and he is loyal to us... Two teams, sir. One commanded by Finn and the other by a woman called Kane... I understand, sir, but don't worry... Yes, if he ever tries that, Molina is dead meat... Are you sure, sir? ..." he paused for a moment, taking a deep breath before adding. "Very well, sir... I hope that it will work... Goodbye, sir."

Gonzalez turned off the phone and looked though the window toward the jungle. The Americanos and Molina's people should be crossing into it right now. He shook his head and went to the base communication room. Better to keep playing the clueless, but ambitious civilian, to keep abreast of the situation, and to try to keep a lid on Molina's

 

"I have come to some info on the Bowery Ripper murders that didn't make it to the press." Batman finally said "Something that make it fall squarely on your turf."

"And I suppose that you want something for that info." Buffy said.

"No, I could do that, but what good would that do?." Batman said, "Sometime this week, the Ripper is going to act again, murdering two or three people." He paused and added in a tone that it made clear, he didn't like what he was about to say; "The truth is that I never thought I would have to fight them in Gotham, as they seem to avoid the city, so I'm ill-equipped to fight demons or vampires. A situation that I intend to rememdy."

"You need my help." Buffy said.

"Yes." He said, almost gritting his teeth. "With the Bowery Ripper first and training later."

"Why didn't you say that from the beginning? We have a deal, Batsy." Buffy said, not bothering to suppress a smirk when she saw Batman pursing his lips when she called him Batsy "So what was that info?"

"The dismemberment of the victims was done post-mortem, and the cause of death was a severe blood loss." Batman said, "In addition, the neck area seemed to have received an special attention from the killers in the mutilation process."

"Vampires, most likely. Although there are a few demons that feed on blood" Buffy said, thinking aloud "But there is something weird about this."

"Such what?" Batman asked.

"Almost all blood-sucking demons do it as part of a rampage, and as bad as the Bowery is, I think that a blood sucking tentacle-y thing would be quite noticeable." Buffy said "A vampire could subsist with two or three victims in six weeks, but they would need to be drained over a period of time, and most vampires are not disciplined enough not to drain a victim when they attack." And then she added looking at Batman squarely "Maybe they were kidnapped before, and when they were too weak they were drained and disposed off."

"Impossible." Batman said, shaking his head "Several of the victims were seen the same day their corpses where found." He then seemed to realize something. "Although... come with me." He said, walking toward the darkness again, where she heard a door opening, and some light in the other side. She followed and saw that the door opened to a catwalk over the main space of a warehouse, and sitting there she saw a sleek black car, with some modifications to make its front to look bat-like, as well as a good battering ram.

"Let me guess, the Bat-mobile?" Buffy said, enjoying the annoyed glare that Batman gave her.

"I want to check something. The car has an wireless Internet connection" He said, refusing to rise to the bait.

 

The Last Son of Krypton, Part 2:
Strange Visitors ​

Smallville, Kansas. Seventeen years ago​

Jonathan Kent, a tall, blond farmer that looked to be around thirty years old, was loading the fertilizer sacks in his father’s old pick-up truck when he saw the sheriff coming, together with another man.

“Sheriff Dale.” Jonathan Kent said, shaking the hand of the county sheriff “What can I do for you?”

“This gentleman was looking for somebody called Jack Kent.” Said the sheriff, a thin, unassuming man, with a bald patch in his dark hair and a thin moustache. “And I thought that you could give him some help.”

“I’m Jonathan Kent.” Said Jonathan, giving a good look at the man. He was a tall black man, around forty, with short, kinky hair that started to go white in the temples, and a small goatee. He was wearing black sneakers, jeans and a black leather jacket over a dark gray T-shirt. He had slung over his shoulder a backpack. “I can’t say that I remember a Jack Kent in my family, but I don’t know all my cousins, though.”

“I’m Nick Fury, and the man that I’m looking for should be close to seventy, a World War II veteran.” Said the other man. “He and my father became friends back then, and...”

“World War II, you say?” said Jonathan, snapping his fingers “That’s my father, I remember he told me once that back in the war everybody called him Jack. I’m going back to the farm after I’m finished with the sacks, do you have a car?”

“No, a friend left me in Topeka and I took the bus from there.” Fury said, shaking his head.

“Well, if you don’t mind riding in a pick-up that have seen better days...”

To his surprise Fury laughed, before removing his jacket putting his backpack aside and taking one of the sacks of fertilizer.

“Don’t worry, I have ridden in far worse getups. So, where do you want the sack?”

 

Buffy didn't bother with stairs, jumping down from the catwalk, while Batman used his grapple to keep pace with her.

"Useful gizmo, can I have a pair? And if you can get them done in pink or sky blue..." Buffy said and then added, seeing Batman's permanent scowl deepen, in her best Valley Girl voice. "Pretty, pretty please? With a cherry on top?"

"You are trying to annoy me on purpose, aren't you?" Batman said, grumpily.

"Moi?" Buffy said with a very fake hurt expression.

