Erica McKenzie walked down the street toward her car, smiling

happily to herself about her cool find.

It was 3 days till Halloween and she had managed to find the

most cool costume 'granted I'll have to make a few modifications to it

in the chest area, but I've got a chainmalle halter that will do just

the trick' she thought happily to herself as she pulled her car keys

from her pocket, She (unlike -some- rich girls she could name) went to

the cool new costume shop 'Ethan's', He was -way- cool, it seemed that

if he thought you looked good in something he would cut you a GREAT

deal, that's how she had managed to score the Predator costume, It was

the only one he had and SHE got there first just as he set out his

'open' sign, she laughed to herself as she unlocked the trunk and set

the large shopping bag and box in.

Erica wondered what Sunny would think of it, she bet she'd be jealous,

but in a happy way probably, After all Sunny was the one to introduce

Erica to the Predator movies.

(had she been aware Erica would become such a rabid Fan-Girl she might

not have, Sunny was becoming increasingly disturbed by the amount of

merchandise Erica was accumulating, the Posters alone were becoming a

bit much (Sunny didn't mind the army of action figures tho) but when

Erica had brought home the plushies Sunny had hidden in her room for a

week and never asked about them)

Erica closed the trunk and opened the car door and got in and started

her drive home, she briefly considered calling Willow on her way to

share about her costume but decided it would be more fun to wait and

surprise her.

Willow was Erica's only real friend in the 'slayerette' group and even

then only mostly due to them sharing the same likes in movies, Erica

gave Willow someone to go to action movies with that would not harass

her afterwards also Erica got just as excited and hyper watching them

as Willow, Buffy would usually accuse Willow of drinking coffee for

days after one of Willow and Erica's movie-fest nights.

Erica reminisced for most of her drive home, only catching herself in

time to quickly pull into the driveway of the house she shared with

Sunny (and occasionally Julie when she was around), she glanced up at

the blacked out windows as she opened the trunk and puled out the box

and bag of costume bits 'it's funny no one notices how odd that looks,

or even asks about the blacked out windows...', she snickered to

herself as she closed the trunk and walked into the house.

Erica ran up to her room and set the stuff down on her bed

before walking down the hall to knock on Sunny's door and tell her she

was home before running down to the basement to unpack the Halloween

decorations and drag them upstairs and put them up...

It took Erica 2 days till she deemed the Decorations 'worthy', once she

did however she was done, the front yard looked like a rather realistic

graveyard with one 'dug up grave', the front porch was designed to look

-old- and heavily bloodstained, she had gone nuts with the fake cobwebs

spreading them everywhere, and the entryway was a bloody

mess... litterally, it looked like a serial killer had went nuts with a

chainsaw, the only 'dry' area was the strip carpet running from the

door to the living room, all in all Erica was rather pleased with

herself!

That done she wandered upstairs to sort through the costume and arrange

it for the next night, as well as find her chainmalle halter she was

planning on wearing and dye her hair black and tie it appropriately by

sectioning it, then twisting it tightly and clipping the long

'dread-lock' type thing in place with the clips that came with the

costume. As she finished her hair she got a call from Willow telling

her that at least for Halloween 'supposedly' there wasn't going to be

any paranormal weirdness, it was the big 'stay in' day for all the

creepy crawlies and the undead, at this Erica laughed and told her that

there was at least going to be one wandering about, herself of course,

and she didn't know what Sunny was doing, but that Erica herself was

planning on harassing frat boys and crashing party's so as to show off

her costume, to which Willow asked what her costume was going to be and

Erica just said "you'll see tomorrow night" and laughed happily as she

hung up the phone. Before she went to bed that morning she arranged her

costume again and watched the Predator movies.

4:00pm

Erica woke up and yawned and stretched happily then proceeded to put on

her costume, first the skin tight bodysuit that was pale yellow with

green spots in various patterns and locations, then gradually the rest

of it, she stretched to adjust the fishnet type stuff and all the

various metal plates and straps, also tugging on the chainmalle halter

a little before she picked up the heavy metal arm bands, she closed the

right one around her lower arm and tested the blades, she loved this

one it was heavy and had -real- blades in it that snapped out when she

made a fist, wich she thought was beyond cool, after extending and

retracting the blades a few times for the fun of it she closed the left

one around her lower arm and snapped it closed, it only contained a

little computer type unit, she had spoken to Ethan about this one and

he assured her it only produced random noises and 'text', she poked at

it and smiled happily at the beeps and the Predator text it displayed

before closing the little computer part.

