Author's note: Fight! Fight! Fight! No Daria this part. Couldn't fit her in.
Also: Someone asked why Cameron Kim seems to take the shape of a leopard so often. Remember, she can't change her mass. 123 pounds makes for an undersized jaguar and isn't even close to lion or tiger weight, but makes a nice-sized leopard. Also, it's a form she's familiar with, having taken it so often in the past. I go by the assumption that she's carefully studied what animals have her weight and judged the advantages of each.
Disclaimer: More borrowing from "Spiral," particularly in the Slayerettes' early reaction to the attack. Otherwise, Buffy belongs to Joss, Daria belongs to Glenn, and the original characters belong to me.
X X X X X
It became obvious to Lynette Vaughn that Cameron Kim was simply uncomfortable with the situation. Her attempts to draw the young woman into a conversation -- any kind of conversation -- were met with short answers. She didn't seem hostile, just like she'd rather be somewhere else.
So Lynette turned on the radio and followed the Winnebago. Of course, she almost could have done that on foot. Either the engine in that thing belonged in a Geo Metro, or the driver had a paralyzing fear of going over 35 miles per hour.
So it took her by surprise when, a few hours into their trip when they were somewhere out in the California desert, she heard Cameron Kim say, "Dr. Vaughn" with a tone approaching urgency.
"What is it?"
"Try not to be alarmed. Just look into your rear view mirrors and tell me if you see the same thing I do." Lynette glanced into the mirrors -- and almost ran off the road when she saw the knights charging up behind them -- and to every side of them. What the hell?
"I think this is something they need to know about," Lynette said.
"Me too. Unfortunately, I think we have the only working cell phones."
"I'll honk the horn," Lynette said, and did so. They didn't seem to notice. "Okay, I'll pull up ahead of them --"
She didn't get the chance. Suddenly, it seemed, horses surrounded them and the RV. They mostly seemed to be ignoring Lynette --
And then one of them fired an arrow through the side of the Winnebago.
"Okay," Lynette said grimly. "Now that we know they're not an honor guard, what do we do?"
"I'm not sure --" Cameron began, but was interrupted when a mace came smashing through the back window of Lynette's car. The knight closest to her seemed to be gesturing for them to stop.
Lynette gave him another gesture entirely, then, feeling sorry for the horse, suddenly swerved her car directly into the man. Horse and rider went down.
In the meantime, Cameron Kim was rolling down her window. "What are you doing?" Lynette asked.
"Cameron said. "I may not be big on violence, but when I'm attacked, I like to fight back." And when the next horse and rider passed by, she changed into a leopard and leapt out of the window right onto his back. The startled rider fell off and Cameron jumped off the horse as it went running off into the desert.
There was another rider right behind her. Lynette slammed on her brakes and the horse hit the car, and they both went down as well.
Okay, three down, Lynette thought.
Dozens, unfortunately, to go.
X X X X X
Cameron Kim had no idea who these knights were or why they were attacking.
And honestly, right now, she didn't care. That they were attacking was the important thing.
Would she have leapt out the window if they hadn't smashed the back windshield of Lynette Vaughn's car?
She didn't know. And there were sure as hell better times for self-analysis.
The man she'd knocked off the horse still seemed interested in fighting. He had a sword that he seemed to know how to use.
So she wouldn't fight him. She turned and ran off, chasing some of the other horses. Turning back into a leopard, she easily outdistanced the man, then made a decision. A leopard wasn't the ideal creature here. It would be suicide for her to try to spring on an armed and armored man who knew she was coming.
Time to get creative. Cameron became a wolf and chomped on the legs of the nearest horse, sending it and its rider tumbling to the ground. The way the horse landed on him, he wouldn't be getting up again. Then she turned around and looked. There were still a dozen or so riders behind her. The nearest one seemed fixed on her, and the way he was holding his sword he clearly intended to chop down at her.
So she wasn't there. She started to run towards it, and, timing it as best she could, turned into a grey kangaroo at the last second.
She caught the man completely off guard -- more so when she crashed into him and knocked him off of his horse. As an added bonus, he dropped his sword.
Damn. Time for her to do what she didn't like to do. Like with that minion of Glorificus', what salved her conscience was that the knights had started it. The man was well armored, but the protection didn't extend to his face or neck.
So she turned back into a wolf and, reluctantly, ripped out his throat. Looking around, she noticed more of the knights starting to focus on her. In the distance, Buffy Summers was on the roof of the trailer. They were more or less ignoring Lynette Vaughn, giving her smaller, faster car a wide berth.
