Title: The Sunnydale Chronicles
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, or Willow, or Faith, or Tara... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Life is a computer Game, and Sunnydale is the arena, but it is not the Slayer or a Demon who has the ability to decide its fate.
Xander held his arm up to prevent Faith from rushing forward towards the Vampires below them. Faith growled softly at him in agitation and Xander growled back, the Hyena in him demanding Faith submit to him. Faith backed down and wiggled slightly as her panties dampened slightly and Cordy simply rolled her eyes, careful to keep still as the same happened to her.
It was a week after 'The Ambush' and a few days before Halloween. Xander had changed their Patrol patterns to avoid a repeat of 'The Ambush'. Now the trio altered when the they patrolled, sometimes doing multiple small patrols and others a single large patrol, and picked different areas to patrol so that the Vampires could not predict where they would be. Another massive change was that they took to the rooftops, ambushing groups of Vampires with crossbows, aiming to cripple, and then moving in to wipe them out with their personal weapons.
"What's the matter?" Cordy asked quietly, looking down at the group of Vampires below them.
"Smells wrong." Xander replied.
"Come on, they're right there." Faith urged.
The trio watched as the group of six Vampires reached the end of the alleyway below them. The lead Vampire turned and made a signal and a further nine Vampires emerged from doorways down the alleyway and joined up with the original six.
With a quick gesture from Xander, they moved away from the alleyway across the rooftops. Once they were a few blocks away, they stopped for a moment.
"I'm calling it for tonight." Xander ordered.
"Oh, come on, it's still early." Faith protested.
"Settle down, Faith." Cordy snapped. "You almost ran us into another Ambush back there."
"We could have taken them." Faith grumbled.
"And drawn in another thirty or so Vampires with the noise." Xander countered. "We can't take them all in a stand-up fight at the moment, Faith."
The trio quickly made their way back to Joyce's house, where both Joyce and Tara were waiting for them. It had been two days after 'The Ambush' that Joyce had become a Support Team member, and since then they had used Joyce's house as their 'base' for patrols. It allowed Joyce to keep an eye on their mental health and it meant that Tara was not worrying alone while they were out. Also, the superb meals Joyce cooked for them was appreciated.
"You're back early." Joyce said as the trio walked in. "Dinner won't be ready for another forty minutes."
"I'm going for a shower." Cordy declared.
While Cordy headed up the stairs to the bathroom, Faith dropped onto the couch with her head in her hands while Xander went to the kitchen to chat with Tara. After a moment of sitting on the couch, Faith felt someone sit down next to her and looked out of the side of her eye to see Joyce on the next seat.
"Want to tell me about what happened?" Joyce asked in her 'mother' voice.
None of the teens could resist the 'mother' voice, but with her mother instincts and her Psychology Degree, Joyce mostly only used it when she knew there was something bothering one of the teens.
"The Vamps set up an Ambush tonight." Faith explained. "Xand caught it but we weren't seen, so we were still right to go but he pulled the plug."
Dinner was delayed as Joyce spent the next hour talking Faith through her impulse control issues and urge to always jump into a fight. Of course, it did not resolve the issues, but it was enough to ground the young Slayer for the evening. Luckily Joyce had deputised Tara to take over the preparation of dinner and the Wiccan knew enough to prevent it burning.
Xander was sitting at the breakfast bar in the 'Granny Flat' eating cereal when the system message appeared in his field of vision.
Special Event – Halloween.
Halloween has come around and so has Chaos Magic. For one night, what is on the outside overwrites what is on the inside. This will give you the opportunity to give yourself, your Slayer and the Support Team new skills and abilities or enhance existing ones. It will also be a night of violence and Chaos that could be dangerous to you and your team.
This Event can give you great power over the development of the team, but be careful with your choices. Some skills will conflict or degrade others if selected within the same character or can cause tension or conflict between team members.
In order to accept this Special Event, go to 'Ethan's costumes' and make the selection for each member of the team.
Xander dismissed the message and it faded from his vision as Tara came down, dressed in her long dressing gown over her conservative nightdress. It had taken a long time for Tara to become comfortable enough for even that.
A few minutes later, which Xander spent contemplating if to accept the Halloween Special Event, Cordy also came down. Unlike Tara, Cordy was dressed in rather skimpy negligee, designer of course. Xander found it a pleasant view and it caused Tara to blush slightly. Faith had spent the pervious night, after the detected ambush, over at Joyce's House at the elder woman's insistence. When the Bostonian Slayer was around she always got into contests with the Sunnydale Socialite to try and capture Xander's romantic attention. Xander was happy with how it would turn out either way but he was personally hoping they would settle it with naked mud wrestling.
"So, what's the plan for this weekend?" Cordy asked. "There are several Halloween Parties that we could attend. There are some that would be good to seen at socially. A few we should avoid like the plague."
"What about Faith and Joyce?" Xander asked. "Do these parties require Costumes?"
"Some do, some don't." Cordy replied. "Faith should be no problem, as long as she behaves, as much as Faith can. Joyce, well there are one or two with older attendees. We need to decide quickly in order to RSVP properly."
"Make me a list." Xander said. "Include if they require costumes or not."
"You got it." Cordy said, giving him a hug while pushing her breasts into his back.
"We all ready?" Xander asked.
Faith, Cordy, Tara and Joyce were all standing outside Ethan's Costume Shop. Cordy and Xander had decided to go to the Sunnydale Museum's Charity Halloween Costume Party. Joyce had agreed to go as much as a chance to explore the Museum's exhibits as to mingle and make contacts for her small gallery.
They all walked into the store and split up going to different sections of the store. For Xander a menu popped up in his vision. The menu contained a tab for each of the different Team Members with an individual listing of available costumes.
The first item on Xander's list of possible costumes was a familiar one.
Soldier Costume: Selecting this costume will give Xander the 'Soldier Instincts' trait. If Xander already has 'Soldier Instincts' Trait, the Soldier Costume will upgrade the 'Soldier Instincts' Trait to 'Special Forces Soldier Instincts' Trait.
'Special Forces Soldier Instincts' improves Xander's situational awareness, firearms skills and removes the negative social penalty for anyone without 'friend' status.
Warning: If Xander prosses the 'Hyena Instincts' then the 'Soldier Instincts' Trait will conflict. The Discipline of 'Soldier Instincts' will be nullified, as will most of the 'Hyena Instincts' bonuses, in particularly the ability to track by scent and the speed and strength bonuses.
Xander read through the entry and realised that in the previous playthrough, the 'Hyena Instincts' and the 'Soldier Instincts' had been conflicting with each other and cancelling each other out to an extent.
Musing he began scrolling through the options. For Faith he was, ironically enough, looking for something to give her a bit more discipline. Joyce was going to be a pure non-combatant, so something like medical skills or advanced psychological training. For Tara, something Magical, maybe support or maybe combat.
For Cordy and himself, he was looking for more combat orientated skills, but he was open to other costumes if they gave good and adaptable skills.
TBC…