Erica slipped on the 'shoes' that had come with the outfit and admired

them happily after snugging them around her ankles, they added about 2

inches to her hight making her about 5'8" 'insanely short for a

predator, but tall enough to make me happy... it's cool that they don't

-look- like they should add hight to me tho...'

Erica picked up the 'bio-mask' and put it on and attached the few

little hose type things that came from the back of her 'armor' to it,

once that was on she smiled happily under it, the red mirrored lenses

making the world various shades of red, She looked in the mirror and

after adding some makeup to her neck that matched the bodysuit she

pronounced herself 'fit' and poundered down the stairs ecstatically, the

noise causing Sunny to peek out from the computer room downstairs and

freeze before saying "Dear Gods, Erica, who in the fucking world would

sell -YOU- that?", Erica laughed and walked over and handed her

'Ethan's' busness card "he did, isn't it impressive? I love it!", Not

waiting for an answer Erica hurried out the door and ran toward the high

school, her elation and happiness about the costume as well as her

amusement at the thought of the various 'slayerettes' reactions adding

to her speed, Erica somehow failed to notice the various shocked

bystanders and near-accidents that followed her, As she walked up to

the school she pulled her cell phone from a small pocket on her belt

and called Willow to ask were she was, Willows response was "in the

sitting area, you know the one with the soda machine?" Erica told her

she was out front and would be there momentarily and for Willow to "be

prepared to laugh your ass off" before hanging up and re-pocketing the

cell phone.

Erica walked into the school, letting the doors slam behind

her, she walked past a fuming Cordelia and a band guy putting

something into his locker, she thought she remembered his name being

Oz, He smiled and nodded to her as she walked past, she also overheard

some jock boys wanting to know 'who that ass belonged to', As she

rounded the corner she spotted Willow first and grinned behind the mask

and started toward her, Willow was busy talking to a group of 7 small

children, Erica could tell it was Willow she was the only one dressed

up as a 'Boo!', so she walked up behind her and tapped her on the

shoulder and waited expectantly.

Willow turned and shrieked as she took a few stumbling steps back

before she noticed it was in fact Erica, then she laughed loudly and smacked Erica on the shoulder, hard, before hugging her and complimenting her costume.

Willow pulled back from the hug as Buffy skidded around the corner with

a stake in one hand as she scanned the room and saw Erica and Willow,

Buffy quickly put the stake away and walked toward them, looking at

Erica funny, as she got there she turned to Erica and said "one: don't

DO that, and two: what the hell are you suppose to be?", Willow muttered

something about 'she won't get it' as Erica leaned down slightly and

said into Buffy's ear "that's for me to know and you to find out...",

at this Buffy looked confused and irritated at Erica and walked off

muttering something about 'stupid cryptic vampires...'.

Erica and Willow shared a laugh at that and then rounded up the 7 kids

and set out, Willow leading and Erica following the trail of rug rats,

making sure they all kept up...

Nearly 2 hours later Erica and Willow were taking the kids to the

last house of the evening before returning them to the school, Willow

was standing behind them on the porch and Erica was standing at the

sidewalk.

There was a slight breeze and Erica turned to face it, enjoying the

cool feel of it, There was a scream from the porch and Erica turned

taking in the sight before her quickly, one of the 'children' appeared

to be strangling the poor lady of the house and Willow was leaning

against the house with a hand to her neck, Erica took a step forward as

Willow staggered and fell to her knees before fully falling to the

ground...

