Everything either belongs to Joss or it should, no infringement is intended and no profit is to be made. When you get right down to it I'm not really worth suing anyway unless you want a share of an underpaid civil servants wages and it just wouldn't be worth the hassle trust me.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Warehouse – Reseda – Los Angeles – July 2003
'Yes I'm certain it's Amalfi' Kennedy said into her cellphone. 'Big teeth, too many eyes and they left out the part that it's the size of a fucking house' she said angrily. '…I don't know' she said after a pause, 'sorta like a Fyarl mated with a Kailiff… and then their kid got knocked up by a fucking dinosaur.'
Connor sized the thing up. 'Tell them it's at least twenty-five feet tall, maybe ten tons in weight' he said calmly unlocking the folding metal stock on the shotgun, snapping it into place, as a rule he much preferred edged weapons or his fists but the notion of punching something well over four times his height was just insane. He had sounded a lot less scared than he felt, he was glad to hear, Connor had been worried there would be a tremor in his voice but his tone said he was steady and in control even if his instincts were screaming at him to run like hell.
A steady click click next to him told Connor that Rona was loading her own shotgun but he sure as hell wasn't going to take his eyes off the demon to check. He'd heard a story from Gunn once about him and Wesley taking on something nearly as tall in a sewer once but this thing wasn't going to go down to a sword thrust and an axe in the skull, it looked like they'd bounce off its hide for a start.
'No it's a bit late to think about not provoking it' Kennedy practically hissed into her cellphone, '… no Connor threw a grenade at it… not much but it does look pretty pissed' she continued with her half of the conversation. 'They say to try running away' she told the others rolling her eyes.
'Inspired leadership from the top' Rona said bitterly. 'Jesus Christ that thing is big' she said. 'Why isn't it chasing us?'
'Sizing us up' Connor replied. 'If we run we're prey' he added.
'And if we don't run?' Rona asked.
Connor took a deep breath to steady his nerves and his aim. 'Then when it makes its move we're easily caught prey.'
'So we're not thinking vegetarian?' Rona asked chambering a round in her own shotgun.
'You don't need teeth like that to eat lettuce' Connor replied evenly.
'Help's on the way' Kennedy said snapping her cellphone shut. 'So what's the plan?' she asked grabbing a bandolier of shells from the back of the range rover and starting to load her own shotgun. The two newbie slayers were still just gaping at Amalfi, it was a hell of an introduction to the new job. One looked at her sword then to the demon, no fucking way, she thought.
'The plan?' Connor repeated, 'Okay I get it to chase me, you worry about the hundred Skilosh that are forming up behind it' Connor replied noting the comparatively tiny figures that were pouring out of the warehouse next to the huge demon. Normally they wouldn't be seen outside in daylight but they weren't too worried about being spotted by humans now, for one thing if there were any bystanders they'd be overlooked because the behemoth next to them was a lot more eye-catching.
'Think you can outrun it?' Rona asked.
'If I can't you sure as hell can't' Connor replied honestly, starting to move slowly away from the others. The thing was definitely singling him out, moving its head slightly in response despite the fact it must have all-round vision from the six equidistant eyes that ringed its skull. The grenade must have stung a bit at least, even if he couldn't spot any real damage on the creature. 'We've got a hundred yard head-start' he continued. 'When I go this way' he said indicating off down the road to the junction then to the left, 'and it starts following me you go that way' he said cocking his head in the other direction 'Make sure you don't provoke it and watch out for the Skilosh.'
'We can handle them' Kennedy replied. 'Just don't get caught, because I'm not explaining to your Dad why you're Demonzilla chow.'
Connor smiled. 'I'm lean meat, low in cholesterol and with that little hint of vampire for extra tang' he replied. 'Back in the Quartoth you wouldn't believe how many things tried to make dinner out of me and I'm still here' he told her. 'At least I don't have to worry about it sneaking up on me' he pointed out reasonably.
'Good luck anyway Connor' Rona told him.
