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 TWENTY-SIX

Mountain Pass - Jasmine's World – February 2005

Lara found herself marching, or in her case she still preferred to think of it as walking, between two gunslayers as they made their way along the pass. She was making no attempt to keep in stepand this in itself was annoying them although it didn't prevent them from having a conversation across her, their voices muffled by their respirators.

'I know it sounds great in principle, but from what I've heard Bucky is really inaccurate' one remarked to the other, 'I mean I like the idea of putting the hurt on the vamps but I also liked being able to hit something at more than two hundred yards if I had to.'

'Even if you could they're less effective the longer they've travelled because they've used up more of the phosphor' the other girl noted.

'Yeah' the first girl agreed glumly, 'hey did you hear that fire and ice idea?' she asked.

'No' the second replied.

'I think it sounds good, one of the chicks in Jailbait's team had the idea that if you took a empty copper jacket from a 6.5 millimetre, poured some water in instead of lead and froze it you could fire them' she said.

'Well what the hell kind of good is that?' the second girl asked.

'Holy Water you idiot' the first girl told her. 'When the bullet hits the jacket comes apart and the vamps got a little chunk of the stuff burning out his guts' she said. 'It would take a while, because you know, vamps are cold, but they're not below freezing so it would melt.'

'That's brilliant' the second girl exclaimed, 'why didn't I think of that?' she wondered aloud. 'Hey "fire and ice", I get it, Bucky Incendiaries and Holy Water Ice Bullets.'

'Mass' Lara interjected.

'You mean we'd need to hold a Catholic Mass to bless the Holy Water?' one of the girls asked.

'No I mean they put lead in bullets because it's got lots of mass for its volume, it's heavy' Lara told them, 'lead has more mass than other metals that's why the use it in bullets and even light metals like aluminium sink in water' she continued. 'Ice floats on water so it won't make very good bullets for long range, not enough inertia.'

'How do you know so much about bullets?' the first girl asked in surprise.

'I don't, I know physics' Lara replied. 'Just because I'm a witch doesn't mean I don't know any science' she said. 'You can use the magicks to bend the laws of physics sometimes but you can't break them completely so it's worth knowing your limits' she told them.

'I love how you say "aluminium" instead of "aluminum" it's quaint' one of the girls told Lara.

'It's the correct pronunciation and spelling, it used to be the main one in America too' Lara replied. 'For some reason you Yanks lost the ability to spell it at some point' she said smugly. 'While we're at it that thing hanging off your backpack is a battle axe with an e on the end.'

'At least I don't sound like a pirate' one of the girls said laughing.

'I don't sound like a pirate and if I find out who's idea it was to give me a cutlass I'm going to turn them into a frog' Lara declared. 'Wow that's a view' she said as they reached the end of the pass.

It certainly couldn't be called a pleasant panorama, unless vicious jagged peaks jutting out from barren valleys filled with dank mist was your idea of home, but it was certainly impressive. Some of the girls were taking photographs with digital cameras, while others made derogatory remarks about the local geography and said it explained why the bugs wanted to conquer more hospitable dimensions.

'That must be Jasmine's Temple' one of the girls said, pointing off into the distance to an ugly stone monument on top of the tallest peak in the area. 'Guess we're in the right place' she added.

Vi shouldered her rifle and raised a set of heavy binoculars that gave better magnification than the telescopic sight on her G-36K. 'Looks like it' she agreed then panned around. 'That must be the main road' she said looking at a worn stone path which wound it way through the area, bridging chasms with aging stonework arches and occasionally meeting other trails that criss-crossed the region.

'If Jasmine's Temple is here does that mean this is the best spot on the whole damn planet?' a girl queried, looking around.

'No, the temple's here because this is where the major trade-routes across the continent cross this range of mountains' another replied. 'Don't you read the mission briefings?' she asked.

'I skimmed it' the girl replied defensively.

'Three pages was too much for you was it?' a third asked sarcastically. 'This range runs down the continent from the North to the South like a spine' she said. 'There's deserts to the west and east where the sand's black and most of the bugs live underground' she said.

'What the hell do they find to eat' the girl who hadn't read the briefing asked.