Setg'-incrouched down and looked about quickly before quickly running forward and leaping onto the roof of the building in front of her and scanning the area, Her thermal imaging showing her something very confusing, she appeared to be on the Ooman planet by the looks of it, and a quick check with her wrist computer verified that, and yet most of the things running around along the paved roadway in front of her were -not- Pyode Amedha, most of them looked far to different, as she sat on the roof and considered her options she began to think this would be a good a time as any to acquire good trophies and prove to her clan she was -NOT- just a Lou-dte Kalei, she was fully blooded and should be respected as such! However, most of the odd looking creatures on the ground appeared to be too small to provide any kind of a challenge... As she was thinking on this she overheard a familiar noise from down the road, gunshots, she turned and looked in the direction of the noise and saw a single Ooman fighting off several of the smaller creatures with a rifle, Setg'-in lept down from the rooftop and ran toward the Ooman, activating her Camouflage Suit as she ran.

Once there she watched as the Ooman was confronted by two others and then grabbed the arm of one and followed the smaller one, she tilted her head to the side and clicked quietly, curious of the strange actions of the Oomans.

She followed them as the ran to a house and barricaded themselves in, intrigued she walked around the house looking for a way inside, instead she saw something that confused her greatly she saw a Ooman, but it gave off almost -no- heat signature what-so-ever /how strange..., she followed it into the house, ducking low to walk through the doorway and hopping up onto a table to wait and watch what it would do, she heard voices coming toward the room and saw the odd one duck back into a shadow, Setg'-in looked toward the doorway and saw another of the strange cold Oomans, only this one was talking to a normal one and holding her arm, he froze as he saw the still open door and said something to the female as he let go of her arm and stepped forward to close it, as he did this the first one slipped out of the shadows behind the girl and grabbed her, she screamed and ducked and ran around the table to get away from it, Setg'-in shook her head at the high pitched noise and hissed quietly to herself, thankfully the noise was lost in the sound of the two odd Oomans fighting, the one that had walked into the room with the female was yelling something to her and she picked up a small knife from just next to Setg'-in on the table and turned to give it to him but instead she screamed again and ran out the door, Setg'-in tilted her head to the side and looked at the two fighting on the floor /whatever caused her to run off I don't know..., She sighed and stepped down off the table and picked up the strange Ooman that she had followed into the house and held him up by his neck, she tilted her head to the side and clicked at him before neatly severing his head from his shoulders, just above her hand with her Ki'cti-pa, she was startled when the body exploded into a fine dust, Setg'-in hissed loudly in shocked irritation and then looked down at the other one, the one that had walked into the room with the female, it stood and stared at her in what she could guess was shock, after a moment it told her something (which she recorded) and motioned to the door, she guessed this one wanted to find the female that had run off, and as he stepped out the door she followed him outside and looked around, searching for the females heat signature, she spotted it a ways off and set of at a run toward it.

Leaping from rooftop to rooftop until she was right on top of were the female was, she then paused and leaned over to look between the buildings /what is it that other Ooman sees in this one? She seems L'ulij-bpe to me, Setg'-in saw several more of the strange Oomans walk down the ally toward the female, the female whimpered and crouched down in a terrified manner as the odd ones walked toward her growling/C'jit! I can't just stand here and watch the strange Oomans kill the female, it would be dis-honorable to just stand here or even walk away knowing they were going to kill her... Pauk.../ Setg'-in stepped up onto the ledge and turned off her Camouflage Suit before jumping down to fight the strange Oomans.

She landed in a crouch and flipped her hair out from her vision as she stood, her Ki'cti-pa snapping out with a faint 'snick', the strange one in the lead stepped back but then growled and ran forward to attack Setg'-in and all but one followed it, the one just stood back and watched the fight, Setg'-in kicked the first one in the chest as it ran at her, the claws on her feet leaving wide scratches on it's chest, as she stepped forward and stabbed the fallen one in the chest with her Ki'cti-pa the blades digging into the concrete behind it several inches before she pulled it free, she then looked up at the four standing around her and hissed at them, they attacked her as a group but she fought them off well enough, as they ran at her she turned and grabbed one and tossed him against the wall roughly and then ducked a kick from another as she swiped at him with her Ki'cti-pa, her swipe carrying through and decapitating the one next to it, causing it to explode into dust, as she attempted a second swipe at the one in front of her she felt a sharp slashing pain across her back as one behind her clawed her back, spinning around with a roar she saw that one now had talons very similar to her own, she also noticed the heat from her blood covering them, she hissed as she sprang forward and grabbed that one and stabbed her Ki'cti-pa into its face, she noticed the one she had thrown against the wall stagger to its feet and she turned to face it, as she did she was pounced from behind, the force knocking her to her knees, before she could stand or even grab that one off her back and toss it, it leaned forward and bit her! With a roar of pain and anger she grabbed it by the shoulders and flung it against the wall as hard as she could and the force alone caused it to explode into dust, she turned to face the last one, the one she had thrown against the wall earlier and it backed up and turned and ran /Pauk-de S'yuit-de/ she thought as she grabbed a shuriken from her belt and flipped it opened and threw it after him, she heard a shriek and the sound of it exploding into dust as she caught her shuriken and returned it to its place.

