FIC: Chaotic Circumstances Continued By: Joshua "The Evil Guy"

["jab21kill" <the.evil.guy@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I bet you guys thought I wouldn't continue it, didn't you?  ;>

Title:	Chaotic Circumstances

Author:	Joshua

Disclaimer:	Yet another post-Halloween costume AU BtVS crossover.

Summary:	The gang, on a whim, dressed up as various X-men, and Ethans
was the only shop in town to boot so EVERYBODY changed.  Buffy, as a
joke, went as Cyclops, Willow as Jean Grey i.e. Phoenix, Xander went
as Iceman, and Cordelia went as Rogue.  And rather than demons,
everybody else dressed up in hundreds of *OTHER* costumes ranging from
books, movies, stereotypes ("Pirates", "Nurses", "Army", "Strippers",
"Cops", etc, etc, etc) to animes, comics, and historical figures.

AN:	I blame ziziggy123 author of "Sunnydale Berserker" and Anime Ronin
author of "Of Scoobies and X-Men" for the inspiration, if you want to
call it that, for this little piece of fanfiction.  Mostly it came
from Berserker in seeing how Buffy and the brand new Xander aka
Wolverine were getting along and it struck me as peculiar that
"Wolverine" just NEVER gets along with a person named "Summers".  Then
I started brainstorming 'What if' Buffy did dress up as Cyclops, and
it became permanent the same way Xander dressing up as Wolverine did?
Then I went further, and further, and further still and came up with
all that follows.  If you like, GREAT!  If you don't, <shrug> eh,
that's ok too.

AN2:	I am always open to input, that is not pure uneducated dribble
that is often referred to as "Flames" and usually involve cursing. 
Sometimes in numerous languages as well.  But if you have constructive
criticism, I always listen and try to reply to such, and if you have
suggestions about where to go from here, those I *REALLY* listen too
and enjoy and always reply back to.

AR (Author's Request):     I'm really not that well informed on every
single possible scifi, supernatural, horror, comic, TVshow, movie,
book, etc, etc, etc that could be turned into a Halloween Costume that
people might want to buy at a Halloween store called 'Ethans'. 
Therefore, I announce from this point onward in this/these stories,
rather than mindlessly follow the original BtVS story cannon, there
will be new and original villians and plots for our X-Scoobies to
fight.  Or maybe X-Slayerettes?

Yet another topic for discussion.  Anyway, what I need from everybody
else is a "Halloween Costume", somebody from Sunnydale to wear it, a
brief description from what might or might not have been left behind
by the costume, and how they might interact with the gang.

Please contact me at the following to porperly discuss the future of
'Chaotic Circumstances'.

E-mail/Reviews:	the.evil.guy@xxxxxxxxxx and jab21kill@xxxxxxxxx 





Training, (Or, better ways to take out the garbage)

"And again I ask, where did you get these?" Buffy asked in a stoic
tone of voice.

	"At the mall, do you like them?" Willow bubbled, standing next to
Cordelia, who, if anything, was wearing clothing even more revealing
and tight than anything she'd worn before.

	Buffy held back in answering, instead taking in the opportunity to
look her female friends over.  Cordelia, as was custom given her own
"powers", was wearing satin elbow-length gloves, skintight, so
form-fitting she idly wondered if they were painted on, black leather
pants, and a large white blouse, which was unbuttoned and tied off
just beneath her bust, along with the sleeves being rolled up to just
below her shoulders.  Besides going to the extremes in her outfit
choices, the only real change to Cordelia Chase was her hair.  Not
only did it have the white streak Rogue did, but her hair was fuller,
curlier, and had way more volume than it did before Halloween.

