Willow Rosenberg shook her head as she walked towards the Natural Sciences building. Demons boiling up from under the campus, mini-earthquakes, panicked people, and she had a paper to revise for next week. A paper that she'd been putting off in order to figure out this Initiative problem. She had no idea why she was being paged. If her hacking had been discovered, then it would be 'Willow Rosenberg to the Administration building', not to natural sciences. "I don't need this, I really don't. Bad enough that Mom tried to guilt-trip me over the fish, and to call me an irresponsible slacker and to try to give me some sort of weird keep away talk about Oz… The fish! A year and a half and she's only just figured out the fish are dead. I don't need this, I really don't…"
Willow's questions about why she was paged to the Natural Sciences building were soon answered. Just inside the doors, a half-familiar looking guy in a campus security jacket stood beside Sheila Rosenberg, who was sitting on a bench. He was holding a wad of gauze against her mom's face, and blood had dripped onto the shoulder of her blouse. Her mom must have been caught up in some of the demons that had popped up out of nowhere, though 'nowhere' probably meant that undercampus base that the Initiative soldiers were using. Just to be sure, she asked, "Mom? What happened?"
"He wasn't human," the words had the high, tight sound of shock, and her Mom's eyes held pinprick pupils. "The blood was orange."
Willow reached over, placing one hand over her mom's cold fingers. "I'm here now. Can you tell me what happened? Who's blood was orange?"
"I didn't see how things started, but there was some sort of disturbance in the courtyard," the campus security guard began, his words soft. "Someone screamed, and there was almost a riot. There was a tall skinny guy with scales involved somehow, and he was in the middle of the fighting."
"Orange blood. Too many teeth," Sheila's words were insistent, and she began to shiver. "Not human, not mutant."
"Yeah, the skinny guy had a lot of teeth. Very sharp teeth," the guy slowly eased the pressure on Sheila's face, removing the gauze when it didn't appear that she would bleed. "Near as I can sort out, he got hit in the face, bit his lip, and was bleeding orange."
"Ah," Willow nodded. Direct evidence of the strange and demonic did have a way of leaving people in shock, soon followed by their minds trying to find any other explanation. A cynical corner of her mind wondered if her mom would try to explain this or repress it away like she had the whole mess with MOO. "Was there only the one very strange guy?"
"There was the guy with the teeth and the orange blood, a whole lot of people throwing punches, shouting and panicking, and this one really huge scary guy," he shook his head, and looked over at Willow. "He had to have been a mutant. Probably eight feet tall, big shoulders, tusks, big curly horns on his head, and he spoke some weird language. Turkish or something, I think. Huge and scary."
Interpreting that to mean at least one human sized demon, possibly more but nothing blatant, and one really solid looking demon, Willow tugged at her Mom's hand. The description reminded her a bit of the Fyarl demon, but if it hadn't attacked then she could worry about identifying it later. "Come with me, Mom. You can't just sit here all day, and I have the feeling that my Psych class isn't going to happen on schedule."
"You aren't surprised," her mom murmured, fingers curling around Willow's hand. "Why aren't you surprised? This has been a day of horrible surprises."
"Let's get you something warm to drink. I've got a little teapot up in my dorm room, we can talk there," Willow sighed, tugging her mother along with her as she headed back to Stevenson. "This is definitely going to be a conversation that we should be sitting down for."
There were more confused and sometimes injured people that they passed on the way to Stevenson Dorm, though nobody looked to be seriously injured. The ground shook again and Willow could hear a muffled boom as something somewhere exploded, "That'll be something to look into later. Maybe Riley will know."
Another explosion shook the ground, and Willow glanced towards the noise. More screams could be heard as people let fear blind them to the fact that there weren't any flames, and no buildings had collapsed, at least not yet. Black smoke was rising from several places, including the lecture hall. The very hall that she was supposed to be in later for her lecture on sleep deprivation and its effect on memory and reactions, "So much for my Psych class."
"Wha..?" Sheila turned, her jaw dropping as she took in the smoke and the screams. "Isn't that the lecture hall?"
"Mmm-hmmm," Willow nodded, starting back towards Stevenson. This did mean they wouldn't have to sneak back into the base to neutralize things. It had been dangerous enough the first time, and she didn't like to push luck too much.
Her mother followed quietly, and in very little time they were sitting in the dorm room, her mom perched on the edge of Willow's bed while Willow herself settled in her computer chair. "Okay, Mom. I know you've had a few shocks. Let's start with the fact that the guy wasn't human. There's quite a few not humans out there, and I don't just mean mutants. They've been around for a long time, and not all of them are friendly. I've been aware of this for a few years now. They're the inspiration for a lot of old legends. There are werewolves, there are vampires, lots and lots of vampires. There's… well, now probably isn't the time to go into all that. But there's a lot more out there than most people want to believe in, and a lot of it's scary and dangerous and they just might try to eat you."
