polgara_5 | Day 3 - Suspicion?

Title: Suspicion?

Fandom: BtVS/MCU

Word Count: 864

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, settings, or fandoms. They are the property of their respective creators and companies.

Summary: Now there's a portal, more questions, and even more slayers on the way.

A/N: Follows yesterday's Paranoid?

Buffy resisted the urge to scream as she saw a portal open up over Stark Tower. She should have known that this was going to be the location of the slayer dreams, but she had never seen a portal this big or hovering in the sky before. The damn thing had been hovering in the background for the last month and Steve's gaze would stray to it from time to time.

Steve. Her other mystery, one she still hadn't solved, but she felt she should have. They had been sharing lunch on a fairly regular basis over the last two weeks, and she had had the opportunity to get to know her maybe stalker. She decided he wasn't evil unless he was a better liar than what she had pegged him for. He seemed to be honest to a fault with so much of what he was feeling laying bare on his handsome face.

For the first time since she had noticed him over three weeks before, he wasn't at the cafe that morning. Odd because of the timing and that he had purposely mentioned that he would see her tomorrow, or rather today. Now there was a portal over a tower that he seemed to have a mild obsession with, him with the strange coincidences was missing, and slayer dreams were coming to a head.

Okay, so he did mention that he had gone to art school at one point and it could just be practice on the newest building. One that just happened to house Iron Man, who just happened to feature in the slayer's dreams, that just so happened to be the beacon point for a damn portal containing who knew what. This was more than a damn coincidence. What it all meant she wasn't sure, but she was fairly certain that her read on Steve had been a positive one. As suspicious as these circumstances were, there was no way he was the cause of them.

Buffy closed her eyes and took a deep cleansing breath to recenter herself. When her hazel eyes opened she saw figures flying out of the portal. No, not flying, riding something. Great. Aliens. How was this her life?

Her hand automatically went to her back pocket and pulled out her little used cellphone. It seemed to take forever to go through the unlocking process but she soon had Willow on the line.

“It's happening now,” she declared without bothering to say hello. “I still don't know anything about that blue glowing cube, but there are aliens flying out of a portal above Stark Tower. Like, a lot of them.”

“I would come help, but I'm stuck in Stuttgart trying to figure out what was happening here last night. We know Iron Man was here, but there have been some strange reports of magic that we're trying to track down.”

Buffy took a moment to chew on her lower lip as she quickly formulated a plan. “Chances are Iron Man is going to get involved, I mean, how can he not? Plus that mysterious organization that seems to crop up whenever things get a little weird. Do you have time to send out an alert to all the local slayers and the ones we've been shipping in over the last week?”

“That I can do!” Willow said, her voice clearly showing how happy that there was a way she could help. “What should it contain?”

“Tomeet me at the Chrysler Building and come prepared to fight. I don't know what's going to work on these things so a variety of weapons might be helpful.”

“I'll get them there. If we can get this wrapped up quickly, I'll try to get the rest of us there, too,” Willow promised.

Buffy took another long look at the sky and the amount of figures flying out of it. Then overhead she heard a familiar whine and saw Iron Man fly towards his tower. That was a plus, since it meant he was at least aware of what was happening. “I have a feeling this isn't going to be over fast. It might even be best if you head here even if the fighting is finished.”

“That bad?”

“You have no idea. Love to you guys.”

“Love you,” Willow said softly before hanging up. Just a few seconds later, Buffy's phone pinged with the message the witch had sent out.

The tiny blonde began her own quick trek towards the meeting point, hampered slightly by the crowds fleeing in understandable panic. There were times when she nearly wished she had the same privilege, but it just wasn't in her genetic makeup.

For a brief moment she had a horrible thought that perhaps this was her fault. She and her friends had upset the balance between good and evil in their dimension by activating all of the potentials. This could be a direct, albeit delayed, result from their meddling. However she doubted that even the Powers That Be could call down aliens to reset the balance.

Now to see if she could stop her first alien invasion.