	Willow on the other hand, was very stark and very undeniably
different from what she had been before everything had changed.  The
elfin redhead, her gorgeous long hair falling to her shoulders in
waves and curls that hadn't been there two weeks ago, stood tall and
confident in a pair of tight cutoff denim shorts, leaving a long
expanse of creamy leg revealed, and a tight belly shirt.  Formerly
known as tiny-T-shirts, where there was only enough sleeve to cover
the shoulders and the bottom of the shirt usually ended a couple of
inches above the girl's navel, Willow's was a bright green with a cute
little yellow flower on the chest, right over her small, but
impressive bust.  But then again, next to Cordelia, practically
anybody without implants was small.  It was hard to believe that
thanks again to the chaos magic, Cordelia's even more impressive size
was entirely 100% natural.

	The Willow Buffy had known for a year and a half would never have
been caught dead in an outfit this revealing, this outrageous, this .
. . sexy!  But to be honest, at least with herself, the blond Slayer
didn't really mind this new Willow.

	"Obviously these were not the only things you bought at the mall,"
she commented, instead of answering the question.

	"Well, yeah, both Cordy and I needed some new clothing.  We would
have invited you," Willow quickly assured her best friend, "but we
knew that you were training with Giles and it was really kind of a
spur of the moment kind of thing, and we can . . ."

	"It's fine Willow," Buffy smiled, trying to understand this sudden
giddy feeling she felt welling up her throat.  "Besides, I haven't
been in a shopping mood lately.  Where exactly in the mall did you get
these though?"

	'These' were a pair of sunglasses.  Black frames, smooth flowing
design, like those from the movie "Men In Black", and reflective
bright ruby red lenses.

	"The Ray Ban® Outlet store," Cordelia finally answered for Willow,
who was still demanding to know if Buffy liked them.

	"Uh huh," Buffy grunted, just staring at the sunglasses in her hands.

	To her knowledge, and doubly imprinted so by her memories, Cyclops,
aka Scott Summers, had always hated the glasses he'd always had to
wear.  He saw them as an outward manifestation of his disability, and
of his curse.  To never be able to look at the world with his own true
eyes.  It was very confusing for her, to have Scott Summers' memories
as well as his mutant powers and years of experience as Team Leader of
the X-Men.  Especially at moments like these, because a part of her,
the 'Buffy' part of her she thought to herself, thought it would be
kinda cool to wear these things.

	So, after much deliberation, she shrugged silently to herself and put
them on.  A strange feeling of deja vu over took her for a moment, but
at least she didn't have anymore memory flashes, like she'd had the
first few days after Halloween.

	That's what they called them anyway, memory flashes.  Where
something, a sight, a sound, a name, usually something else
altogether, triggered an intense experience where the memories of the
people they'd been for a night briefly overwhelmed them.  It was more
annoying than troubling or any kind of problem.  For Buffy, the memory
flashes were usually in a haze of red, obviously because that was how
Cyclops had seen them

	"What do you think?" she asked her friends, briefly modeling the ruby
shades.

	Willow beamed at her, while Cordelia grinned in a roguish, sexy grin
and shrugged.  Buffy wasn't gay, but there was no denying what a thing
is.  Just because Cordelia was not sexy to Buffy, doesn't mean the
grin wasn't still sexy as hell.

	Before the redhead and white stripe/brunette could give commentary,
Xander Harris walked in, for once, thankfully, not dressed in one of
his garish and nightmarish Hawaiian shirts and mismatched pants.

	From Cyclops memories of Iceman, Bobby Drake was definitely a teenage
hormonal ladies' man, with much the same sense of humor and general
personality that Xander himself had.  There was two major differences
between them though.  First, Bobby was a *successful* ladies' man,
whereas Xander was only one in his dreams and fantasies.  And
secondly, Xander, for some reason, seemed to be color blind as every
piece of clothing he'd owned was a fashion nightmare.

