"An interesting name for a nice guy, but I'm not really very interested in American politics." Giles shrugged. "Now I did have a very important book about demons that I was reading."

Buffy looked confused. "Yeah, a real nice guy. He would make a good president."

Xander's neck hairs were standing on end. He remembered that phrase all too well from his purloined memories. But that catch in Buffy's heartbeat... that wasn't normal. "Giles, I think we have a more serious problem."

"Buffy's right, he's a really nice guy. He'd make a good president." Giles shrugged.

"G-Man, you're British. Why do you care if he'd make a good president?" Xander tried to interject.

"Well, he's a really... nice... guy?" Buffy shook her head. She felt like she was fighting through a fog. "Hey, that reminds me. I had a dream about him last night."

Her Watcher gave her a disproving looks. "I'm not sure I want to know."

She shot him a dirty look. "No, nothing like that. It was kind of weird. I was in this big grassland, following this primitive girl until we got to a ballroom with John Doe and some other guys in it. And then all the guys around John Doe turned into vampires. Weird, huh?" Buffy blew a bubble and popped it with a slight smile. Why did she have this weird nagging feeling about this John Doe?

Gile took of his glasses and then wiped them clean. "Well, it could be nothing... but it is possible... No, that hasn't happened in a long time." "Mind driving that by us a few more times, I think we missed the clue-bus there," the young man said while snickering.

"Slayers can have prophetic dreams. This could mean that we really must need to go to Washington D.C. to deal with a Vampire threat. I didn't think that Buffy had that talent, but maybe she's never needed it to be where she needed to be before," Giles mused. He picked up his phone and dialed a number. "I have to contact the Council about this."

"So Xander, you don't seem to like this John Doe? Any reason why?" the Slayer asked curiously.

"Yeah, he's a murdering time traveling psychopath." He wasn't smiling at all.

Buffy blinked and the turned to look at Xander. She stared at him, eyes unwavering. "He's a what?"

"He's a time traveler. That's tried to kill Superman."

"That *does* sound crazy. I mean Superman is fictional, he's not real," she pointed out.

"He doesn't exist in *our *universe. But I have memories of Superman. And of 'John Doe'."

Giles hung up his phone as he drifted back towards them both. "Well, that was an unpleasant surprise. It seems Buffy wasn't the only one that had that dream," he said as he furiously started to clean his glasses.

"Cool. The Watchers have people with prophetic dreams on top of Slayers?" Xander said brightly.

"No, we don't. Only the Slayer has prophetic dreams."

"But you just said they had someone that had a dream like mine?" Buffy asked, very confused looking.

"That's because they said they have another Slayer. Her name is Kendra."

"But I'm the Vampire Slayer?" Now she was beginning to be upset. "What about the One Called and all that crap?"

Giles shot a worried look. "They think she was called after the Master Vampire killed you."

The Vampire Slayer paled at that. "Because I was dead? But because I was revived...?"

"Another Slayer was called. The Council has decided to send Kendra there to deal with the threat of any vampires attempting to take over the American  Presidency," Giles said as he sat down on his lounge chair.

"Um, G-Man, I hadn't finished. We need to go to Washington D.C. to save everyone *from* John Doe, not go there to protect John Doe. He's a threat. With a Capital 'T'." Xander raised an eyebrow.

"And how did you come to this amazing conclusion?" the Watcher asked dubiously.

"Because his name is actually Tempest and he's tried to kill Superman. He's a time traveling megalomaniac." Xander suddenly shuddered. "Just the thought of him becoming a soulless vampire gives me really bad heebie-jeebies."

"But he's a nice guy. He'd make a good president!" Giles countered.

Buffy blinked. Then blinked again. "Giles, why are you repeating that? You don't know this guy. Heck, *I *don't know this guy and... I was saying
that?" She whipped back around to Xander. "Mind control?"

"And vampires. Do we really want vampires to get a hold of a super advanced mind control device?" he said, looking back and forth between the Slayer and
the Watcher.

"Well, no. I guess Buffy and I will have to go to D.C. and help this new slayer," the older man said dubiously.

"I need to go," Xander said as a stubborn look appeared on his face.

"Out of the question. Beyond the fact that I could only swing two tickets, you are a normal person and involving you would bring up unpleasant repercussions with the Council. They would look very dimly about someone who is not supposed to know about vampires being dragged into a dangerous situation!" Gile sat back into his seat with his arms folded across his chest.

