[FFML] [FIC][BtVS][SG-1][MAU] Repost: Worthless 7/?

[Gandalf The Green]

Wednesday early morning, Sunnydale High School

“Ok, so why are we examining the locker contents from the geeks in the
science club again?” Buffy asked Giles.

“Because, we need to start somewhere, and if anyone is going to try to build
an army of zombies, the Science Club and the Film Club are the two most
logical choices. If we find nothing, then, we’ll just have to think of
something else.”

Buffy opens Chris Epps locker. “Future surgeon here, but nothing to suggest
he’s in love with the undead.” Buffy closes the locker door and moves on to
the next one on the list.

Giles closes his own locker door. “There is absolutely nothing in Mr.
Fujishima’s locker. That is unusual.”

“Not really, he’s always carrying everything around with him in that big
duffle bag of his. I would have been more surprised if there was anything
actually in his locker.”

“I see. I suppose there would be no way then to remove him from
consideration.” Giles had the next locker open shortly, as did Buffy. Giles
blushed and quickly closed his, as it was mostly women’s undergarments. “I
don’t think, er, that is, Junko Asami, is um, unlikely to be our
mastermind.”

Buffy looked at Giles after he stammered more than usual. “What makes you
say that?”

“Her rather, um, intimate shall we say, um, apparel. Not much else in there
actually.”

“Well, this Miss Silber is clean as well. There’s nothing here except
textbooks.”

Giles nodded and moved to the final locker on their list. After inspecting
it, he said “Well, as Doug Masters here appears clean, I, I believe that’s
all of them for now.” Giles states as he too closes the final locker. “I, I
imagine we’ll just have to think of something else.”

 

***

USS Defiant

Dawn looked down at her sensor console. That’s certainly not right, she
thought as she ran a diagnostic on the sensor array. Two minutes later, the
diagnostic gave the array a clean bill of health.

Dawn tapped her communicator, “Dawn to Xander. I think you had better get up
here. I’ve got some sensor readings that you aren’t going to believe.”

“What do you have Dawn, I’m helping the droids install your water heater.”

Dawn thought for a moment, deciding that she really didn’t need to interrupt
his valuable work that badly, decided to explain over the comm. “I’ve got a
large mass of neutrino emissions and gravimetric distortions coming from
Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. All the readings indicate a stable wormhole
opening. According to the database, the readings are coming from below the
NORAD instillation.”

“That isn’t possible Dawn, NORAD doesn’t share their base with anyone.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know how else to explain these readings, maybe NORAD
expanded their base, but whatever the reason, there’s a wormhole opening
inside that mountain right now.”

“Alright, I’ll take a look at the sensor logs once I’m done here, keep an
eye on that area for me, and we’ll see what you and Willow can find in the
computers once she gets back from the lawyers office.”

“The wormhole just vanished.” Dawn verified the readings from her panel. “It
looks like it was a temporary, but stable, wormhole. I’ll keep an eye on the
area. This is one mystery I want to solve as well.” Dawn thought for a
moment, “Come on up as soon as you’re done, though, Defiant Out.”

 

***

Law Office of Dewey, Cheetum, and Howe

Willow, dressed in business attire, sat in the reception area of the most
reputable law firm in the Sunnydale area. They weren’t the largest, as that
dubious honor went to Wolfram & Hart. They also didn’t have the best win
record, which also went to Wolfram & Hart. What they did have, was
integrity, and the very important ability to win against even Wolfram & Hart
when they could prove things scientifically beyond a shadow of a doubt.

“Miss Rosenberg Mrs. Howe will see you now.” The receptionist indicated a
door, which willow found lead to a short hallway, at the end of which was an
open door that read Julia Ward Howe, Attorney At Law. As Willow entered the
office, an elderly woman stood from behind the desk and shook Willows hand.

“Hello Miss Rosenberg. I understand you have a problem with Principal
Snyder?”

“Yes. He suspended me after I defended myself during an attempted rape. He
also informed me that if I made a legal issue out of the matter that I would
be expelled instead of suspended. I have already filed charges with the
police against the two jocks that I hospitalized, and the police say that
they will look into it, however I am concerned that they will not do a very
good job at it, or that they will listen to whatever Snyder has to say and
take his word as fact.”

“I see, and you have reason to believe that what he has to say will not in
truth be fact?”

“I have reason to believe that he will do everything in his power to make
sure that I wind up expelled from school at the very least, and I can even
see him attempting to have the police charge me with whatever he can come up
with for hurting his precious jocks. Obviously, I wish to prevent him from
doing so.”

