"Hey Willy," Xander greeted the barkeeper when he entered the bar. "How is
it hanging?"
"Oh Harris," Willy said as his head appeared from under the counter, where he had been searching something. He quickly checked the few vamps that sat on the various tables in his bar, but none of them paid him any attention. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, that's very rude," Xander complained and sat down on one of the barstools. "Why don't you ask me if I want something to drink?"
"Do you want anything to drink?" Willy asked nervous.
"No," Xander said with a straight face.
"Then why this whole 'Ask me if I want something to drink'-scene?" Willy nearly shouted at him. The scene of outrage attracted a bit of the attention of the vampires, but that interest only lasted a few seconds.
"Because it's the polite thing to do," Xander said, a bit taken aback. "Man, you really have to calm down. A heart attack isn't a nice thing."
"Sorry," Willy apologised. "Things are a bit tense at the moment."
"Yeah, I heard of it. One of the reasons I'm here," Xander explained. "So, let's get to business. Have you heard anything about the new vampires in town? Sanchez and Carver?"
"Who hasn't heard of them," Willy muttered."Look Harris, you would do me a great favour if you would stop right now and not ask these questions, okay?"
"Why? Trouble?" Xander asked and looked over his shoulder to the nearby vampires.
Willy sighed but finally leaned over the counter. "I don't know anything about Carver," he whispered, "but Sanchez would skin me alive I he knew that I told you something about him. This kind of business is a bit too hot for me."
"Do you know where he is?" Xander asked.
"You really want to bring me to an early death?" Willy muttered and checked to see if the vampires were interested in their conversation. "To answer your question: No, I don't know where he is."
"Okay," Xander said. He thought about the next question for a few seconds. "Another question. Are any of his boys here?"
"Harris." Willy tried to reason him.
"Just say yes or no, you don't have to tell me which of them is one," Xander reassured the barkeeper.
"Yes.." Willy said after a few seconds.
"Thanks," Xander said and stood up from his stool. He walked into the middle of the room, so all the vamps could see him. "May I have you attention please," he announced. The vampires turned their head and looked at the slayerette. "I'm looking for someone who is working for a vampire called Snachez."
"What do you want?" growled one vampire that was sitting at the nearest table with two other vamps.
"For a start," Xander said and drew his USP. "You being dust on the floor."
With these word on his lips he fired the gun at the still seating vampires. He hit two of them square in the head, their heads exploding and covering their chairs with dust. The leader of the little group didn't wait for Xander to aim at him. He jumped up from his chair and ran as fast as possible towards the door.
Xander fired after the retreating vampire, but only succeeded in ripping a few chunks of wood out of the wall. The vampire crashed through the door and continued running for his life.
The remaining vampires had stood up and advanced at Xander. They stopped however when he pointed the still smoking gun at them
"You really don't want to know haw many more of you I can take out," he threatened and almost instantly the vampires sat back down.
Xander put the gun back under his jacket and ran to the door. He quickly opened it and stepped out of the bar. In the distance he could see the form of the fleeing vampire.
"Oh, I hate this running shit," he said and began running after his target.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------
"Do you really think this works?" Forrest asked as he eyed the improvised stake in his hand.
"Don't know," Riley admitted. "We have to try it out."
"I can't believe this shit is supposed to work," Graham muttered and made a few stabbing moves with his stake.
"Hey, it comes from the guy that saved our asses last night," Riley stated. "If it doesn't work, we can still use our rifles."
"Seems like we have found our test object," Forrest said and motioned for the vampire that came running towards them.
"Okay," Riley said and took the taser gun from his shoulder. "Shoot him down and stake him then. Questions?" The remaining soldiers shook their heads. "Good. Now take some cover. If he sees us standing here in the open he will just take another way."
Quietly and efficiently the soldiers behind various bushes and trees. The vampire Xander had been chasing stepped into the small opening of the graveyard and looked over his shoulder, trying to find any trace of his predator.