	Now, however, Xander walked with an easy confidence, and, the female
part of her spoke, a strange sexy quality that made her intrigued. 
And he was starting to dress good for a change.  He was wearing loose,
without hanging off his waist, black pants, a black T-shirt, and a
royal blue short-sleeved dress shirt hung open and untucked.  Rather
than make him look sloppy though, it just added to that intriguing
sexiness that already had more than half the girls in the school
asking who was this hunk and what had happened to Xander?

	For some of the more petulant and snobby types, they did not ask
about Xander.

	"Hey guys," he greeted them easily.  "Cool shades Buff.  And ladies,
might I further add to how delectably hott you are all looking this
fine and wonderful day?"

	Buffy arched an eyebrow at the smooth comment, sharing a brief glance
with Willow, who knew Xander better than any of them.

	"What do you want Xander?" the redhead asked sufferably.

	"Moi?" he asked, sounding overly shock and gesturing wildly all of a
sudden.  "What makes you think that I would have any sort of ulterior
motive beyond complimenting my three favorite ladies, not counting
Mrs. Summers, in the whole world?"

	"Past experience?" Willow replied with an easy smile.

	Xander continued to try and plaster a perfectly innocent expression
on his face, but under the combined glares of the three super-powered
teenage girls, he barely lasted ten seconds before he broke out into a
wild grin, which their "memories" told them was more 'Iceman' than
'Xander'.

	"All right, all right," he conceded, his grin, if anything, growing
wider.  "You caught me.  But before you slaughter me upon the
sacrificial alter of Liberal-minded women everywhere, hear me out."

	"We're listening," Buffy bit back a grin as she crossed her arms,
highly amused.

	"What if I told you I found our missing, but much needed in light of
the fact that it never existed in this universe in the first place,
Danger Room?"

	They just stared at him, expressions unchanging, however Buffy's grin
became a little bit harder to hold back.

	"Well, OK," he conceded after a second, "It's not actually a room,
and truth be told it's really not that dangerous, although I suppose
it could be, under the right circumstances, not that I'm saying . . . "

	"You found us a place to safely train in controlling our X-men
powers?" Buffy interrupted, trying her hardest not to laugh and barely
succeeding.  Scott Summers might have been a fuddy-duddy leader, but
Buffy Summers was still very much a care-free teenage girl . . . who
also happened to be a leader.

	Xander's wide smile gave the girls' their answer.  "Spill it
Ice-boy!" Cordelia drawled, which seemed to be becoming more of a
difficulty for her, despite the memory flashes occurring less for all
of them.

	The dark haired blue-eyed youth glared at the teenage prom queen. 
"It's Iceman Cordelia.  Or do you actually want me to revert to," he
paused and leaned forward before whispering conspiratorially,
"skunk-head?"

	Cordelia jerked back like she'd been struck.  Her accent was all
Southern Californian as she snapped at him, "You wouldn't!"

	"Call me Ice-boy one more time, I dare you!" he challenged.

	The white-laced brunette glared at him for a full minute before
finally backing down and apologized, traces of both her accents
leaking into her speech.  "Ah'm sorry Xander.  I so did not mean for
things ta go that fah, yah know?  Really, I'm like totally sorry.  No
harm sugah?"

	Now all of them were struggling not to laugh, as Cordelia's
preclusion to switch accents in the middle of sentences, sometimes
words, was quickly becoming quite hilarious.

	"Anyway," Xander brought the conversation back around to him, "Wills,
remember that old lot that got turned into a junk heap a few years
back?  It's about five square acres, and it's filled to the brim with
old cars and bunch of other junk like that.  We could totally lay
waste to the entire thing, practicing with our powers to our hearts
content and nobody would ever notice a thing.  Especially not in this
town.  Not to mention, that entire lot is like ten miles outside of town!"

	"Sounds promising," Buffy surmised, glancing at Willow to see if she
had any objections.  The moment she did, the blond Slayer knew
instantly that the redhead loved the idea.  That immediately confused
Buffy.  How on earth could she have guessed Willow's feelings on the
matter so quickly?  Just by reading her expression?  No, because she
hadn't guessed.  She knew.