"So do you have something to say?" Buffy asked as she sat on the edge of her seat.

He shot her an appraising look. Xander pursed his lips, inhaled and then sighed. "I don't really, well, generally qualify as normal any more."

Giles look looked at Xander in surprise.

The young man stood up and walked over to Giles' loaded crossbow and removed the bolt from in and twirled it in his right hand. "Normal stake-em crossbow
bolts, righto?" At Giles' confused response Xander put his left hand on the coffee table and then slammed the crossbow bolt down on top of his hand. The
bolt shattered into toothpicks.

"Xander! Hold on, I'll get a medical... kit?" Giles stopped on his move across the room. "I am not seeing blood."

"Nope, no blood," Buffy agreed. She took Xander's hand and checked it out. "No scratch either."

"Halloween, um, left a present. I'm no Superman... yet. But I'm strong and tough and *very* fast." Xander gave one of his trademarked loopy grins. "Cool but scary, all in one package."

"And that's why you think you need to go deal with this John Doe?" the Watcher exclaimed.

"And the fact that I know who he is and that he's tried this before. Got some doohickey that controls minds through subliminal messages in satellite TV  broadcasts," he explained as he sat down.

"But he's a nice guy," Giles exclaimed.

"Giles... how about you get those tickets to D.C. so we can go and help this new Slayer, okay?" Buffy said in a temporizing tone.

"Well, I suppose so. They really don't have any rules for two active Slayers," Giles said.

"Come on, Xander, let me walk you home. It's pretty dark now," she said as she nodded. "So we'll be leaving tomorrow?"

"Yes, bright and early," Giles said in a distracted tone even as he picked up the phone number.

She ushered Xander outside and started walking down the road past one of Sunnydale's many cemeteries. "So that's what mind control feels like?"

Xander gave her an appraising look. "I guess so, it didn't work on me. So, you aren't planning on going to D.C. with Giles, are you?"

"I think a mind-controlled Watcher at my back is not the way to go, boyo!"

"So what are you going to do with him?"

"Tie him up and call Willow to free him when we get there," she said with a sunny smile.

"Why how treacherous, Ms. Summers!"

"Why thank you, Mr. Harris!"

Xander shook his head as he exited the airplane. "Man, security is so lax now."

"Now? When have you been to New York," Buffy asked as she shaded her eyes. She had a pair of sunglasses on her and sensible jeans and t-shirt combo
going on.

"So where to now?" Xander asked as he quickly changed the subject quickly. That was a *Jesse* memory. "I'm kinda new to this super-hero gig thing."

Buffy had a flashback to her latest dream from last night. "A fancy ballroom. I think I saw the president there."

"So, you think it's at the White House? That is, uh, very public. I mean * mondo* public. And guys with guns," he replied.

"You do have a point. Taking out a very public figure is not my idea of fun." She gave him a new smile suddenly. A dangerous smile.

"You have an idea. I don't think I'm going to like this, am I?" he said bemusedly.

"You go find where some sort of transmitter that he could have added his widget. I'll handle getting us the stuff. Luckily, Giles had most of the funds for the trip in cash. We'll meet at the hotel later?" she asked nonchalantly. Fun! Shopping!

"Fine. We'll meet at sundown." Xander had a couple of hundred dollars for taxi fare.

Willow stared at Giles, who was very trussed up. "She really wasn't joking." She pulled the gag away from the Watcher's mouth. "Why would Buffy tie you up and take off like that? Her mom is going to blow up!"

"Because she thinks that she needs to stop John Doe, instead of protecting the nice guy!" Giles exclaimed. "Now, could you finish untying me so I can make a few calls to deal with a rogue slayer?" He was very livid, Ripper lurking just below the surface.

"Oh, right." Willow winced. It looks like Buffy was going to be getting it from multiple directions.

Buffy stared at the television in the department store as she watched the news show that everyone in the area was watching. The subliminal message grated just below her awareness, but she was capable of fighting it off. She wondered if it were a Slayer power that Giles had forgotten to tell her about?

"Wow, I would never have thought that Gore would be caught up in something like that. I mean *three* prostitutes? And then the television news showing up? And all he can say is 'he just felt like it'? That's some chutzpah, I tell you," an older man that sounded like he was from Boston said as he shook his head.

