FicWad

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Xander browsed through the comics at Sunnydale Comics & Games. They'd just got a bunch of old back issues in, and he only needed three more issues to complete his X-Factor collection.

Xander spent a lot more of his time and money in this shop these days. He'd always collected comics, but in recent years he'd been so busy working with Buffy in the fight against evil that he hadn't had much time for anything else. Now, though...

He hated that Buffy refused to speak to him, and Willow couldn't even look him in the eye. If only there had been a way to do things differently. But he and Giles had talked about it. Once Dawn's blood began to flow, the only way to prevent the whole fabric of reality from being shredded was to kill Dawn. There was nothing Buffy could have done, since she was still fighting Glory at the time. Xander hated it. He hated that he had been the one to kill her. He loved Dawn like a sister. But he knew that if the whole world was sucked into hell, she'd be better off dead anyway, and at least this way the rest of the world was safe. Buffy hadn't understood. He hadn't expected her to, but he hoped she'd come around in time. Meanwhile, he was staying out of her way. Giles had returned to England. She couldn't forgive her Watcher, either.

Now the only person around who was talking to Xander was Anya. He missed having other friends to hang out with. Even Anya wasn't very happy with him. She couldn't understand why he wouldn't set a date for the wedding. He couldn't explain to her that didn't want the wedding until he knew all his friends would be there. He tried to tell her, but she'd never had friends who were as close to her as Buffy and Willow were to him, so she just didn't get it.

So Xander spent a lot of time reading comics and watching movies. It saved him from thinking about things he didn't want to be thinking about.

"Xander?" asked a familiar voice. Xander turned around. Jonathan Levinson, from Sunnydale High, was standing near the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books.

"Hey, Jonathan. Haven't seen you since..." Xander thought for a moment. He didn't think he'd seen Jonathan since graduation, but for some reason a swimsuit calendar kept popping up in his head.

"Yeah, it's been ages," said Jonathan. "What've you been up to?"

"Work, mostly," said Xander. "I've been doing a lot of construction. How about you?"

"Oh, taking some classes at UC Sunnydale. How's Buffy and the gang?" Xander's face must have shown what he was feeling, because Jonathan said, "Oh, sorry, man. Not so good?"

"We had a falling out," Xander admitted. "Artistic differences. I've decided to embark on a solo career."

"Oh," said Jonathan. "Well, we've got a gaming group going on weekends. If you're interested, you're welcome to stop by, hang out."

"Actually, that might be kind of cool. What are you playing these days?" asked Xander.

"Mostly D&D, though we do Champions once in a while," said Jonathan. He pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket and wrote down an address.

"Here you go," he said, handing the paper to Xander. "It's Warren Mears' place. Do you know Warren?"

"The robot guy?" asked Xander, remembering the Buffybot.

"Yeah, that's him. He's amazing with electronics. And his mom's got this huge basement that she lets us use for games," Jonathan said. "Next game starts at 6:00 Friday. Come on by."



Xander didn't think he'd actually go over to Warren's house. After all, guy who built the Buffybot? Not on the top of Xander's "people I want to hang with" list. But Anya helped him change his mind.

She came home from the mall with a bag full of beauty supplies and found him sitting on the couch, watching the local news.

"Does it seem like the body count is higher than usual?" Xander asked.

"What? Oh, that's probably because Buffy left town," said Anya.

"She did?" said Xander, surprised. "When?"

"Last weekend. When her dad visited for the funeral, he offered to let her stay with them in Spain. She finally decided to take him up on the offer."

"Spain? With her dad and his secretary?"

"Yeah," said Anya. "She said, 'It'll be freaky-weird, but at least it won't be Sunnydale-weird.'"

"Huh," said Xander. He was a little hurt that Buffy hadn't told him she was leaving. Then he remembered - they weren't friends anymore.

"You need to get out," said Anya.

"What? What did I do?" asked Xander.

"Not this second. But I need alone time. I have things to put on my face and hands that will temporarily make me appear repulsive, but ultimately enhance my beauty and slow down the aging process. And I don't want you to see me when I'm repulsive. Why don't you go visit Jonathan and the perverted robot guy?"

"Anya, he built a sexbot of Buffy," said Xander.

"Oh please. Like you haven't fantasized about a sexbot of your own."

"I wouldn't - "

Anya rolled her eyes. "I didn't say you would. All I'm saying is, maybe this guy isn't so bad. And Jonathan's an okay guy. Plus, they invited you over on the very night when I need you to leave. I think you should go."

There really was no arguing with Anya-logic.



Xander had to admit, it was good to spend time with guys who were into same things he was.