	What was going on here?

	Either way, it didn't matter.  Something to discuss with the new
telepath at a later time.

	"We'll check it out later this afternoon, right before patrol, unless
any of us have a problem with that?" They all looked at Cordelia.

	"What?" she asked cluelessly.

	Buffy just rolled her eyes behind her new shades.  "Time to check in
with Giles anyway," she mumbled, "And where is Giles anyway?  He was
supposed to be here like half an hour ago for training."

	"Sorry, but why should we know?" Cordelia snipped, "I mean, it's not
like we're his parents or anything."

	The other teens just glared at the skunk-haired beauty queen and
promptly ignored her, as was becoming habit with the superhuman rogue.

	"Wills?" Buffy asked.

	"Checking," the redhead announced as she closed her eyes and put her
fingertips to her temples in the classic appearance of stereotypical
mind-readers.  It wasn't necessary but it did help Willow to focus on
her powers alone.  Not to mentioned helped with the headache that
usually accompanied using them.

	Five seconds later, "Got him.  He's on his way in now, but Ms.
Calendar is intercepting him, so it may be a few more minutes . . .
oh, wait, no, now they're both coming here."

	"Hey, wait," Xander spoke up suddenly, his brow furrowed in
concentration, "didn't Ms. Calendar go to Ethan's at the same time we
did?  Does anybody remember what she dressed as?"

	"Why should I care?" Cordelia snapped, inspecting her nails.

	"Yeah," Buffy answered, ignoring Cordelia, "I remember seeing her
there.  I think she went as . . ."

	At that moment, the swing doors to the Library opened admitting the
Librarian Rupert Giles and the Computer Teacher Ms. Jennifer Calendar,
or Jenny to Giles and Ms. Calendar to all the students.  Giles was
smiling and in his regular tweed suit, while standing next to him Ms.
Calendar  was in a tight black leather mini-skirt, which ended at the
top of her thighs, meaning that if she bent forward or even took a
step too far on the stairs everyone would be able to see the garters
for the black silk stockings she also wore.  Her top was just as
daring, if not more so as it was merely a halter bikini top, which
only served to enhance her cleavage, and then a forest-green
see-through wrap-around over it.  To top it all off, her jewelry
consisted of a coin necklace that jingled with every step she took,
big gold hoop earrings and then a gold-coin belt that shook like a tin
cup at Christmas time low around her waist.

	"... a gypsy dancing girl," Willow finished for the blond Slayer when
it became obvious she couldn't finish her own sentence.

	"Oh, h-hello everyone," Giles stuttered a moment upon entering the
Library with the gypsy computer teacher on his arm.  "You-you're all
here I-I see."

	Buffy just stared at the adult couple and she couldn't help wondering
what had been happening between them to make Giles so uber-embarrassed
upon the rest of them seeing him and Miss Calendar together. 
Suddenly, it happened again, a memory flash.

(((Scott, Jean, Rogue and Bobby had finally managed to find the
Library that the girl Jean was in telepathic contact with had told
them about.  Other than the rather archaic décor, it was typical of
any library.

"So what are we looking for Jean?" Scott, who was apparently a girl
for the moment, asked his wife.

"Give me a moment Scott," Jean replied tersely before closing her eyes
to concentrate.

/'Willow? Can you still hear me?  We're at the Library.  Now who was
it you said we needed to be looking for?  Someone that could help us
with this whole mess?'/ Jean telepathically communicated with the
original owner of the body she was in.

/'Yeah!'/ Willow enthusiastically communicated back.  /'Giles.  His
name is Giles!  He's the Librarian here.  He's also Buffy's Watcher
and he like knows all this supernatural stuff that usually helps us to
beat the bad guys or at least save ourselves.  He's kinda like our
version of Professor X.  Only without the telepathic powers.  Or the
pacifism.  Or being insanely rich either.  Although we don't actually
know a whole lot about Giles so he might very well be insanely rich
and we just don't know it yet because it's never come up before and .
. .'/

/'I GET IT WILLOW!'/ Jean finally psi-shouted to stop the constant
torrent of thought from the young teenage girl.

