City Hall the next morning was a madhouse. The interdimensional jet lag was affecting everyone in the town. Having the time zone shifted by 8 hours was more than a little difficult to adjust to, but people were given no choice. Groups had arrived early to protest the perceived inaction on the Mayor's part. Good thing he never needed to get elected.
Everyone who was invited to the committee was driven to a hidden parking garage under the building. Most people had never know such a place existed. After everything that had happened in the last 24 hours no one was really concerned about it. To a certain degree they should have been.
The issue was the fact that the parking garage, like most subterranean structures in Sunnydale, was connected to the sewer system. This sewer system was designed more like a subterranean city than a normal water works forming a perfect grid from north to south and east to west with various connected sections to other buildings. If one did not know the way, one could easily get lost. Mostly only the life-challenged spent time in the elaborate system, using it as a highway from place to place. It had served its dual purpose for nearly seventy five years. All in all, it was more complex than most city water systems. And it was about to be flushed.
When Sunnydale was transported on Acathla-airways, the city was gently deposited in the valley between two mountains. The area transported was not just a flat plane, but was actually a three dimensional elliptical shape that brought both ground and air and a bit of the beach. The lower part of this section was all the layers of any other geological strata in the area. This was deposited into the bottom of the valley. For whatever reason, Acathla had made quite sure to place the town perfectly level. Whether this was intentional or not, well, Acathla wasn't talking. The result was a perfect plug in the valley. The water which had so recently flowed with great power through the valley, suddenly had nowhere to go. As everyone tried to decide what had happened, the water was quickly filling up behind Sunnydale into what would be the first massive reservoir of this new world. Luckily for Sunnydale, the magical transportation had fused the new strata to the existing stone, so the town was in no danger of being washed away. The problem would soon be explained as the water filled the sewer system. The water needed some place to go and that place was right through the severed ends of the Sunnydale waterworks pipes. Currently the water was just backing up, but in only a few days the water would be high enough to flow through, flooding the sewer system nearly to ground level. It was going to be spectacular.
When Buffy and Joyce walked into the conference room both were surprised at the attendance. Buffy was surprised that her injured friends had attended. Willow was in a wheelchair as was Giles. Both looked like they should still be in the hospital, but desperate times made for desperate measures.
"Buffy!" Her friends perked right up when they saw her enter the room. Buffy ran over and gave Giles a hug.
"Buffy, though I am pleased to see you are all right, the morphine is not covering up all the pain so please let me go," her Watcher said with a wince.
"Buffster, glad you're back in one piece," Buffy turned to Xander who, though less damaged than the others, still had a few nasty bruises. "Cordy said you came by last night."
"Yeah, I stayed for a while but you guys never woke up. Mom and I needed to talk so we went home after the deputy mayor guy came by," Buffy said, placing herself in a chair between Xander and Willow. Turning to the redhead, she smiles: "Nice to see you better off than last night."
"Yeah, they gave me some drugs and it kinda had the opposite affect and I was all woooooooo instead of all zzzzzzzz," Willow explained with vibrant hand motions. Next to her, Oz nodded hello.
"Hey."
"Hey, Oz. Mom, you know Willow and Xander. This is Oz, Willow's boyfriend, over there is Jonathan ...why are you here?"
"I really don't know. Some guy just told me to be here."
"Okay, and this is my mom, Joyce Summers. And I don't know any of these other people."
"Hi, Buffy's mom!"
Before they could get into the rundown, the Mayor walked in, laughing and smiling as he always did even when faced with such a horrible situation. "Now, I know not everybody knows each other, but I expect we'll be good friends from here on out." He glanced around the table. "Oh dear me, it seems we're missing three people at the heart of the problem."
The door opened again to reveal the last three remaining Vampires from the line of Aurelius: Angelus, William the Bloody and Drusilla the Mad. The Scoobies froze with more than a little fear. Joyce let more than a little anger in her heart when she saw the man who had taken her little girl away from her. The man with the greased back hair and the long coat who had taunted her only a few short months earlier.
"What in hell are they doing in here?" Xander whispered to Buffy through clenched teeth. Giles' hands were white where he clenched his hands on the arms of the wheelchair.
"Well then, would it hurt you to be on time?" The mayor looked at them like a parent looks at children who got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. "Well since all eyes are on them, why don't I start with the introductions: These here are Angelus, William the Bloody and Drusilla the Mad. All three are master vampires from the Line of Aurelius."