But before he could resume with the running part five electricity blasts knocked the vamp out.
Slowly the soldiers came out of their cover. Riley decided to take the initiative and walked up to the fallen vampire. He took his stake and carefully placed it over the vampire's heart. Breathing deeply one more time he pushed with all his strength and penetrated the vamp's heart with the tip of the stake.
"Hey, it works," Forrest exclaimed cheerfully as the vampire dissolved into dust.
"Who would have thought that such a small piece of wood can kill a vamp," Graham muttered in disbelief.
The five soldiers looked at the pile of dust that seconds ago was a deadly vampire.
"Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me," Xander exclaimed as he saw the soldiers milling around the dustpile.
"Xander?" Riley asked confused.
But Xander completely ignored the question. "Please don't tell me that the dust pile there was seconds ago a very healthy vampire?"
That earned him a collective nod from the soldiers.
"Oh Great," Xander exclaimed and threw his hands up into the air. "Just fucking great, he couldn't have asked something different. He had to know how to kill vampires. And I was dumb enough to tell it to him. That what I get for being so generous with my information."
"Ah, Xander..."Riley interrupted his rant.
"What?" Xander snapped at the team leader
"Could you enlighten us as to what's going on here," Riley asked, getting more confused by every second
"That vampire," Xander said and motioned for the dustpile, "had information I wanted to beat out of him. And you guys dusted him."
"Oh," Riley simply said. "Sorry?"
Xander took a step forward and poked the Initiative commando in the chest. "You are so lucky that you have the government backing you up Riley. Cause at the moment I really want to kick your ass through the whole graveyard."
"Hey, slow down a bit," Riley said and lifted his hands in surrender. "We didn't know that the vamp was important to you. We just saw a target we could test these things on," he said and lifted his stake.
Xander sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You're right. I can hardly blame you guys for doing your job. It just has been a pretty heavy night, okay? I'd better leave know. You guys go on with whatever you had planned for the evening," Xander said and waved goodbye at the soldiers before he turned around and retraced his steps.
"Is there anything we can help you with," Riley called after him.
"Sorry," Xander called back. "This thing is at least at the moment a bit out of you league."
With this word Xander disappeared in the darkness of the night and Riley walked back to his soldiers.
"That was the guy that saved our lives," Forrest asked. Riley nodded. "From which institution did he break out of?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
"Mr Sanchez," came the voice of one of his closest vampires through the office.
The vampire in which direction the call was directed looked up from the neck of the teenage girl, whose blood he was currently drinking.
"I hate it when someone disturbs me during my meal," he said angrily and threw the corpse to the ground. "What do you want?"
"There has been a little .. incident," the vampire reported.
The - should be : There
"What kind of incident," Sanchez asked and walked up to the weapons cabinet that was placed behind his desk.
"We lost six vampires tonight. Three of them were on a mission, the other three had free time and wanted to check out the nightlife," the vamp reported. Sanchez in the meantime had taken down a 19th century saber from the cabinet and walked down the stairs and into the direction of his minion.
"So you think they are dead?" he asked and made a few training strikes, to warm up.
"Yes."
"Any idea who is responsible for this?" he asked.
"There might be a few possibilities," the vampire mused. "We still have a slayer in town. And let's not forget Dean Carver."
"Yes, this little pest Carver," Sanchez said with anger "I will have to deal with him sooner or later. So, what do you suggest to what we do to prevent debacles like this in the future?"
"Well," the vampire started. "We should only send out groups that consist of at least six vampires. And we should also limit our exposure to a minimum, so we don't attract the attention of the slayer. Which means no hunting for blood anymore, we'll have to rely on our supply on blood bags. And no visits in the local bars, to minimize encounters with her."
"That all are fantastic ideas," Sanchez said and stopped with his training. "I would promote you if you weren't already my right hand. But there is one thing bothering me. Why did we need to lose six vampires for you to come up with this idea? Why couldn't you have thought about that before?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, waiting for an answer.