Glazing over Willow's apology, Jean just turned her attention back to
Scott.  A female Scott with sun-bleached blond instead of strawberry
blond/reddish hair.  Was it wrong that this 'Scott' was just as
attractive to her as his hard, well-trained male body was?

"We have to find a man named Giles.  He's the Librarian here, and
apparently he's something of an expert in supernatural occurrences,"
the redhead telepath finally answered.

"OK," Cyclops rolled his/her eyes beneath the red visor.  "GILES!  Is
there a Mr. Giles here?!"

A noise came from the office off to the right, bringing all the X-men
to high alert.  As they listened each of them realized in turn that it
was the sounds of a person or people scrambling around in the office
for something.  What, they could not see or guess.  However Cyclops
did note that there was a jeweled piece of silk hanging off one of the
chairs and quickly put together a few options, and was also immensely
grateful that Wolverine hadn't been brought here with them.  The
Canadian's hyper-sensitive nose might very well have told them
/exactly/ what had been going on in the office.

"Uh, yes!  Yes?  I'm . . . Mister . . . Giles?" a man in his mid to
late thirties stepped out of the office, looking quite rumpled and
hastily put together.  When he caught sight of the group standing in
the Library he blinked in wide-eyed amazement before putting on a pair
of spectacles and looking again.

"Buffy?  Xander?  Willow!  Cordelia?  What-what are you all doing
here?  And dressed like . . . like that?" he sputtered.

Before the X-men could answer a sleek, tanned, well-toned, and naked
save for the jingling bracelets, arm emerged from behind the Librarian
and embraced him around the neck in a purely seductive way.

Behind the visor, Cyclops just sighed and rolled his eyes.  Bobby,
however, was staring openly as the rest of the woman, as naked, or
even more so, as her arm stepped out and right behind Mr. Giles. 
Thankfully, Giles body, while her only claim to decency, did an
adequate job in keeping the ever-hormonal Iceman from seeing anything
he shouldn't have.

"Ah-uhm Jenny . . . not right now.  We have . . . er, guests and I
would really rather appreciate it, please, if you would go put
something on?  Please!" Giles tried to convince the exotic woman
currently making out with his neck.

"But Rupert . . ." she whined in a slightly European accent.  Romanian
if Cyclops deduced correctly from the X-men's world travels.  "I want
to play some more.  You haven't tamed this gypsy yet English."

"Jenny!  Enough!" Giles lost his temper and snapped at the woman.  "Go
put some clothes on damnit!  Bint!"

Recoiling a bit, but mostly at the suddenness of his tone, the woman
quickly retreated back into the office, which Giles thankfully closed
the door to before stepping out to meet with the X-men.

"Now, would you four kindly explain what you are doing here?  I
thought you had said that Snyder had roped you lot into escorting the
children on their, their, their Trick-or-Treating thing?" Giles demanded.

"I'm afraid Mr. Giles," Cyclops began, keeping his voice tightly
controlled, "that you have us confused with some other people. 
Somehow, through some kind of magic that we frankly don't understand,
we have been taken from our home and placed as some kind of possessing
spirits inside the bodies of these children.  As for introductions, my
name is Scott Summers, codename Cyclops.  This is Jean Grey, codename
Phoenix.  Robert Drake, codename Iceman.  And Marie Paquin, also known
as Rogue.  We're the X-men."

Before the Englishman could properly respond to all of that however,
the woman that had been in the office chose that moment to come out,
so to speak.  Beyond the jewelry on her arms, which included a large
number of jangle bracelets as well as a gold armband over her right
bicep, she was now wearing a total of three, hopefully more, pieces of
cloth.