“I see.” After a few moments thought, Mrs. Howe continued, “Would you be
willing to give me some background information? Specifically, I would like
to know about the relevant relationships between your self and these jocks
and any other ancillary persons. Then, I think I’ll need to know about the
incident itself and anything you can tell me about what you think led up to
the incident.”

Willow gave the lawyer all the information that she had asked for, leaving
out references to Vampires, demons, magic, and of course, the MAU.

“Alright Miss Rosenberg, I’ll take your case. Do you know if the boys in
question have been released from the hospital yet?”

“No, I’m sorry, I don’t know, but I think they may be.”

“Alright, Miss Rosenberg, I will begin by interviewing the two young men who
attempted to assault you. I will wait on submitting a subpoena to the school
board until we find out what exactly Snyder’s next move is going to be.”

“In that case, I think I’ll leave you to your work, unless there are any
other questions you have for me?”

“Not right now, but if you could make arrangements with my secretary over
the next few days for an interview with Mr. Xander Harris, I’ll use his
information to add weight to the various charges we will be making.”

“I’ll ask Xander to make the appointment when I see him later today.”

“Thank you, and it was nice to meet you Miss Rosenberg. I hope you have a
pleasant day.”

With that, Willow exited the law offices.

 

***

U.S.S. Defiant, Geo-synchronous orbit over Sunnydale

Xander walked onto the bridge and asked, “Ok Dawn, what have you got on that
wormhole you found earlier?”

“Well, not much I’m afraid. The sensors did record the entire event, and
it’s definitely artificial and stable for the duration that it was open.
Given the Neutrino and anti-proton emissions, I would estimate the size
between twenty and thirty meters at the event horizon, assuming everything
we know about wormholes holds true for an atmospheric event.”

“And you’re sure that it opened inside the mountain?”

“Yes. Sensors indicate that there is a second base below NORAD, and the
wormhole opened in what appears to be the 28th sub-level. There are several
rooms that appear large enough to contain a wormhole that large.”

“Ok, so it’s possible.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling you.”

“Ok, ok, I get it. Have you been able to access their computers remotely
yet?”

“Not yet, I was waiting for Willow. She knows more about computers than I
do.”

“I doubt that Dawn. She may have known more about computers a week ago,
especially the hacking thing, but all three of the characters you got
knowledge from, all knew more about computers than Willow, and were probably
better hackers as well. You should be able to get in, copy their systems,
and get out without their even knowing that someone was there.”

“Thanks Xander, I’ll give it a shot.” Dawn began making connections to
various satellites in order to start hacking the SGC computers, and Xander
walked into his ready room so as not to disturb her. 

Ten minutes later, Dawn began downloading the SGC’s mainframe. 

 

***

Cheyenne Mountain – SGC Mess Hall – Early afternoon

Jack sat with Teal’c and Daniel, “Look, Daniel, all we’re saying is that we
want an impartial opinion. T just can’t see it from my perspective.”

“It is not that I can not see it from your perspective Colonel O’Neill, I do
not agree with your assessment of the capabilities of the two craft. The
evidence does not support your conclusions.”

“Guys, I just think that there are more important things to think about at
the moment, like where those two ships came from.” Daniel replied.

“See? That’s exactly how we got started on this argument.”

Teal’c quirked his eyebrow, then stated, “Indeed.”

“Ok, fine. Show me the data on the two ships.” After examining the data for
a few minutes, Daniel reached a decision. “I’m sorry Jack, I’ve gotta agree
with Teal’c on this one.”

“But, it’s the X-wing! A single X-wing blew up the Death Star. No other
starfighter has blown up something the size of a small moon.” Jack
complained.

“The Tie-Defender is the superior craft.”

Before the argument could go any further, “SG-1 Report to the briefing
room,” came from the loudspeaker.

As Jack, Daniel and Teal’c left the mess hall, Jack said, “I still say that
the X-wing is way cooler.”

“That may be O’Neill, however, the Tie-Defender is still the superior
craft.”

 

***

Sunnydale Junkyard – A few minutes earlier

Cyan Lightsaber blade clashed with Emerald Green as Xander taught Dawn some
of the more advanced moves that he thought she could use against the local
demons and vampires.

As they broke apart again, Xander said “good. Try that other combination
next.” And the mock battle was rejoined. Both striking and blocking with
great proficiency, Dawn delving into the Force to guide her actions, and
Xander using his chi to elevate his reaction time to compensate for Dawn’s
use of the Force.

