2,939Xander considered his options. He could leave now, pack his car and hit the road, but he still had a bit of hope that his friends would be back in time to see him off and Sunnydale was the one place he was sure he could get his hands on actual spellbooks after Miss White's demonstration of magic that did something other than just make things worse... he really wanted to learn about it.
A flash of red crossed the intersection in the blink of an eye and Xander found himself grinning as he realized something... with all the vampires going the way of the dodo there were going to be a lot of empty and undefended lairs and from what he'd seen, vampires tended to be collectors.
Of course, what they collected tended to be something of a toss up, but when they collected things they went whole hog. "Now, who with a pulse would know the location of vampire lairs and what they collect?" Xander asked himself as he made a turn without thinking about it and realized where his subconscious was directing him. "Willy's, of course that weasel would know."
Xander parked his car in front of Willy's bar, which was closed as it was still really early. Willy had told them he was leaving before the ascension, even showed a couple of suitcases, but Xander didn't believe him. Just the fact that Willy had a couple of suitcases ready seemed like a setup to him.
Xander pounded on the door to the bar. "Hey Willy, open up!"
It only took a couple of minutes before the weasel of a man answered the door. "Kid, will you stop that?! You're making enough racket to wake the dead."
Xander grinned, pleased he was right before pushing past Willy and into the closed down bar. "We got business to discuss and since I don't have the Slayer with me you'll know it involves cash and not fists."
"And suddenly I'm happy to see you," he said with a wide smile as he closed and barred the door. "Now, what can old Willy do for you and more important, how much does it pay?"
"A reasonable amount up front and then probably a fortune for you depending on how fast you move on what I tell you," Xander replied.
"I've heard that before," Willy said, shaking his head. "Get rich quick schemes are usually get poor quickly."
Xander nodded. "I hear ya. Now, how much would it cost to get the location of a vampire lair where there is a bunch of magic primers and such?"
"Some dame break your heart, kid?" Willy asked with a wince. "Raiding a vamp lair by yourself is a good way to get killed and then get me killed by your little friends."
"Just give me a price for the address then listen to what I have to say," Xander told him.
Willy shrugged. "Five hundred," he said, high balling it out of habit only to stare in shock as Harris laid out a stack of twenties on his counter. "Shit!"
Xander chuckled. "The Mayor's ascension attracted the Superfriends, Superman and Flash are currently dusting every single vamp in town. All the lairs are free for the taking."
"You're joking... you aren't joking," Willy said, wide eyed.
"The faster you move on this, the more you'll make," Xander told him. "Still think it's suicide for me to hit a vamp nest?"
"No kid, I think you got it handled as long as you're careful," Willy said, his eyes lighting up. "This is worth a lot more than an address..." He scooped the money off the counter and pocketed it. "Ignore that."
Xander burst out laughing. "So, address?"
Willy quickly wrote down an address on a bar napkin. "Closed down frat house on the edge of campus. The vamp in charge of the nest is a blonde, name of Sunday. She likes to style herself as a bit of an intellectual since she just feeds off the college crowd. Can't do a lick of magic, not even any mind tricks, but is a solid master in strength with five vamps under her. None of them are fledges but they ain't masters either."
Xander blinked, surprised at how much information Willy was willingly giving.
Willy just grinned. "Kid, you have just made me and any of my extended family I can get ahold of very rich, I can afford to be generous with information that is about to be worthless anyway. Plus if you get burned on this, I get burned on this."
"That is a very good point," Xander admitted.
"Exactly," Willy said, "so please listen to whatever survival instincts you may conceivably have and be careful. Draw Supe's attention to the building by muttering you think there may be vampires in the building and let him do a flyby before going in yourself. Closest threat to the frat is a fyarl nest about a block away. That closed down crematorium is where they lair and since they aren't vampires they may not be on the burn list, pardon the pun."
"Fyarl," Xander said with a slow nod, trying to remember what he knew about them.
Willy sighed and took out a notepad. "Fyarls are human sized, horns, grayish skin, takes silver to really affect them, and they shoot their snot like they think they're Spider-man. Lemon juice dissolves it easy, strange as that is." He tore off the page and passed it to him. "Be safe, kid. For my sake if not your own."