Her top was little more than a decently large handkerchief, making it
rather indecent as it was wrapped and tied over her breasts and arms,
baring her shoulders and much of her skin.  She also had a silk
bandanna in her hair, holding most of her dark locks back out of her
face.  Her skirt however was just as risque as the rest of her outfit,
despite the fact that it did reach well past her ankles.  There were
two slits up either side all the way to the coin-chain belt, which was
all that was holding the material up, baring both of her legs in their
entirety.  If the skirt were to fly up, it wouldn't be difficult to
see the woman's underwear . . . provided she was wearing any.

Scott was now glad Storm wasn't here also, and began wishing that
Bobby wasn't.

The outfit was topped off by a pair of high-healed sandals that
accentuated the arch of the woman's legs and added to the alluring
picture she presented.

"Rupert, who are these people?" she asked, her Romanian accent still
present.

"Jenny . . . er, Miss Calendar . . ." Giles removed his spectacles and
began to furiously clean them.

"I told you my love, my name is Janna.  Janna of the Kalderash Clan,
of his Lord Count Dracula's realm.  How forgetful you are tonight my
love.")))

	Buffy shook her head sharply, holding her hand to her temple as the
memory faded.  Well, that certainly explained why Miss Calendar was a
bit more free with her dress sense of late.  As well as the fact that
Willow had confided she'd heard several thoughts coming from their
computer teacher that lead them to believe she still possessed some of
her 'gypsy' memories.

	"Oh good, Giles, you're here!" Xander exclaimed, unaware of anything
wrong with the mutant Slayer.  "I'm, I mean we're, so very happy to
see you, isn't that right girls?  And Miss Calendar, I must say, Giles
is one /very/ lucky, lucky man.  So, Rupert, buddy, old chum, how are
you doing today?  Good I hope."

	Giles stared at the young mutant for several long seconds before
exchanging a few significant looks with all the others in the room. 
Finally, at length, he released Jenny and sat down at the table
himself before looking Xander squarely in the eye and asking, "All
right Xander, what is it you want?"

	"Now G-man, what would possibly give you the slightest inkling of an
idea that I, the great and uncanny Iceman, could want absolutely
anything from you?" Xander protested with mock-innocence.

	"Because you're being a kiss-ass, you wanker," the man that used to
be known as the Ripper sarcastically snapped.

	"Well, OK, there is that," the teenager had to concede.

	Finally deciding it would be better to just ask, Xander went ahead
and explained to Giles what he had found and how they might be able to
use it to their advantage.  After the situation had been explained,
Giles was in a much better frame of mood and nodded thoughtfully at
Xander's suggestion.

	"Yes, remote, relatively safe, especially with your newly acquired
powers, and private as well as having obstacles for training and
testing," the Watcher was nodding his head and scratching his chin in
thought.  "I must agree, it does sound promising, and I believe all of
us agree that determining your limits and testing these new abilities
are a forerunner.  With the exception of Willow, hardly any of you can
openly test these . . . powers, so perhaps we should head out today? 
To determine if this site Xander has discovered truly will suit our,
er, that is to say, your needs."

	"So we're having a field trip?" Buffy asked excitedly.

	"You can be so lame sometimes," Cordelia exasperated.

	Buffy simply ignored her and quickly got to her feet.  "Great, then
lets go.  Schools out, homework is done, and Giles himself just said
that the most important thing is testing our powers, so training taken
care of too.  Unless anybody else has some prior engagements?" the
youthful leader glared at the others in the room.  Behind her new
reflective ruby shades, it was quite intimidating.

	"Uh, no, I'm good to go," Willow announced.

	"Hey, I came to /get/ you guys," Xander pointed out.

	Slowly everyone turned to glare at Cordelia Chase.  "What?" she
asked, clueless.