'Big burrowing rodents' the sarcastic geography expert replied. 'That's why they call us "furries" because we're mammals like their food' she said. 'I think those flares worked' she said bringing up her carbine as a large number of the local demon population began to build up on the gentle slope that now lay between them and the trail below. They were better than three hundred metres away which they probably thought was out of range being badly mistaken about the capability of human weaponry.

'I think that one wants to parlay' Lara opined, instantly regretting her choice of words as one of the bugs left the group and began to move slowly towards them, it's clawed upper-torso limbs spread wide in what approximated a peaceful stance.

'Tell them we're disinclined to acquiesce to their request' one of the girls joked setting off some laughter although Lara muttered darkly behind her gas mask.

'Jailbait, go ask what he wants' Vi ordered. 'Rika, if he makes a false move blow him to the bug afterlife' she continued.

Resting the stock of her light machinegun on her hip, barrel pointed upwards and one hand on the grip Charlotte gently trotted down the slope towards the apparent bug emissary whileRika the South African Slayer unfolded the bipod on her oversized XM-109 sniper rifle and took up a prone position lying on the ground. If anything happened a 25 millimetre high-explosive projectile would ensure the bugs day wasn't a good one.

'I hope you speak English because I don't talk cockroach' Charlotte told the insectoid demon when she arrived, stopping twenty yards away the two meeting roughly halfway between their respective groups.

'I know your speech' the bug replied in an oddly pitched, slightly slurred voice. 'Prophet taught me, said we would meet your kind' he said. 'You are not a dead thing like those that defiled the Temple of the Great Devourer' he stated.

'Nope. I'm not a vampire I'm a human' Charlotte replied. 'Mostly human anyway, I'm a slayer.'

'I smell the demon on you' the bug told her.

'The rest is Beyond Paradise from Estée Lauder' Charlotte informed the demon. 'So what the fuck do you want?' she asked.

'Why are you here?' the demon asked.

Charlotte pursed her lips behind her mask. 'The "dead things" we sent last time didn't defile your temple enough last time so we thought we'd better come back to finish the job properly' she said. 'Oh yeah and you've been invading other worlds, knock it off or we'll kick your ass' she told it.

The demon hissed and emitted a series of loud clicks, Charlotte was willing to bet that meant it was pissed, eventually it returned to English. 'We serve the Devourer, we loved her first' it said.

'I don't give a shit if you want to go down on her as long as you only do it here' Charlotte retorted, 'stay at home' she told it coldly.

'She did not return so this world must be unworthy' the bug told her, fortunately it had no idea just how insulting the girl had just been. 'We must find her a new and worthy realm to rule.'

Charlotte sighed. 'Not happening' she said simply. 'Now either get out of the way or try to stop us.'

The demon bared its teeth as a warning, causing Charlotte to look into his mouth with interest. 'There a few girls that'll be adding those incisors to their necklaces before the days out' she told the demon. 'I'm just fucking grateful the mask is keeping out your bad breath' she continued, 'there's a bit of fur stuck in there and its gross' she told it. 'Try using floss' she advised.

'You are unworthy to follow her, you are good for nothing but food' the demon declared.

'Eat me' Charlotte told it with amusement. 'Run along back to your buggy friends' she told it, the demon hissing and clicking one more time before it walked backwards a few paces, turned and began running towards its compatriots.

Watching through the binoculars Vi nodded. 'Yep that worked perfectly' she said. 'I'm no expert on bug body language but I'm guessing we're about to get into a fight' she said as Charlotte jogged back towards them.

'That's what you wanted?' Lara asked.

'Why the hell do you think I sent Jailbait?' Vi asked rhetorically. 'That girl could piss off Gandhi if she was trying to pick a fight' she said. 'Can't send a message without something to communicate it with' she explained. 'We're writing in bug blood today girls.'

'It makes the grass grow' one commented. 'Well maybe the lichen' she corrected herself looking down at the barren soil and rocks.

'Teams one through seven form a double rank at the head of the pass' Vi ordered loudly. 'Open fire at my command' she said. 'Remaining squads secure the flanks and rear' she continued.