"I go by Angel now."
"Hey! Dru ain't mad! She's just a little different!" Xander tried to keep in the snerk, he really did, but it just slipped out.
"Gosh darn it, you three have caused us a lot of trouble," he said, wagging his finger at the three master vampires. It was like someone chastising a child for walking in the house with muddy boots. "Now why'd you think opening up Acathla was a good idea?"
Xander, Willow and Buffy all raised their hands at the same time. It was a little weird how synchronized. "How do you know about that?"
"Gee wiz, you can't rightly be Mayor of a town with a hellmouth without knowing about it, now could you?" Admittedly, it was a little hard to refute the logic. Giles, however, even through the morphine, knew something was up. "Well we all have a little problem thanks to you three."
"Actually, it's just them two, I knew it was a bloody rotten idea," Spike said with his usual style. He lit a cigarette and took a drag. "The git here was about the same even if he had his soul after. His fault, might as well toss him into the gorge outside."
"Spike!" Angel turned to growl at the bleach blond vamp.
"Now, William, that wasn't a very nice thing to say," Wilkins said in that same chastising tone, wagging his finger again. "You should apologize to Angel here." Spike looked at the Mayor as if he were madder than Drusilla. "You heard me, you owe your grand-sire an apology."
"I'm not bloody apologizing to that manky git!" Spike screamed as he stormed to his feet pointing at Angel's head. Angel grinned a little, just a little.
"Uh-uh. We're all going to sit right here until you apologize," the mayor commanded, crossing his arms over his chest. The cigarette fell out of Spikes' mouth and into his lap. Dru, without even looking, reached into his lap and put it out with her fingers.
A long moment passed between Spike and the Mayor. Finally, Spike turned to face Angel. "Sorry" he said sullenly.
"Sorry for what?" asked Angel with a wide smirk. He was loving it.
"Don't push your bloody luck!"
"Language, William!" Wilkins looked around the table like he was shocked and confused by the behavior. "Well, if we don't have manners, what do we have?"
"Mayor Wilkins, could we please get on with this," grumbled Colonel Hennessey. Colonel Hennessey was a portly career soldier with the typical military haircut and a low tolerance for people outside the chain of command who did not assist. He took orders from higher ranks and gave orders to those below. He was also clearly not happy about Wilkins's knowledge of the Initiative. It's existence, the existence of HSTs and the agency's mission statement were all very, very classified. The kind of classified that created completely blacked out copies when the freedom of information act was used. That the mayor knew was a very bad thing. He had also just introduced the three new arrivals as HSTs. The mayor also knew the best way to get in touch with him was through Dr. Walsh. He knew too much.
On the other hand, Hennessey, as the ranking officer, understood this was not a problem he alone could solve. He ran the military, not the city and there was a point where a certain amount of information about an emergency was understandable. He would have to deal with the much greater number of people who were not military and in this kind of situation, perhaps it was best if all the cards were on the table.
"Yes, I suppose we should," The Mayor said with a grin. "I don't suppose any of you can tell me why we're here?" There was a little laughter and rolling of eyes from the attendees from Sunnydale High. "Mr. Rupert Giles, as the local Watcher, why don't you give us all a rundown on the events leading up to this little trouble." Heads turned to face the overly beaten man in the wheelchair. Angel immediately flinched away from his gaze. Giles did not.
"I suppose I should start at the beginning, then, shouldn't I," Giles said, getting back to business. "In every generation there is a Chosen one…"
He spent the better part of the hour explaining the situation, the history of the Slayer, and the events up to this point, finally ending with the description of waking up that morning. Thankfully for everyone in the know, Giles edited somewhat the whole story of Angel's lost soul both for credibility and for Buffy's sake. After several stories of her exploits more than a few people were staring at Buffy with disbelief.
"Well, that brings most people up to date, why don't we continue with our introductions," the Mayor said with a smile. He gave a clear look to the Colonel, sitting on the other side of Drusilla. "Just give your name, what you do and tell us something about yourself."
"Humph. My name is Colonel James Hennessey, I work for the US Air Force and am in command of the local military base."
"Now, now, you can't expect us to get to know you with that little bit. Tell us something more about yourself."
"Fine, I wear blue. A lot." The Mayor didn't look like he was satisfied, but he kept the conversation going. The next was an Asian woman with a pageboy cut and reading glasses. She looked to be in her late thirties, early forties with only a few strands of grey in her hair.