Dawn was slightly distracted by a disturbance in the force, and Xander
tagged her with his blade. Dawn Crumpled to the ground unconscious.
Fortunately for Xander, all the blades he had designed had a stun mode to
the blades, as did Dawn’s. Moments later, Xander heard the explosion coming
from a few blocks over.

As Xander considered what to do about the latest development, he also heard
the staccato cracks of heavy machine gun fire. Xander quickly woke Dawn with
a brief nudge of a telepathic probe, the mental equivalent of knocking on
someone’s door.

“Ugh, what hit me?” she groaned as she woke up.

“A Lightsaber set on Training Mode. Sounds like some people could probably
use our help.”

Another long burst of automatic fire focused her attention and finished
waking her up as only the sounds of close combat can.

“What are we waiting around here for then? Let’s get over there and find out
what’s going on.”

Xander nodded and picked her up and flew towards the sounds of gunfire.

 

***

First National Bank of Sunnydale – A few minutes earlier

Vincent was a rather irate young man. His girlfriend of the week had turned
him into a girl a few days ago with a strange looking telephone booth. Sure,
the lesbian sex was great and all, but when he went to turn himself back
into a man he had discovered what all else it could do and forgot about
turning himself back into a man, and instead got this suit of Terminator
armor from the table-top war game he played, Warhammer 40,000. He had made
the suit capable of creating any of the other items from the game, and then
had gone to go blow off some rounds in the abandoned quarry near his home.
By the time he had arrived back at the girlfriend’s house to return himself
to his masculine form, the machine had stopped working. In a fit of rage, he
had killed his girlfriend and a few other people.

Now, he was running from the law, not that anything the military had could
put a dent in his armor short of Nuking him, but between Oregon and Mexico,
he had wanted food, and since he was out of money, and already branded a
criminal, decided that the easiest way of acquiring the money, had been to
rob a bank. Good plan that. He was working his way down the coast and it was
about 50 miles from the last bank he had robbed this morning. He was working
his way down to Mexico so he would be safe from prosecution. He was still
grumpy about being stuck in a woman’s body though.

Sunnydale seemed like a good place to stop and rob another bank, pad out his
funds a little more. It would probably be expensive to bribe some of those
Central American bureaucrats, and he had already learned the horrors of the
exploding dye pack. 

As he walked through the door to the bank without opening it, he equipped
himself with an assault cannon that immediately materialized in his hand and
shouted, “Everyone! This is a hold up! Anyone pushes a panic button, you all
die. Anyone fails to follow my instructions, you all die. Bank manager,
comes here now, everyone else puts their faces in the floor!” Slowly at
first people started to comply until Vincent let off a burst of automatic
fire into the ceiling, at which everyone dropped to the floor. The bank
manager did, slowly and fearfully, work his way over to the maniac wielding
the automatic weapon.

Once the manager arrived, Vincent told him “I want all the paper money in
the bank in a bag, I want it five minutes ago, and if when I leave, I find
any of it has been damaged by a dye pack, I’ll come back, and everyone dies.
Am I clear?”

The manager nodded emphatically, “Yes Ma’am. Very clear.” And he scurried
off to fulfill the instructions, being very careful to avoid dye packs, as
he didn’t want to wind up dead.

Inside of five minutes the manager was back with two large canvas bags that
were full of nearly all the money the bank had.

“Very good. Now then, is it safe to assume that you all want to live, and
that there are no dye packs in these bags?”

“Yes Ma’am. No dye packs.”

“Then I shall leave you all with your lives.” Vincent grabbed the two bags
from the manager and headed for the front door and felt the plink of a rifle
round bouncing off his armor. The manager was already hurrying people out
the back door when Vincent turned around and said “Someone pushed a panic
button
” and threw a grenade towards the manager and a large group of
people. That grenade, designed to take out large masses of lightly armored
opponents from 38,000 years in the future, exploded sending fragments
shredding through the bank patrons and employees. The shock wave was also
strong enough to create a large cloud of dust that went past Vincent and
billowed out into the street. A few small fires lit themselves from
explosion, and Vincent could see them through the dust cloud.

As Vincent stepped out of the bank again, and cleared the dust cloud, he
felt a few more impacts from the, now 4 squad cars, that had arrived at the
bank. Vincent let off a burst of fire from his auto-cannon and shredded one
of the squad cars and took several rounds to the armor in response.

Still having taken no damage, he shredded another cop car, and tagged one of
the officers, only 6 more to go. The police began falling back, leaving the
cars to provide some cover for their withdraw, and still popping off a few
rounds at the armored whack-job. And just where did said whack-job get a
suit of armor like that anyway, and why don’t cops have something like it by
now?

