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by Chris Kenworthy (scoobyhq@fcmail.com)
Disclaimer: If it's been on TV, I didn't make it up!
"I don't believe this," Buffy complained. "There's got to be something we're missing."
"Well, could ya tell me what it is?" Willow snapped back. "You've been here the whole time, you've been over most of the texts yourself. This is all there is on an 'Upriser.' Long-lived magician, storing up magic, power, artifacts, and favors from demonly powers for some vague 'uprising.' Nothing explains any more."
"Something has got to," Buffy growled. "The dirt on this guy has to be somewhere. We're just not looking hard enough. Or we don't have the right books..."
"That's enough!" Celia called out, neutral but commandingly. "You may be right, Buffy, but you're not saying anything helpful and you're upsetting..."
"Oh, that's okay," Willow said, brushing off what she interpreted as benevolent intervention from Celia on her behalf. "I don't take it personally... Buffy just gets grouchy when things aren't going well. I'm used to it by now."
"I'm not grouch..." Buffy started, then shook her head. "You're right. I'm annoyed, and I'm taking it out on you guys because you're handy."
"You're not the only one who's frustrated, Buffy," Oz told her. "We just don't seem to have any lead on this Upriser."
"Well, there's that vampire flunky we could try to track him down through." Everybody in the library looked up to see who had spoken. It was Leslie Decowski, who had walked into the room slightly ahead of Xander.
"Uh, which vampire flunky?" Celia asked. "And... well, excuse me, but who are you, and how do you know..."
"Leslie," she said, holding out her hand to Celia. "Oz told me a bit of stuff. Anyways, the vampire who brought the staff gizmo to the club, the one who looks like Arsenio Hall in the loud lavender suits."
"Uhhh..." Buffy considered this. "What about him? How do you know all this, anyways, Leslie?"
"I snoop, remember?" Leslie bragged, smiling cutely. "And I pester, right, Oz??" Oz shrugged with a slightly sheepish look on his face. "Anyways, I saw that guy walking around town the day after the dance. I figure we might be able to track him down again."
"Following a vampire can get dangerous," Xander warned her.
"But I could try," Buffy said pensively. "Me and Faith, maybe..." She broke off as one more person walked into the library - Cole Palmer.
"Hey, Buffy, you ready to g-go?" Cole asked nervously.
"Uh, go? Go where?" Giles asked startled.
"Umm..." Buffy hesitated for a second as she got up. "Cole and I are going out to dinner tonight." Giles's surprise showed through rounded eyes, but Buffy nodded at him to signal 'I'll go into it later.'
"Hmm, that's weird," Willow commented as Leslie idly turned the radio on Giles' desk on. "I didn't know that you guys were going out tonight! Xander and I made plans to go see another movie, right sweetie?"
"Yep," Xander confirmed, smiling over at his new sweetheart. "So, what about you guys? Leslie? Oz??" Xander was speaking chipperly, but he was actually very interested in the answer to that question... given Willow's history with Oz, Xander's new status with Willow would be considerably more secure if Oz were also dating someone else. Though he and Leslie had been seeming very friendly over the past few days, Xander didn't think they were officially seeing each other.
"Umm... I don't know if you'd call it a date," Leslie said, blushing and giggling self-consciously. "We, uh, we pretty much agreed to go for a walk together."
"Yeah," Oz agreed, his gaze straying to Willow. "Not a big deal at all."
Willow realized what was going on. "Well, after all that walking, you'll have worked up quite an appetite," she said with a studied absent tone of voice. "Maybe you should grab a bite to eat too."
Oz blinked, realizing what Willow was suggesting... that she was encouraging the idea of Oz and Leslie dating. He frowned a little bit, then nodded. "Well, maybe we might..."
"Hey," Xander's voice broke in. "Quiet, need to listen!" He was turning the radio up.
"Hi," a news announcer on the radio was saying, "this is Micheal Dell at Yano's Pizza. Some kind of dangerous flying creatures seem to have swarmed into the building, with at least a dozen people still trapped inside according to all the latest reports. Animal control is on the way, but nobody seems to know what kind of critter is causing all this trouble or what the problem is. Oh... here's one of the luckier Yano's patrons, who got out safely. Excuse me, sir, can you tell us what you saw?"
"Ohmygod," Buffy said, getting up and ready to fly into action at the sudden emergency.
"They were small, and white, and looked like they weren't all there," a teenaged-guy voice said over the radio. "Like they were one of those little skeleton mockups, you know??"
"Okay," Buffy called over to Giles. "Any idea what that could be?"
"Um..." Giles frowned, looking over at Cole.
"Oh, never mind about him," Buffy said frantically. "What's the dirt?"
"Um, it could be bonebats," Celia said, crossing over to the weapons in the book cage. "Skeletons of bats animated as a side-effect of the application of dark power. They tear the skin off of living creatures, not to feed, but for the sheer evil joy of causing pain."
"Ewww," Leslie commented.
"Yes," Giles agreed. "Their skeletonized bodies must be crushed." Celia handed out some staves, maces, and a small but extremely strong looking slingshot for Buffy.
"Cole, go home," Buffy suggested quickly. "I'll pick you up when we're done."
"Uh... no. There may be people here who need my help."
Oh-ho. This might have something to do with Cole's own secret, that Buffy hadn't quite been able to pin down yet herself. "Need your help... how?"
"If they're hurt," Cole said tersely. "Come on, we gotta move."
(In the Bronze, about an hour later.)
"Wow," Buffy breathed, somewhat dazed. The bonebats were history, and Cole had demonstrated his healing talents along the way, (though only Buffy and Willow had realized what he was doing.) "You... you just concentrated and - he was back together again! Is... is that what you did to help me?"
"Um, some of it," Cole admitted. They were relaxing in the Bronze after the fight. Willow and Xander were around somewhere, Buffy thought, and Oz and Leslie had gone for their walk.
"Well... what else?" Buffy prompted.
"You... you had lost blood, and that was something my healing talents can't correct," Cole told her. "They can't regenerate something out of nothing. So..." Cole was blushing furiously now. "S-so, I g... gave you some of m-mine."
"You what?" Buffy just stared at Cole in amazement for a second.
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