"Sir...I.." the vampire stammered.
"You have no answer?" Sanchez asked.
The vampire could only shake and lower his head.
"Too bad," Sanchez said and turned around. But before the vampire could react Sanchez had quickly turned back around, slashing with his saber after the vampire's head. The blade easily cut through his neck and separated his head from his shoulders.
"Michael," Sanchez shouted once the corpse had turned into dust.
"Boss," the new vampire said once he was in the room.
"You heard everything?" Sanchez asked while he cleaned his blade with a handkerchief
"Yes boss," Michael said.
"Aren't you pissed that this moron used your ideas to impress me?" Sanchez asked him with a half smile.
"How did you.." Michael asked confused.
"It's my job find that kind of stuff out," Canchez said and walked back to the cabinet. He replaced the saber from where he had taken it. "Congratulations, you are my new right hand. The changes we discussed, I want them done before tomorrow night. And I want to know who exactly killed my men. That's it for now."
With these words Michael left the office, eager to fulfil his masters orders as fast as possible.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
"Hey guys," Xander said when he finally arrived back at Giles' apartment.
"How did it go?" Buffy asked
"Bad. My only clue was dusted when he ran into our soldier friends," Xander explained. "So, did you find out anything new?"
"Well we found this Sanchez guy," Buffy said while Xander sat down besides her on the couch
"Yes, idea," Giles threw in. "Hector Sanchez was a general in the Spanish army. He was known for his cruelty and brutality. He disappeared after the Spanish/American war and since then he has been the unchallenged vampire leader in North Mexico."
"And Carver?" Xander asked.
"I haven't found anything about him. It seems that he belongs to the newer generation of vampire leaders," Giles explained.
eplained - should be : explained
"Newer generation?" Xander asked.
"He was just about to explain that to us," Willow said.
"Yes," Giles said and cleaned his glasses "During the last decade Council has recorded a very disturbing development. It seems that a lot of the older vampire lords are not longer able to retain their reign. Time changes faster then a they can adapt to them, so a lot of vampires that were originally born in this generation have taken over their organisation."
"That sounds bad," Buffy threw in.
"It's is. These new leader lead their organisation more like criminals would do. They engage in drug dealing, prostitution and any other thing they can make money with. Kaksitos was one of the last ancient vampire leaders on the east coast. Now there are only these new vampires around," Giles explained.
"Wait a second," Xander interrupted the Watcher. "Didn't the vampire we had here also say that Sanchez controls South California?"
"Yeah, he said something like that," Buffy answered his question. "Why?"
"Well, if those were the guys I encountered we're in deep trouble," Xander said and sighed.
"Could you please clarify that a bit?" Giles asked confused.
"My road trip," Xander simply said. "On my way back to Sunnydale I made a stop in San Diego. Wanted to spend the night there. Well, until I ran into those vamps."
"I don't understand," Buffy interrupted him. "How could a few vamps cause you that much trouble?"
"Easy," Xander said. "They shot at me."
For the next few seconds no one dared to say anything. It was Willow who broke the ice finally.
"They shot at you?" Xander nodded. "With crossbows, right?"
"Nope Will, sorry," Xander said and shook his head. "They used guns."
"And you think that those vampires were Sanchez' men?" Giles asked a few seconds later.
"Well, back then I didn't know who they belonged to," Xander explained. "But with the information we got now I'm pretty sure. Let's just say, after I finished those vamps off, I had a lot of trouble getting out of the City. Speaks of a good organisation."
"But those vamps we encountered earlier didn't carry any guns," Buffy threw in. "Just stakes"
"Yeah, but they didn't expect any trouble. They just thought they would have to kill a handful of vamps. The next time they will be warned and probably armed to the teeth," Xander told her. "And let's not forget the fact that Sanchez is about over one hundred years old. And if his men carry guns with them around, Carver's men will probably too."
For the second time in a few minutes the people in Giles' apartment were at a loss of words.