Vincent tracked the cops withdraw with his auto-cannon firing as they went.
He managed to down two more cops before he got hit in the chest by a glowing
golden ball of energy. The internal computer tracked its trajectory back to
a man and woman standing on top of a building across the street. The man
actually gathered some energy between his hands and threw another of those
energy balls at him. This time, while it didn’t hurt the armor any more than
the last one, Vincent did feel the impact, but no more seriously than
catching a medicine ball. Not wanting to see how strong those balls got, he
fired a long burst at the pair, and they ducked for cover. He went back to
looking for more cops to kill, but didn’t see where they had finally
disappeared to because of the man’s distraction. Vincent let off another
façade shredding burst at the ledge the couple was standing on.

Meanwhile, up on the roof, Xander tapped his com badge, “Xander to Defiant,
Requesting immediate back-up! I think we’ve got an MAU user down here
shooting up the bank and he’s got some heavy duty armor!” Xander pulled his
cricket phaser from his pocket and set it to maximum before popping up and
shooting the guy in armor Dawn did likewise from the other side of the roof
to force the person to split his fire between them. This way, when one of
them was forced to duck due to weapons fire, the other was free to fire. Too
bad they couldn’t use heavier weapons, but collateral damage would have been
too high. 

Willow answered the Xander’s mayday, “What do you need Xander?”

“Try to lock on to the suit of armor with the transporter and stick him in a
holding cell.”

“I’ll try.” Another burst of fire from both sides and Willow was back saying
“I can’t get a lock. Something about the armor is scattering the
transporter’s sensors.”

“Ok, send a message to Giles, Jana, and Joyce, let them know about the
situation. I want Giles up on the Defiant coordinating our efforts, but get
the other two down here and bring us some pulse phasers. I need to get close
enough to this guy to try freezing the armor psionically.”

“Alright Xander, I’ll be down as soon as I send off the messages and grab
the phaser rifles.”

Xander and Dawn were doing a fair job of keeping the guy in the suit of
Terminator armor pinned down, but Vincent was getting frustrated. He
couldn’t kill either of them, and every time he tried to take a shot at one
of them, the other shot him with some kind of laser or one of those glowing
yellow balls of energy. This was effectively a stalemate, and since he had
no backup to come rescue him, he really didn’t want to stick around any
longer than necessary to find out what kind of backup they had.

Vincent decided that it was time to leave, and to do so, he would need to
leave these interfering twits a distraction. So, Vincent conjured a
Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Las-cannons and an Assault Cannon. Speaking to
the walking tank, Vincent said, “There are two people, a man and woman, on
the roof of that building. Your job is to keep their attention as long as
possible so that I can remove myself from the field of battle. The Emperor
demands my immediate presence. Kill the Heretics if at all possible. Expect
them to receive reinforcements.”

The Dreadnought spoke with a clearly machine voice, “EVEN IN DEATH I STILL
SERVE.”

Xander heard this from his rooftop and said, “Oh, this is so not of the
good
” just before the Dreadnought fired its Las-Cannons and shot through
the wall right next to Xander. “Off the roof now! Find cover and continue
hitting them!”

Dawn obeyed immediately and jumped off the side of the building and fired
once more at the machinegun wielding whacko. She had just enough time to
ignite her Lightsaber before she had to intercept the beams from the mecha’s
Las-Cannons. Xander decided to risk the collateral damage, and charged up a
more powerful attack before loosing it at the Terminator just before it
teleported a good distance away.

“Xander to Defiant. I don’t know how, but that suit of armor just
transported about 500 yards down the street. Try getting a lock on it again.
If not, I had better start coming up with a Plan B, and I’m open to
suggestions!”

Moments later, Giles replied over the com-link, “Infernal computer still
can’t get a lock Xander. I suggest you fetch a phaser rifle from Willow then
pursue the first target. Allow the ladies to gang up on the, um, what did
Dawn call it? A, um, Mecha? With their diverse capabilities, they should be
able to divine a weakness to exploit rather rapidly.”

“Sounds good Giles, where’s Willow?”

“Computer reports that she just left the armory, so she should be either
with you or Dawn now.”

Xander looked around for Willow, and not seeing her, flew to where he knew
Dawn was from the phaser fire. He may have had to go around a few buildings,
but he didn’t take long in getting there. Willow handed him the rifle in her
hands, already set to pulse on level 16, the rifle’s maximum setting (and
most power hungry), before un-slinging another from behind her back, setting
it quickly and firing a few pulses at the mecha. “So Xander, what’s the
plan?”

