Ordinary Heroes

Yet another series I'm working on for Crossovers100 on Live Journal. Again, this one will update eventually, but not on any timetable. Overall this story will be rated R or higher but these first bits aren't.

Title: Ordinary Heroes ~ Beginnings
Claim: Xander Harris
Author: Amejisuto
Prompt: Beginnings
Fandom: Buffy tVS/DC Universe
Pairing: None yet, eventual Xander Harris/Dick Grayson
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer:Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.
Warnings/Squicks: Language
Summary: Xander leaves Sunnydale after Graduation to try to find his purpose.
Written for Crossovers100.
Beta'd by the wonderful Kitty Poker1. Thank you dearest!


Notes: I have a fondness of heroes who are totally human. Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and of course, Batman. When Buffy came around I of course fell in love with Xander. He was everything I identified with: goofy, a bit clumsy, a geek, but underneath it all was a kid who really just wanted to help his friends save the world. Yes, he has flaws, but in the end who doesn't? The episode The Zeppo showed me that Xander could be so much more than the Zeppo. He had the talent to really do good if anyone took the time to work with him.

That idea morphed into something else. Every hero needs someone behind the mask to help him out from time to time. Zorro had Bernardo, Hercules had Iolaus, and Batman had Alfred.

And if Batman can train Nightwing and Robin to follow in his footsteps, why can't Alfred have his own apprentice?

So that's what the plot bunny for Ordinary Heroes is about. You Buffyverse people, if you have any questions about the DC characters I will do my best to answer you. The same for your Batfans out there. I am a multifandom geek that knows just way too much.

This is not set at any certain point in the Batman time line. That I'm pretty much warping to my own needs. This does start right after Season Three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While this will be based mostly around Xander and eventually Dick, I will be dragging other character pairings in eventually. Because really, Bats without Flash is just plain wrong.

So, that's just half of the story behind this bit of insanity of mine. This will be updated off and on, but I will be working on it. Because it's in my brain! Plus it gives me an excuse to dig out my old graphic novels and read them all again. Hope y'all enjoy!

Ordinary Heroes ~ Beginnings

Xander sighed as he looked out of the window on the bus. His luck sucked, even away from the Hellmouth. Why else would his car blow up in such a spectacular manner just over an hour away from home? He had tried to find work in Oxnard but the only place he could really find was this dive of a strip joint and there was no way he was going to do that. Besides, it would have taken him months to save up enough money to fix the car.

Instead he sold it to a junkyard. Despite the engine being a total piece of shit, the rest of the car was in pretty good condition and he got over $3000. More than enough to keep him going for a good long time. He could have bought a new clunker but he didn't really trust them. Instead he paid out some cash in Los Angeles for a few more weapons and a good first aid kit, took out everything but the absolute essentials in his duffel bag and, carrying that and a backpack, he bought a ticket on the first bus heading east.

Xander did call Willow, though, and what he wasn't taking with him had been left in a locker for her and Oz to pick up when the Dingoes went to play in LA during the summer. Another fifty bucks had gone for a pre-paid cell phone, but that was mainly to keep Willow happy. Xander knew if he ran into trouble there wouldn't be any cavalry there to back him up.

But that was kind of the point of this trip. He knew for a fact that he was able to take care of himself; that night with Jack the Zombie proved it. But the gang, well, they still saw him as the weak link. Just because he was a normal human and didn't have any special powers didn't mean he wasn't able to fight. Okay, so he wasn't all that great most of the time, but he was starting to get the hang of it. As long as he didn't think too much, his inner soldier could totally kick some ass.

Problem was, he ended up thinking way too much and usually tripped over his own feet. And his muscles didn't remember what that weird part of his brain was trying to say. Hopefully, though, with practice, he could get all his brain bits and his body working together and he'd be good to go. Oh, he wouldn't be as strong or as fast as Buffy but it was better than ending up a Lunchable.

He still winced at the thought of what had happened at Graduation, though. All those people dead that were under his “command”. Harmony, Terri, Julie...Larry. Seeing Larry killed was going to stay with him for a very long time.