"For your sake I'll try," Xander promised him as he was escorted to the door. "Thanks for the help and the advice."
"No kid, thank you," Willy said with a pleased smile as he shut the door.
Xander got back in his car and smiled at the purr of the engine as it started up. "Definitely need those books," he said to himself, deciding to head towards the nearest supermarket, because knowing his luck he was going to end up needing a lot of lemon juice.
Fifteen Minutes Later
Xander just stared in disbelief. He'd decided to drive past the crematorium to make sure the fyarls weren't making a beeline for the lair he wanted to loot, because Harris Luck, and instead he found half a dozen soldiers in civilian paintball gear fighting them with taser rifles and not doing so hot, two of their number already snotted to the pavement.
He didn't hesitate, slamming on the breaks and leaping out of the car, a silver candelabra in one hand and a bag full of plastic lemons in the other. He was quite sure he was the strangest rescue attempt they'd ever see.
Xander dropped the bag when he got close and snatched up a plastic lemon, ripping off the plastic stem with his teeth before throwing it like a grenade at one of the soldiers who's feet were cemented to the ground.
The soldier flinched back, thinking it was a grenade but his eyes lit up when the spilled juice started dissolving his bonds and quickly snatched it up, squirting the entire thing over his feet while a similar lemon-grenade landed near the other soldier in the same position who quickly followed suit.
Xander noted how the demons were stunned by the blasters and took several seconds to recover and called out, "Friendly incoming!" before entering the scrum and using the candelabra to down each fyarl after they were zapped.
In less than a minute all the demons were all down and the soldiers stared around them in disbelief for a moment before one made a hand sign towards another.
"I said I was friendly," Xander said on seeing it. "Anyone have a silver blade or maybe an axe? This isn't going to keep them down forever."
"Shit," one cursed quietly as they all quickly produced chains and secured a pair of them.
"We don't have anything made of silver," one of them admitted, "or any heavy bladed weapons."
Xander sighed and smacked one of the demons in the head who looked like he was stirring. "Then we need someone with gloves to crush their skulls with this," he said, holding up the dented candelabra.
"Why gloves?" the soldier asked.
"You don't want to get any of their blood on you, because you risk picking up some of their traits," Xander replied.
"Give it to me," a large black soldier said, "I can hammer one of the arms into a point and stab them through the ear."
"Good idea," Xander said, passing it over.
"How did you know?" the first soldier asked.
"Fyarls are well known as are their weaknesses," Xander told him, not revealing that he'd needed Willy to remind him of things that Willow or Giles had probably told him before, possibly multiple times.
"And you just happen to have... lemon grenades and a silver candelabra?" the soldier asked doubtfully.
"No, I'm looting a vamp nest about a block from here and they're the closest threat to it, so I wanted to come prepared," Xander said with a shrug.
"You plan on hitting a nest on your own?"
"No, Flash and Superman are doing a sweep and clear so I'm looking to steal all the books they've stolen after they're dusted," Xander explained.
"That makes more sense," the soldier admitted. "Not going to ask any questions?" he said after a few moments as they listened to the one soldier pound on the candelabra with a rock while another went to get a vehicle.
"Nope," Xander said. "Don't feel like spending hours signing NDAs so the less I know the happier we'll all be."
The soldier chuckled before offering a hand. "Riley Finn."
Xander shook it. "Xander Harris."
"Any way I can contact you in case my bosses do require an NDA?" Riley asked. "Or, and this is more likely, so I can pick your brain on something we're facing?"
"I'm about to go out of town for the summer, but if you got half an hour I'm pretty sure at least one of the books I'm planning on grabbing should have a list of common demons and their weaknesses," Xander offered.
"Really?" Riley asked. "That'd be a godsend."
Xander nodded. "Demonic bestiaries are pretty common and this vamp was a collector, I'd be shocked if they didn't have a couple of books you should read."
"Thank God, I'm tired of going into this blind," Riley said as they ignored the squelching noise of a soldier piercing demonic brains with a makeshift weapon.
"Two months of training-" Xander began.
"-two minutes of terror," Riley finished.