"Two armies of vampires here in town, both armed with the newest weapons the US gun industry has to offer," Buffy finally summed the situation up. "That doesn't sound good."
The End
"Oh Harris," Willy said as his head appeared from under the counter, where he had been searching something. He quickly checked the few vamps that sat on the various tables in his bar, but none of them paid him any attention. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, that's very rude," Xander complained and sat down on one of the barstools. "Why don't you ask me if I want something to drink?"
"Do you want anything to drink?" Willy asked nervous.
"No," Xander said with a straight face.
"Then why this whole 'Ask me if I want something to drink'-scene?" Willy nearly shouted at him. The scene of outrage attracted a bit of the attention of the vampires, but that interest only lasted a few seconds.
"Because it's the polite thing to do," Xander said, a bit taken aback. "Man, you really have to calm down. A heart attack isn't a nice thing."
"Sorry," Willy apologised. "Things are a bit tense at the moment."
"Yeah, I heard of it. One of the reasons I'm here," Xander explained. "So, let's get to business. Have you heard anything about the new vampires in town? Sanchez and Carver?"
"Who hasn't heard of them," Willy muttered."Look Harris, you would do me a great favour if you would stop right now and not ask these questions, okay?"
"Why? Trouble?" Xander asked and looked over his shoulder to the nearby vampires.
Willy sighed but finally leaned over the counter. "I don't know anything about Carver," he whispered, "but Sanchez would skin me alive I he knew that I told you something about him. This kind of business is a bit too hot for me."
"Do you know where he is?" Xander asked.
"You really want to bring me to an early death?" Willy muttered and checked to see if the vampires were interested in their conversation. "To answer your question: No, I don't know where he is."
"Okay," Xander said. He thought about the next question for a few seconds. "Another question. Are any of his boys here?"
"Harris." Willy tried to reason him.
"Just say yes or no, you don't have to tell me which of them is one," Xander reassured the barkeeper.
"Yes.." Willy said after a few seconds.
"Thanks," Xander said and stood up from his stool. He walked into the middle of the room, so all the vamps could see him. "May I have you attention please," he announced. The vampires turned their head and looked at the slayerette. "I'm looking for someone who is working for a vampire called Snachez."
"What do you want?" growled one vampire that was sitting at the nearest table with two other vamps.
"For a start," Xander said and drew his USP. "You being dust on the floor."
With these word on his lips he fired the gun at the still seating vampires. He hit two of them square in the head, their heads exploding and covering their chairs with dust. The leader of the little group didn't wait for Xander to aim at him. He jumped up from his chair and ran as fast as possible towards the door.
Xander fired after the retreating vampire, but only succeeded in ripping a few chunks of wood out of the wall. The vampire crashed through the door and continued running for his life.
The remaining vampires had stood up and advanced at Xander. They stopped however when he pointed the still smoking gun at them
"You really don't want to know haw many more of you I can take out," he threatened and almost instantly the vampires sat back down.
Xander put the gun back under his jacket and ran to the door. He quickly opened it and stepped out of the bar. In the distance he could see the form of the fleeing vampire.
"Oh, I hate this running shit," he said and began running after his target.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------
"Do you really think this works?" Forrest asked as he eyed the improvised stake in his hand.
"Don't know," Riley admitted. "We have to try it out."
"I can't believe this shit is supposed to work," Graham muttered and made a few stabbing moves with his stake.
"Hey, it comes from the guy that saved our asses last night," Riley stated. "If it doesn't work, we can still use our rifles."
"Seems like we have found our test object," Forrest said and motioned for the vampire that came running towards them.
"Okay," Riley said and took the taser gun from his shoulder. "Shoot him down and stake him then. Questions?" The remaining soldiers shook their heads. "Good. Now take some cover. If he sees us standing here in the open he will just take another way."
Quietly and efficiently the soldiers behind various bushes and trees. The vampire Xander had been chasing stepped into the small opening of the graveyard and looked over his shoulder, trying to find any trace of his predator.