The truth was that there was something about the situation that bothered her. She had the feeling that she should know Batman, despite the electronically distorted voice and the mask. It was the cadence and the inflections of his speech, she decided, there was something familiar there.

While she was considering this, the driver door of the Batmobile opened and Batman pressed a button in the driving wheel, turning on a screen, and as soon a mini keyboard appeared under it, he started to key at high speed.

"What'cha doin'?" Buffy said, keeping with her attempts to annoy Batman.

"Looking for reports of missing people on the day of the murders, and the days afterwards." He answered, reading the data.

Buffy slapped her forehead.

"Why didn't I thought of that?" Buffy said, "You think that they are kidnapping people to drain them slowly, and the people who the police found ripped apart are a snack on the road."

"More or less, and as I thought, there is an spike of missing people reports on those days." Batman said, "Between six and ten over the average of the rest of the month..." he started to say when an alert appeared on the screen.

"What's that?" Buffy asked.

"The Red Hood is on the move." Batman said, sitting down in the driver seat of the Batmobile.

"I'm going with you." Buffy said, jumping over the car to the companion seat door.

"No way." Batman growled.

"Yes way.” Buffy answered, her arms on her hips on a challenging posture. “Or I will be chasing you down the streets, I can run over 60 miles per hour."

"...Fine." Batman said, gritting his teeth as he pressed the button that opened the other door "But when we arrive, you do what I say you."

"Sir, yes, sir!" Buffy said, with a mock salute, before getting inside the car.

 

This is a short story that serves as a prequel to the second mainline story of "To Be a Hero".

---

Flight of the Rogue

One week ago​

Rogue ran to her home, or at least tried to, before realizing that this was the way to Cody's house.

'Oh, Gawd, what is happening to me?' she thought as a torrent of memories that feels like her own tried to drown her. Memories from Cody, the boy who she had kissed... and nearly killed. Somehow she managed to push them away as she ran to her home, to Irene, the woman who had been like a mother to her. She was about to call the doorbell when Irene opened the door.

“Come in, Rogue. We have to talk.” Said Irene, looking at her with her sightless eyes.

Rogue crossed the doorstep and as Irene closed the door, she grabbed her hand.

"Irene!? No!" said Rogue, feeling how she was starting to drain the older woman.

"Sorry Rogue... but this... is the... only.... way..." Said Irene, fainting as she said the last word, and Rogue started to scream as she started to get assaulted by the memories of Irene, as well as a number of strange images.

Rogue groaned as the images started to vanish from her mind. She know understood a lot of things, thanks to Irene memories. She was a mutant, with the power to absorb memories and powers of other mutants by mere touch. And she had to get out of town. She hadn't got all what Irene knew, but she had learned that people were coming for her.

She then noticed a backpack in the table of the dining room. She went to it and saw that most of her clothes were there, as well as enough money to last her for a while. Hurriedly she took some clothes to cover herself more fully and took the backpack with her.

She took Irene, and let her sitting in her favorite armchair, still unconscious. She knelt besides the armchair, looking at Irene, thinking of something to say but nothing came to mind.

"See yah, Irene... Ah hope" she simply said, getting out of the house in silence and going to the nearby bus stop. A bus stopped shortly afterwards and Rogue boarded it, lost in thought. As the bus left the town, she didn't notice the car that entered town, going directly toward Irene's home.

 

The Jungle​

Riley stepped out of the truck that had carried Team 1, as well as Coulson. Behind them, Team 2 did the same, as well as Molina’s men from their respective trucks. They took their equipment and signaled the trucks to go back.

“Ah, traipsing in the jungle with too much equipment, waiting for the bad guys to jump us on any minute. This brings me memories.” Garrett said, while checking his M-4.

“Vietnam?” Sanders asked.

“Peru.” Coulson said, rolling his eyes. “And, John, please, shut up.”

“They are too young to have been on Vietnam, kid.” Rumlow commented, shaking his head “Kids these days…”

Riley having finished his own checkup walked to them, stopping before Coulson.

“Agent Coulson, can we speak in private?”

“Of course.” Phil said, having just finished to equip himself.

They walked a bit apart from the road, not far enough to be out of sight, but far enough to not be heard if they did keep their voices down.

“I noticed that your people didn’t make any question in the briefing…” Riley started to say

“Before we came, we reviewed a dossier about the Initiative and the creatures that you usually fight, and that included the Camatzotz and the Swarm King.” Coulson said, interrupted him

“That’s surprisingly… candid.” Riley said, surprised.

“I have seen more than one mission have failed due to incomplete information.” Coulson said. “Not to speak of varying agendas.” He added looking at Molina’s men.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know how aware are you of Guatemala political situation, but Molina is old enough to have been in the Army back when the Kaibiles had the reputation of being barely better than Death Squads.” Coulson said. “Maybe that was the reason why Secretary Gonzalez was there, to keep an eye on him. The current president administration is not exactly a model of transparency or respect to the rule of law.”

“Molina is a good man, but you are right. Last time we were here, I observed that the relationship with his superior was a bit tense.” Riley said, thoughtful. “If I can ask you a question, what’s the deal with Garrett?”