Ready to make his move, Connor took careful aim. Normally you wouldn't use a shotgun at a fraction of this range but the solid core Brenneke Rounds were still reasonably effective at this distance, they had specially shaped tiny fins cast into them to spin them in flight for accuracy and you certainly couldn't hope for a bigger target. They wouldn't be going fast enough to do much damage at a hundred yards, certainly not to something like that, but they should at least attract some attention.
'Tell Buffy she owes Wes an apology for saying we didn't need to get an anti-tank gun' Connor said wryly and switched his shotgun over from pump to semi-automatic fire.
Connor pulled the trigger eight times fast, the SPAS-12 could empty itself in two seconds in semi-auto and he had plenty of strength to handle the recoil as the weapons metal stock punched back into his shoulder rapidly and repeatedly. The shotgun roared and the solid core slugs hurtled towards the huge demon one after another.
They would have likely blown a hole through a man but they bounced clean off what they did hit. It's hide must be like armour, hell it could be six inches thick Connor considered.
'MEEP MEEP' Connor yelled, turned and ran for his life holding the shotgun in one hand and the bandolier of shells bouncing against him as he took off down the road.
The beast of Amalfi roared and started chasing. It was the sheer temerity of defiance from such a puny creature that provoked it rather than any actual harm, although that explosive device had stung a bit.
Kennedy watched it intently, making mental notes on what they were facing. Interestingly Amalfi wasn't actually that fast, not if you thought of it in human scale anyway, if it was a person you'd say it was barely jogging, however given its strides were so long, a slow pace still had it doing upwards of thirty miles an hour, considerably faster than an Olympic Sprinter flat out.
Fortunately for Connor he could leave Michael Jordan standing, even if he wasn't being chased by something that was putting cracks in the asphalt as it ran. The added motivation really helped his form some. The loud thump of clawed foot onto roadway behind him gave the teenager just the impetus he needed.
Kennedy waited for a couple of seconds until she was sure it was definitely chasing Connor and wasn't about to veer off their way instead, big as a house, dumb as a rock, she thought then with a barked order to the others she started sprinting the opposite direction to Connor with the other three in tow having loaded her own shotgun with buckshot for dealing with the Skilosh. She didn't know how long Connor could keep ahead of the thing but one problem at a time.
The two other Slayers of Rona's party appeared from around the other side of the warehouse and just caught enough of a glimpse of Amalfi disappearing down the road to stop dead in their tracks and gape before Kennedy screamed at them to get moving.
Five Slayers were not going to beat twenty-to-one odds shotguns or not, the Skilosh had already started to chase them as soon as the huge demon had begun to pursue Connor. However they had a plan for this kind of situation well the hundred ordinary sized demons thing anyway.
Kennedy led them into an alley then called a halt turning to face the pursuing Skilosh the other three Slayers with Shotguns lining up beside her and the two with swords staying behind.
Rona fired first, her solid shots outranging the buckshot the others were using and she gunned down several Skilosh before they got within the forty yard effective range of the other shotguns.
Kennedy and the other two slayers began firing, emptying their shotguns into the horde of onrushing Skilosh who were screaming battle cries and calls for Amalfi and victory. The buckshot tore vicious wounds in the front ranks of the demons but they kept coming.
The shotguns clicked empty. 'Run!' Kennedy yelled and the six girls sprinted away from the mob easily outdistancing them. They might not be quite as fast as Connor but for a slayer outrunning a Skilosh was easy.
Two hundred yards further on Kennedy stopped again and quickly reloaded as did the others. It wasn't a residential neighbourhood but someone was going to hear all the commotion and call the cops. That was all they needed, a couple of LAPD squad cars arriving in the middle of a slayer vs. demon fight would certainly raise a few questions. Chances were the cops in Los Angeles were still trying to get to grips with the rain of fire and the still completely unexplained blocking out of the sun a couple of months back.
'Fire' Kennedy ordered as soon as the Skilosh closed the gap and once again they cut down the front ranks of the demons, the ones behind clambering over their bodies to try to get to the Slayers.