"With those teeth…" her mother shuddered again, and pulled her knees up to wrap her arms around them. It was a very pulled in, frightened position that Willow had encountered a few times when they'd saved people being held, and she'd found it in several of her psychology readings. A posture that spoke of fear. "The big one didn't try to eat me. He wanted me to go away."
"Not all of them eat people, and not all of them are violent. Some of them, like humans, are only violent under certain circumstances," she didn't go into any details about what those circumstances might be.
"This isn't supposed to happen anymore, not in America," the words were soft.
"Are you going to forget again?" Willow asked, unsure what answer she wanted. She knew how to deal with her mother repressing and ignoring things. She'd done it for years. Her mom asking questions and listening to the answers would be new and different. She couldn't remember the last time her mom had paid real attention to what she did and said, to her as Willow instead of a statistic.
"What?" Startled eyes so very much like her own, full of shock and questions.
"Every time you came close to figuring things out before, you'd just forget. You'd explain things away," Willow began, choosing her words carefully. "You make yourself into their ally when you do that. You explain things for them; you help them keep you ignorant of the truth, of the dangers. You let yourself be controlled."
"I don't want to be controlled," Sheila glared at her daughter. "Or eaten."
"Then maybe you'll listen, maybe you'll believe. Maybe this time, you won't keep me from helping," Willow smiled, daring to hope.
"Helping? But…" A headshake, "You're so young, what can you do against… against… monsters?"
"Mostly a lot of research," Willow sighed, remembering hours upon hours of paging though old tomes to identify demons or rituals before it was too late. "Lots of research, backup and first aid for the people who can fight, and trying to make sure that injured people who almost got eaten are taken care of. Granted, it's led to more than a couple injuries, but I couldn't just stand back and do nothing once I knew. I did manage to learn a few things from you and Dad."
"What sort of research?" Her mom's brows had pulled down in a frown as she nibbled her lip, and Willow found herself wondering if her own thought-filled expressions looked like that.
"Some of it involves old books. Plenty of Latin, some French, German, and a bit of Greek. Some of it's online," Willow paused and decided to take a chance. "Do you remember when you helped me set up an email account? When I was twelve?"
"Of course," her Mom's voice was steady. "We went through everything step by step, and picked out a username that didn't reveal your actual identity. There are some aspects of online communities and chat that you don't need to learn about."
Willow nodded, wondering just how much of that her mother remembered. If she remembered that they had decided Red for her hair, Rose because she liked the flower and it was part of her name, and 99 for the year she was expected to graduate. Just because her mother didn't want to forget didn't mean that she was ready to know and understand everything. Willow sighed, feeling far older than her years would suggest.
End part 98.
Buffy hugged Riley, happiness bubbling inside her at the idea that he wanted to be there, wanted to think about a future with her, even if only as a good friend that she could count on. She particularly liked the idea that he wanted to take the chance to see if they might have a future much closer, a future as Mr. and Mrs. Finn. Despite being the Slayer for almost four years, she still had a few fading bits of girlish dreams, including finding a great guy, tall and handsome, that would hold her and love her forever…
The ground shook beneath their feet. Buffy could hear people screaming, and somewhere glass was shattering.
"Do you smell smoke?" Riley tensed in her arms.
"Smoke? I'm not sure, but I hear people screaming," Buffy ended the hug, turning to look around.
More screams came from beyond the trees, and Buffy headed towards the sound, utterly certain that there was something hellmouthy going on. One of the manhole covers on campus had been flung open, and several things had emerged. One of them looked an awful lot like the fishy-things that the swim team had been mutated into, but the next was one of those tall bony things that she'd run into the other day, when her cousin Scott had gone patrolling with her.
Buffy was the Slayer, despite how much she complained about her destiny sucking. She did not hesitate, but leapt into the crowd, attacking the tall bony demon immediately. She did permit herself a moment of regret that she didn't have any real weapons with her, but she was certain that she could drop it and figure out something. The popping noise as she kicked the demon's knee sideways made her wince, and she grabbed the nearest solid object, battering at the demon's head and chest with someone's massive textbook.
People were still screaming around her. From the corner of her eye, she noted the swim team guy running, shoving people out of his way with no particular caution or violence. She could hear gunfire echoing, and had the irrational thought 'but I'm nowhere near the sewers right now' before deciding that it had to be coming from the underground base where the Initiative soldiers stayed, that it was another sign of something terribly wrong there… As if the escaping demons wasn't a give-away, as if the fact that a building was now burning wasn't a give-away… Hey, the lecture hall burning meant no psych class today.
The demon stopped twitching, and Buffy turned to hand back the massive history book that she'd grabbed. Most of the crowd had vanished, abandoning backpacks and books in messy heaps and leaving papers and pens scattered over the ground. She didn't really blame them for that, it was a bit wiggy. With a sigh, she dropped the textbook on the nearest heap and turned to look for Riley.