“He has always been like that.” Coulson said “Don’t worry, he is a good man to have at your back when the shit hits the fan.” He paused a moment and then added “I’ll talk with him to see if he can control himself a bit.”

 

Wayne Tower penthouse​

Dawn had been listening to the full exchange between Buffy and this… Batman. She had giggled when Buffy had started to do her annoying blonde impression, and had outright laughed when she said “Pretty, pretty please? With a cherry on top?”. It had been one of her favorite phrases back when they were growing to try to wheel something out of D… out of Hank.

Unfortunately the laugh had awakened her headache again, so she took another Tylenol, not noticing the spark of light that momentarily came into existence behind her as the headache spiked.

“Okay, Red Hood.” She said looking at the info she had called before the first time they appeared in the talk. “They appeared first time three years ago and quickly carved a territory, mostly in Gotham old industrial district. They are vicious assholes, specially its number two, “Smilin’ Jack”, who likes to mark his victims with a ‘Glasgow grin’.” She paused for a moment, with a sickened expression when he saw pictures of Jack’s victims. “That guy is a nasty piece of work.”

She took a deep breath to steady herself before continuing the exposition.

“Nobody knows who the Boss is, as he always wears a red mask and concealing clothes.” Dawn continued “Captured members have said that they had never heard his voice, usually speaking on Jack’s ear, and then he speaks for him.”

“The full members wear black as well as a red bandanna, and go around in black cars with a white line from the front to the back, as well as the hood painted red.” Dawn added “And there is not much more.”

She sat back in the sofa, closing her eyes. It had been a long day, and all she wanted to sleep a little, but duty called and all that. With a sigh, she went to prepare herself a coffee, before a sudden spike of pain in her head made her fall on her knees, and a disk of unearthly energies appeared before her.

Back in Bayville, in the lower levels of Xavier school, this fact made a running program in Cerebro to send an automated message to its creator, Charles Xavier, as well as awaken the remaining faculty in the school.

 

Solar System. Kuiper’s Belt, beyond Pluto’s orbit​

The Kuiper’s Belt was filled with the detritus of the formation of the Solar System, balls of ice and rock, some of which were occasionally dragged inside the system and became comets. But other than that, cold and darkness, as the Sun only an exceptionally bright star at this distance, were the constants of the Belt... until now.

A flash of light was the only sign of the arrival of the spaceship that carried the last survivor of a dead world. It remained unseen from Earth, the Moon in the way. The ship stood motionless for a moment, the onboard computers taking on the system and plotting a course through the system, completely unfazed by the debris that had accompanied the ship in its travel though the conduit.

Suddenly the gravitic engine activated, propelling the ship toward its destiny in the third planet, dragging bits of the debris in tow. Soon afterwards, from its hiding place inside the debris, Brainiac's drone ship, following its programming, continued its relentless pursuit of the last son of Krypton.

Kent Farm​

John Kent, Jonathan’s father, was his 70s, had a bald patch and needed glasses to read, but otherwise still looked fit as a fiddle, and age seemed to have barely slowed him. His blue eyes looked Nick from head to toe.

“Jacob’s youngest, hmmm?” said John Kent to their guest. “Nicholas, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir.” Nick said

"I am no 'sir', young man. I was only a sergeant.” John said with an smile “Call me John."

"Okay...John." Nick said with a smile.

"So, what brings you here?” John said looking at him at his eyes “I suppose that it wasn't only to tell me that Jacob is dead."

"No, his last will contained a provision about you...” Fury started to say, but he stopped, clearly trying to fins the words.

"Oh?" John said, frowning, and then looked at Jonathan. "Well, lets' go for a walk, I think better when I'm walking."

"Pa, are you sure?.” Jonathan said “The doctor said..."

"Bah, I'm not going to walk to town, kid, only a bit around the farm.” John said.

"Okay, but don't be late, Martha is going to make your favorite stew for supper." Jonathan said, acknowledging his defeat in the argument.

"Martha?" asked Nick as they went out of the house

"My daughter- in-law." John said “A good woman, shame that she and Jonathan can’t have children.”

As they got far enough from the house, he turned back to him, his expression grim.

"Let me guess, he left you a green metallic box around a the size of a toolbox?” he said “And instructions to seek me to explain what was all of that about? Or if I was unable to, Peggy Carter, Daniel Dugan or James Farnsworth?"

 

Mystique, in the guise she always used when she visited this town, parked his rental car in front of the home of her old friend, Irene Adler. She was worried, Irene had called her half an hour ago, telling her to come to talk to her before trying to recruit Marie. She had left Sabretooth, Toad and Avalanche with instructions to distract the X-Men, and now Irene wasn't answering the phone.

She stood before the door, steeled herself for whatever could she find and the opened the door with her key. Irene was there, trying to stand up.

"Irene, what happened? Why did you call me?" Mystique asked "Where is Marie?"