Which made this trip even more important. It wasn't just about getting out of Sunnydale, although that was a damn good reason on its own. No, it was about figuring out what he wanted to do with his life. Who he wanted to be. Xander had never had the cash for college but, despite his joking, he had the grades to go. They just weren't good enough for a full scholarship or even to buy books and there was no way his parents would help him out.

Hopefully, a nice cross country trip would help him figure out what he really wanted to do with his life. He wanted to be more than just the guy flipping burgers or delivering pizza. Xander had been considering one of those technical colleges for a while but the whole Zeppo tag still bothered him. It was probably best that he get out of the shadow of super-strong little girls and people whose brains were huge, if just for a little while.

So he was on a bus, driving through the desert. And it could be worse. For one thing, it was still daylight when he left so he was pretty sure none of his fellow passengers were going to have him for a midnight snack, although the guy in the Star City baseball hat was kind of weird looking. He had enough money to get him all the way out to the East Coast but had just bought a ticket to Texas. He had always wanted good Tex-Mex food and not the crappy Taco Bell stuff he was used to. From there he'd figure out where to go, although the twin cities of Keystone and Central City sounded nice.

Besides, there was a whole world out there to explore. For all its vampire and demon problems, Sunnydale was quaint. The fact that the former Mayor was an evil version of Ward Cleaver probably had something to do with it. For all the people who disappeared mysteriously, during the day Sunnydale was, for the most part, safe, predictable and totally boring.

When buying his ticket he'd been tempted to buy one for Coast City now that it was being rebuilt. He and Jesse used to save newspaper articles of every Green Lantern sighting and keep them in a scrapbook under Jesse's bed. That all stopped once Jesse died. For one, the book was thrown away after Jesse had “run away”. Then there was the fact that Xander had been incredibly bitter that the Cape set didn't seem to care about vampires and the like.

It took a long time for him to understand that not only were the big name heroes not perfect, but for the most part vampires worked in secret. It was only in weird places like Sunnydale that demons made a big production out of themselves and, with the exception of the town's newspaper having a big obit page, the deaths in Sunnydale never got mentioned. How would the big names like Superman even know about it if no one talked about it?

Maybe he could head for New York City. That place was used to getting kids from all across the States looking for the meaning of life. And hey, he could always say he was an aspiring actor, even if he'd rather die than get on a stage again.

Xander scooted down in his seat and dug an old book out of his backpack. Yeah, he was definitely going to head for the East Coast. After spending some time in Texas.

He really wanted a real, honest to god taco, one that didn't have a talking dog promoting the restaurant.

*****

Two Months Later...

Xander walked down the street quickly, making sure to keep a firm hold of his backpack. Normally this time of year he would have been out trying to scrape together enough money for clothes but this year-this year he was in the famous Gotham City.

He found that he kind of liked Gotham. Okay, the crime rate was higher than Star City, Detroit and Metropolis put together, despite the fact that Batman swung around town by night. Still it had a kind of dark ambiance that he sort of found attractive, but that could have been because he had hung out in way too many graveyards back home in Sunnydale.

His bus ride had been fun but he was tired of traveling. After a while it felt like he was riding on a bus even when he wasn't. So he figured Gotham was just as good as New York and if he changed his mind it wasn't that far from New York.

And things were going well, so far. Sure, he was staying down at the Y, just until he had enough for an apartment or a room to rent. So far he'd only seen a few minion vamps, and he'd taken care of three of them. He had a job unloading fish every morning down at the pier and, while it wasn't the safest or the nicest smelling job, he got paid damned good money for it. It left him plenty of time to explore the city.

He'd even gotten a clue as to a possible job idea, one that he could do in every day life. Other than the demon hunting, that is. He was doing pretty well on that score. During his time on the bus there had been a wreck and there were no paramedics or ambulances nearby. He'd ended up getting off the bus and letting it leave without him while he used every bit of his meager first aid kit and what he and a few other people had scavenged from cars.