Shotguns clicked empty, the slayers ran again, stopped, reloaded and fired again once their pursuers caught up.
By the fourth time they went through the routine the Skilosh realised they were being really fucking stupid and that the slayers were not only too fast to catch, between them they were hauling a lot more ammunition than there were Skilosh to shoot with it. The humans were completely without honour for fighting this way, cowardly staying out of the reach of their enemies, but you couldn't say it wasn't working for them, they'd gunned down at least half the Clan already and a lot of the ones still on their feet were carrying some buckshot.
'We are throwing away lives that belong to our master Amalfi not ourselves' one of the Skilosh declared. Whether its words were motivated by devotion, or the fact it had a painful number of small pieces of lead in its right arm, was largely irrelevant. It did have a valid point, the humans were probably laughing at them by now. 'We must rejoin him' it declared to its kin.
'Agreed' the most Senior responded. 'Amalfi will crush these weaklings when he sees fit' it said. 'Follow me' it ordered and began running back towards where they had started.
Kennedy watched them go. 'Could be an ambush' she said. 'I think we killed off the stupider ones already' she opined.
'We need to help Connor' Rona told her.
'How?' one of the others asked holding up her shotgun. 'These aren't going to stop that thing' she pointed out. 'We need something a lot meaner.'
Kennedy sighed. Girl made a good point.
The surviving Skilosh ran back to the warehouse, at least Amalfi would be easy to track, it left cracks in the road wherever it went.
Reseda – Los Angeles – July 2003
Connor ran. He could probably keep this speed up for another couple of miles but after that he'd be slowing down, his endurance was extreme not limitless. The problem was that he couldn't drop into a slow and steady pace because the thing chasing him was only slightly slower than he was and it was running a slow and steady pace by comparison. It just had legs longer than he was tall.
Well at least he had an audience Connor thought as he emerged onto a street with some traffic on it and almost immediately had to jump over a car to avoid being run over. Until now he'd deliberately tried to avoid people, almost running in a circle for a while along empty streets, but eventually he just had to run into people sometime, it was daylight in a city of four million plus people.
The car screeched to a halt and the driver started to scream at him when ten tons of demon emerged from the side street Connor had come from and promptly knocked the car aside sending it spinning into another vehicle as it chased the skinny youth down the road.
This is so going to be on the news, Connor thought to himself as he kept moving ignoring the reaction of both pedestrians and car drivers to the gigantic creature that was literally hell-bent on squashing him like a bug.
'Just get out of its way' Connor yelled as loud as he could. This was a really bad idea he thought, I've got to get it to chase me away from these people, what if it decides to stop for a rest and a snack?
'Is this a movie?' someone yelled at him. 'Is it a hologram? Where's the cameras?' the man asked looking around. He thought they put the special effects in after the film was shot but maybe this was a new SFX technique. You got used to film crews in LA but that monster looked really fake he thought.
'No it's a real fucking demon' Connor yelled back, keeping on the move. It was frankly astonishing that the people of this planet could live in a world so full of demons and magic and remain almost wholly unaware of it. Connor did wonder sometimes if there were some sort of all-compassing spell or conspiracy at work but something he'd heard once rang more true. "Never assume malevolence when stupidity explains the situation just as well". Certainly Connor had seen overwhelming evidence of stupidity in the people here look at the popularity of reality TV for a start.
Amalfi continued to pursue, it wasn't just a matter of pride, it was also the first exercise it had gotten for a very long time and the tiny creature it was chasing was giving the beast a nice tour of the area as well as an opportunity to use long neglected muscles. The small human creatures had moulded the world to their desires Amalfi noted, it was filled with their buildings and machines and the smell was simply indescribable, there must be untold millions of them just ripe for a long overdue culling. They had a simply hideous lack of eyes too which badly offended his aesthetic sense, could you even have decent depth perception with only the two eyes it wondered.