"Why did the Klingon cross the road?"

He hadn't done any serious roleplaying since Jesse died. No matter how wonderful Buffy and Willow were, there were some things they just didn't get.

"To conquer the other side." There were groans.

"What does a Romulan frog use for camouflage?"

And around the Scooby gang, he was the low man on the totem. No super powers, no magic ablitity. Just this guy, you know? But here he was actually pretty cool. Not to mention the only one with a girlfriend.

"A croaking device." More groans.

"Ok, Andrew. Enough jokes. Roll your saving throw," said Warren, who was the Dungeon Master for their game.

"Ok! I'm rolling," said Andrew, rolling a 20-sided die.

Warren swore he wasn't building anymore robot women. And Jonathan and this other guy, Andrew, were pretty decent.

But the roleplaying couldn't keep his mind off the situation in Sunnydale. If Buffy was gone, who was going to protect the town? Last time, he and Willow and Oz and Cordelia had done it. Now Willow wasn't speaking to him, and the other two had left town. Xander knew he couldn't go out patrolling on his own. But who could he get to help him?

"Hey," Xander said suddenly, a thought forming. "You guys want to team up and fight evil?"



"You're what!" exclaimed Anya. "I thought you got over this hero stuff. You don't have any skills. Without Buffy, you'll get killed!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ahn," said Xander.

"Don't be stupid! I don't want you killed. I like you alive, with all your parts!" said Anya.

"It's ok. We're going to be a superhero team. I've done it before, back when Buffy ran away to L.A. for the summer. We all fought evil together, me and Willow and Oz and Cordelia. And Willow didn't know much magic back then. And this time it'll be lots better. Warren can build all kinds of evil-fighting gadgets, and Jonathan's decent with the magic, and Andrew can summon demons."

"Because that's just what Sunnydale needs. More demons," said Anya.

"Well, if he can summon demons, maybe he can make them go away, or summon demons to fight other demons. We'll work it out."

"They don't need you though. You don't have any powers," said Anya. "You can stay home with me."

"I am the voice of experience. The tactician. I have five years experience of fighting evil, and they're brand-new at it. They need me. And I don't need super powers. Batman doesn't have any," said Xander.

"Batman's not real! And besides, he's got lots and lots of money," said Anya.

"We will have money. After tomorrow." I hope, added Xander silently.

"What happens tomorrow?" asked Anya.

"I'm going to face one of my nightmares come true."



"You're sure you want to wear that suit? Because we're a few minutes early, and there's a store down the street with some great men's clothing." asked Cordelia.

"Cordy, I appreciate you arranging this meeting, but I don't need fashion advice," said Xander. Once he and the guys had decided to become a superhero team, they had realized that they would need some serious money to build Warren's gadgets. Xander had called Cordelia for financial advice, and she had offered to introduce him to someone that might be able to help.

"Okay, whatever." She pushed open the door to the office, and approached the receptionist's desk. "Hi! I'm Cordelia Chase, and this is Xander Harris. We have a three o'clock appointment with David Nabbit?"



"So this guy just gave you this money?" asked Jonathan. Back in Warren's basement, Xander explained that they now had full financial backing from billionaire David Nabbit. Jonathan and Andrew were sprawled on the couch, but this news had gotten them to pause their video game.

Xander nodded. "He set up a bank account and everything. He said we just need to let him know if we run low on funds."

"But no restrictions?" Warren asked skeptically. "He's not getting the patents on any of my inventions, is he?"

"Well, he did ask if he could stake a vamp with us sometime. But he's going to Japan for a couple of months, so we've got time to practice before we bring him out here."

"Yeah, probably be a bad idea to get our finance guy killed," said Jonathan.

"Unless he'd put us in his will," said Warren thoughtfully. The others turned to stare at him. "Kidding! Duh."

"This is so cool!" exclaimed Andrew. "It's like he's Nemo and we're the League of Extraordinary Gentleman!"

"Yeah, it kind of is," grinned Xander. "Now come on, let's go over some of the drills I showed you."

Andrew sighed dramatically. "We've been practicing all day!"

"No, we've been playing /Quake/," corrected Jonathan.

"That's practicing! Hand-eye coordination, dude!" said Andrew.

Warren groaned and leaned over from his computer desk to smack Andrew lightly on the back of the head. "You can't kill a vampire with a controller, numb-brain."

"I'll wear the puffy suit this time," offered Xander.

"Okay," sighed Andrew. "Can I try out the battle axe yet?"

"No," said the other three together.

Note: I got the Star Trek jokes from http://astro.bu.edu/~avondale/StarTrek/STHumor/STjokes.html