"What the Hell is going on", Pat was the first one to get over her shock, not even noticing how she clenched her fists while Buffy tensed up next to her, as well; in response to her question, more gunshots sounded, and they all dropped down out of pure instinct, Ira even shielding his head with his arms, even though he knew that this wouldn't stop any bullets.

"Over there", Buffy finally spotted the reason for all the ruckus, pointing out the direction – and making them all frown when they saw that it weren't demons or other monsters attacking, but a group of soldiers, in identical, futuristic looking steel uniforms, bulky helmets hiding their faces as they marched over the lawn, firing into the air with their heavy rifles.

"What the Hell", the demon repeated her earlier statement, not all too creative, but saying out loud what everyone else was thinking, "soldier guys? That's new."

"Remain calm", one of the soldiers said, his voice strangely muffled by his helmet, "no one will be harmed."

"Why do I find this hard to believe", Xander mumbled, earning an agreeing noise from both Giles and Anya; not sure what to expect, they all slowly straightened up again, since none of the soldiers looked as if they wanted to shoot any of them, watching how they scanned the crowd, clearly looking for someone.

"Whoever they want, I doubt it's just to invite them for tea and cookies", Buffy mumbled to Pat, making the demon nod her agreement, "feel like butting in?"

"You know I'm always up to kick some ass", the demon replied at once, earning a startled look from Sheila, ignoring her fully though, "so we move in before they find whoever they are—"

"Objective located", one of the soldiers said, successfully interrupting her and making her frown in dismay; Buffy rolled her eyes at the bad timing, then hurriedly gave out orders, telling Xander to get Willow's parents out of the danger zone before one look at the demon was enough to set them both in motion, Sheila and Ira reluctantly moving with the young man at his gentle pulling and prodding, glancing back over their shoulders again and again.

"What's happening?" Sheila wanted to know, watching in confusion how Buffy and Pat were striding up to the group of soldiers, the taller woman taking off her jacket as she marched along next to the blonde and rather carelessly tossing it aside, the soldiers ignoring them as they were moving towards one of the just finished students, the young man who had been giving the speech during the ceremony.

"Who are these men?" Ira now added to the questions, finally realizing that Xander tried to steer him away from the action and tearing free of his grip, to the young man's surprise and dismay, "Willow, what is the meaning of this?"

"Not sure", Willow gave back, not wanting to reveal too much about what was pretty much routine for them in Sunnydale, even though soldiers were at least partly new, especially with the Initiative long gone, "but Buffy's right, we should get away, who knows what might happen…"

"If Bunny and your girlfriend antagonize them?" Sheila demanded to know, "nothing good, I imagine! Why are they getting into this? They shouldn't mess with the army!"

"With those uniforms, those guys are not army", Xander pointed out, once more demonstrating that some of his army guy knowledge was still there, "and we should get moving, now!"

Just in this moment, Buffy and Pat reached the group of soldiers, the Slayer calling out "Hey, big guy!", prompting the one closest to her to turn and look at her, the fact that his helmet was keeping her from meeting his eyes unsettling her quite a bit.

"Mind explaining what you want here?" she went on, hiding her discomfort about talking to a steel helmet with cables running from the back of it and into the armour, "cause that guy doesn't look like he has any business with you. Also, you're interrupting a rather festive occasion."

"Kinda rude", Pat added, not just wanting to stand there while Buffy did all the talking; by now, she had opened the two top buttons of her shirt and had rolled the sleeves up to the elbows, giving her more room for fighting, both Buffy and her quite convinced that it wouldn't take long until it'd come to blows.

"We have no business with you", the soldier gave back, then simply turned his back on her; frowning, not liking being dismissed this way, the blonde tapped his shoulder again, only to end up ignored as the soldiers got moving again, approaching the scared looking young man they were targeting.

"Seems like they're in no mood to discuss this", Pat commented, making the Slayer nod with a theatrical sigh before she unhappily glanced down at herself, her next comment making the taller woman smirk slightly. "And I'm wearing one of my best skirts… Oh well."

"Try not to get blood on it", Pat advised her, making her nod yet again – before they, without another word needed, started moving, by now having fought side by side often enough that no talking was necessary anymore to coordinate them, the demon attacking the one to her left while Buffy took on the soldier on the right.

Before the two even knew what was happening, they had been disarmed, their guns wrenched from their grips with fast and skilled moves; another two seconds later, the ammo clips fell to the ground, followed by the guns themselves, the soldiers just having the blink of an eye to realize what was happening before one got an elbow to the head and the other had his legs swiped out beneath him, both of them crashing to the ground.

"Intercept", one of the soldiers barked, again with that strangely metallic voice, "use of lethal force not permitted."

"Lucky us", Pat snarled, shifting into a more stable stance almost in perfect unison with Buffy; the three soldiers still standing moved their guns to the holsters strapped to their back with even more accurate synchronicity, then two of them started moving while the third one turned towards the young man again, and that was when the whole situation went to Hell for both the Slayer and the demon.


Taking a few steps to meet the soldier focusing on her, Pat pulled her fist back, ready to punch him straight in the helmet, ignoring the fact that this might probably hurt; the moment her fist shot forward though, the soldier seemed to blur in front of her eye, then was gone, the demon just having a second to look startled – before she got kicked in the back and stumbled forward, letting out a grunt which was a mixture of surprise and pain while she twirled around.

Snarling, not letting this stop her, she moved in again, attempting to land a hit or a kick; no matter how fast she tried to attack the soldier though, he always seemed to move out of the way with unnatural speed, each of his blows landing with painful accuracy, the sounds she could hear from her left telling her that Buffy wasn't faring much better.

"What the fuck", she finally growled, getting enough of this, especially since she could feel blood trickle from where one of the punches had split the skin over her cheekbone; unimpressed by her anger and clearly not willing to slow down, the soldier zipped out of the way again when she tried to tackle him, then slammed into her from behind, hard enough to send her flying until she crash-landed on a few of the chairs which still were standing in neat rows.

"Pat!" she heard Willow call out in shock, didn't dare to look though, not taking her eye off the soldier for a second; with another growl, loud enough this time to let Ira and Sheila hear it and prompting them to exchange a startled look, she sprang to her feet and grabbed the chair nearest to her, swinging at the soldier with all the power she could bring up, already anticipating the impact and the splintering of the wood.

Instead, the soldier blurred again, and she missed him completely, losing her balance; and while she still flailed to keep herself from falling flat on her face, the soldier reappeared right next to her, giving her just a second to notice him – before he punched her again, with an uppercut this time, hitting her hard enough to actually lift her off her feet, the breath getting knocked out of her when she slammed to the ground, ending up flat on her back, from the corner of her eye seeing Buffy go down, as well.

"Disengage", she heard one of the soldiers call out, "objective secured", and then the one she had been fighting bent over her and grabbed her; she had a second to realize yet again how strong he was, then his arm shot forward and he actually threw her, the way someone else might throw a baseball, giving her a few seconds to brace for the impact before she hit the ground with terrible force, the impact hard enough to send her off into oblivion.