A burst of green shattered the slayer’s window and headed straight for Sinestro. He'd heard flesh part beneath the knife Buffy had used and his normally pale skin had gone a ghostly shade of white.

Damn the slayer for her impetuousness! She was worse than him when it came to sticking to a plan.

Spike had forgotten the ring, but the ring hadn’t forgotten him. He flew towards Sinestro, arm drawn back and ready to strike. The green power ring acted as a boost to his already tremendous strength and speed. Sinestro might be great at a “stand back and shoot holes in his enemies” fight, but getting up close and personal seemed to scare the alien.

A giant hand grew out of his ring, almost before he knew what he wanted, and wrapped around the yellow one slowly choking the life out of the slayer. Digit by digit, the yellow hand came lose, until Buffy dropped to the ground coughing and sputtering and trying to suck in some much-needed air. Seeing that she was relatively okay, Spike drew back his free hand and with a ferocious growl, hauled off and hit Sinestro in the face. Sinestro’s body left an awkward hole as he flew through the wall and crashed into the adjacent building. Then Spike was flying too, sailing through the window, intent on finishing the guy off.

Forgetting completely that Hawkgirl wanted a piece of him too. And would take it – with or without his consent.

~*~

Superman closed with Savage, the two super strong beings landing blows so ferocious that just the sounds coming from them had normal people covering their ears. Batman however stepped into place behind the ancient villain and reached into his utility belt and pulled out a batarang with a line attached to it. A quick throw, and the line was around Savage’s legs; the caped crusader handed the line off to a recovering Buffy, who, after recovering her breath, had raced out of the apartment to join the mêlée.

Even as Vandal knocked Superman through a wall, Buffy flexed her upper body and jerked the line tight, immobilizing him. Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter swooped in together and landed simultaneous punches to his temples knocking the “Immortal” ass over teakettle. When he finally stopped, he was out cold.

~*~

Spike pulled up short and wasn’t sure if he was ticked off or impressed as he spied Hawkgirl battling Sinestro, her battle cries ringing loudly as she rained down blow upon blow on the guy. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of his grandsire hidden in the shadows, and seeing things here were well in hand – at least for the time being – flew down towards the other vampire to await his turn. The sun was just starting to set, so it would be a few minutes yet before Angel could participate in the fun being had.

"Almost wish they were a figment of our imagination," Angel grumbled, eyeing the proceedings with a bit of longing.

"Too right that," Spike agreed. He’d gotten in one good hit and was now reduced to watching the battle like a common spectator.

He didn’t even get a chance to see Shayera batted away before he felt then saw a long yellow sword sticking out of his chest.

“Ow?” Spike asked Angel.

“In two days, I have killed two Green Lanterns,” Sinestro roared out in triumph.

Spike and Angel shared bewildered looks. Spike wasn’t even wearing a mask; couldn't the guy see that he was a vampire?

“Do I look dead to you, mate?” Spike asked in a conversational aside to his grandsire.

“I’ll have to go with a ‘no’ on this one,” Angel smirked, reminiscent of his Angelus days. Spike couldn’t help the reluctant grin that tugged at the corners of his lips. Leave it to Angel to state the obvious in such a droll tone.

“But, I... and the yellow,” Sinestro babbled, as he wiggled his yellow sword in Green Latern’s chest for emphasis. Then he remembered that he was an evil super villain and tried to act the part. “You should be dead. I skewered you with my sword!” he practically bellowed.

Spike glanced down and sure enough the yellow sword was still there, embedded in his chest. It did hurt, but it was no worse than Angelus had done to him in the past. Finally, he took pity on his arch nemesis.

“I’m a vampire, you git. Knife ain’t gonna do nothing but get me in the mood. We like a bit of rough and tumble.”

He looked up to see Shayera circling above him, angry scowl on her face, nowhere near finished with her prey. So he yanked the knife out of his chest with a green hand and then backhanded Sinestro back into the air towards Hawkgirl.

“Have fun, luv.”

“Think Buffy'll make us some popcorn,” Angel asked hopefully as the two settled in to watch the Thangarian throttle the slim male garbed in yellow.

Even as they watched, Hawkgirl threw the almost lifeless body of the alien towards the ground. Following him down in a modified stoop, she landed, legs straddling his back. Not close to being finished yet, she grabbed him by the hair of his head and began beating his face against the asphalt.

Sinestro fought to regain at least his knees and perhaps throw the woman off, but the Thangarian warrior drove the heel of her boot down onto his hand to hold him in place.

Hawkgirl was in a mindless rage, but not to the point that she didn’t remember to pull out the small dagger secreted on her body and slicing off the finger that contained Sinestro’s power source. The metal made a dull thunk as it came loose from the severed digit and fell to the ground. She stretched over the prone body beneath her and snagged the ring. Tucked it in a hidden pocket on her costume before she brushed her fingers across her chest and activated the JLU transporter.

“Guess that’s my cue,” Spike remarked to the group. Buffy and the others had come to join both him and Angel while they waited for Hawkgirl to finish.