"Oh, look. There's President Clinton." They waited as the President of the United States announced that he would be appointing John Doe as his new Vice
President, whom he felt was a really nice guy and very qualified. "Yup. That John Doe sure is a nice guy!" everyone but Buffy chirped like lemmings.

"Oh, look-at-the-time-got-to-go. Could you ring me up?" Buffy asked the woman behind the counter.

"Ah, here it is. Looks bigger than Superman described it," Xander said to himself. He was on top of the NBC satellite array in Washington D.C. and looking at a large box that was attached to the transmitter. It was amazing what taxi drivers knew. It had only taken him about an hour to find the location he needed.

"Hey! You! Get away from that!" a voice called out from behind him.

Xander turned to see a couple of security guards coming over to him with handguns out. He raised his hands, so they get closer. "Whoa! Don't want to get shot here! I'm just looking. Didn't even touch!"

Just as they got outside of reach, Xander and his hands blurred forward in stunning slaps that knocked both of them silly. A second slap knocked them totally unconscious. "Well, that worked better than I thought it would." Xander ripped the Subliminator out and jumped off the roof of the building and ran off faster than anyone could follow into a wooded area. He jogged for another ten miles to the hotel with the Subliminator wrapped up in his jacket. "Oh, Honey! I'm home!" he yelled out in his best Ricky Martin impression.

"So what type of demon are you, mon?" a sultry female voice asked.

Xander blinked and looked at the dark-haired woman. "Who are you and what are you doing in my room? Not that I mind really hot chicks in my room. I'm
just hoping that I'm not going to get beat up."

"This is Giles' room, is it not? That he shares with *Buffy *Summers?" she asked right back. She reached under her jacket to pull out a wicked looking dagger.

"Now hold on. No need to get *too* hasty. Did Giles mention the Mind Control? With a capital M and C? And the threat that someone want to take over the United States?" he replied, even as he held onto the large bulky mass of the Subiliminator. It was about three hundred pounds, but she probably wouldn't be expecting that.

"Is that what that annoying buzzing from de tele is, mon?" the new Slayer asked with narrow eyes.

"Flicker on the TV, buzzing high-pitched noise?"

Kendra relaxed slightly. "That still does not explain why you don't feel human. What are you, mon?"

"Just got super powers from a chaos god on Halloween."

"Sorry? Are all American's as... different as you?"

Xander set down the Subliminator on the floor. Kendra frowned as she heard the floor creak under its weight. Xander cocked his head sideways and thought hard for a second. "You know, I guess I'm a one of a kind now."

The door slammed open. "Xander! John Doe is being made Vice President and I really think we need to stop him!" Buffy screeched to a halt. "Who are you?"

"I am Kendra... the Vampire Slayer!"

"So exactly why are we here?" Xander asked in the evening as a light snow was starting to fall. Across Pennsylvania Ave stood the White House.

"Because we dreamed it. We *have* to stop the Vampires tonight. There's a big party going on-" Buffy was going along.

"And those four guys don't have heartbeats," her friend interrupted. He was looking at a group of dressed up guys being led up to the entrance.

"Nice ears, mon. So de vampires have shown. That does not deal with de problem of de Secret Service, innocents and de press," Kendra said. She
glared at Buffy. "I still do not like having to leave my Watcher behind."

"Mind controlled guy with a crossbow at your back? Again, what are the good points of that?" Buffy rebuffed her problem vocally.

"Puh-lease! We need to work together. Ah... damn it," Xander said suddenly. "He's got a heavy bulge in his right-hand suit pocket."

"So?" the first Slayer asked. "I've got a cunning plan. Where this!" Buffy tossed the other two plastic-wrapped packages.

"What's this?" Xander asked.

"It's a T-shirt," she proclaimed loudly.

"This is a cunning plan?" he asked dubiously. He opened up the package and pulled out the shirt. "No way. I'm not wearing that. I'm no way nowhere worthy to wear that shield." He gripped the Superman T-shirt tightly.

"I thought de American holiday where you dress up was last week, mon?" Kendra asked, holding up her own T-shirt. The Batman logo was world famous. "This is silly. We will save de Presidency and stop the vampires without a silly costume."