"We must go, Raven. We are not safe here." Irene said, still wobbly on her feet "I'll tell you everything on the way."

"Irene, Where... is... Marie?" Mystique repeated, fearing that her friend and former lover wits had been addled.

"I send her away." Irene said, looking at her with a grim expression "I'll explain later, we must go! NOW!"

They quickly got into the car, just in time as two black vans appeared on both sides of the street. As she started the car, the vans maneuvered to block her way in front and behind.

"Fuck it!" Mystique said under her breath as she put the car in the highest gear, pushed the gas pedal to the max and turned the wheel to cross the garden of the house, just as the side doors of the vans slide open and men in black commando gear carrying submachine guns jumped out of it.

Mystique and Irene put their head down as the car was peppered with bullets. Fortunately none of them hit the two women as Mystique steered the car, blindly trying to get away until the car fell into the Mississippi.

The head of the commando force took his radio and opened a channel.

"Sir, two of the targets fell into the river." The man said.

"Who?" answered their boss.

"The seer and the shapeshifter. Their ward seem to have disappeared after draining a local teen to a inch of his life." The man explained.

"Search on the riverside. The shapeshifter have survived worse." The boss said, "And remember, I want that bitch alive!"

"Yes, sir!" the man said, adding as a farewell "Humanity forever!"

 

While Coulson and Riley were talking, Kate took stock of the situation. According to their guide, a Guatemalan soldier that was native to the area, the hamlet that had been attacked yesterday was a couple miles to the west, and there was a small hill range, covered by the jungle. Camatzotz demons were mostly nocturnal, like the bats they resembled, and a swarm often took a respite of one day after a big eat, like a whole hamlet, so she bet that the swarm was resting in some underground cave in that range.

"Captain." Rumlow said, interrupting her musings.

"Yes, lieutenant?" Kate said.

"All the men are ready, as well as Team 1 and Molina's people." Rumlow said.

"Even Garrett?" Kate said.

"Yeah, I'm ready, captain." She heard the SHIELD agent saying.

Kate looked back to where Riley and Coulson had gone and saw them heading back.

"Everything is ready, sir." She said.

"Pretty well, Kate." Riley said "Graham?"

"We are all ready, Major."

"Molina?."

"Ready when you are." The older man said.

"Let's go then." Riley said

Molina nodded, and then turned to face his own men. "Sanchez, you are the one who is from the area, you take point."

Sanchez, who had pretty obvious Mayan ancestry, nodded and went to a small path to the side of the main road, partially hidden by the foliage.

"This path should get us into the hamlet." He said in heavily accented English.

The path descended into a small valley formed by a stream that descended from the same range that Kate had observed earlier. Although the vegetation didn't let them see too much ahead, it was clear that the zone had been inhabited, there were a few man-made clearings were agricultural work had been made very recently. But also they found signs of a desperate flight as clothes and other objects were strewn over the path and its sides.

It wasn't long until they found the first corpse, an old woman who had been half-devoured, half drained on the same place she had fallen, if the dry blood on the ground was any indication.

 

Dawn looked mesmerized at the disk. It looked like an smaller and calmer version of the portal that had been opened when Doc had tried to sacrifice her, in order to open the path for Glory to return to her home dimension. She got up with difficulty, and looked it with more detail. It wasn't expanding, which was good news, in fact it simply seemed to sit there, waiting.

Her mind went back to the dizziness and headaches she had been having the last days. Maybe it was this... "power" trying to surface?. Anyway, it was a foot across, and from the side it didn't seem to exist.

'It's two-dimensional? The one back... then had a definite thickness.' She thought, amazed that she was not freaking out about this yet.

"Dawn? What is happening?" she heard Buffy voice through the earphone. 'She must have heard the fall.'

"Nothing that can't wait, Buffy." She said, trying to sound calm "I'm not hurt or anything, just something came up, some that is... keyed to me, so to speak."

"Keyed? What the...?" Buffy said, and Dawn could almost hear the lightbulb turning on Buffy's head "Oh. Keyed, of course. Are you sure you don't need me?"

"Positive, don't get your panties in a bunch." Dawn said, using the code phrase they had agreed to mean things were going well.

"We'll talk when I come back." Buffy said, not trying to hide her relief.

"Fine for me." Dawn said, nonchalant. 'Let's see if I can do something with it.'

Batmobile. Racing down Gotham Industrial district​

"Is your sister well?" Batman asked.

"She says so, and she used a code phrase we agreed upon to mean things were going well." Buffy said.

"An intelligent measure." Batman said "How much of that Valley Girl persona is real?"

"All of it." Buffy said "What? I have layers."

"Ahum." Batman answered.

Buffy rolled her eyes. She had been trying to get Batman to unwind a bit, but she wasn't having any success. 'What a grouch.' She thought.

"We're here." Batman said, parking the Batmobile in a place between two buildings, in a way that you should be practically upon it to see it, as well as being able to get out in a moment notice. "We have to climb to the roof of this building." He added, handing another grapple gun to Buffy.