“Spike...” Buffy began, then hesitated.

“I know, luv. He’s human now. Not my place to mete out his sentence.”

“That’s alright, Spike,” Batman interjected. “We’ve got just the facility necessary to house Sinestro.” He turned away and spoke quietly into his comm link.

“Aquaman? Is our temporary cell ready for Sinestro?”

“Temporary?” Buffy asked, not liking the sound of letting a killer go free.

“Sinestro is a former Green Lantern,” Shayera informed the slayer. “And he’s killed several others. Someone will have to accompany him back to OA, the homeworld of the Green Lanterns, and bring him before their mentors, The Guardians.”

“Ooohhh! Road trip!” Buffy practically squealed.

Batman hung his head, already imagining the upheaval the slayer was going to cause back at the station.

“I want to come too,” Angel whined.

“Sorry, Gramps. This here’s a Justice League matter. Only way you can come along is if you were a sidekick. Part of the team, yeah?”

“Sidekick? I'll show you sidekick,” Angel growled and shot off after Spike. The sun had set – which was a good thing, because Angel hadn’t hesitated in pursuing Spike and would have been a pile of dust after having only taken a few steps.

Buffy rolled her eyes at the vampires’ antics. “Kids! What’re you gonna do?”

Spike ran directly towards a wall letting Angel close quickly with him; it served the poofter right not remembering that he had never been able to catch Spike before. At the last possible second Spike allowed the ring to slide him through the wall. Bricks actually fell on the inside as Angel ran full force into it. Spike took to the air and flew back through the wall, hovering about twenty feet above ground.

“Sidekick in a pink tutu,” Spike informed his grandsire with a laugh as he flew back to join the league.

“Is there any way to separate them?” Batman asked, eyeing with trepidation the two vampires racing back their way.

“Probably not,” Buffy sighed. Though she had to admit it was pretty funny seeing Spike flying low to the ground with Angel trying to jump up and snatch him out of the sky every few yards. The look on Angel’s face was priceless; he looked like he was in a ballistic rage. And she realized why when she caught a soundbite of “pink tutu” and how it would “bring out the shape to Angel’s backside.”

“Guess I better stop this before it gets out of hand,” Superman commented, ever the diplomat.

“Good luck with that,” Buffy remarked.

“Well, if nothing else works, I can always put them in a cryogenic state with my breath until we get where we need to go. They should wake up no worse for wear.”

Buffy eyed Superman dubiously. “Yeah, uh, right and that won’t piss those two off at all.”

This got a low laugh from the newly returned Shayera. “Why don’t you let Buffy and I try?”

Hawkgirl stepped a little closer to the mad twosome and asked, “Angel, did you see where I dropped my mace?” She smiled almost kindly as the larger vamp quit what he was doing suddenly and began looking for the weapon.

“Did you bring it back from the Watchtower?” Superman asked helpfully.

“No, but he doesn’t need to know that,” she whispered quietly over his shoulder as Angel became totally engrossed in finding her weapon.

Buffy took the more direct approach. She walked up to Spike as he landed before her and kissed him.

~*~*~*~*~

Dawn sat fiddling with the various controls. She had world wide digital satellite, with literally ten thousand stations – and there was nothing on. “What do you guys do for fun around here?” she asked the scarlet speedster. At his leer she shook her head and grinned. “You do know Spike wasn’t joking... right? If he ever found out that you have kissed me? You die slowly.”

“I'm willing to take that chance, sweetheart,” he told her with an over-exaggerated leer, complete with eyebrow wiggle. Dawn couldn’t help but laugh at his antics. When he moved in closer, she held up her hand to his chest, stopping his forward progress.

"Uh uh, Slick. I’ve a rule: no kissing men in masks."

“I’m cute. Make an exception,” Wally cajoled. He leaned in, lips puckered and ready. And found himself flung away.

Dawn shook herself out of her daze as her lips encountered nothing but air.

“Spike,” she whined.

Only it wasn’t the vampire that had flung aside the person who was to have given her her first kiss. No. It was annoying big sister Buffy that was to blame.

“She’s seventeen,” Buffy told the speedster. “And I’m guessing doing time for statutory might get you booted out of the League?”

“Uhhhhmmmmm…” Wally stalled, thinking quickly.

“Of course, I could just let Spike drain you?” Buffy went on with a saccharin-sweet smile.

Again Wally’s mind was in high gear. “Uhhhhmmmm... yeah…”

And he was gone in a blink.

“Dammit, Buffy! What did you do that for? It was just a kiss! Might I remind you that—”

Her words were cut off by Buffy’s hands across her mouth. But Dawn had made her point.

“Can I help it if I want you to remain my baby sister for a while yet?”

“I’m almost eighteen. A legal adult.”

“Well act like one!”

“I was trying to,” Dawn sassed back.

“Ooohhh! You talk to her, Spike.”

Buffy threw up her hands and stalked away.

“You know,” Shayera commented as she joined Buffy outside in the hallway, “girls on my home world are married with children of their own at her age.”

“La la la la la,” Buffy sing-songed, hands over her ears. “So not listening.”

