psinex@yahoo.com Blood and Iron Chapter 0 DISCLAIMER: Everyone here is Marvel's, except for Steven, who's mine, and Buffy, Giles, etc., who're 20th Century Fox's. Please don't sue. NOTE: AHEM ... Continuity &#$%-up on my part. Steven should be blond, not brown-haired ... -------------------------------------------------------- PROLOGUE: Sunnydale, Calif., 8/12/2003: 22:00 hrs PDT: -------------------------------------------------------- He tromped up the steps, listening - always listening - for the shuffling and panting which indicated the coming of the undead. #That, or a limping IRS agent,# Rupert Giles thought bemusedly as he watched the lights still blazing at the Summers home from his car across the street. He made a few more notes and turned the key - - but found the car unable to start. "Oh dear," Giles mumbled. He noticed a blue glow around the vehicle and muttered, "Note to self: never Watch when one of the Slayer's relatives is a magnakinetic ..." "Of real power, dillweed," a boy's voice snarled out of the dark. Giles looked over his shoulder to see a white-haired boy standing behind the car, with two younger, nearly-identical boys on either side of him. One had brown hair with a glowing left eye, and the other had blond locks. "We don't like peeping toms, hume," the older boy growled. "The twins here get ... nervous. Nate tends to do bad things to the brains of people who peep. Right, Nate ?" "Sure, 'Rik," one of the boys - Nathan, Giles recognized from his notes, the one with the scars around his right eye - nodded, frowning. "Guys, chill. Scaring humes isn't gonna make us any more popular," a girl called from out of the dark. Giles wiped his brow, more for theatrical effect than real concern - he knew the Summers boys and their elder foster brother wouldn't harm him. #Not with Scott and Jean Summers as parents,# Giles reflected, exiting the car. He found himself being glared at by a blonde girl and her red-haired twin, both clad in "Property of Xavier's" sweatshirts, standing at the cardoor. "OK, pal," the blonde growled with all the menace a 13-year-old girl could muster. "What're you doing here and why shouldn't I let my sis here fry your brain ?" "Because, Slayer," Giles bowed his head, "I am here to tell you of your destiny." "O-KAAAY," the redhead muttered. "What is it with us ? Why do WE get the wackos ?" "You're lucky you haven't gotten vampires left and right," Giles said matter-of-factly. The kids looked at him in shock, and the blonde said, "Maybe we should talk ..." -------------------------------------------------------- "... and so, Buffy is the latest in a long line of Slayers - girls supernaturally empowered to be the hunters of Homo vampiricus," Giles concluded over tea. Scott and Jean looked at him like he was a vampire himself, but Buffy nodded slowly from the couch in their living room. "That'd explain my aura sense," she said, "and my enhanced strength, agility and reflexes. And why Cerebro can't read me as a mutant - I'm an enhanced human." "No, that IS a mutant trait," Giles said. "You are unique among Slayers in that you are undetectable by any means other than direct visual contact. I imagine you are non-psionic ... ?" "She can't be psionically scanned, no," Jean said darkly. Buffy looked at her with a pout, and Jean hugged her daughter. "But you have other gifts," Jean added quickly, smiling. "Gifts which Buffy should learn to use for fighting evil, we agree - but to claim she's some sort of 'Chosen One' ?" Scott grumbled. "I cannot force Buffy to take up the Slayer's mantle," Giles shrugged. "But she is the next in line. The world needs you, Buffy, whether alone or as part of these 'New Mutants'." "Then I'll just train at the Academy," Buffy suggested. Giles nodded and said, "The Massachusetts Academy ? An excellent idea. I ... know the headmistress." Scott and Jean traded looks, but Buffy just grinned. #This is gonna be SO cool,# she thought, hugging her parents and heading upstairs. #Now, what goes good with wooden stakes ... ?# -------------------------------------------------------- NEXT: Good, bad and ugly - plus: Proteus as you've NEVER seen him before !!! -------------------------------------------------------- end _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com