They both climbed to the roof and Buffy followed Batman to the front of the building, a place where the front entry to the Monarch Chemical Plant could be seen. As well as the people who was there.

"I gather than the ones closer to us are the Red Hood." Buffy whispered, observing the red bandannas that everybody in that group was wearing.

"You can see them that clearly?" Batman whispered back.

"Enhanced senses, all part of the Slayer package, Batsy." Buffy said, in a whisper, still observing them.

The two on the forefront were Smilin' Jack and the Red Hood. Jack was a thin, tall man with his lip cuts in the way Dawn has said he liked to to cut his victims, while the Red Hood was roughly the same height and Jack but wore clothing bulky enough to conceal his body shape, as well as the infamous red mask, that looked like a red version of Cobra Commander cloth mask. Behind the Red Hood there was a man...

"Fuck." Buffy said when she noticed the familiar gut feeling. "The guy with white hair, wearing a trenchcoat. He's a demon of some kind."

 

"Eh... yes. Were you a member of...?” Fury started to say, stopping himself before saying the name of his agency.

“SHIELD?” John answered with a sad smile “No, I was offered, though, by Carter herself, back in ’48. But I had enough of war and conflict.” He added, shaking his head

“Then, how...?" Fury said, dumbfounded.

John didn't answer, instead he turned to look at the cornfields, as if taking strength from looking at something familiar.

“It was just after the war. My unit was part of Japan occupation forces.” John finally said, his voice flat “We all have heard about HYDRA, but few people knew that the Japanese had their own version, the Black Dragon Society.” He looked at Fury.

“Yes, I have heard of them.” Fury said “They were more oriented toward the political and less toward mad science than HYDRA, but they left some nasty messes around.”

“As we could see personally. You see, we were tasked with guarding the entry to one of their secret project until the SSR could check it.” He took a deep breath “We were surrounding it, following our orders of not trying to enter it.”

“I guess that somebody did try to enter.” Nick said.

“Yeah, some bonehead convinced himself that the reason we were guarding it was that the Japs had gold hidden there, and he got some members of his platoon to check it out with him.” John said “Bunch of idiots.”

“What happened?” Nick said, having the feeling that he knew where this was headed.

“We never saw them again, as living human beings, at least.” John said, shaking his head “We noticed their disappearance next morning and it was not long afterwards we realized that they had gone inside.”

“So, what you did?” Nick asked.

“Before we could talk to the brass, the Howling Commandos arrived and the SSR people arrived.” John said, and the looked back at Nick “I don’t know if he told you, but your father, Jake Fury, was...”

“One of them, yes, I knew that.” Nick nodded “I guess that they didn’t like the situation.”

“You can say that. My captain got an earful from Colonel Phillips…” he paused for a moment, reminiscing “That man could blister the paint of a Sherman when he got going.”

“And…?” Fury said.

“Well, the SSR people had a closed room reunion, and then Carter and Stark entered the complex with the Commandos.”

“And they found something, didn’t they?” Fury said.

 

Mystique got Irene out of the water and practice mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to her. Soon, she was coughing out the water she had swallowed escaping the car, and it was no long before she could stand.

"We are not safe yet. They are probably patrolling the riverside to see if they can spot…" Mystique started to say.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that, smurfette.” A voice said, as several men clad in black appeared around them, aiming their weapons at them. He then stepped into view, revealing a well-built blonde man in his late thirties, clad in the same commando gear than the rest of his fellows. He looked at them and smirked.

“You know, the boss has said that he want the blue bitch alive, but he said nothing of the old bat.” He said, aiming his sub-machinegun to Irene. “For the matter he didn’t say the blueberry had to be unharmed.” He added, before pulling the trigger in his weapon.

The bullet exited the cannon and stopped in mid air, they stood there dumbfounded for a moment before their weapons were jerked away from their hands by some invisible force, and reformed into manacles, shortly before they themselves, except the man who had fired, were removed from the scene by that same invisible force.

Then, a man clad in a red and black bodysuit, wearing a purple cape and wearing a strange helmet that obscured his face descended from high.

“Hello, Magneto.” Mystique said “Don’t tell me, Sabretooth called as soon as I was gone.”

“Yes." Magneto said bluntly, before explaining "You can be erratic on occasions, Mystique, especially when family is involved.” He then turned to the man. “Do you know who I am, human?”

“Just another abomination against God’s plan. And a kike, to boot.” And he spit on his face “We’ll clean your filth from the face of the Earth.”

Magneto cleaned the spittle from his face and looked at the man with a bemused expression.

“Some things never change.” He said, before his expression become hard. “Who do you work for?”

To his surprise the man laughed.

“Do your worst, mutie.” The man said “You’ll never make me talk!”

“Useless.” Magneto said, flicking his wrist and throwing him toward the otehrs. He then turned to face Mystique.

“Mystique, you were supposed to recruit your adopted daughter for the Brotherhood, now that he has discovered her mutant powers." He said "What has changed?”