Lara watched the gunslayers smoothly move into formation, the first sixty or so girls lining up like something from the Napoleonic Wars, girls kneeling a yard apart carbine to their shoulders, and a second line standing in the gap a pace behind.

Charlotte arrived before the bugs started to rush towards them running through the line, a girl stepping aside to let her through. 'Thanks Jailbait' one said to her sardonically as she arrived.

'You're welcome' Charlotte replied, grinning behind her mask.

'At my command both ranks fire at will' Vi ordered as the demons ran towards them, a mass of teeth, claws and fury. '... FIRE!' she bellowed.

Lara put her hands over her ears and wished she could bring herself to close her eyes too as the slaughter began.

Shadow Valley – California – February 2005

'Stun-grenades?' Xander repeated, looking at Fred and Willow quizzically. 'I thought we already had stun-grenades' he continued. 'One's that go flash-bang and those Neural-Shock things.'

'Not "stun" Xander' Willow responded, '"Sun" as in the big bright thing in the sky we could see if we weren't in a bunker under the ground' she said, looking around the war room. 'Maybe we should come up with a less confusing name?' she considered.

'Helios Grenades' Fred suggested, 'he was the sun god.'

'Good idea Fred!' Willow replied brightly.

Buffy waved her hand in the air. 'You still haven't explained what you're talking about' she said.

'Oh right' Willow responded, blushing slightly. Fred looking slightly embarrassed too. 'Do you remember years ago when Tara and I were working on a simulated sunlight spell?' she asked. 'Little sun, vampires go poof?'

'Vaguely' Buffy replied. Inwardly she was pleased that Willow could say Tara's name now without becoming sad and misty-eyed, time was a great healer.

'I remember it went wrong and the ex-boyfriend I turned into a troll appeared and smashed up the Magic Shop' Anya said. 'This isn't going to result in me meeting more of my ex-boyfriends is it because they weren't all as cuddly as Olaf was' she told them

'No it'll be fine' Willow replied, 'All the kinks worked out of that one, there was a working version in my spellbook Enyo bought back from the future' Willow said. 'It only lasts for seconds but it works and no inadvertent trollage' she reassured them.

'And well, so we thought, sun spell, techno-mystical grenade...' Fred continued.

'Sun grenade' they said together.

'So you like pull the pin, throw it and vamps go dusty?' Xander asked.

'Yup' Willow said with a grin. 'Pull the pin, count to five and it's bye bye to the Count' she joked. 'Or are you still calling him Master?' she asked with a giggle.

'That was nothing but a phase I grew out of' Xander replied, 'and I'm totally over the bug eating too' he added.

'I wouldn't mind him reappearing' Anya announced, 'he was cool.'

'He was ambient temperature like every other vampire' Buffy pointed out.

'It was cool to meet him though' Willow opined.

'He's dust in the wind now' Xander said.

'He always comes back' Buffy said sadly. 'I staked him and he reformed just like the movies' she told Fred.

'You staked Dracula?' Fred asked incredulously, 'the real Dracula.'

'In the pale clammy flesh' Buffy confirmed.

'He's real?' Fred queried. 'Wow!'

'Ask Spike about him when you fly back to LA' Buffy advised. 'He'll say something about Dracula owing ten pounds and give you a bitter story about it and he might moan about the fact that because the Count collaborated with Bram Stoker on the book everyone knows how to kill vampires these days' she said. 'Um... he might miss out one of the vowels in "Count" when he says it' she added.

'Are these going to be expensive to make because wooden stakes are cheap and reusable' Anya stated.

'They'll cost the same as our Neural-Shock Grenades, it's the same casing just a different spell contained inside' Fred replied.

'So the answer's yes' Anya replied. 'You know the unit cost would go down if we mass-produced them' she said.

'You can mass-produce the grenades but not the spells' Willow replied. 'It's like hand-crafting each one, magic is an art not a science.'

'Throwing Picasso's at the enemy is bad value for money' Anya opined. 'Are we going to see these for the mortar's too because those techno-mystical mortar bombs cost hundreds of dollars each' she said. 'And those gunslayers would fire them off like cherry-bombs if I didn't keep a close eye on their equipment budget' she continued. 'White Phosphorus works very well on vampires and the unit cost is a fraction of the flashy magic stuff' she noted.