Time to get out of the neighborhood. When she finally hit her grown-up weight -- and ever since she was 16 she'd been within five pounds or her current 123 no matter how much she pigged out our starved herself -- she'd been pissed off that she was too heavy to become a cheetah, which despite their length tended to top out at around a hundred pounds. Then she did some research and figured something out: cheetahs might be better sprinters, but pronghorns kept up the speed better. Shifting into pronghorn form, she took off, reaching 60 miles per hour within a few seconds.
A minute later, she was in front of the RV --
There was a knight with spear seconds away from chucking it at the front windshield. He didn't seem to realize Cameron was there.
She turned back into a leopard and jumped.
X X X X X
"What the fuck?" Faith said.
Buffy opened the blinds and looked outside. There were knights on horseback all around them. She couldn't see how many, but there had to be a few dozen at least. Faith looked out next to her. "Shit. Who the hell are these guys?"
"Knights of Byzantium. They want to stop Glory --"
"Then why are they shooting at us?"
"--by destroying her only way to get home. The Key. Dawn."
Then she ran into the main room of the RV. Faith stayed in the back room for a second. Buffy yelled, "Giles!"
"I see them," he said.
"See who?" Spike asked.
"Buncha guys on horses chasin' us," Faith said. "The Doc's okay. That Kim chick jumped one of 'em. Knocked him clean off his horse."
Right then, an arrow hit the wall inches away Spike's head. "Arrows!" Xander said.
Spike said, "Bloody hell!"
"Everyone who can't fight, get down and stay there," Faith said. Dawn, Anya, Willow and Tara hit the floor. "B. Weapons?"
"We're driving one!" Spike said.
"Don't hit the horses!" Willow said.
Buffy said, "We won't," then walked up to Giles. "Aim for the horses."
When Buffy turned back to the main cabin, she saw Faith twirling Olaf's Hammer. "What about this thing?"
"Good idea," Buffy said.
"My idea!" Anya said proudly.
Xander asked, "Did we shake them?" as a sword came through the roof and narrowly missed his head.
"Duck," Faith yelled, then as Xander ducked, kicked the flat of the blade as hard as she could. No one came flying off the roof. Dammit.
Buffy looked around, then yelled, "Xander! Hatch! Faith! Hammer!" Spike, meanwhile, grabbed a frying pan from the top of the stove and brought it up against the point of the sword as hard as he could. The sword disappeared.
Xander came over and boosted Buffy to the roof. Faith tossed Olaf's hammer up to her.
The knight was standing up now, and the sword was nowhere to be seen. "Good job, Spike," she muttered. The second he saw Buffy, the knight charged at her. Damn. No room to use the hammer. She dropped it and punched him twice in the head before he blocked the third blow. Then he grabbed her and they wrestled for a bit before he kicked her in the head and sent her over the side of the RV. If she hadn't managed to grab the rail, she'd have fallen off and been trampled by the knight who was quickly moving up behind her, swinging his mace. The knight still on the roof was standing over her, ready to stomp on her hands.
Suddenly, he fell off the roof, directly onto the trailing knight. They both toppled off onto the pavement. Looking up, she saw Faith standing there.
"Thought you might need the help," she said. "See I was right."
"I could've handled it," she said, but made it obvious that she was joking. She went over and picked up Olaf's hammer. Well behind them, she saw a kangaroo knock a knight off a horse, then become some kind of dog.
Dr. Vaughn seemed to be okay -- the knights seemed to be ignoring her, more or less. She was swerving her car in the way of the knights chasing them, blocking easy access, though a couple of them were slipping by.
Like the two morons who were right that second trying to jump onto the roof. Faith went over and stomped on a pair of hands until the guy yelped and fell off.
The other knight was faster and made it to the roof. If the fact that he was outnumbered bothered him, he didn't let it show. Instead, he swung his flail like a pro.
Facing two Slayers -- one of whom was armed -- he was bound to make a mistake. It happened when his attention lingered on Buffy and the hammer for just a fraction of a second too long. Faith charged the man and grabbed his flail arm with one hand, punching him in the face with the other. Buffy ran up and swept the hammer at his legs, and he dropped his weapon and began screaming in pain.
Buffy didn't bother getting fancy; she picked the guy up and pitched him off the side of the Winnebago.
Cameron Kim, meantime, had taken the shape of some kind of antelope and was quickly catching up to them. They seemed to have outdistanced their pursuers.