Cars swerved out of the way except for one unfortunate VW Beetle which Amalfi stepped on crushing the front of the vehicle and needless to say scaring the life out of the occupant. Connor kept moving, maybe another eye or two would be useful he thought, if I was a Skilosh at least I could see what was going on behind me, he considered hearing the screams and sounds of squealing tyres and rending metal in the wake of his passing.
Were those footsteps behind him getting closer or was he just starting to freak out? Connor wondered, accelerating slightly just in case. He was starting to get out of breath but Amalfi was apparently still fresh enough to roar at him occasionally.
Connor reached a crossroads, immediately decided which direction was the least busy and headed that way. For a second he got a flashback to being thirteen and getting chased down a canyon by a pair of oversized reptilian demons with six inch claws and poisoned fangs, happy memories… he'd give anything to be back there right now.
'There's no place like home, there's no place like home' Connor yelled. If he'd had time to stop he would have tried knocking his sneakers together too.
And to think they called Quartoth the Hell Dimension!
Where the hell was an obnoxious blue-haired Demon God or a sarcastic short blond slayer with a shiny red scythe when you really needed them?
There were sirens in the distance but getting closer. Hopefully the cops had the brains not to shoot at the thing when they arrived because it was already kinda cranky already.
Connor put his free hand into his pocket as he continued to run and started to reload his shotgun with Brenneke Slugs one at a time. At a hundred yards they bounced off, maybe he'd have more luck at say… ten? Hopefully he wouldn't have to try though, but if the cops arrived he'd have to save them by getting Amalfi's attention fully focused back in his direction.
He hoped Kennedy was alright and he kept running.
Warehouse – Reseda – Los Angeles – July 2003
A flash of light heralded a new arrival just as they got back to where the great beast had begun its pursuit of the skinny human male that dared to try to injure their new master. A small human figure with red hair simply winked into existence right in front of the demon pack and looked at them with widening eyes.
The trouble with magical teleportation, Willow considered, finding herself face to face with fifty Skilosh as she flashed in, is that you have to go alone. Even Anya who had been a far more accomplished teleporter in her demon days couldn't bring along a passenger and Willow was far from well practised at this. Fortunately they were as surprised as she was and the demons just looked back at the witch rather than immediately leaping to the attack.
A black vortex appeared a few yards behind Willow and started to grow quickly, the one that summoned it was using the witch as an aiming point for accuracy being able to sense and locate the momentary tear in reality her arrival had caused. Teleportation is quick, uses less power and has numerous other advantages, however if you portal you can bring company.
The vortex was four yards across when it spat out five figures and then closed behind them. It was a darn site quicker than trying to drive across LA to get here Buffy thought finding herself looking at Willow and a crapload of Skilosh. Illyria was the last one through the portal, holding it open for the others, and was therefore the last one out, finding herself standing behind Faith. The more people she bought through the more power she would have to use, which meant the less power she had available to use against Amalfi if necessary. Buffy had just grabbed the scythe and the three other non-blue people she thought would be the most use if things got nasty and Illyria portalled them all over. It was killing Angel not being able to come for his boy himself but the going out in daylight issue ruled him out of the list immediately.
'Willow would you mind moving to one side please' Wesley asked politely. 'You're in the line of fire' he told her raising his assault rifle, Vi doing likewise following his lead. They were both carrying G-36K's as proven in the field back in Sunnydale and had hundred-round drum magazines fitted for what Wesley called a nice spot of fully-automatic mayhem.
Buffy looked from Wesley standing slightly ahead to her left over to Vi on her right. Okay so they were both carrying machineguns, she thought, I'm the one with the scythe she considered changing her grip on the thing slightly. Vi was one of the most experienced of the new Slayers and was by far the best with a gun, Wesley was even better with a gun and despite being human had the magicks to fall back on if necessary so after Faith they had been Buffy's immediate choice to fill out the other two places.