“I liked Giles’ suggestion. You ladies get to play with the gear head here,
while I chase down the armored clown. Jana and Joyce should be joining you
shortly. I don’t think we need to worry any more about collateral damages,
but do try to be a little careful of civilians still in the area.”

Dawn intercepted another Las-Cannon blast with her Lightsaber and gave
Xander a kiss before throwing one of Willows Photon Grenades at the mecha.
Willow also gave him a kiss, couldn’t be left out after all. Xander, not
entirely sure what had just happened, and not knowing how to keep his
girlfriend from getting upset with him for kissing Dawn, ran away, er, flew
towards the fight he at least understood.

“You and I need to have a talk when this is over, Dawn.”

“Right now, I’d give you a kiss too, but I’m a little busy with this walking
toaster oven Willow.”

“Ok, definitely talking when this is done
” Willow said as she began
casting.

On his way after the armored suit, he passed Jana and Joyce, already in
combat gear, Jana in a Technomage Suit, and Joyce in the Green Lantern
uniform plus weapons belt. Fortunately it didn’t take him long to catch up,
as the armor didn’t seem to be able to teleport very frequently. He was
however, moving away from the bank as quickly as he could on his own. Xander
noted that he was going to pass through an empty intersection shortly, and
deciding to risk the damage to the area, charged up the largest Ki Blast he
was capable of, then waited for his target to reach the intersection before
releasing it. It hit causing a brief flash of light and a large explosion.
When Xander could see again, the armor was laying face down in an impact
ditch about a hundred feet from where he was hit. The armor looked to have
taken some damage with the entire back half covered in carbon scoring.

Inside the armor, Vincent shook off his groggy-ness at having experienced
such a strong impact explosion and checked the armor’s tell-tales. He
received several cautionary messages, but no warnings yet, so he got up,
looked around for the helicopter or jet that had fired the missile at him,
but found only Xander floating in mid air, charging up for another full
power blast. Vincent checked the charge meter on his personal teleporter,
noting that it was only at half charge and thus not available for use yet.
Vincent looked back up as he raised his Assault Cannon to fire just in time
to have his vision blocked out by the image of another of those high powered
energy balls and he was blown into another hundred foot impact ditch.

Ok, time to leave. No more messing around. He issued the command to his suit
to conjure up some transportation, and as the suit knew of only one vehicle
that was allowed to carry Terminators, it conjured up a Land Raider, a very
large tank, covered in weapons. He climbed in before Xander could let off
another of those accursed energy blasts. He grabbed the emergency controls
in the rear compartment and drove off, slowly at first, trying to get a feel
for the controls, then rapidly as he gained proficiency.

Fortunately for Xander, where he was, the Land Raider’s weapons just
couldn’t aim. He was too high and directly behind the tank, trying to kill
it, both with phaser blasts and with Ki blasts but nothing he had could put
a dent in the super-heavy tank armor. “Giles, this is Xander. You’re still
with the Defiant?”

“I am.”

“Good. Activate the emergency Command, Tactical, and Engineering holograms,
and bring the ship within weapons range. Nothing I have can hurt this tank,
so I’m going to leave it to you to track it out of town, and blow it up with
a photon torpedo.”

“I shall consult the computer and endeavor to do as you request, but are you
sure the computer can do all that?”

“That’s what the holograms are for Giles. You tell them what to do, using
normal spoken English, and they carry out the details.”

“Very well, I shall do so.” Giles closed the communications channel before
saying, “Computer activate the Emergency Command, Tactical, and Engineering
Holograms.”

As one, the three holograms appeared on the bridge near their stations, and
the command hologram spoke, “Please state the nature of the emergency.”

“We are tracking a hostile tank through the city below. We have friendly
units in the area that do not have the fire power to kill the tank and take
its single crew member into custody. We have been ordered to track the
vehicle as it leaves town and hit it with a photon torpedo once it clears
the town.”

“Understood sir.” The Command hologram said and sat down at the pilot’s
position while the tactical hologram went to the tactical station, and the
engineering hologram, predictably, went to the engineering station. 

Giles, still sitting in the captain’s chair asked, “How long until we are
within firing range?”

The tactical hologram answered, “We are technically within range now, sir,
however atmospheric entry has been known to damage torpedo guidance, and I
recommend that we reenter the Earth’s atmosphere before firing. This will
also give us a stronger lock, and less likelihood that we may miss or that
the target may be able to evade the torpedo.”

