|
|
by Chris Kenworthy (scoobyhq@fcmail.com)
Disclaimer: I didn't come up with the characters of Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Oz, Faith... and so by copyright laws I do not own them. :-(
"Hi, Buffy?" Cole Palmer said, as he walked over to her. "Co--"
"Cole Palmer, yeah," Buffy said, smiling a little.
"Thanks for the reading; it was pretty good."
"Better than what I had to say in the discussion, at least," Buffy said, coloring slightly.
"Hey, you did well enough. Considering that you're in a strange class, you what, probably haven't read the play in a while, right?"
Buffy stifled a giggle at that. She had never read Hamlet, but didn't see any need to tell Cole that.
"You've got a pretty smile, do you know that?"
Buffy's face fell. Was this just Cole's pleasant nature, or something more? "Yeah, I've heard. So, you and Cordy are going to the masquerade togeter?"
"Uh, yeah," Cole said. "She asked me, and you know, she's good people." His face quirked. "Some of the time, at least."
This time, Buffy did laugh. Something about Cole's expression reminded her of her own first impressions of Cordelia Chase. "Are you going?"
"Huh?" Buffy said. "Uh, well, I'm not sure. No date."
"Ooh," Cole smiled at her again. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have let Cordy catch me so easily!" He laughed merrily.
"Uh, yeah, okay." Something about this was making Buffy uncomfortable. "I'll see you, Cole." She headed off, and suddenly noticed a note with her books that she hadn't realized was there. Unfolding it, she found out it was from Mister Patterson, and read: 'Sorry about that trick I played on you, but I was hoping you'd find the class enjoyable. I enjoyed having you in my class last year, even though you may not have enjoyed having me for a teacher. There's room in senior advanced next term for you if you want to take it.'
Buffy shook her head. This day kept getting stranger and stranger.
(Back in the library.)
"So," Willow asked as she started connecting her laptop to the hard drive unit Buffy had retrieved from the dojo, "What do you know about this Brotherhood of the bat?"
"Um," Giles paused to collect his thoughts. "There are four full members; they tend to gather supporting numbers in each new town as the need arises, such as this incident in the Dojo, possibly. Have been working together as a team for something a little over forty years, and apparently none of them are even a hundred years old. They're quite strong, though, and have each mastered the ability to shape-change instantly at will into a bat or a wolf. They're very canny and have perpetrated several remarkable schemes in their pursuit of power, normally financial or magical power."
"Wow," Willow said absently as she booted up the computer.
"Oh, and according to reports," Faith continued where Giles left off, "each of them has an added specialty that they bring to the team. Psychic awareness, modern weapons technology, electronic engineering, and military ops." The thought seemed to bring a trace of a smile to the Slayer's lips. "You don't see many vampire outfits this well organized. Which is a good thing for our side."
"Any clue yet what they're doing here in Sunnydale?" Willow asked.
"No," Celia said.
"We don't know jack," Faith said. "All we can do is patrol more and hope we find these guys in the middle of Step 2."
"Well, we know their credit card number," Willow remarked absently. The three others quickly gathered around the computer screen. "Thomas Jones, Robert Doe, Harry Smith, and James Black signed up for the late Tae Kwon Do class yesterday, all paying on the same credit card."
"Those names sound fake to me," Faith remarked.
"Yeah, and..." Willow peered at the sceen more closely. "So's 378 Sycamore, the address they gave. Sycamore only goes up to 250."
"So, we any better off now?" Faith asked.
"Hmm, maybe," Willow said, the familiar expression of computer concentration crossing her face. "If Mastercard hasn't changed their security protocols lately, we can see exactly what else the Brotherhood of the Bat has been charging on the same card."
"That's illegal hacking and invasion of privacy, isn't it?" Celia pronounced it as 'Prih-vuh-see.'
"Umm," Willow considered. "I probably shouldn't answer that one until I'm done."
"What??"
"We, em, don't exactly confine ourselves to the letter of the law in these investigations," Giles told her sheepishly. "There is an unspoken don't-ask-don't-tell policy we usually follow."
"Bingo!" Faith called out. "Boy, there's some interesting stuff on here. Four hundred dollars for 'antiques' at Randy's kung fu clearinghouse in Monterey, one-twenty for liquid by-products at Chop Shop Butcher's... isn't that the one right beside the Alibi room?"
"Uh, yeah, maybe," Willow hazarded.
"I wonder if we could rough some better facts out of the butcher?"
"What butcher?" Buffy asked as she swung into the huddle.
"The one at chop shop, down by Willie's bar."
"Hmm, I dunno," Buffy said. "He's the stubborn and silent type. What would we be wanting him to tell us, anyways?"
"About the brotherhood of the bat," Willow supplied. "They bought some blood from him day before yesterday."
"I don't figure these guys for staying off of the locals," Buffy pointed out. "That buy was probably a one-time contingency supply, just in case they have some bad hunting or get too busy with whatever else they're planning. Which means they won't be coming in again and I doubt they gave the butcher an address."
"Yeah, I know, B," Faith sighed. "But all this secrecy is getting me antsy. It'd help even to talk to someone who's seen these Brothers, here in town, I mean."
Willow hooked up the printer and started printing out the credit card bill. She didn't particularly pay attention to the $480 charge for pre-owned jewelry, from Oceanside auction in Hullston, Oregon.
Click here to go to the fanfic discussion board.
Go back to Tales of the Scooby Gang.
Or click here to return to the Destinies Lost homepage.
|
|
|
|
