Heigh Ho
This takes place during Rat Files part 2: season 4, after Superstar. When Evil mining creatures threaten Sunnydale, Buffy must enlist Rat's help.
It's late at night, Buffy is dreaming about Riley. Suddenly, Riley disappears and is replaced by Rat. "Late last night and the night before,", he begins to sing, "Tommyknockers tommyknockers knocking at the door. I want to go out, don't know if I can. 'Cause I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man," Suddenly, an army of gray skinned creatures appear behind him. Buffy wakes up when they begin to charge. The next day she tells the rest of the gang about her dream. That afternoon, Riley goes down to talk to Rat. "Hey Riley! Come to let me out?"
"No such luck, Rat. Buffy had a dream-"
"A prophetic dream?"
"Yeah, you were in it, talking about something called tommyknockers. So, what are they?"
"Tommyknockers, or kobolds, are like orcs. Actually, they're kind of a cross between orcs and dwarves. They have a dwarves love of mining and an orc's brutality."
"Why would these things be in Sunnydale?" Rat thought for a moment then said, "Oh boy"
"What?", Riley asked.
"Well, there are crystals in the earth, as you know, they're usually useless. However, when there is a large amount of dark energy, like in the Hellmouth, crystals absorb the energy, and become infernal crystals."
"What can these crystals do?"
"Nothing, unless someone is holding one. When they come in contact with demons, they can augment all the demons' powers. But when they come in contact with mortal beings, like kobolds or humans, they just enhance the holder's strength and let them shoot energy from the crystal."
"Thanks for your help.", Riley then leaves and relays what Rat had said to the others.
"As much as I hate to say it, I think we're going to need Rat's help.", Buffy says, "he knows much more about these things than we do. Riley, is there any way you can get him out on bail, or parole, or something?"
"I should be able to do that.", Riley answers. Riley frees Rat, telling him that he's to stay with him Riley and that when they're done, Rat's to come back to the Initiative. They go to Rat's house so he can get a dark energy tracking device. They then meet up with the others.
"So slayer, I heard you dreamed about me. I didn't know you felt that way about me.", Rat teases.
"Shut up!", Buffy and Riley say in unison.
"The kobolds are probably digging somewhere in the sewers, so get ready to get wet and dirty." They searched through the sewers for an hour before Rat's tracker began to blink wildly. "They're just around the corner. I can smell them." They turned the corner, and found hundreds of kobolds. In the center, one large one sat on a sort of throne carved from rock. "I'm gonna need my gun", Rat says.
"Sorry, part of your probation is that you can't have any weapons", Riley tells him. "Is that big one the leader?"
"Yep.", Rat answers. Riley then raises his gun and fires, hitting the leader in the side of the head. All the kobolds look towards Riley. Rat punches him, yelling, "Why the Hell did you do that?"
"I thought that maybe this would stop them, maybe break a spell on their minds or something.", Riley says.
"You can't control orcs and kobolds with magic!", Rat yells, "They follow power and strength. All you did was really piss them off!" Rat was right. After they got over the shock of their leader's death, the kobolds attacked. Rat and the Scoobies leapt into action. They fougt and killed, but still the monsters kept coming. Suddenly, something caught rat's attention. A large, red glowing crystal, sticking out of the side of the wall. "An infernal crystal.", Rat muttered. He thought for a second, then grabbed the crystal and pulled it free from the earth. Rat instantly began to glow. "Such a feeling of being alive!", he cried. When he turned around, Buffy saw that he had a vamp face. Because Rat is half demon, half mortal, the crystal gives him enhance vampire abilities as well as the ability to release the energy of the crystal. Rat easily wiped out all the kobolds with a wave of energy. He then bared his fangs and prepared another blast aimed towards the scoobies. Luckily, Riley tackled him, knocking the crystal from his hand. Rat's face regained it's human appearance. "Sorry,", Rat said, "I couldn't control myself"
"Yeah, right.", Buffy said, "You expect us to believe that?"
"Buffy, back off", Riley says. "Okay Rat, you remember the deal. It's time to go back to your cell."
"Yeah, whatever.", Rat says. However, as they get out of the sewers, nobody seems to notice a small bead of light coming from Rat's hand. (Note: this light will be important for my next story.)