To the Rescue

Harmony closed her eyes as noise from upstairs started. Shouting was bad. Angry guys getting angrier was bad. Worse when you were just a helpless girl chained up in their basement.

"Go to a frat party. Meet cool college guys. Wont Cordy be jealous I was invited and not her." Harmony whined to herself.

Thr noise from upstairs was getting louder. Lots of shouting and from the sound of it things were getting physical.

She yelped when there was a huge crash and then a boys body came tumbling down the stone steps to this underground creepy dungeon. He lay in a heap at the foot of the stairs and if it wasnt for the slight groan, Harmony would have thought he was dead. Belatedly she realized that was the only noise she was hearing. All the sound from upstairs had stopped.

She waited. Holding her breath. Terrified of what was going to happen next. Someone was upstairs, someone who must have won the fight.

It felt like hours but was probably only minutes before she heard movement.

She shut her eyes tight and shivered as she heard the slow heavy clomp Of boots on the stone steps down into the dungeon. All she could do was hope whoever this frat bro fight winner was he wouldnt hurt her.

"Harmony?" A shocked voice asked.

Why did she know that voice. Daring to open an eye a crack she saw someone she knew. But not how she expected him to look.

"Xander?" She asked.

"What the hell are you doing here?" They both asked.

While he sighed and shook his head Harmony studied him. He was dressed all in black. Black boots on his feet, black cargo pants, black t shirt under a black vest army guys wore and he had a black bag hanging from his side. He even had black weapons like knives and nunchucks on his vest and belt and pockets and pouches and stuff.

"What the hell are you wearing?" She asked, confused beyond belief by him.

"Of course it's you." He let his head drop forward into his hands, "Its never easy."

"Hey!" Harmony piped up, she was going thru a traumatic event. Harmony didnt need to be belittled by Xander Harris of all people. "What the hell is going on!"

Xander sighed and straightened up, clearing his throat. "Well, it seems the frat douchebags have been naughty boys beyond holding keggers and pressuring drunk girls into sex. No, they went a step beyond normal scuminess and started dabbling in human sacrifice."

Harmony eeped. She looked from her chained hands to the middle of the weird underground room where the bad things obviously happened. Her voice wavered but she managed to node her head and say. "Oooh. Yeah. Was... I..."

"Lunch for their reptile demon god thing?" Xander asked walking to her.

Harmony nodded her head quickly.

"Probably." Xander canted his head to the side. "Although I thought this was supposed to be a virgin sacrifice."

Harmony opened her mouth to tell him to shut up but stopped when he grabbed the chains and with a jerk snapped the links free from the wall. Her outrage turned into a moan as she was able to let her arms down for the first time in almost a day. With a whimper she sank to the ground and sat down. Her arms were killing her.

Kneeling opposite her Xander grabbed the metal cuff around her left wrist and pried them open. He then grabbed the cuff around her right wrist and wrenched that one open as well. He tossed the manacles aside and looked at her. "Serious talk time, Harm, did they do anything to you? Do you need to see a Doctor or the ER or...."

Harmony just stared at her wrists. The manacles were gone. Xander had pulled the metal apart like it was nothing. Like it was taffy. Blinking she looked from her wrists to the cuffs that were now thrown to the floor. They looked like real metal. They had felt like real metal. For all her struggling earlier it had held strong like real metal.

"Harmony?" Xander asked and clapped his hands to get her to look up at him.

Staring blankly at him Harmony automatically answred, "Yes."

"Do I need to get you help?" Xander asked her. "Did they do anything to you?"

"How...." Harmony looked at his hands. They looked like normal hands. Strong man's hands but still hands. "You...."

Xander shook his head. "Right. Okay. Harm, I'm going to pick you up, okay? That's it. I'm going to pick you up and carry you to safety, okay?"

Harmony nodded distractedly. She heard him but she couldnt make her mind move from what he had done. It was not... normal.

Xander grimaced. "Just a sec. First things, y'know, first. A little something to make sure this never happens again." He reached into his black bag at his side and pulled out a bottle of liquor with a towel stuffed in it. He then set it down on the ground.

Xander then crouched next to her and got an arm under legs and the other behind her back. And with no visible effort at all Xander hefted her up into the air as he rose to his feet.

"Are you... a... uh... superhero?" Harmony eventually managed to ask as Xandwr carried her up the stone steps.

He chuckled, "Something like that."

she sucked in a deep breath and shuddered as she beheld what had happened upstairs. She couldnt make herself speak as there had to be fifteen feat guys laying all over the place beaten and bloody and the furniture was ruined and there were holes in the walls and there... Harmony **** herself to look away from the crime scene and instead at the bo- MAN- man who had saved her.

She didnt mean to but she managed to utter, "There's blood on your face."

"Occupational hazard of fighting bad guys to rescue fair damsels." He said with a cheesy superhero type voice. He contiued in his regular voice, "Don't worry, it's not mine."

Harmony jolted when he said a weird word she didnt understand. It was a word that felt... like... powerful... like it had, like, welll... she didnt know how to describe it but it was a weird word and felt weird. Her eyes widened as she suddenly noticed a dozen bottles of liquor placed around the room and all the rags stuffed in them suddenly caught on fire. But... wait... who lit them on fire? Was... no... that... it was like magic.

"Time to go." Xander said happily and carried her out of the frat house.

Harmony shook her head. She was... shock, that had to be it. She was in shock. She was seeing things. That... that had to be it.