A couple of campus security people were talking to some of the students, and Buffy guessed that those people had been unfortunate enough to be injured, or at least injured enough to notice that instead of just running away as fast as they could. Riley was talking to another of the security people, both of them looking very unhappy. Idly, Buffy wondered just what sort of excuse there would be for this mess.
The ground shook again, and Buffy could see something large fly up from the woods. The sight of it gave her the wiggins, suggesting that it was some sort of flying demon. "Isn't there a law against flying demons? Giles had better have something in his books, because that's a new one. And I definitely can't fly after it."
"Buffy? Where did the other one go? The one that looked like the creature from the Black Lagoon?" Riley walked towards her, his eyes glancing suspiciously to the sides.
"The mutated swim team guy," Buffy corrected. "We don't know how much of their minds they kept, but they used to be human. They headed out to sea before, but I guess he came back. My guess, he's headed back to the water, hopefully the ocean, to get as far from here as he can."
"Can't say that I'd blame him for that," Riley mumbled.
Another round of gunshots echoed from the open manhole.
"Sounds like trouble down there," Buffy took a few steps closer, every fiber of her being certain that there were demons down there causing problems, demons and vampires both.
"Buffy," Riley's voice was firm. "You aren't bullet proof, and it doesn't sound like things are going calmly. They might have things under control. If they do, then it will be fine. If they don't, you could jump into a disaster. There's also a term called friendly fire. If you go down there, you could be shot before anyone realizes that you aren't a demon or vampire. Neither of us want you to get shot. Stay up here."
"I can't just do nothing!" Buffy protested.
Riley stopped, biting back his first words. One hand twitched, his fingers moving slowly as if counting. "Buffy, I don't think this is the only manhole on campus. How many other hostiles came up onto the campus? Why don't we worry about them first?"
"More demons loose on the campus?" Buffy whispered. "Oh no…"
Her mind flashed through images of what demons could do to ordinary humans. Broken bones, slashed flesh, blood and guts spilling everywhere. "The campus security won't be up for dealing with that. Call any of the other guys in your paintball group that are out and about, this could be real messy."
Riley started calling as Buffy headed for the nearest manhole, praying that she wasn't too late.
End part 99.
Ernesto Alverez had been part of the Sunnydale Campus security for almost five years. He'd mastered the art of helping unfortunate students get back into their dorm rooms after locking their keys inside, and was fairly good at spotting a truly embarrassed student from someone lying in an effort to get into someone else' room to cause problems. He could handle drunken frat boys. He could deal with the fall-out from panty raids and farm animals placed inside buildings. Ernesto had even survived a few vampire attacks, reinforcing his habit of wearing his Abuela's rosary around his neck at all times, especially when it was dark or overcast, and he carried bottles of holy water with him, passing them off as nothing more than Aquafina, the source of the bottles that he used. Anyone suspicious got a face full of water, saving him on a dozen occasions, and saving students wandering back from night classes or parties so many times that he'd stopped counting.
When the manhole near the mathematics and computer science building flipped upwards, revolving twice before landing with a loud clang, he knew that trouble was happening again. Muttering "Isn't this supposed to happen after dark?" he immediately reached into his pocket for the emergency pager, tapping the button to send a distress call. If the faculty liaison had been honest with him and the other guards, the signal would reach the campus security office and the police station in town.
The creature that emerged wasn't a vampire, though the sunlight would have made quick work of any vampire foolish enough to pop out now. It had green scales and a series of plates down the length of its back, reminding him of some of the dinosaur-human blendings a former room mate of his had made for an art project. With a growl, the creature pulled one of those plates from its back, glaring at the students with dark lizard like eyes.
Ernesto grabbed the manhole cover and slammed it into the demon's arm and head, wincing at the cracking sounds. It reminded him of green sticks breaking. Raising the lid for a second blow, he hissed "No students get eaten or killed if I can stop it."
In the Sunnydale police station, a light began to blink as one of the distress buttons given to the college campus security guards were activated. As the police officers generally looked at the college guards as second rate crossing guards, the first thought was that whatever had set them off couldn't be that bad.
Then they got a call about some sort of 'freaky monster' that had attacked a group of hospital employees. Those in the know about things matched the description to a demon.
An elementary school called the police and animal control both, reporting that some sort of giant bird that seemed to have teeth was lurking in the bushes outside one of the classrooms, and the children were terrified. In the background, someone was vowing to never watch Sesame Street again.
The college panic buttons continued to be triggered.
By the time the ground shook and a column of black smoke started rising, nobody was joking about twitchy campus guys writing parking tickets anymore.
The precautions requested by Paul Blaisdell didn't seem like someone being paranoid and overly prepared anymore. Officers began grabbing bottles filled with a blend of rock salt, holy water, and powdered garlic along with their handguns as they rushed to respond to a dozen frightened 911 calls.
The police dispatcher noticed that each of the strange calls came from somewhere near the UC Sunnydale campus. That would definitely be something to look into later.
End part 100.