Hawkgirl laughed, the first real laugh since John had died. “Come on. Let me show you around. Introduce you to a few people.”

~*~

“What?” Dawn almost screamed at Spike as he walked up smirking.

“You really like the git?” Spike asked as he took a seat next to her on the couch.

“Yes!” Dawn was beyond pissed. “He’s… nice. Funny.” She paused for a minute before adding quietly. “And he gets the whole ‘not normal’ thing.”

“Hmmm, your birthday is what, three months away?” Spike continued at her nod. “Then how about I bloody invite him to come along with me to your birthday party?”

“Right...” Dawn rolled her eyes. “Like I believe you for one second.”

“I’m just gonna talk to him, Bit. Set the record straight.”

Dawn arched one brow in a good imitation of the vampire and waited. And waited. Spike tried to out glare her, but it was a losing battle. The Summers women were immune to it.

“Suppose you can do worse than a bloody Leaguer,” he relented.

“Thank you, Spike.” And to prove that she wasn’t a complete bitch, gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Now come on. The Flash has been showing me about. This place is really cool. Xander is gonna be soooo jealous when I tell him about it.”

Spike suddenly smirked. “We could take a picture. Me, you, and the slayer. Would make the Whelp’s head explode with envy."

Dawn giggled back at him as she stood up.

~*~*~*~*~

Angel was in heaven. Hawkgirl might not like him, but he had found that Wonder Woman greatly admired a man like him. The two had been talking since he had gotten to the space station, and damn – the woman was hot.

Little did he realize that she was just listening to him because she was trying to make Batman jealous for siding with Spike earlier. Then there was the fact that he and Spike didn't get along all that well. The enemy of the enemy…

He was also given a tour of the facility but most of the gadgets went right over his head; he suspected that Fred would take a shine to the place. He’d have to ask Superman if a visit could be arranged. And speaking of the Man of Steel, he wanted to get his input on the inner workings of Wolfram and Hart, see if there was a way to actually make the law firm work for the side of good.

Superman, of course, referred him to Batman, the tactician of the group. Of all of the heroes in the League, the Bat family was the one most known by the demon world.

Angel nodded and said he’d talk with the man. In truth, any help would be appreciated at this point.

~*~*~*~*~

After the tours were over, the group reconvened in the prep room. They took seats at the round table and got down to the business of dealing with their Sinestro situation.

In the end, it was decided that Dawn would stay in Rome with a few members of the Justice League keeping a low-profile surveillance on the girl while Buffy went with Spike, Angel, and several others to take Sinestro to OA.

The only thing the slayer needed to do was place a call to Giles, informing him that she’d be unavailable for some time – though she didn’t tell him why. She was still pissed at him for causing the problem in the first place. He’d always been like a father to her, but with this latest episode, he’d been a true watcher. Or a true Quentin Travers. Ready to sacrifice her for the greater good.

Right now, she wasn’t sure quite what to think. Or how to feel. She’d put on a brave front for the others – Spike included – letting them think that this latest episode was nothing more than her life gone “wonky.” Slayer luck, as it were.

When the others had dispersed, she’d sought solitude in one of the many “quiet rooms” located on the space station. She sat in one of the over-sized chairs and stared out the huge window at the stars and reflected on what she wanted to do with her life… especially now that Spike was back in it.

Buffy wasn’t that surprised when Shayera sat next to her some time later. After a rocky start, the two had formed a friendship of sorts. Hawkgirl was like none of the others she’d met; she was blunt and outspoken. And Shayera had dealt with her share of hardships, just like her.

“I am surprised you are going with us,” Shayera commented after a time. “I thought that Earthers were more modest than that?”

Buffy looked at her a moment. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean the communal showers, all of us sleeping in one large dorm room.” The Thangarian tried to keep her face straight at Buffy’s horrified look. “Our ship is only so big, you know. And we’ll be traveling for quite some time.

“But, but...” Buffy babbled. Her eyes narrowed after a minute as Shayera began to laugh. “You're teasing me.”

“Yes, I am. But, you have to admit, I almost had you.”

“Ha, ha... very funny.”

“I thought so.”

“Well, you wouldn’t if you had to share a house with twenty girls and four males and only one bathroom for all of us.”

Shayera cringed. “What happened?”

“It was a Hellmouth thing. Potentials were coming in by the truckload and showing up at my place. Not a fun time, let me tell you.”

“Doesn’t sound like it. Was that when—”

“Yeah,” Buffy replied quietly. Then she took a deep breath and shook off the unhappy thoughts.

Spike was back with her now, and would remain so - darned if he wouldn’t. No Justice League or whatever was going to keep her from her man, er... vamp.

And speaking of, there was a little matter of a reunion they’d yet to have. She stood and spoke into her comm.

“Spike? You there?”

“Yeah, pet.”

There were groans and laughs aplenty from the members of the Justice League that heard every word of what Buffy told Spike she planned on doing to him, just as soon as they were alone together.



So brings the end of our JLU crossover silly!fic. ^_~