“Everything, Erik.” Irene said, before Mystique could say anything “I saw a new timeline, shortly after I saw the original one." she paused for a moment, before adding "Believe me, letting her go will do a lot more good than recruit her.”

"Hmmph... We'll see." Magneto said. "I'll let her go away for the moment." And he floated away again.

“But what did you see in her future, Destiny.” Mystique asked, once Magneto was well out of earshot.

“Thunder and lightning.” Irene answered cryptically.

 

It became worse as they neared the Hamlet. More and more corpses littered the dirt road, many of them still carrying a few belongings. But it wasn’t until they reached the hamlet when they found signs of the attackers.

“So it was true.” Sanders said, poking at the half devoured corpse of a Camatzotz demon, while they were burying the corpses. He hadn’t really believed that the beasts were as willing to feed on their fellows as to feed on people.

“Believe it. First time we were here, we used cover fire on a swarm and while most of them were busy with each other, the Guatemalans doused them with gas and then we used tracers.” Miller said. “They burn quite well, but that’s not a strategy I would recommend here.”

“Why not? If it works…”Sanders said.

“Because we were up a mountain at the time, not in the middle of a rainforest, Sanders.” Kane said. “Can you guess what would happen if we did that here?.”

“Oh.” Sanders said, catching what Kane was implying “Sorry, ma’am. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Don’t worry, at least you learn, not…” she started to say, before stopping herself. “Major Finn is calling me.”

She walked toward where Riley was talking with Molina about something. He had some pictures, while Molina had maps and looked worried.

“Did you want to see me, sir?”

“Yes, Kate. We got some aerial photos of the area.” He pointed to a clearing in the lower part with a dirt road leading away. “We are here. What do you think?.”

She looked at the pictures and saw immediately what Riley wanted her to see. There was a dark zone to the west of their current position, in the middle of the jungle.

“This dark zone. What it is?”

“That’s what we were discussing.” Riley said.

“There is a small peak in that point, if the maps are correct.” Molina said “The problem is that even if we depart now, we are not going to be able to reach it before sunset.”

“This is when those things go out.” Kate said.

“Precisely. Now, look at this.” Molina said, pointing at the map. “There is another town in the way to Flores.”

“I hope that is being evacuated.” Kate said.

“I managed to convince Gonzalez to do that, at least.” Molina said “But what I was getting is that we could set a trap for them there. The trucks can be recalled to where we left and get us there in a couple hours. If we send equipment ahead from the base, we should have enough time to set the trap.”

“With us as the bait.” Riley said.

“Better us that a bunch of civilians.” Kate said.

 

“How do you know?” Batman asked.

“Sixth sense, courtesy of the Slayer package.” Buffy said “So, what we do?”

“This stand-off won’t last.” Batman said. “Get ready to jump into the fray when I give the signal.”

The entry to the Monarch Chemical plant​

Sam Welles wiped the sweat from his face. He had been a R&D guy here, developing cosmetics to give a new lease of life to the old plant. It had worked, it had worked… until the fire.

He had not been here when it happened, being down with a cold. But he could imagine what had happened. The local management had complained upstairs that the security systems were old and not up to standards.

Afterwards… everything had gone to hell. The CEO had shifted the blame on the local management, and all of them had found themselves on the street, and unable to get another job thanks to the spin doctors paid by Thorne. Not even Lexcorp or Von Doom Industries, who were not very scrupulous in their hiring practices, wanted to touch him with a ten feet pole.

It had started as a mad idea, but the more they discussed it, the more sense it did, or at least the more sense it did to a handful of angry men at the end of their rope.

And that had led them here. The fucking Red Hood was here. He rechecked his weapon again, and then one of the Red Hood men waved threateningly a submachine gun toward him. He aimed at him, as if to daring him to proceed.

But before it could escalate Jack looked at the man who had started it and shook his head, before turning toward them.

“Well, well, well. It seems that we are in a small quandary.” Said Jack “You see, all of this…” he said, waving her hands around, as if to encompass the entire district “…is Red Hood territory. Do you want to set a drug lab here? You’ll have us as your partners.”

“And if we don’t want to?” he said.

“Things will get messy.” Jack said, with a broad, unsettling smile, just before the Red Hood put his hand on Jack shoulder.

Jack turned, his smile vanishing as the Red Hood said something to his ear. Jack nodded and turned back to face them.

“The Red Hood has a magnanimous one-time offer. We do the distribution and you retain a fifty percent of the profit.” Jack said “If you say no, well…” he shrugged. “You have one minute.”

 

“You could say that. They got out barely fifteen minutes later, shooting back at something that was pursuing them.” He paused a moment, closing his eyes “Things out of a nightmare, and the worst thing was that some of them had been people before: our own men were still somewhat recognizable but the others… prisoners or maybe the scientists thee, we never knew. The worst were the other things, the ones that had never been human. We were hard pressed to stop them, we needed flamethrowers, field artillery, even a bit of fire support from the Canberra to kill them all, at the end.” John paused, remembering that day.

Nick waited. He didn’t say, but he doubted that the Black Dragon had really known what was going on that base. It looked more like the work of a cultist of the Old Ones.