“Very well. Um, command hologram, I’m afraid I didn’t get your names.”

“That’s because we don’t have names. Typically, we are referred to by our
duties, such as ‘Doctor’ or ‘Engineer,’ however, in my case, I’m usually
referred to by the highest rank I’m permitted to emulate, which is typically
a ‘Commander.’”

“I, er, I see. Do you concur with Tactical?”

“I do.”

“Engineer, do you concur as well?”

“I do, sir. We will of course have to drop cloak to fire the torpedo, and
the cloak will not fully protect us while within the atmosphere. In
addition, we will need the main shields active in order to make atmospheric
entry. Unfortunately, the Defiant does not produce enough energy to run the
Cloaking device and the Main Shields at the same time so we will need to
enter un-cloaked as well. Also, if we go supersonic several governments
would be able to figure out generally where we are and how big we are. It
wouldn’t be enough for the technology of this era to get a weapons lock, but
they will be able to track our progress through both entry and egress from
the atmosphere.”

“How long w-would we need to have the cloak off to-to make the shot, um, all
things considered?”

“Entry will take approximately one minute, and to fire a torpedo would take
about 15 seconds.

“Tactical, what range would you prefer to fire from to give you the best
shot possible?”

“5 km above and behind would be the ideal position for an In-Atmosphere
Photon Torpedo shot.”

“Commander, can, can you make that happen, um, while exposing us to radar
a-and imaging as little as possible?”

“I can. If we wait to begin the decent until the target has left the city,
we can make the torpedo run and be cloaked again in the shortest amount of
time.”

“I see. How long do you estimate it will be before the target leaves the
city?”

Tactical responded, “Two minutes at current speed and driving patterns.”

“Alright then, unless the patterns change, then in two minutes, we will
begin entry and make the torpedo run
”

 

***

Back at the bank

Before splitting up again, in order to try to force the Dreadnaught to split
its fire between them, Willow had cast Armor of Ithan, Impervious to Energy,
and Protection from Normal Missiles on both Dawn and herself. So far, that
part of the plan was working. Too bad for them that it was the only part of
the plan that was working. Phaser fire only seemed to distract the machine,
and scratch the paint up a bit. Willow had even tried the Bloody Card and a
few of Yuri’s other toys like the Gee-M grenades, which were effective in
restraining the thing for a short time but ultimately useless as they hadn’t
really been able to capitalize on the brief moments of incapacitation.
Willow also tried the M-155 Mirage decoys, but it utterly ignored them.
Heck, even the Photon Grenades she had brought down from the Defiant had
really only tossed the thing around a bit and left big holes in the
concrete. Willow had at that point switched to magic, throwing Delayed Blast
Fireballs, Acid Balls, Cold Balls, Lightning Bolts, and then resorting to
reading the damned things aura to see if she could maybe Banish the thing,
or try to control it in some way, only thing she could really determine was
that it was already dead, but wasn’t undead, and it wasn’t animated by
either magic or psionics, which was really pissing her off because it meant
that there was some serious technology at work here besides the things
armor. 

Willow did pass all this information on to Dawn who was also working away.
While Willow was trying everything she could think of, including conjuring a
Kitchen Sink and throwing it telekinetically at the mechanical monstrosity,
Dawn was attempting to analyze the thing with one of her holo-terminals.
While the information that Willow had sent her helped her narrow down what
it wasn’t, it really didn’t help identify what exactly it was or how to stop
it, other than “Shoot it with bigger guns than they had at the moment.” The
only thing that she could think of at the moment was to attempt to turn its
own weapons against it. Dawn tried a large mirror meant to reflect lasers in
high energy experiments, but it just switched to using its Assault Cannon
instead. She had wanted to set up a program that would open tiny teleport
windows in front of its weapons and set the exit point to target the things
back, but her lab wasn’t complete enough to generate the windows that she
needed. When she had suggested it to Willow, the tactic had only been
successful once.

And just where the hell were Mom and Jana anyway?

That unfortunate moment of frustration proved to be rather painful for Dawn,
as she was struck in the shoulder by a round from the Dreadnought’s Assault
Cannon. It also proved to be unfortunate for the Dreadnought in that it was
then that Joyce and Jana arrived.

“DAWN!” Joyce screamed as she saw the spray of blood from her shoulder as
Dawn spun in mid air from the impact. Joyce, now seeing the world through a
green tinted red haze, delved deeply into her ring’s power and created a
giant hand which she used to smash the Dreadnought into the ground, then
picked it up and started to beat the pavement of the surrounding area with
the foolish machine. Once she got tired of dribbling it like a basketball,
she conjured another hand and began pulling the Dreadnought apart, limb by
robotic limb before working enough rage out of her system that she could
think clearly enough that Xander would probably want the remains, and flung
the bits, encased in a nearly solid green bubble, at the moon.