'We can't go chucking incendiary grenades around in normal situations like on patrol in a town' Willow countered. 'The worst collateral damage from a Sun, I mean Helios Grenade is mild sunburn' she said.

'What's the... I want to say blast radius but it doesn't fit' Xander said, 'on those things?'

'Say ten yards for dust, twenty yards for a very nasty case of burned and smoking vamp in much pain' Willow replied.

'And you could just drop it at your feet and it wouldn't hurt you when it went off?' Buffy verified. 'I mean we could issue it with a tube of sunblock.'

'More expense' Anya complained. 'We'll I'm only signing off on generic brands' she declared sternly.

'Have we got any other secret weapons under development?' Xander asked. 'I'm so itching for a ray-gun' he said.

'No ray-guns but Knox is working on a TS-113 Sniper Rifle that uses a Balantine energy charge instead of ammunition' Fred replied. 'It can't rapid fire but it'll work against mystical forcefields better than a piece of lead would' she told them.

'It's an exciting time to be a slayer' Buffy declared. 'Weird, confusing and all too apocalyptic... but exciting nevertheless.'

'Wait until we figure out those jet-packs that Warren guy designed' Fred told her. 'Woosh' she added putting her arms out straight in front of her like superman.'

'Or the Orbs of Nezzla'khan that make a normal super strong and invulnerable' Willow added.

'I like the field dressings with synthetic Mohra demon blood on them that'll heal the wound underneath' Fred replied.

Mountain Trail - Jasmine's World – February 2005

'Are you having fun gunslayer?' Vi yelled out over the sound of gunfire, not counting skirmishes this was the third major battle they'd fought and it was going even better than the first two so far, the trail of demon corpses stretched back five miles all the wall to the pass where they'd arrived four hours ago.

'It's fucking beautiful Ma'am' a girl exclaimed, firing a light-machinegun from the shoulder as they started to advance again.

'Maintain fire discipline and don't waste ammunition' Vi told her. 'That goes for everybody' she added, bringing up her carbine and dropping a demon that was a hundred yards way, limping towards them one leg already blown off by a grenade. You had to give it to them they were determined buggy bastards Vi thought.

The first engagement at the head of the pass had been a complete slaughter as the demons simply charged down the guns and were simply mowed down in their hundreds, none getting closer than a hundred yards. Since then the bugs had shown more resoect for their unwelcome visitors and had attempted ambush and hitting from several directions at once but none of it was a match for Vi's merry band of maniacs with their speed, slayer enhanced reflexes, combat experience and of course massed automatic fire.

'Rika' a girl screamed, 'officer on that hill top' she said, pointing with her rifle towards a small rise between the trail and the next mountain.

'Got it' the South African slayer replied. 'You' she said to Lara, come here' she ordered the witch who was simply standing around still horrified by the sight of the gunslayers all around, clinically gunning down the demons pouring from all directions.

'Why?' Lara yelled back.

'Just do it' Rika growled running to meet her half way. 'Now stand still and think like a bipod' she told her resting the barrel of her XM-109 rifle against Lara's shoulder. 'I need the elevation' she explained. 'I said stand still' she ordered, squatting down slightly as Lara shuffled slightly.

'You're not serious' Lara asked as Rika lined up her shot.

'Shut up and don't breath' Rika told her, taking aim, it was barely a kilometre she thought to herself sadly, starting to squeeze the trigger.

Lara wondered how loud this was going to be when she found out. The report of the 25 millimetre weapon easily drowned out the sound of the other rifles especially when it was fired next to your head.

Technically a cannon because of its calibre Rika's XM-109 thundered and shortly afterwards the demon insect which had apparently directing its brethren from a vantage point above the fighting was blown in half by a projectile you could use against an armoured car.

'I'm deaf' Lara moaned as Rika hauled her cannon away again, looking for something else worth firing at.

'That sucks because you can't lip-read wearing these masks' one of the other girls observed as she changed a magazine on her carbine. 'Bugs three O'Clock' she warned bringing up her weapon, chambering a round and then firing a series of short bursts to break up small group of twenty or so of the creatures.