"It's not silly. We wear the shirts and masks and defeat the badguys and go home and not have the government gunning for us. Everyone thinks its some weird gag except the people actually in the room!"

"Okay. I see where you are going at. I'll even wear the shirt. But I *can't*go in there first. I think Tempus has Kryptonite," the young man explained
grimly. "Uh oh. The vampires are heading over to Tempus."

Tempus was shaking hands and nodding like *he* was already president of the United States. He was in a corner, making everyone else come to him to hobnob. Which he would be in just days.

"Mr. John Doe?" a guff voice asked. "We understand you have some interesting technology?"

Tempus turned around to see a group of four very pale fellows. "Oh? Really? And who mentioned that little tidbit?" He seemed to be a bit angry for some reason and had his right hand in his suit pocket.

"You, amscray!" a tough looking blond said to one of the politicians that was hanging around Tempus.

"Do you know who I am?" the senator said, pulling himself up to his full height.

The blond's face morphed into his game-face and he snarled. "You want to die?"

The senator answered by fainting dead away. Tempus looked shocked. He turned to the first vampire. "What are you?" he said in a shocked whisper.

"Your death, if you don't come with us," the third one said.

And that was when a short blonde in a Batgirl T-shirt and a Zorro-like mask kicked in the terrace doors. She had a grin on her face and pointed her right hand right at the vampire. "Let that really nice guy go! I won't let you hurt him!"

Tempus sighed. Well at least his mind control seemed to be working. In a patented scared and high-pitched voice, he called out, "Save me!"

Two of the thugs moved towards Buffy, while the nearest one killed a fast-reacting Secret Serviceman in one blow.

"Who do you think you are, girly?" the blond that had threatened the senator asked. His large and bald friend was watching her intently, but seemed to have nothing to say.

"I'm Batgirl!" she chirped. She shifted her weight to her right foot, letting the fist wiz past her cheek. The vampire was so surprised that she easily grabbed his arm and threw him across a banquet table, shattering it.

Big, quiet and quite bald tried to smash her when it looked like she was distracted. He was startled when the very small blonde girl grabbed his double hammer-fist, kicked his right knee hard enough to break it and then judo tossed him towards the door where he skidded to a halt.

"This is stupid, mon," Kendra snarled, even as she staked the fallen vampire and turned him to dust.

"Doug!" the blond shouted, even as he stood up. "You bitch! I'm going to rip your head off!" he snarled, his face contorting into a nightmare.

"Come, vampire! Be slayed!" she said with a dark look.

"What are you, stupid? You aren't the Slayer!" he yelled out furiously.

She sent a stake whirling through the air and into his surprised chest.

"Yes. I am." She turned to the last two vampires that were looking a bit worried. The Secret Service was busy evacuating everyone else while pointing guns at everyone. "What the hell is going on?!" a black serviceman named Charles shouted.

Tempus popped open the metal case and held it up, showing a green rock. "So, you have super powers. Superman follows me even here!" he said in a deadly
calm voice.

Buffy theatrically collapsed with a 'no' on her lips. Kendra just gave her a very strange look.

Temps then spoke up, "Why that woman is very dangerous! I think you'd better put her under arrest!"

"But what about these two guys?" Charles called out, his gun never wavering.

"Just a momentary disagreement. I'm sure we can come to an arrangement." The rogue time traveler gave the leader of the small vampire group a stare. "Right boys?"

The two vampires shared a quick look. "Right."

He then shrugged from of the look, even as the shocked vampire slayer found herself at the business end of far too many guns for her comfort. Tempus kicked the Batgirl in her ribs. "How the mighty have fallen," he said with a nasty smile on his face.

"Funny, I thought that was my line?" Buffy replied, even as her left foot kicked out and knocked the lead box with the Kryptonite in it and into her hand. She snapped the case close and scissor-kicked him, dropping him to the ground while rolled to her own feet, just as a Xander smashed through the bulletproof glass like it was a Hollywood stunt prop make of sugar.

"Oh, you have to be shitting me. A masked Superman?" the beefier looking vampire complained loudly.

"I'm just a super-cadet," Xander said with a cocky grin. "Okay. Vampires on the left and too many guns on the right. I'll take the guns!" He then charged   towards the secret servicemen still in the room, making himself an obliging target. Pistols and machine pistols roared, knocking him slightly aside but *nothing* else until he slammed into the nearest gunman and slapped his gun away, breaking several fingers.