“The Commandos had been decimated, so a troop of the best soldiers of my regiment, me included, were selected to go with them inside.” John continued. He shivered for a moment before saying the following “We saw things there that don’t belong to God’s green Earth. Those damned fools had opened a door, and one of their scientist had been possessed by... something in the other side, and was now letting things out of nightmares in and change people into... things. We destroyed the door, picked its pieces, and sealed the surviving creatures inside under many tons of concrete.”

“I guess that whatever is in the box is one of the door pieces.” Fury said, guessing where this was headed. He had the feeling that the possession hadn’t been all that unwilling if his experience with them was any indication.

“Yes. One piece is still down there, in the lab, under all that concrete, while the survivors who had been in the fight in the door room picked one each.” John said “Stark, Carter, Dugan, Farnsworth, your father and me.”

Fury nodded. He had known personally all of the survivors. Hell, he had been recruited into SHIELD by Dugan’s oldest grandson.

“And that’s all. He probably directed you to me because I’m the only one who wasn’t involved with the SSR back then. ” John said, looking at the other man with a shrewd look. “Or with SHIELD later.”

“I can’t comment on that.” Fury said. “But what you have said, well, I need to think about it. Thank you.”

“Can you at least stay for dinner?” John said “I guarantee you that you won’t be sorry, Martha is an excellent cook.”

“If you put it that way, who am I to say no?.”

 

A bus somewhere in Mississippi​

Marie, or Rogue, that was the name she was going to use from now on, waited until they had left the town well behind to check the backpack that Irene had left her. She had already noted the clothes and the money, now she found a few bags of her favourite snacks and a letter.

She took the letter gingerly and looked it over. It was written by Irene, no doubt, her precise and elegant handwriting was impossible to mistake with anyone. She had asked once how did she manage to write so well being blind, Irene had smiled mysteriously and answered ‘Practice.’ Of course now she knew the truth, she was using her powers to do that.

Sighing, she started to read the letter. After a greeting Irene launched into a condensed description of mutants and the X-Gene, as well as talking about herself and her own powers.

“…and that’s how we came to this situation. I knew that you were a mutant, but I really didn’t expected your power to manifest when you kissed that boy, or having two visions of your possible future back to back just afterwards.

I won’t say what would have expected you in the other future, only that it wasn’t pretty for you. I’m not infallible, though, so it may still come to pass. I hope that it isn’t though, and I can say to you that I saw you will finding happiness, as well as a point in the future where you choice of words will tip the balance on one side or another.

More immediately, though, you are being chased by people wanting to kill you by the crime of being a mutant. That’s why I did what I did, taking decisions for you. If we had more time, I would have explained what was going on, but we hadn’t. I’m sending you to people that will protect you from them, but the path that you have to follow it’s unclear, except for the first step…”​

​

According to the letter she had to get to Saint Louis tomorrow, and look in a post office box, the key in one of the pockets of the backpack, to get another letter with more instructions. She was torn between following Irene's instructions or not, but in the end she decided to follow this first step at least, and from there, she'll see what to do.

 

The truck carrying Team 3. Not too long afterwards​

“So, your father is Colonel Jacob Kane?” Garrett asked.

“Yes, do you know him?” Kane answered

“Yes, I had the misfortune.” Garret said with a grimace, although he immediately started to nuance it “Well, he would be mostly okay if he could get that baseball bat out of his…”

“Yes, that’s him. And it’s more an M119 than a baseball bat.” Kane interrupted him “How did you know him? Some mission?”

“Yeah, he was part of my support team in a classified mission. I can’t give you more details, sorry. Need to know and all that shit.” Garret said.

“Yeah, the story of my life.” Kane said with a snort. She was getting to like the SHIELD agent, a rough guy with a charming personality. To her side she could see that Rumloow seemed to have already fallen under the charm of the agent of SHIELD. “It was there where you got those scars?.”

“Nah, it was an IED in the Balkans.” Garret said. “I heard that you had some problems there last year.”

“Yeah, a Master Vampire was running around claiming to be Dracula.” She rolled her eyes. “We get roughly one a year, but this one was smarter than the others, he got himself a small army and got body armor.”

“And what happened to him?.” Garrett asked.

“We used a Barrett to shot him in the head.” Kane said, deadpan “And then we helped the Romanian Special Forces to clean the rest. ”

“That’s a good one.” Garrett said with an smile “Well, at least Dracula the Vampire doesn’t exist.”

“Actually, he does, according to Major Finn, at least.” Kate said “He says that he met him once in California.”

“Really?” Garret said surprised.

“Yeah.” Kate said, not sure if to believe that herself “But I’m sure you have stories of your own.”

“Well, yeah. I was in Madripoor, and there was this fellow with an eyepatch…”

Back in the base​

“Sir, it’s me again, Gonzalez… Yes, things are progressing as we thought… The Americans are planning to bait the creatures to… Yes, sir, that town… Well, according to our man Molina has given no sign of being involved in this… Yes, sir, I know that everything pointed to him, he may be playing a longer game we thought… Belize? So, the Americans suspect that something is off… I’ll keep an eye on that, sir.”