But before he could resume with the running part five electricity blasts knocked the vamp out.
Slowly the soldiers came out of their cover. Riley decided to take the initiative and walked up to the fallen vampire. He took his stake and carefully placed it over the vampire's heart. Breathing deeply one more time he pushed with all his strength and penetrated the vamp's heart with the tip of the stake.
"Hey, it works," Forrest exclaimed cheerfully as the vampire dissolved into dust.
"Who would have thought that such a small piece of wood can kill a vamp," Graham muttered in disbelief.
The five soldiers looked at the pile of dust that seconds ago was a deadly vampire.
"Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me," Xander exclaimed as he saw the soldiers milling around the dustpile.
"Xander?" Riley asked confused.
But Xander completely ignored the question. "Please don't tell me that the dust pile there was seconds ago a very healthy vampire?"
That earned him a collective nod from the soldiers.
"Oh Great," Xander exclaimed and threw his hands up into the air. "Just fucking great, he couldn't have asked something different. He had to know how to kill vampires. And I was dumb enough to tell it to him. That what I get for being so generous with my information."
"Ah, Xander..."Riley interrupted his rant.
"What?" Xander snapped at the team leader
"Could you enlighten us as to what's going on here," Riley asked, getting more confused by every second
"That vampire," Xander said and motioned for the dustpile, "had information I wanted to beat out of him. And you guys dusted him."
"Oh," Riley simply said. "Sorry?"
Xander took a step forward and poked the Initiative commando in the chest. "You are so lucky that you have the government backing you up Riley. Cause at the moment I really want to kick your ass through the whole graveyard."
"Hey, slow down a bit," Riley said and lifted his hands in surrender. "We didn't know that the vamp was important to you. We just saw a target we could test these things on," he said and lifted his stake.
Xander sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You're right. I can hardly blame you guys for doing your job. It just has been a pretty heavy night, okay? I'd better leave know. You guys go on with whatever you had planned for the evening," Xander said and waved goodbye at the soldiers before he turned around and retraced his steps.
"Is there anything we can help you with," Riley called after him.
"Sorry," Xander called back. "This thing is at least at the moment a bit out of you league."
With this word Xander disappeared in the darkness of the night and Riley walked back to his soldiers.
"That was the guy that saved our lives," Forrest asked. Riley nodded. "From which institution did he break out of?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
"Mr Sanchez," came the voice of one of his closest vampires through the office.
The vampire in which direction the call was directed looked up from the neck of the teenage girl, whose blood he was currently drinking.
"I hate it when someone disturbs me during my meal," he said angrily and threw the corpse to the ground. "What do you want?"
"There has been a little .. incident," the vampire reported.
The - should be : There
"What kind of incident," Sanchez asked and walked up to the weapons cabinet that was placed behind his desk.
"We lost six vampires tonight. Three of them were on a mission, the other three had free time and wanted to check out the nightlife," the vamp reported. Sanchez in the meantime had taken down a 19th century saber from the cabinet and walked down the stairs and into the direction of his minion.
"So you think they are dead?" he asked and made a few training strikes, to warm up.
"Yes."
"Any idea who is responsible for this?" he asked.
"There might be a few possibilities," the vampire mused. "We still have a slayer in town. And let's not forget Dean Carver."
"Yes, this little pest Carver," Sanchez said with anger "I will have to deal with him sooner or later. So, what do you suggest to what we do to prevent debacles like this in the future?"
"Well," the vampire started. "We should only send out groups that consist of at least six vampires. And we should also limit our exposure to a minimum, so we don't attract the attention of the slayer. Which means no hunting for blood anymore, we'll have to rely on our supply on blood bags. And no visits in the local bars, to minimize encounters with her."
"That all are fantastic ideas," Sanchez said and stopped with his training. "I would promote you if you weren't already my right hand. But there is one thing bothering me. Why did we need to lose six vampires for you to come up with this idea? Why couldn't you have thought about that before?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, waiting for an answer.