"I am Dr. Amelia Chung, I am the administrator at Sunnydale Medical Center. I've worked there for ten years from my internship up to my current position. Other doctors don't like me because I'm as good a politician as I am a doctor." She looked to the person next to her. "I am also very concerned about the fact that children are in this meeting. I do not see how they could have anything to contribute, especially considering the outlandish tale told by Mr. Giles."
"I am Dr. Margaret Walsh. I teach psychology at Sunnydale University. I don't believe in witchcraft or magic or alternate dimensions." The middle aged woman had been inspecting every other person at the table. From what she could see the people believed the stories they told. A large number of them clearly knew of the existence of HSTs which may or may not be a problem for the long term goals of the Initiative. The outcome would be seen later on.
"Oh dear, I guess I'll have to tell them about what you really do for work," the mayor said shaking his head. "She's part of a government agency called the Initiative. They're a bunch of governmental demon hunters with all sorts of fancy gadgets." He put up his palms in a warding motion at the glares the two military people gave him. "Well now, you two seem a little put out now, but this isn't the time for secrets, now is it? We're all in the same boat and keeping secrets is just going to keep us rocking and rocking until we fall in. They know about the existence of demons and have a secret base under the University."
"Oh, well that explains why the army depot was so heavily stocked," Xander mused. When the military people looked at him in that angry/curious way, he shrugged.
"We sort of had to borrow a bazooka to take out the Judge in the mall," Buffy said sheepishly. When she noticed the nasty looks she was getting from some of the adults, she quickly explained. "Oh, he wasn't a real judge, not even a person, it's just that they said no man-made weapons could hurt him and so Xander thought about how that was when they thought the sword was the most dangerous weapon, so we sorta borrowed a bazooka and blew him up in the mall."
"Oh, when we get power we can watch her in action, I've got it all on tape," the mayor said with a smile. When the Scoobies looked at him with confusion and surprise, he simply smiled and shrugged. "Security cameras. What can I say? I like good work."
"Oh, we thought that was just a gas explosion," mused the next man at the table. He was bald, late middle aged, with a rotund body stuffed into a policeman's uniform. It looked uncomfortable to say the least. He was also stuffing his face with the free doughnuts like the stereotypical pig he was. "Oh, um Hi, Jack Warner, Chief of police. So are you telling me that most of those bleeding incidents were actually vampires? Damn, we were sure they were gangs on PCP armed with barbeque forks. It makes so much more sense now." Blissfully ignoring the nasty glares of those in the know, the chief of police went back to stuffing his face with doughnuts.
"Hi, Daniel Osborne. Call me Oz. I'm a werewolf," the redhead next to the chief said with a small smile and a nod to those in disbelief. Maggie Walsh looked at him like he was her next test subject. It was more than a little disturbing really.
"You forgot to tell about the Dingoes and me, silly," Willow said grinning at her boyfriend. "I'm Willow Rosenberg, I go to Sunnydale High and I'm good at computers and research. Oh, and I'm dating Oz."
"Research?" asked Dr. Chung incredulously.
"Oh about the demons and vampires and stuff that Buffy fights," Willow said as if it explained everything. Dr. Chung clearly did not believe her.
"I'm Buffy Summers and I'm the Vampire Slayer. Like Giles said, I'm the chosen one yada, yada, yada," Buffy said. She was a little angry about everything, even considering what happened less than two days before. "A little while ago, that thing," she pointed at the moaning and confused Drusilla, "Killed the second Slayer Kendra. She was a good friend. She also almost killed Willow, Oz and Xander. If it were up to me right now she would be dust. And if she steps out of line, I'm staking her, no matter what anyone else has to say about it." Buffy sat down; her arms crossed glaring at the trio of vampires. Angel couldn't meet her eyes. Spike looked like he was about to jump over the table and strangle her.
"Buffy, you really need to pull back the hostility a little," Wilkins said in that same chiding tone. "We might not all be friends here, but are all in the same situation." Buffy chose to say nothing, which was much better than what she almost did say.
"Xander Harris, I help out Buffy with stuff," Xander said simply.
"What kind of stuff?" Maggie Walsh raised an eyebrow at the young man.
"Whatever she needs."