As she turned she noticed that the small female was gone so she again scanned the area for her heat signature, she quickly located it in one of the buildings around the corner there also appeared to be a few other Oomans there, so she ran toward it not knowing why but lacking much anything better to do /besides, these odd Oomans seem to want to follow her, and they are interesting to fight.../.

As she neared the building she noticed a lot of strange ones were gathered around the only doorway Setg'-in could see nearby, so she stepped around the corner away from the strange ones and quickly cut a crude doorway through the flimsy metal wall of the building with her Ki'cti-pa and stepped through, she carefully walked around stacks of boxes and other stuff, making her way toward the small group of Oomans, she stepped into the room quietly and was not noticed, so she just stood quietly there and watched them try and keep the door closed and finally fail, the male with the gun quickly stepped back and brought his gun up and started shooting the strange Oomans, he seemed to be avoiding hitting the little ones however which Setg'-in found quite interesting, the two females of the group were huddled down next to a bunch of boxes near Setg'-in, as she watched she lifted a hand and put it to the side of her neck, touching the place were one of the odd ones had bitten her... it appeared they were fond of doing that, as she watched a group of five walked towards the two females, she sort-of recognized one of them as the one that had just watched her kill the four from the ally, she tilted her head to the side and listened to that one, he seemed to be the leader, he also appeared to be speaking to the female that Setg'-in had saved in the ally, she had picked up that that one's name seemed to be 'Buffy'... Setg'-in stepped forward to join the fight, two of the odd ones standing beside their leader turned to confront her, she snapped her Ki'cit-pa out again and stepped forward to fight them, but as she glanced toward the one named 'Buffy' she knew she might not kill them quick enough, the leader of the strange ones was standing next to Buffy holding her hair in one hand and she appeared to be very scared and upset, Setg'-in focused on the two before her and feinting a slash at one she quickly turned and hit the other instead, the blades piercing its chest were its heart should be, she ripped the blades from its chest as it exploded into dust, she trilled in amusement /such strange creatures, whatever they are, she turned to face the other one and lunged forward attempting to slash across its chest, and was shocked when she succeeded and it exploded into dust before her, she blinked and shook her head, momentarily dizzy she reached up and found the wound on her neck still bleeding, she glanced up at 'Buffy' and was momentarily shocked to see her starting to fight back...

Erica sat down abruptly and watched as Buffy proceeded to kick Spike's ass into next week, Erica shook her head trying to clear it of both the dizziness and lingering confusion, she brought her hands up to her face to wipe at her eyes and stopped and stared at her hand in shock, her right hand was covered in bright green faintly glowing blood, as she looked down at her outfit she saw it was dripping down off the edge of her chainmaille halter top as well, a small pool forming on the floor, she reached up with her left hand and felt her neck and brought it away stained with fresh bright -human- blood, Erica staggered to her feet, the memory of the last few hours spinning through her mind as she stared at her hands, she cautiously brought her left hand to her mouth and sniffed it then tasted it 'yep, that's mine alright.' then she brought her right hand up and did the same, as she tasted it she arched her back and shook her head and growled slightly, and moments later she remembered herself and looked down and saw that her hand was clean but damp and most of the green glowing blood had been wiped off her chest and the chainmaille halter, she arched her back again and shuddered, as she looked up she noticed that Buffy was definitely winning this fight, so Erica turned and walked off into the night, thinking heavily about the events of this night and heading home...

(Fin)