"Oorah," they chorused in deadpan, then laughed.
"You in?" Riley asked, brushing a hand through his short sandy blonde hair.
"Nope, just Sunnydale weirdness," Xander said. "Don't ask, it's just another strange event in a life filled with them."
A black SUV pulled up and the two demons were loaded up.
"That's the last of them," the black soldier said, wiping the mutilated candelabra on the grass to get the demonic gray matter off of it.
"Keep it," Xander told him when he offered it back, "you might need to medicate the two you've got before you get to... wherever."
"This is like five pounds of silver," he said with a frown.
"Your lives are worth a lot more than that," Xander said. "You can melt it down and coat some knives with it later, just in case."
"Thanks man, good lookin out," the soldier said with a smile before pounding fists with him.
"Area's clean... as we can make it," one of the soldiers told Riley glancing at the slowly melting demonic corpses.
"Grab the plastic bag I dropped over there," Xander said, waving to the grass, "it's filled with containers of lemon juice, just in case."
"Lemon juice dissolves their snot?" Riley asked in disbelief.
Xander shrugged. "Demons," he said. "I can't tell you why it does, just that it does."
"I'll see you guys back at... home," Riley said. "If they ask, I'm getting contact information and seeing what he knows."
"Got it, boss," one of the soldiers said with a fake New York accent before they quickly piled in the SUV and left.
"My car's over here," Xander said, waving for Riley to follow him.
Riley looked in the back seat as he was getting in. "Why do you have so many silver candelabras? They must have cost a fortune."
"Broke up a vampire ritual a while back and the entire place burned down, so I went over it with a metal detector and collected a bunch today," Xander said as he started up the car. "I knew I needed silver, so..."
"Wish we were half as prepared," Riley said.
Xander winced as he pulled away from the curb. "Avoid saying the 'W' word, there are demons who can use that to monkey paw you."
"Please tell me you're joking," Riley begged with a groan.
"I... 'W' word," Xander replied as they turned the corner.
"So... how did you learn so much about them?" Riley asked.
"Vampires turned my best friend, been hunting and killing them ever since with side missions of killing other things trying to murder or eat people or let other nasty things into our world," Xander replied, keeping to vague explanations. "Turns out the Mayor of Sunnydale was a Warlock who built our quaint little hellhole to feed people to demons until he could turn into one himself."
"Was? Already taken care of?" Riley guessed.
"Couple of hours ago," Xander said, "which is why we have superheroes in town... and why I now know Superheroes are a thing outside of comic books."
"How did you not know?" Riley asked as they pulled up in front of a boarded up frat house.
"The Mayor cast a spell that kept people from realizing they were real, or at least I figure it was him. I'm going to blame him regardless," Xander said, trying to sound like it was a reasonable decision. "Anyway, since I've never lived anywhere else..."
"You only knew superheroes existed in comic books," Riley said. "Man, that's got to be a mind blower."
"Yeah, it really is," Xander agreed. "It's like someone telling me Santa Claus is real."
Riley just looked at him.
"You're fucking with me," Xander said.
"I'm not," Riley replied.
"That's a bigger mind blower than superheroes," Xander said.
Riley shrugged. "It is what it is. Sorry, man."
Xander took a deep breath and let it out. "I've got a lot of research to do, but that's for later. Head in the game, Xander."
Riley just waited for him to get over his minor freakout, not really surprised that it hit him that hard as he'd gone through something similar when they were debriefed about the supernatural world.
Xander cleared his throat and then said loudly, "I wonder if Superman cleared that old frat house of vampires. We should check it out."
A blue blur suddenly turned into the man of steel, vanished inside, and then reappeared out the front door before launching himself into the sky and vanishing.
"I think it's clear now," Xander told Riley.
"You adapt fast," the soldier said, staring at him in shock.
"If I didn't, I'd be dead," Xander told him with a shrug. "Now, let's go fill out your Xmas list of demon's who's who."
Tying By: Abyssal Angel
Beta By: Abyssal Angel and Mist of Shadows
TN: I nearly laughed myself sick when Dogbert showed me a comic of santa fucking with Darkseid to prove that Santa is in DC.