Authors: Conor (Coroxn)
Title: Wooden Bullets, New Kid on the block
Parts: 1
Rating: PG-13
Status: ongoing
Summary: The Master has risen and crushed the Scoobies. With Buffy captured and the rest of the gang trying to prevent the apocalypse, it's up to Dawn to recruit any help she can. Told from the point of view of Carter, sixteen year old vampire hunter, the first Dawn finds. Possible romance.
Chapter 1-New Kid On The Block
I hear the familiar sound of a scream, and I'm surprised to find I know it. I know that voice. I do. I can't quite place it, but it hardly matters now. I'll find out soon enough. I run, faster than wise, burning more energy then I should, but hey, I've dusted enough to feel fairly confident.
The street is bright, real bright, but every light casts shadows. Deep, dark ones, in the alleys, where I spend the majority of my nights. I sprint, taking a breath for every step, sucking in all the oxygen I need. I attract stares from people who have either lived here to long to hear the scream, or haven't lived here long enough to feel the courage to do anything about it.
Let 'em look.
My hand slips inside my jacket pocket, to my small, gleaming handgun. Eight bullets per canister, more than enough to care of whatever caused the scream. I wonder if I should bother putting on the mask. The scream sounded familiar, so I decide to be safe.
I slide it on, and my face feels pleasantly cold. It feels like shaking off my old persona, Carter Able, the stressed highs school student, popular but unimportant, and I'm putting on a new identity:
Nightstalker, who lives to help the unhelped in this city.
Because no one else will.
The scream comes again, and nearly boles me over, because I recognise it:
Amelia.
Which is where I sprint hard. I draw my gun, and I'm only feet away from the alley in question. A car's in the way, but I don't have the patience to go round, so I jump, swing my two legs over the bonnet and sliding over the smooth surface. And then I'm in the alley way,
All the light goes black as I am consumed by shadow, but I see the vampires. Two of them, hovering, cat-like and preditorial, over my dearest friend. I swear, the words silenced by my expressionless mask.
I raise the gun and fire. The round breaks the skin of one vampire, who has just enough time to look down with vague surprise before he crumbles. Vampires, most know they're immune to gunfire, that metal round can't hurt them. Which is why I hand-carve wooden bullets. They don't know what's hit them, never know just why they crumble to dust. I wonder if it's painful.
Probably.
The second vamp looks at me, cold eyes baring into mine, and all of a sudden my hand spasms. A bullet flies into the ground of the alleyway, ricochets into a trash can. I drop my gun, and it bounces off the floor.
I realise what's happening, this vamp's hypnotic-a rare quality, but one I've learned to deal with. I grab my mask and pull it off my head, free from the hypnotic glare as the smooth metal breaks the line of sight. I spin violently to hide my face from Amelia, ignoring thoughts like What is she doing here? and Is she hurt? and Am I too late? as I slide some sun glasses over my eyes. I swing low and snatch up my gun. No thought for aim, I fire.
I'm almost too late, the vamp's been sprinting at me the whole time. The bullet enters throw the lungs and comes out the back at an angle, taking flight into the air and forcing the Vampire to staggar back.
I can't see much of his face or clothes in the light, which is just as well. The normal looking ones are hard to kill. Heart-wrenching. I place my gun to it's head and pull the trigger. It won't kill it, but at the same time it's a death sentance. The vamp collapses to the floor, and I aim my small gun at the heart. I'm close to pulling the trigger, but it starts to beg, to whimper, so I put my gun away. It's not going to fight, no use waisting a bullet. I slide the gun back into my jacket, grabbing a stake as I do so. But I keep my hand in my jacket, hiding the stake from the utterly defeated vampire.
I bend down, my mouth close to it's ear, and I whisper:
"You've been dead for a long time, this won't be too much of a shock"
And the Vamp's eyes widen as I push a stake through it's heart, and it freezes for a milisecond, lost in time, before it loses color and turns to dust.
I run through it, the slightly dusty patch, and sprint to Amelia. "Are you hurt?" I ask, making my voice gruff. She can't see my face in this light, with the sun glasses hiding my eyes, so if I change my voice, she won't recognise me.
"Do I recognise you from somewhere?" she asks.
Damn.
I shake my head, and repeat my question, in the same tone of voice.
She shakes her head, too. "I'm fine. Those things...you saved me"
I nod, and for a terrified second my sun glasses slip from my face. I grab them as I spin away from her, walking fast. I flick my metal mask up with my foot, catch it and slide it back on.
Her footsteps echoe mine, she's trying to catch up with me.
Let her try. Amelia cannot be aloud to find about this side of my life.