	Forty-five minutes later, the whole gang, as it was, stood at the
entrance to the abandoned lot, staring at many large piles of rusted
metal, garbage, thrown-away electronics, and hundreds upon hundreds of
other things that culminated in a smell quite indicative of a garbage
dump.

	"OK, so it smells, doesn't change the fact that it's the ideal
location," Xander protested to their looks of derision.

	Buffy looked down at the rusted gate that she could probably tear
apart with just her pinky fingers, but she didn't really feel like
risking a tetanus shot.  Taking off her new shades, she squinted her
eyes until only the rusted chain holding the fence closed was visible.
Then, imagining the trigger in her mind, she carefully gathered a
small amount of the energy inside of her behind her eyes, and then fired.

	Everybody was shocked when the Slayer suddenly took off her glasses
and began to squint at the fence.  They were even more shocked when a
small burst of red optic energy was suddenly released and quite easily
cut the chain without so much as blowing away a single link of the
fence itself.

	Smiling with self-satisfaction, Buffy easily placed her shades back
on and then gestured at Willow, who with only a small fraction of
telekinetic power, shoved the rusted fence gates away so that they
could enter.  "Well, lets take a look around.  Don't forget to shout
if you get into trouble.  Wills?  Why don't you and Roger, I mean you
and Cordy take a look from above.  That way you'll be able to keep in
telepathic contact in case anybody gets lost or into any kind of trouble."

	"Who made you the boss of me?" Cordelia retorted.

	Buffy calmly turned and looked at the Head cheerleader from behind
her shades.

	"Never mind," the white-striped brunette squeaked before taking off
into the air, Willow already having done so.

	"Xander," the blonde snapped even as the blue-eyed brunette had been
walking off.

	"Yeah Buff?" he turned back.

	"No ice-bridges or ice-slides or anything until we're sure that it's
safe and this place can be kept private.  Got it?"

	He sighed and crumpled in disappointment, but the teenager nodded his
assent and included, "Understood."

	That having been said, the rest of them quickly dispersed through the
junkyard and began to look around.  It was surprisingly more organized
than they had expected.  Everyday garbage in the likes of food,
papers, torn wrappings, old boxes and things like that were thankfully
dumped down into a rather steep pit, which contained it rather nicely
and kept that kind of garbage out of the way.  Then there was the 'car
graveyard', which actually made up more than half the junkyard, and
scattered in between were the hardware piles.  Hardware meaning old
appliances, broken toys, antiquated equipment and other junk just
piled up wherever there was room and still allow the trucks and people
to move about.

	Buffy was walking past one of these piles when the idea of making a
'Danger Room' out of all this junk sprang to mind, and she made an
idle comment to the air, "Too bad Forge isn't here.  He could probably
build us a whole new mansion with all this stuff."

	After thinking about her statement, and accessing her Cyclops
memories, she just shrugged and didn't bother reacting.  They had all
gotten pretty used to when they would say something in regards to
their X-Men memories and it make no sense to anybody around them.

	All in all though, everything appeared pretty stable.  The car piles
were carefully placed so that even if maybe the towers got too high,
they would or could only fall in such a way that nobody standing
nearby would get hurt.  Beyond the smell though, the junkyard was
indeed an ideal training ground.

	Decision made, Buffy quickly made her way to the center of the lot,
where coincidentally enough, a small wooden shack was set up, fully
equipped with office equipment, but looking, and for good reason, like
a living, or even unliving, soul had set foot inside of it in years. 
Once everyone was there, and to get out of the smelly heat, Buffy
opened the door, which had been locked, but said locks had been so
badly worn and rusted that her Slayer strength easily tore them apart
allowing them entrance.  And bizarrely enough, the air conditioner
still worked!

	"So what do you guys think?" she finally asked as she sat down in the
chair behind one of the desks in the antiquated office.

	"Well, it is quite isolated," Giles pointed out.  "And quite
obviously no one is truly interested in even occasionally visiting, so
secrecy should mostly be guaranteed."