'Start moving towards the bridge, as soon as we're over blow it with a satchel charge' Vi ordered, indicating the expansive stone arch which spanned the fog filled chasm ahead of them.

'There's bugs on the bridge' a girl yelled back.

'Put some Willie-Pete down on there, that'll clear them out' Vi responded.

A girl raised her six-barrelled grenade launcher and fired a ranging shot which landed at the closest end of the bridge before she fired three more dropping them on top of the demons. The incendiary grenades detonated in a flash of fire and demon screams as burning metal flared and scorched, burning through hardened exoskeletons easily and searing the flesh beneath. The smell would have been appalling if not for the masks, as it was Lara was glad she couldn't hear the demons howls and clicks of agony.

We're going to run out of ammunition before we get to Jasmine's Temple, Vi thought to herself, oh what the hell they needed more sword practice anyway she decided and she was willing to put slayer scythes and enchanted short-swords up against bug teeth and claws any day. 'Jailbait, put fire down to support the left flank' she ordered.

The ringing in Lara's ears finally went away and she immediately wished it hadn't, in some ways it had been a blessed relief for one of her senses to have stopped working briefly she thought watching Charlotte, the mouthy one they called "Jailbait", turn and fire a long burst of ammunition to allow one of the teams to move towards the bridge. The demons had leaned enough about bullets by now to duck or scatter when they were fired at so what the girls called "suppressive fire" worked.

'These guys are smarter than most of the things we fought in Pylea' a girl near Lara who was reloading a grenade launcher told her. 'I love killing demons worth killing' she said enthusiastically, snapping the breach closed again and firing a fragmentation grenade into the midst of the enemy.

They're insane, Lara decided reasonably. No wait, I volunteered to come here with them, I'm insane she concluded. Moving towards the bridge as the mobile demon-slaying buzzsaw that was a hundred gunslayers ripped its way across another hell dimension.

Two hours later they were formed up in a square fighting hand to hand, or rather sword to claw with a teeming host of demonic Jasmine worshippers and Lara discovered some of exactly why they were the way they were. She was terrified, her subconscious was screaming at her to obey the fight or flight reflex but there was nowhere to run. Vi was saving the last of the ammunition and grenades to cover their retreat through the portal back home but she wanted to kill a few more hundred demons before they left, she wanted to make as big an impression on the locals as she could.

A little switch tripped in the young witches mind as self-preservation became all-important, fight or flight and running wasn't going to be an option. She screamed held out her hands palms upwards and began calling on every deity and power she could think of, good or evil no matter, get me the fuck out of this and I'll add you to my list of gods I pray to, her mind screamed into the multiverse. She mouthed the spells Willow had taught her and ignored the advice not to push the magicks too far for fear of losing herself. Why worry about losing yourself though? Lara would have rather been anywhere than the place she was right now.

Balls of flaming mystical energy formed in her hands, growing in size and intensity into miniature infernos, behind the lenses of her gas mask her eyes misted over becoming jet black as dark magicks coursed through her veins and leaked through into her aura. The dank mists which had obscured her vision seemed to vanish as she saw the world with a new clarity. 'What makes the grass grow?' she said rhetorically to herself as she launched a fireball in an arc that sailed over the heads of the gunslayers and landed in the midst of the bug horde, her second fireball incinerated another group as she generated more.

Vi spun around and looked at Lara, the visible skin on her hands had gone pale with dark veins tracing across them. 'Good girl' Vi shouted to her.

'Putting the bitch in witch' Lara yelled back, firing another two fireballs one after the other, she felt amazing, powerful. She could see why this was addictive, she could see why it took so much effort to bring Willow back from the brink. What a fucking wimp, she thought, 'Kill 'em all' she screamed.

Vi breathed an inward sigh of relief, she had worried that Lara was irredeemable but she was shaping up nicely now, making a mental note to shoot or beat her unconscious later if necessary the Chief Gunslayer went back to swinging her scythe, effortlessly cleaving a demon in two as she helped bolster her part of the line.

They'd come back tomorrow and blow up that damn temple, she decided.

Note from the Author:

Sorry for the delay in updating... hope it was worth the wait.

With this chapter the Compelled Series just passed the half-million words mark incidentally. I consider that a decent milestone :-)