Jana, seeing that the mecha was going to be dealt with in short order, began
checking Dawn over, making sure that she was still alive and that she would
stay that way. Dawn had lost quite a bit of blood from the .75 caliber
bullet that had struck her shoulder, and as such, was rapidly entering
shock. Through her Technomage Suit, she sensed the Defiant’s entry into
Earth’s atmosphere, and tracked its general course towards their current
location. Jana quickly placed Dawn into a Medical Stasis Technomage spell,
and tapped her Com-badge, “Jana to Defiant, Two for Emergency Transport
direct to Sick Bay.” Moments later, they were both gone.

Jana and Dawn appeared in the Defiant’s tiny medical ward, and Jana quickly
lifted Dawn to one of the two bio-beds and nearly shouted at the computer
“Activate Emergency Medical Hologram!”

As the familiar image of the Doctor appeared, he began the obligatory
statement, “Please
”

“This young woman’s been shot with a large caliber bullet and is loosing too
much blood for you to finish that sentence. She is in medical stasis, but
I’m not skilled enough to hold it much longer. The bullet missed all of her
vital organs, but has shattered her shoulder blade and a good deal of skin
on her back is missing. What can I do to help?” Jana replied very rapidly
after interrupting the hologram.

The doctor grabbed a medical tricorder from its charging station and scanned
Dawn. Noting that things did indeed look grim, he activated the bio-bed’s
sterilization and stasis functions. “You may release your control on her
stasis; the Bio-bed will maintain it for the moment. Should I expect other
patients shortly, or will this be my only patient for the moment?”

“Just the one Doc,” she said as she released the spell.

“Very well. I should be able to handle this without much difficulty in that
case. I will need an assistant during the operation to repair her shoulder,
but first we must stop the bleeding and get her blood pressure back up. Do
you have any medical training?” 

“Nothing that you would consider as such.”

The doctor nodded and selected several tools from nearby cabinets and
drawers and placed them on a tray which he placed on a stand near the
bio-bed. “Very well, then I will rely on you to keep everyone who doesn’t
need to be in sickbay, out so that I can work.” He began working quickly and
with great skill in repairing the internal damage caused by the bullet,
slowly working his way from the inside out. Once he finished with the front,
the easy part, he flipped Dawn over and began working on her back.

He had only taken remote notice when his ‘assistant’ had taken a call from
what turned out to be the girl’s mother a few minutes into the operation.
The mother was apparently searching for the girl, and was relieved to
discover that she was already being tended to by the best doctor that they
had access to. He also recognized when the ship cloaked as all his systems
lost a fraction of their power to the Cloaking device. After a brief order
to the computer to override the power drain, he also discovered that almost
all the other Emergency Holograms were active and on the bridge. 

Moments earlier the Defiant had of course launched its photon torpedo at
their fleeing target and watched it impact the dense armor and detonate
spectacularly. Xander had immediately flown into the mangled wreckage in
search of life, or at least the corpse of the person at the controls.
Finding nobody in the forward compartment, Xander began searching what was
left of the rear compartment, and after lifting a large chunk of armor from
the body, he uncovered the still living but unconscious person in the suit
of armor.

“Xander to Giles, I managed to obtain a prisoner. Please beam us to the Brig
and then beam all this wreckage into a cargo hold.”

“A-alright Xander, one moment please.”

It didn’t take long for Giles to pass the order on to the Engineering
hologram that actually performed the tasks.

Once Xander and the Terminator appeared in the Brig, Xander used his
telemechanics powers to remove the suit of armor from the person inside,
discovering that it was a rather attractive woman. Xander stripped her to
the skin to make sure that she wasn’t carrying anything that could be used
to get out of the brig before placing her inside the cell and activating the
force field. He then went to the nearest replicator and had it produce a
light grey jumpsuit and undergarments for the woman. Xander deactivated the
force field only long enough to place the pile of clothing inside before
heading towards sickbay.

As he arrived, he noticed Joyce and Buffy running into his destination, so
he sped his own pace. Upon entering, he discovered a young lady with brown
hair lying on a bio-bed with most of her shoulder missing, and the two elder
Summers women being very loud and pushy and Willow teleporting in. Given the
pushiness being displayed by Joyce and Buffy, Xander could only assume that
it was Dawn who was the Bio-Bed’s occupant.