Kendra moved, even as Buffy followed her, charging the two remaining vampires in unison. "So you want to die?" the final thug yelled out.

His boss noticed an eerie unified method in their movements. They were too fast for humans. The both reminded him of his one unfortunate encounter with
the Vampire Slayer over two decades ago. The Batgirl pulled a stake from her back pocket and suddenly the thug was dust as he became too confused about
who to dodge.

"Slayers. That isn't *possible!*" he shouted, even as he turned to run. Both Slayers threw their stakes, but Buffy's flew more true. Only dust hit the ground.

Then the two Slayers turned to see something they hadn't thought possible. They were stronger, tougher and just all around better than most of the
vampires they faced, but they had a slightly hard time following the blue-shirted blur that was dispatching guards as humanely as possible.

"Ladies, I think we have overstayed our welcome," Xander said with a grin. He turned to Tempus. "I want the remote for the Subliminator."

"Who are you? How do you know about that?" Tempus shouted.

"I'm a super cadet. And as for knowing that... that's *magic*!" Xander stared at him coldly, eye to eye and only fifteen feet away. "We don't want you here. We've got enough problems without you mucking up our world. Tempus."

"This is my world!" Tempus snarled back. "You just don't know it yet!" With that, he activated his recall control and disappeared.

"And... he gets away. Let's book, people!"

Buffy had waited for their tickets to arrive, so they had a day to wander around DC. After they had deprogrammed everyone using the Subliminator, Washington had reverted to its normal situation it seemed.

They were in the Lincoln Memorial, staring up at one of the greatest presidents of the United States. "You know, he really did want freedom for everyone individually. We owe him a lot."

Buffy nodded absently. She had told her mom that she'd run off to go camping and got stuck. She feared she was going to be grounded for life. "Uh huh."

"Earth to Buffy?" Xander said, grinning. Then his face turned sober. "Buffy, I need you to do me a big favor."

"What?" she asked warily. The last time he dropped something on her, she ended up in *this *mess.

"I need you to be my Batman. Well, Batgirl, actually."

"I'm not getting the joke, Xander." She just shook her head. He could be a bit clueless and hard to follow at times.

"I need you to keep that Kryptonite safe... in case you need to use it," he said seriously. "It's probably the only chunk of that rock on the planet. Which means its the only thing that will be able to stop me in a few months." He raised his arms as if he was drinking in the wintery sunlight. "My super powers are still growing. In just about six months, I'm going to be able to fly. In a year, I'll have heat vision and it'll take a nuke to hurt me. And you probably couldn't hit me with one. They would be too slow."

"So why do you need me to be 'Batgirl' then?" she asked curiously.

"In the comics, Batman has one of the few pieces of Kryptonite, to be used to stop Superman if he becomes a threat to the world." He continued to stare
off into the sky.

"Xander, you wouldn't hurt anyone. You're really a nice guy."

"And what if someone mind controls me? Or I get possessed by a demon?" her snapped back. "Sorry," he sighed. "But you are the only one I can trust with
this."

"You are asking me to kill you!"

"No, I'm asking to do everything in your power to stop me. I'd really hope that killing me is a last resort actually. Us people with super powers heal pretty quick. According to Jesse's memories, he knew that he could potentially regrow limbs if he needed to. So don't be afraid to hurt me if it comes down to it," he said  simply.

"I don't know. Why not give it to the Watchers?" she replied.

"Because I don't really trust them. Do you?"

"No, that Wesley guy is kinda creepy and Kendra... she's too slayerish, if you catch my drift. Too much into being the Slayer."

"That's why. I overheard parts of Giles' conversation with the Watcher Council... and they didn't want to let him know about Kendra or that she even existed. He wasn't in the need to know and they told him that they didn't trust you. You weren't raised by the Watchers... and that spooks them."

Buffy nodded suddenly. "I'll do it. I'll even keep the T-shirt and mask. Just in case."

"Thanks!" Xander suddenly grinned. "Man, did you see the look on Kendra's face when that wanted posted showed up with her face on it? She's on the FBI's top most wanted, even if they only have her picture."

"I told her she should have worn a mask!"