No. Nightstalker must be a total stranger to her. At all times.
If who I am by day and who I am by night begin to bleed together-
I don't want that.
I begin to sprint. She's fast, but I'm faster.
The next night, my phone rings. Not a terrible thing, normally, but not ideal when you're up against six vampires and have three bullets left.
I let them all go at once with three short pulls on the trigger, and sigh in relief as one crumbles to dust. Dropping the gun, I thrust my right hand to my stake and my left to a flashbang. An ingenious little weapon, the flashbang. It makes a noise too loud and a flash too bright for human (and vampiric) senses, and so it stuns them for several seconds. Vamps are even more affected, thanks to the constant aversion to light.
My partner Axle decapitates one with his eponymous weapon before I let it loose. I turn away from it and plug my hands into my ears, that and my sunglasses save me from the worst of the blast. I'm still a little dazed as I fall on one and thrust wildly, so I narrowly miss the heart.
Second tiems the charm, I guess, and I dive wildly for another, staking him instantly.
One's almost recovered, which they do, sometimes. Dull senses finally working for them, I guess.
He swings a wild punch, and even though I get a stake in before the blow lands it still hits me like a truck. I collapse to the ground, covered in dead vampire. I know there's one left, but as I stumble to my feet, something not disimilar to a freight train crashes into me.
I soar through the air, and land in a heap. I try to scramble to my feet, but a stone hand grips my throat hard and lifts me high off the ground. For the first five seconds, I flop like a fish, but then my brain gets back in gear.
My stake has left my hand, abandoning me in an attempt of self-preservation, I guess. I envy it right now. I pull back my hand, and slug it with all my might in the face. It doesn't flinch. I strike again and again, but God help me, close quarters is not my thing.
I know I'm losing stength, so I reel back my leg and kick him between the legs. He flinches, as if sightly uncomfortable, but dosn't losen his grip. I think of a terrific one-liner, but I guess I'll die before I ever say it. Life is cruel.
And then it lets go. I collapse to my knees and gasp. I curl up like a ball, trying to suck in breath. I look up to see Axle looking up at me. He really looks smug from this angle.
"Thanks, man" I rasp, waiting to see if he'll hold a hand to help me up.
Guess not. He's not that type.
"You okay?" I ask.
"Slightly deaf, slightly blind after that thing man. Warning would have been nice"
"These Vamps are saying the same thing"
"Yeah" he smiles. "In hell"
"Or heaven" I respond. And he turns back on me.
"Whatcha say?"
"I said 'or heaven'. Because they go there as well, you know".
"You think any of these bastards are going to heaven, and you're a fucking dead man" he says, and I'm shocked by how personal he takes it.
"Listen" I say. "You've been fighting you're whole life. You've saved thousands of lives. You have to go to heaven, right? But let's say you get sired on the line of battle. Everything you did, gets overruled by what you have no control over. That sound fair?"
"No. Life's not fair. Who says afterlife has to be? Soulless things can't go to heaven"
"Whatever" I say. Becaus he won't believe what I have to say if I press the point.
I missed the call, though not by much. It's from Amelia. There's no message, never is with her. I call back, smiling at the thought of her.
"Hey, Amy" I call down the line.
"Heya, Cart"
"You rang?"
"Ah, yes" she says, as if remembering an increibly distant memory. "I just saw an awesome movie. Going to see it again. Wanna come with? Me, I mean"
"Sure" I say. "When's the next showing?"
"Ah" Amelia said, with a voice that portrayed bad news. "Fifteen minutes. Can you make it?"
"I can run. See you in fifteen"
Twelve minutes later (I do pride myself), I was running to Amelia.
"Hey, Amy!" I call.
She spins around, her bronze hair catching in the flourscent light.
"Carter" she says, with a smile that would have made any vampire rip-
Damn, I think. Gotta stop thinking like that, gotaa stop letting that side of my life bleed over into this one.
Carter and Nigthstalker are two different people. They have to be.
"How you doing?" she asked.
"Fine. You're okay?"
Amy nodded. "Want to go in?" she asked.
"Well, why hurry? We have.." I check my watch. "Three minutes. You can do a lot in three minutes, Amelia"
"Like what?" she asked, voice cautious.
I knew, right then, that if I made to kiss her, she'd kiss me back. And we would be happy and perfect for each other. But I knew that she'd have to find out about the slaying, and that she couldn't take that. She'd leave, or even worse, try to be a part of it. And, God knows, I won't survive forever. Some day, a vamp will get lucky. It'd kill her to lose me, if we ever get that close.
So I live, for now, at least, at an arms length from everyone.
"Nothing," I smile. " It's stupid. Let's go in"