Gonzalez turned off the phone. The news both worried and relieved him. What was Molina planning? But he didn’t know about the Americans move in Belize.

 

After Jack's announcement all his people turned to him, and Wells gulped. He didn't like the responsibility, but without Syd or Vance here, he was the guy in charge, the guy who had to take the decisions. He looked at the gang for a moment, the Red Hood was waiting there, his arms crossed, while Jack was using a switchblade to clean his fingernails, and then his eyes went to the only person in the crowd not wearing the Red Hod colors, a tall man with white hair, with a skin so pale that he looked almost like an albino, and who was looking at everything with a sardonic expression behind stylish sunglasses.

“We accept.” He said, his voice cracking.

“What have you said? I didn’t hear you.” Jack said, with a smirk.

“I said that we accept your proposal.” Wells said.

“Good. You are a smart guy. Now…” Jack started to say when the albino guy interrupted him.

“The Bat is here.”

And suddenly everything was swallowed by darkness.

---

‘What the…?’ Buffy thought as she jumped out of the roof, only to find that she couldn’t see anything. Fortunately this wasn’t the first time she had to fight without being able to see anything, and the gangbangers were doing a lot of noise.

She took care of two that ran into her, when suddenly she found herself in a clearing of the darkness confronted with the demon she had identified before.

“You’re not the Bat.” He said. Now that she could see him clearly, his skin was so pale that looked almost white, and both his teeth and nails looked metallic, not too speak of his almost pointed ears.

“Nope.” She said, putting herself in a defensive stance. “I’m the Vampire Slayer.”

“A Slayer, it have been a while since I danced with one.” He said.

“’Danced’, really? Not even Spike at his worst would have used that line.” She said. “Where did you learn to banter, old action movies?”

“Shut up, bitch! I’m Blackout, of the blood of Lilith, Mother of Demons.” He boasted, before launching himself toward her.

“Sure you are.” She said, avoiding him easily. Despite not showing it, this worried her, she had heard of Lilith, an ancient demon, close in power to an Old One.

Suddenly she found herself again in darkness. ‘Of course, a guy called Blackout control darkness.’ She thought.

But her hearing was as good as always, and she dodged another attack managing to connect one of her own.

“Are you sure that you are a descendant of Lilith? I have met fledglings that gave me more problems than you.” She said, dodging another attack, and hitting him in the ribs.

“Fuck yo…” he started to say, before Buffy kicked him in the mouth.

 

After dinnertime. The Kent Farm​

“It’s a bit too late to go back to Smallville now.” Fury said, looking at the night sky. “Not to speak of taking a bus there.”

“Well, you can use our guest room, Mr. Fury.” Jonathan said.

“For the last time, Jonathan, call me Nick.” Fury said with a smile. And it was a genuine smile, not the fake one he wore as part of the service. “And thanks.”

After entering the room, Fury undressed and got into the bed. But sleep eluded him, thinking about today’s revelations. Carter, Dugan and Farnsworth were still alive, and dad’s piece was in a safe place, but Stark had died in a car crash a few years ago, and his son... He pursed his lips. Like father, like son, if some of the stories he had heard from Howard Stark younger years were accurate. Maria Stark, nee Wayne, had been an stabilizing influence on the often hyperactive genius.

Anyway. first thing when he came back is to ask Carter about Stark’s piece. If somebody knew where his piece was, Peggy Carter was that person. He hoped that it wasn’t in some forgotten cupboard in one of the many Stark mansions, or worse, being tinkered over by Stark’s son.

And then, there was SHIELD brass. Director Faraday was a good man, but he was getting a bit too paranoid in his old age, an attitude fomented by some of his subordinates. He shook his head turned around and closed his eyes. His last conscious thought before falling asleep were that tomorrow would be another day.

Kent Farm. Next morning​

‘Here we go again.’ Nick thought as, for the third time, SHIELD automated call center put him on hold, and disconnected the call. ‘I’ll try again later.’

Since Faraday had authorized the upgrade of the Triskelion Communication Network, there were, ironically, a lot of problems with communications. It usually got resolved in a few hours, but it was bothersome, especially for those, who like him only wanted to check that there wasn’t any emergency.

He did his morning exercises, but decided to forgo running. Jonathan and Martha had offered to carry him to Topeka, instead of having to wait for the next bus, and they were going early. He packed his things and went out. Before getting out of the farm, though, John went to talk with him while Jonathan and Martha readied the pick-up.

“About what we talked yesterday, what do you plan to do?” John said.

“Check where is Stark’s and put my father’s in a place where it won’t be stolen or lost.” Fury said “I hope that your piece is in a safe place.”

“Yeah, it is.” He said, offering his hand “It was good to talk with you. I hope that you’ll visit again, sometime.”

“So do I, it’s a quiet place.” Fury answered, shaking the old man’s hand. “Goodbye.”