The Doctor called “Assistant.” When Jana went over to see what he needed, he
continued. “If I am to finish attempting to save this woman’s life, I need
these people out of here. I would suggest placing them in the mess hall so
that we know where to contact them once the situation changes.” He knew he
was being more than a touch melodramatic, but he needed to get these
people’s attention and leave his sickbay so he could continue to work.

Xander immediately began leading Joyce and Buffy out the door, explaining
that they were making it difficult for the doctor to do his job, which was
to save Dawn’s life. They of course wanted to stay so that they could know
instantly if and when things changed.

Xander realized that something needed to be done, as neither would go
willingly without spending quite a bit of time trying to convince them, time
which Dawn may not have as far as he knew. Xander also knew that he needed
to do something subtle and quick, as he didn’t want to fight them over this.
He quickly sent a telepathic message to Willow, I need you to cast a sleep
spell on Joyce and Buffy so we can get them out of the Doc’s way so he can
save Dawn.

Willow looked at him and returned, are you sure you know what you’re doing?

Easiest option at the moment, and I can apologize to them later. Maybe they
might even allow me to explain why I gave the order.

Willow nodded and cast her spells upon the two distraught women who rapidly
fell asleep, only to be caught by Xander and his telekinesis. Xander floated
them out the door and towards the mess hall. “Thanks Willow, Can you stay
with them, I still have more work to do because of this incident.”

“Sure Xander.”

Once Xander had the three women comfortable in the Ship’s Mess, he made his
way to the bridge.

“Giles, how’s things?”

“As, um, as I understand things, Dawn is in Critical condition in Sickbay.
Y-you have a prisoner in the Brig, and the remains of that armored vehicle
in cargo bay two. We are again in Geo-Stationary orbit above Sunnydale, and
running cloaked. I believe everyone is onboard except for Miss Chase and
Angel.”

“Good enough for now. Just so you know, I have Joyce and Buffy under a sleep
spell in the mess hall on deck three. They were giving the Doc a hard time.”
At his nod, Xander turned to the three holograms on the bridge.
“Communications please hail the Enterprise.”

Engineering, who was also handling the com-system, answered “Channel Open
sir.”

“On screen please.” Xander was met with the image of Data sitting in the
Captain’s Chair, in his impeccable uniform as always.

“What can I do for you Admiral?”

“I need the Enterprise in Earth orbit. We have some alien artifacts that
need confiscating. I knew that they could be dangerous, I just hadn’t
realized how dangerous until now.”

“The Enterprise will be there in five minutes Admiral.”

“Thank you Data.” Xander said with a feeling of true gratitude. Something
that wasn’t lost on Data. Apparently whatever was bothering the human, he
was relieved to be able to delegate this little bit of authority. “Contact
me again when you get here, I’ll have more information for you then. Defiant
Out.”

“Engineering, in Crew Quarters 3-42B you will find a piece of alien
technology that is approximately the same size as a telephone booth. I need
you to be able to determine what to scan the Earth for in order to retrieve
as many of them as we can find, or more accurately, what the Enterprise can
find.”

The engineering hologram said “Aye Sir,” and grabbed a tricorder before
heading off to the room in question, knowing that he had less than 5 minutes
to solve that question for the Admiral.

“Giles, go with him please in case he needs help operating the MAU.”

Giles nodded and followed the Hologram to deck three.

After five minutes, Xander heard, “Giles to Xander.”

“Go ahead Giles.”

“We have found a very unique power signature that is present in an active
MAU, but not in its storage mode. We’ll be able to grab any active MAUs, but
we are still working on a way to scan for MAUs in storage mode. The
Engineering Hologram believes that it may take us a while longer to figure
out a signature for the scanners to look for.”

“Good enough for a start, thanks.”

The commander spoke up at this point, “Admiral, the Enterprise has just
entered orbit, and is hailing us.”

“On Screen. Thanks for your help Data. So far all we’ve got is a power
signature for active MAUs.”

Xander, still thinking about how not to totally screw everything up at this
point, but still achieve his objective of getting the MAUs off the planet,
paused briefly before continuing, “What I need you to do is scan Earth for
the signature my ECH is sending you now. Every time you locate it, transport
the MAU to a cargo bay, and transport its potential users into a secured
cargo bay. We’ll interview them one at a time and restore them as necessary.
Anyone likely to abuse their powers and abilities already gained will have
them stripped. Be prepared to subdue and separate troublemakers. I may even
try to recruit those who cooperate.”

 

 

 

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