He'd managed to help three people with minor cuts, bruising and concussions. After taking care of himself and Giles a few times, that had been a breeze. But then there had been one little girl with her leg trapped in a car and one guy whose tool box had been open in the back who had gotten a screwdriver through his arm.

And Xander had felt really good helping them. He wasn't great at it but he knew more than anyone else there at the crash. One of the local members of the Cape Squad had even said he'd done a good job when he came to help and then rushed the little girl to the hospital so she wouldn't lose her leg. It had been interesting, to say the least. The guy hadn't acted like he was a bigwig or special; he was just a guy who ran really fast.

Despite being stranded in the middle of nowhere, that had been a great day. After that he'd managed to hitch a ride into Keystone with one of the local paramedics and they'd talked. Being a paramedic was sometimes dangerous and didn't pay as well as it could but Xander thought it might be perfect for him. Ever since not being able to save Jesse he'd been filled with this need to do more. That's why he’d followed Buffy around. He figured if he wasn't fighting the demons he might as well be just as bad off. After all, a lot of innocent people were killed in Sunnydale every day. He might as well make a difference.

So today he was off to one of the public libraries. He figured if he was going to be hanging around Gotham awhile he could get a library card and maybe get on the Internet long enough to find out what he'd need to do to become a paramedic. Of course, his luck being what it was, he'd gotten a bit lost looking for the main branch but he'd stopped at a coffee shop and gotten directions. Willow and Buffy would have been so proud.

He was about four blocks from the Library now. Maybe he should get a map of the city and actually try to learn the landmarks before exploring more than just the areas around the docks, the Farmer's Market and the Y he was staying at.

Just then, he noticed a commotion across the street. A lady down the block was screaming about a purse and there was a guy running away. Xander rolled his eyes. It looked like something out of a cop show. He watched as the guy kept getting closer but no one on the crowded street stopped him.

In a way, it was a surprise. Yeah, this was Gotham, the big bad city. But he would have thought that in a city with so many of the cape-and-tights set running around the normal people would step up and do something. Apparently not.

There was a break in traffic and before he knew it he was crossing the street. Xander laughed at himself; Angelus had been right that time in the hospital: he did have a white knight complex. Except instead of shiny armor he had old jeans and a tee-shirt. Well, at least he'd left the Hawaiian ones behind.

Xander managed to make it across the street and into a doorway before the purse-snatcher reached it. From there it was too easy; he waited until the guy was almost there and stuck out his foot.

Of course, on TV they didn't say how badly it hurt when a 160-something pound guy hit your leg while he was running full out. “OWW! Dammit!!” The guy had fallen to the ground and Xander decided that, since he was about to fall, he might as well fall on him. He tried to look graceful as he sat on the guy but he figured it didn't matter if a few strangers saw his ass.

The guy struggled and Xander bounced once. “I hope you know that purse clashes way too much with what you're wearing. You're just going to have to give it back.”

People were walking around them, acting as if a guy sitting on someone who was struggling happened everyday and they might as well ignore it. Who knows? Maybe it did. Then a kid ran up, out of breath, and saw Xander and started laughing.

“Oh my god, that is too funny! Did you get the purse?”

“Yep, got it right here.” Xander held it up. It was red and small and looked like something Buffy would use when not trying to hide her stakes.

The kid pulled something out of a pocket and tied the mugger's hands behind his back and then gave Xander a hand up. “The local beat cop should be here in a second. That was a good thing you did.”

“Thanks. I'm from a small town and helped in the local Community Watch type organization. I was kinda surprised no one else stopped.”

“Yeah, well, that's Gotham for you.” The kid shrugged. “I'm Tim Drake. Sorry your visit to the city was ruined by petty crime.”

“Xander, Xander Harris. And that's okay. Besides, I'm thinking of moving here. I figure if I stay long enough I'll even get to see Batman and Robin.”

Tim smirked. “In this city, you just never know.”


The End of the Beginning.