"I am Rupert Giles, originally of England. I am a member of the Watcher's Council, a group of people dedicated to supporting the Slayer," Rupert explained in his falsely calm voice. His eyes never left Angel. "I am currently working as the school librarian at Sunnydale High School. As for an interesting tidbit about me, I was tortured yesterday within an inch of my life by Angelus, should anyone wonder why I am in this wheelchair. Truth be told, I should still be in bed, but it seems that my expertise was needed. I am also rather highly medicated on medical narcotics to reduce the pain. It occasionally works." Angel looked like he was about to dust himself. Giles would never let him forget what the demon had done.
"I am Joyce Summers, Buffy's mother and I run the local Gallery and Museum," Joyce said, lightening the mood. "And if any one of you decides to hurt my daughter, I'll beat you to death with a shovel. Oh, are those pecans?" Buffy was rather proud of her mother.
"I'm Jonathan Levinson," the small boy said hesitantly from his place next to the mayor. "I don't really know why I'm here. Oh, and I like Star Trek."
"It's so good to have that out of the way, now we have some other problems to deal with," the mayor explained in his usual fashion. "Since these two decided to destroy the world, we're now on the other side of the portal."
"How big is the area that came along with us?" Joyce Summers was a little concerned. "What kind of area are we talking about?"
"I think I can answer that," Colonel Hennessey said. He lumbered out of his chair to the map of the city hung on the wall. "The entire town is intact from the main street to the train station. The Port and beach area and a significant portion of the ocean have formed a large salt lake on our east side. And it seems the town has been turned 180 degrees we now have cliffs on what used to be our east and west sides. It seems we have been deposited in a large wide valley with mountains on either side. The Sunnydale Zoo and both colleges are intact and the plains continue into the hills with the vineyards and citrus groves. We have lost a large portion of the agricultural fields but we have the Mable Horse Farm, Shallow Acres Farm and The Rabbit Hutch still inside out boarders. Although we still have the Sunnydale Hydroelectric Power Plant, we currently do not have any power nor water."
"Mr. Mayor?" All eyes turned to see Dr. Chung raising a pen for attention. "This is a good point to mention that our first problem would be electricity and water. The hospital can only run for a couple of days at full capacity on emergency power and it has already been almost a day and a half. All most all emergency services will have to cease when that happens. If this continues on I am going to shut down power to everything but life support and preserving medical supplies. There is also no running water in the city at this time."
"The Initiative has a generator," Maggie Walsh said, ignoring the nasty look from her superior. "However, we might not have enough fuel for more than a month if we are to power the entire town. We need to somehow find a way to generate more before that runs out."
"See, bumping heads together, brain storming! This is what I like to see," the mayor said, slapping his hand on the desk. "Any suggestions?" People thought for a while before a hand was quietly raised next to the Mayor. "Jonathan, yes."
"Um, what about the hydroelectric dam?" the smallish boy said timidly.
"Hydro power is certainly still a possibility, but where would we get the water from," mused Professor Walsh. "The dam still exists, but it currently has no source of water. The dam is facing away from the lake it used to use for power."
"Well, yesterday, I was out by the highway, or what used to be the highway and looked over the edge. I think we're living on a natural dam by the amount of water flowing down the valley. It's pooling north of us and we might be able to use it for generating power like we used to." Everyone looked at him confused. This was Jonathan? He shrugged. "We have the existing waterworks and sewers, shouldn't we be able to manipulate this if we have locks and such?" He looked up in surprise when the mayor clapped him on the back.
"Now that's thinking outside the box! Good, somebody jot that down," Wilkins said with a smile. "Next problem?"
"Food," said Joyce. "Most people don't buy enough for more than a week. In pantries and root cellars we might extend that to a while longer, but we're going to need food." Dr. Walsh gave Colonel Hennessey a look and after a moment he sighed.
"From what farms are remaining, we have sources for milk, beef, pork, lamb and mutton chickens and eggs, as well as emus, turkeys, game birds and rabbit. We have two organic farms that only grow vegetables and raise horses. The Emus are not actually from one of the remaining farms, but are a pasture and outbuildings from a farm that was lost. As for other resources, we have recon teams out with humvees as we speak. They are due back in a couple of hours and we should know more about what kind of resources we have available in the area." It almost looked like caused him physical pain to tell even a little of what might be classified. "We are in a rocky area, but we can see trees and other life around us. We are clearly sub-alpine judging from remaining vegetation. It doesn't seem like we are in Hell at all."
"Actually, I have been thinking about that," Giles said. "Perhaps 'Hell' portion was added later to the Acathla myth, perhaps it was simply intended to destroy the world."