'If I move they'll attack' Willow sent telepathically. In doing so she touched Illyria's mind which was unsurprisingly strange. For a split second she tried to probe further but was stopped dead by a wall in Illyria's mind and a definite impression that if she tried poking around any more she wouldn't like the result.
'Then teleport out of the way and we'll use the flash as a distraction' Wesley replied in thought. His mind was different to touch too, Willow noted, you could sense the Magicks just drifting in the background of his subconscious they were dark and familiar and more than a little enticing. She also got the feeling that if necessary he would shoot right through her if it meant achieving a greater good. Frankly Faith, although a murderer with serious psychological defects in her past, had a far less disturbing mind to contact. 'Is this an open line can everyone else hear?' he thought.
'Well I can hear you Wes. Hey this conference call thing is cool' Faith's voice spoke in his mind in response.
'So you're like a telepathic telephone exchange?' Vi thought. 'Do you do long distance or is it local calls only?'
'Only good for about a mile depending on how many other minds are around and how clearly you're thinking.' Willow replied. 'Any further than that and I get a migraine.'
'Willow. Just as you teleport let us know and we'll put some fire down' Wesley thought. 'Have you seen any sign of the others?'
'When I got here it was just me and the Skilosh' Willow thought. They were still in a Mexican standoff the demons unwilling to make the first move having already lost so many and also wary of beings with the power to teleport and/or portal. You needed serious mojo to do that kind of thing and magic was best treated with respect. 'I can sense all of them as still alive but Connor is a long way off.'
'Can you try and contact them?' Buffy queried.
'I can do better than that' Willow thought back. 'Kennedy you're on an open line let's not think anything you'll be embarrassed about later.'
'Hi guys' Kennedy's thoughts introduced themselves. 'We're all okay but Amalfi is chasing Connor. We fought off a crapload of Skilosh and the rest stopped chasing us.'
'We're looking at the rest of them right now' Buffy replied 'both sides waiting to see who makes the first move' she continued. 'Which way did Connor go?'
'Follow the cracks in the roadway' Kennedy replied. 'You wouldn't believe how big that thing is.'
'How much of a head-start do they have?' Buffy asked.
'At Connor's speed? Got to be miles by now' Kennedy replied.
'I will catch up' Illyria thought. 'Buffy you will come with me, you must stick close by, I cannot generate a temporal bubble more than a couple of yards from my body. I will keep my pace within the field slow enough for you to keep up.'
'We're going to do what now?' Buffy thought back keeping an eye on the enemy. The Skilosh were still watching them nervously likely wondering what was going on, after the debacle chasing the other slayers they were likely expecting trickery and wondering if this was a trap so they bided their time.
'I think Blue is going to do the Matrix thing' Faith interjected, 'and you're going for a ride' she thought. 'So I get to stay here and fight this lot with my sword and the riot-gun I borrowed from Wes?'
'They'll be a lot less of them after Wesley and I put two hundred rounds through them on full-auto'Vi noted. 'At this range we'll be blowing holes right through.'
'Just hose back and forth' Wesley thought.
'Nice imagery. I just knew you had a filthy mind in there Wes' Faith responded. 'You going to be in this Red?' she added. 'The fight I mean, not Wes's fantasies though I'll bet if you dug around in that big brain you'd find yourself in a few.'
'I'm only teleporting a few yards out of the way I'm not leaving you' Willow pointed out. 'As for Wesley's fantasy's I don't want to know.'
'He is quite imaginative' Illyria thought. 'His diaries were surprisingly erotic at times.'
'Enough!' Wesley's thoughts screamed into the ether. 'This is a life or death situation.'
'He's right' Buffy agreed. 'We'll make him embarrassed and uncomfortable later. Okay everyone, ready to go on three, two, one…'
Willow teleported in another flash of light, Faith jumped to one side raising her pistol-grip pump-action shotgun working the slide, two carbine assault rifles started blazing and Illyria raised her hand to warp the universe to her will.
Watched in slow-motion from inside the time distortion with Illyria Buffy had to admit it all looked really cool.