Faith said, twirling the flail, "Cool. We got ourselves a souvenir."
Buffy's answer was cut off by a jolt from the front of the RV. Then a second one, even harder. She and Faith were thrown flat as the vehicle twisted and turned violently, but they managed to avoid falling off.
As they stood up, Buffy saw Cameron Kim, out of the corner of her eye, ripping out the throat of one final knight. The rest were falling way behind.
"What the hell was that?" Faith asked.
Buffy didn't answer, knowing that whatever it was, it couldn't have been good. She said, "Look out below, dropped the hammer down, and jumped down into the cabin. Faith jumped after her.
Giles was lying down on the cabin floor. Spike was pressing towels on his left shoulder, while Dawn and Anya were doing their best to clean it off.
"What happened?" Buffy asked.
Giles said, obviously in pain, "One last knight. He threw a spear through the windshield. Right as he threw it, a leopard leapt onto the rider, throwing off his aim and knocking him off the horse. The spear caught me in the shoulder."
"What was that second bump?"
"Oh. That," Giles said. "That would be when we hit the horse. Not head on, thankfully, or we'd all be in the middle of a pile of junk right about now."
From the front of the Winnebago, Xander said, "We already are."
Buffy ran up to the front. "What do you mean?"
Xander pointed to one of the gauges. "Now, I'm not an expert on the subject," he said. "But I kinda think having that needle be up in the red is a bad thing. I think hitting the horse must've damaged the radiator, or something."
"Any chance of pushing this thing to the next town?"
"Only if you mean literally."
Damn. There was no way they'd all fit in Dr. Vaughn's car, even if Cameron Kim became a snake and Spike rode in the trunk. They'd have to stop and think for a bit -- "There," she said. "See that building?"
"The abandoned gas station?" Xander said dubiously.
"Yeah. Drive there." Xander obeyed and immediately swerved off the road. "Hold on back there," Buffy called out, a little late. "No. Not in front. We don't want the Knights of Byzantium to be able to see us from the road."
Xander maneuvered the Winnebago to a stop. "Everyone out and inside!" There were no exits in the back of the building, so they had to run around the front. Buffy carried the hammer in one hand while supporting Giles with the other, Faith carried Tara, and Spike ran ahead and kicked the door in. Dr, Vaughn followed them inside. Cameron Kim was nowhere to be seen.
Spike and Buffy lifted Giles onto a long, dusty counter. "This is entirely unnecessary," Giles said. "I'll be fine --"
"G-Man," Xander said, "I take a back seat to no one when it comes to getting how tough you are. But, come on, man -- you had five feet of wood sticking out of your left shoulder. In no possible dimension is that 'fine.'"
"Actually --" Anya began, then grew quiet when Xander glared at her.
"Prop up his head," Dr. Vaughn said. "And let me take a look at it." She went over to examine Giles' injured shoulder.
"Is everyone okay?" Buffy said. Everyone said they were. Buffy walked over to Dawn. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. But what about leopardwoman?"
"Last we saw of her," Faith said, "She was chowin' down on a knight's throat. We might not trust her, but I gotta give the girl her props: She kicked major ass out there. Hope she figures out where we are."
"Ditto," Buffy said distractedly, as she went over to sneak a look through the boarded-up windows. No, she still didn't trust the shapeshifter either. But this had been her chance to turn and run, and instead she'd done her damnedest to protect them.
There was no one outside. No large out-of-place animals either.
From behind her, Anya said, "You have another plan, right? One that doesn't involve pointy knives and a Winnebago?"
"Yeah," Buffy said. "Give me a minute. Dr. Vaughn?"
"What is it?" the psychiatrist asked as she ripped up sections of Giles' shirt, apparently to use as a bandage.
"First, how is he?"
"It's a relatively clean wound," she said. "I've staunched the bleeding for the moment, and cleaned it off as best as I could. Still, he's going to need to get to a hospital. It isn't an emergency, but I wouldn't go on any long side trips.
"Good." That was something of a load off. "Second, how many people can you fit into your car?"
"Five, if the three in the back are friendly," she said. "What did you have in mind?"
"Okay. Take Tara, Dawn, Giles, and Faith with you. We'll hole up here until you --" Her speech was interrupted by the flaming arrow that came flying through one of the windows. "Get down!" Buffy yelled as more arrows came into the building.
Faith crawled over to the windows and snuck a look out. "Well, B, looks like King Arthur himself is out there. And he brought every damn knight of the round table with him. What do you want us to do now?"
Good question.