	"It smells," Cordelia grumbled.

	"There's also plenty of room for training maneuvers and using our
powers," Willow added her concerns.  "And we can all cause lots of
damage without having to worry about paying to replace anything like
that or even worry about causing damage at all."

	"See, didn't I tell you guys this was perfect?" Xander gloated.

	"It /smells/!" Cordelia insisted.

	"I checked it out myself," Buffy insisted over Cordelia's objection.
"The place is stable and even if we meant to, I seriously doubt we'd
be able to cause enough damage to where someone would be in danger. 
Nobody has to worry about having a car or a mountain of junk falling
on them, and I did see that open space out there.  I was actually
thinking that if one of us had dressed up like a tech-wizard we might
actually be able to make a very real Danger Room out here.  Quite
frankly, I agree with Xander.  It's perfect for our needs."

	Grumbling, Cordelia scowled, "It still smells."

	Getting up, Buffy nodded to each of the gang in turn, "We'll all show
up tomorrow, it being a Saturday and set up a routine.  Maybe learn
the limits of our current powers.  I don't know about the rest of you,
but I do remember that the more the X-Men got used to using their
powers, the more powerful those powers became.  We really don't know
if the same will happen to us or if we'll slowly lose our powers over
time.  There is no way to know until we find out for ourselves.  Now.
Show up at 8 o'clock sharp, and dress for a long workout.  And Cordy,
if you feel like dressing skimpy, please remember your other powers."

	"You want us to show up at a /junkyard/ on a /Saturday/ at *8* in the
morning and you talk to me like that?!" the teen social queen screeched.

	Buffy, her shaded back on, simply turned to stare at the cheerleader.

	More intimidated than she'd like to admit, the white striped brunette
simply backed down with a quiet, "Fine.  Whatever."

	After everything was settled, they all quickly left and began the
trek back to their homes, however before they were even back to the
familiar streets of Sunnydale, the sun had set and the demons and
vampires came out to hunt and play.

	"Damn, should have paid more attention to the time," Buffy berated
herself, feeling responsible and quite ashamed of herself for coming
out under-prepared for night on the Hellmouth.  Whether those were
Cyclops' strategic instincts or her own Slayer ones, she wasn't fully
certain, but she was cursing herself out either way.

	"Aw, we can take care of ourselves now Buff.  No need to worry. 
Sides, between you and Cordy, I'd love to see a demon strong enough to
take the two of you on!" Xander crowed.

	Out of the sudden darkness, a deep reverberating growl echoed through
the night.  Before anybody could ask the question on everyone's minds,
a glowing green slimy tentacle suddenly appeared, quickly followed by
the one-eyed glowing green putrid slime ball it was attached to.  A
gurgling roar emerged from it's pitch black gaping maw it probably
called a mouth, making its entrance complete.

	"Somebody hit Xander," Willow sighed as she prepared herself mentally
and physically for the coming confrontation.

	"And if anybody makes any one-eye cyclops jokes, please remember I
have super strength along with optic blasts, and it's getting close to
that time of the month for me, so you have been warned," Buffy warned
them all before tearing off her shades and began to imagine the
trigger in her mind.  Instantly her eyes flashed red and began to
spark with crimson energy.

	"Ahhh, gross!" Cordelia shouted, "No way am ah goin' ta fight with
that thang!  Ah'd ratter wrastle wit a pig in a mud pitt!"

	"Cordy, not now!" Buffy shouted.  "If you don't want to touch it,
then just throw things at it!"

	"Alright big green and slimy!" the Slayer taunted as she ran full
tilt for the ghastly demonic creation, "Smile for the camera!"

	"No!  Buffy!  WAIT!" Willow shouted.

	With a flash of red light, a full-powered optic blast was released
upon the creature . . .

TO BE CONTINUED . . .







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"It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
"I kinda love you."
Buffy & Willow, 'Choices'

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