"Why's that?"
"Assume for a second that Acathla had actually swallowed the world and transported it to this one. It would have caused a distortion in the gravitational and magnetic fields of both planets, potentially causing both to meld into one. It would assuredly be the destruction to the worlds as we know it. The energy released would be plenty enough to make both planets uninhabitable. It would insure the destruction of the worlds and the short period of time life would exist would certainly feel like hell."
"It is only a hypothesis, but perhaps some of the other professors at the University could explore it further," Giles finished, clearly tired.
"So, food is a priority," the Mayor said. "At least we've still got the vineyards!"
"Actually, one of my colleagues at the university is an anthropologist specializing in terrace farming in various parts of the world," suggested Walsh. "Since we are in the mountains, this could potentially be the best option."
"Next up is the refugee situation," The mayor continues with a nod to Finch as he rushed in the door.
"Well, with all the ships in port, we have several thousand more people," his deputy replied. "And it is causing problems. Three of the ships are giant cruise ships from Taiwan, Tokyo and Norway. Each ship can hold a lot of people and we are not sure of the exact numbers at this time. These are people who aren't even US citizens and we don't have the extra housing. They are getting restless in the cabins and want to come into town. Many of these people only speak a little English, if any, and are angry about everything, and primarily they are white collar workers because few other people have the money to travel on these ships. There are at least four school groups from Japan on the Tokyo ship. They think we are ignoring them. Another problem is that about one third of the Norwegian cruise passengers are elderly, although this is more easily dealt with than some of our other problems." He flipped to the next page on his note pad. "The merchant ships are a better situation. We now have more resources than we knew. There is one refrigerator ship from the People's Republic of China which is stocked full because they were going up the coast to LA and San Francisco. We can use the ship to store any food we produce. The problem is that only the Capitan and first mate speak English and they refuse to let us on board. They could potentially be violent if we push the subject. This is not my area of expertise, so I'm not sure where to proceed on that front."
"The next ship is also from the PRC, but it seems to have been filled with illegal aliens. None of these refugees speak English except the first mate. They are being detained by our local INS office and they are trying to process them. We have one oil tanker from Venezuela which increases our supplies greatly. They speak Spanish mostly, but since we have many Spanish speakers, it isn't a big problem. They are actually very eager to assist and want to know where they are best placed. We have three ships from Japan with electronics like VCRs, CD players, computers and such. They have a large collection of the new DVD systems as well as the DVDs and game systems. We can use them to help run our projects, but we don't need to worry about them for now. The sailors want to get off the ship and are willing to pay for hotel accommodations.
"The next five ships are from India. The first four carry food and cotton clothing. The last one is a smaller cruise ship with about 450 people on board. Almost all of the Indians speak English and most are in their mid twenties to retirement age. They are mostly willing to help because they feel they need to do something. One Norwegian ship has a ballast of aquavit, a highly alcoholic drink and a boatload of dried cod. Two Russian ships: one with another payload of illegal aliens, INS is detaining them as well; the other has barrels of vodka that were supposed to be bottled here in the states. It's enough to get the entire city of Sunnydale drunk for a year. The next ship is American and has construction supplies from Washington state. We have two small shipping vessels from South Africa and Madagascar. Both carry various import goods, most of which are luxury goods.
"The next ships are not from the industrial dock, but the upscale section. These are rich yachts and sailboats. They are owned by rich people who are used to being the center of attention to all the time. We have three movie stars, two rich industrialists, four politicians, two rock bands, one country band, and fifty-four models who arrived for a photo shoot. Frankly I would rather take Buffy's job than deal with these people ever again." Several people stifled laughs at this. "They are calling for everything from the latest drugs and the most expensive foods (which we don't have, I might add) to actually demanding call girls be brought to the boats. We also have one more yacht of Japanese tourists, two families and their friends, but they have been quite pleasant to deal with. Some of them can speak English and seem quite willing to help out. They have mentioned some experience in construction and martial arts."
"And that is just the port, not including the problems with the people just passing through on the bus. The hotels are nearly filled with people who came up for the weekend. They have finally stopped asking to "just go home" as they put it. They seem to be finally accepting the fact that they aren't going anywhere.
"Between the building of the new hydroelectric dam and the construction that was already taking place, we don't have enough workers to build the needed housing and we don't have the land to build inside the city limits because we need the land for food production. Frankly I don't know where to go from here.
"Couldn't we just build on the natural plateaus here?" Joyce suggested. "They are flat enough and we need the space. There are plenty of trees blown down that we could use for new lumber."
"We could, but we still don't know much about how we are situated geologically," Maggie Walsh explained. "That's why we need scientists to test the area. What is the situation with the airport?"
"That's a good plan, but a harder situation," said the deputy. "There's a company that made its living off taking pictures of people's houses from the air and then trying to sell the pictures to the home owners. I want them to start surveying the area, but they refuse to help."
"I can take care of the problem if the airport is made part of the Base," Colonel suggested. "I have some damn good airmen who are just waiting to get back up in the air. We need those maps badly." He turned to Walsh, "Would it be possible for the same maps to be used by the geologists?"
"I don't know, I'll have to ask my colleagues," she said honestly.
"There is something else we have to deal with," Angel spoke up. Faces turned to him from their conversations. "People are going to want to go back to Earth. What about Acathla? Could we just activate him again and send the town back to California?"
"There is no way to know if that would work," Giles said, attempting to keep his temper under control. "It could just as easily drag the rest of earth in, or could send us to a totally different world. There is no way of knowing what would happen and I suggest no one try it."
"I still don't understand how we got here in the first place," Dr. Amelia Chung said. "I still haven't seen any evidence of these demons or vamp-AGH!" She screamed as Spike vamped out and growled at her. Spike backed down when Buffy threatened to stake him.
"Is anyone going to eat that last doughnut?" the police chief asked. Everyone pondered if the stake would have been better used on him.
Lower in the valley, Dove Falconhand, Ranger and Sorceress and Chosen of Mystra, lead her band of adventurers (and the scumbag McGristle) up the rim of the valley. Several times she had spotted the Drow on the opposing rim, but she dared not go below because of the danger of rock slides. The disaster the previous day was still on their minds. Fret, their dwarven sage had a nasty head wound that she had just managed to patch up. He would need a healer soon. This was not the kind of wound many people survived. She had her definite doubts about this tracking. The bounty was tempting, but not tempting enough if he was not guilty. The Barghests had killed the Thistledowns; she would bet money on it, and she was not a betting woman. She almost wanted to meet this lone Drow.
Her elven archer friend had described the fight two nights ago twice and he was starting to agree with her. The Drow could have easily slaughtered him, but had not. This was not like anything anyone knew about the Drow. They were killers, plain and simple.
There he was again, running along the rim. She saw him several times each hour. Clearly he had seen the same problem with the valley floor and was keeping to the heights for protection. Unfortunately this made him clear as day in many occasions. There was no stupidity in this one; he knew he had been spotted. McGristle was heartily complaining that this had all been part of the Drow's magics, but everyone else in the party knew better. No single Drow could bring this much devastation. A mere two years before she had traveled along this valley and it had been a lush landscape of trees and wildlife. Now it was a wasteland. Some great shock wave had blown through, toppling everything in its path.
Her party had been lucky. They had been just around a corner when the blast hit, sending boulders flying like arrows through the valley. Had they been ten minutes closer behind the Drow, the entire party would have been killed. As it was they were all bruised and beaten, although the dwarf had the only serious wound. She was almost ready to call off the hunt, using the head wound as an excuse. But it would never work so long as the Drow was still in sight. McGristle, blinded by greed, was more than likely to attack them if they chose to "abandon the Thistledowns." "Choose to abandon his reward" was more like it. But there was another reason she kept going. There was trouble in this valley, and for once it had nothing to do with the mountain orcs under Graul's control. Every tree and a large number of boulders had been blown away, all in the same direction as if a massive blast of wind had struck them down. The only thing powerful enough that she had heard of were those forgotten mythals of Elven magic. Abandoned, untended, some mythals had become unstable. If a Mythal had detonated, it could be much worse than anticipated. If what Kellindil said was true, they could be facing a new Myth Drannor, an elven metropolis corrupted by fiends and worse. She knew of no elven mythal in the Nether mountains. A lost work of Netheril then. Regardless, the sound of the explosion was the loudest noise any of them had ever heard.
Buffy and company is owned by Joss W. and Mutant Enemy.
The Forgotten Realms and such are created and owned by Ed Greenwood and Wizards of the Coast and the various authors of the fiction.
Ranma 1/2 is owned by Rumiko Takahashi.
Thanks go to Janessa Ravenwood for editing this massive literary beast.