"Sir...I.." the vampire stammered.
"You have no answer?" Sanchez asked.
The vampire could only shake and lower his head.
"Too bad," Sanchez said and turned around. But before the vampire could react Sanchez had quickly turned back around, slashing with his saber after the vampire's head. The blade easily cut through his neck and separated his head from his shoulders.
"Michael," Sanchez shouted once the corpse had turned into dust.
"Boss," the new vampire said once he was in the room.
"You heard everything?" Sanchez asked while he cleaned his blade with a handkerchief
"Yes boss," Michael said.
"Aren't you pissed that this moron used your ideas to impress me?" Sanchez asked him with a half smile.
"How did you.." Michael asked confused.
"It's my job find that kind of stuff out," Canchez said and walked back to the cabinet. He replaced the saber from where he had taken it. "Congratulations, you are my new right hand. The changes we discussed, I want them done before tomorrow night. And I want to know who exactly killed my men. That's it for now."
With these words Michael left the office, eager to fulfil his masters orders as fast as possible.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
"Hey guys," Xander said when he finally arrived back at Giles' apartment.
"How did it go?" Buffy asked
"Bad. My only clue was dusted when he ran into our soldier friends," Xander explained. "So, did you find out anything new?"
"Well we found this Sanchez guy," Buffy said while Xander sat down besides her on the couch
"Yes, idea," Giles threw in. "Hector Sanchez was a general in the Spanish army. He was known for his cruelty and brutality. He disappeared after the Spanish/American war and since then he has been the unchallenged vampire leader in North Mexico."
"And Carver?" Xander asked.
"I haven't found anything about him. It seems that he belongs to the newer generation of vampire leaders," Giles explained.
eplained - should be : explained
"Newer generation?" Xander asked.
"He was just about to explain that to us," Willow said.
"Yes," Giles said and cleaned his glasses "During the last decade Council has recorded a very disturbing development. It seems that a lot of the older vampire lords are not longer able to retain their reign. Time changes faster then a they can adapt to them, so a lot of vampires that were originally born in this generation have taken over their organisation."
"That sounds bad," Buffy threw in.
"It's is. These new leader lead their organisation more like criminals would do. They engage in drug dealing, prostitution and any other thing they can make money with. Kaksitos was one of the last ancient vampire leaders on the east coast. Now there are only these new vampires around," Giles explained.
"Wait a second," Xander interrupted the Watcher. "Didn't the vampire we had here also say that Sanchez controls South California?"
"Yeah, he said something like that," Buffy answered his question. "Why?"
"Well, if those were the guys I encountered we're in deep trouble," Xander said and sighed.
"Could you please clarify that a bit?" Giles asked confused.
"My road trip," Xander simply said. "On my way back to Sunnydale I made a stop in San Diego. Wanted to spend the night there. Well, until I ran into those vamps."
"I don't understand," Buffy interrupted him. "How could a few vamps cause you that much trouble?"
"Easy," Xander said. "They shot at me."
For the next few seconds no one dared to say anything. It was Willow who broke the ice finally.
"They shot at you?" Xander nodded. "With crossbows, right?"
"Nope Will, sorry," Xander said and shook his head. "They used guns."
"And you think that those vampires were Sanchez' men?" Giles asked a few seconds later.
"Well, back then I didn't know who they belonged to," Xander explained. "But with the information we got now I'm pretty sure. Let's just say, after I finished those vamps off, I had a lot of trouble getting out of the City. Speaks of a good organisation."
"But those vamps we encountered earlier didn't carry any guns," Buffy threw in. "Just stakes"
"Yeah, but they didn't expect any trouble. They just thought they would have to kill a handful of vamps. The next time they will be warned and probably armed to the teeth," Xander told her. "And let's not forget the fact that Sanchez is about over one hundred years old. And if his men carry guns with them around, Carver's men will probably too."
For the second time in a few minutes the people in Giles' apartment were at a loss of words.
"Two armies of vampires here in town, both armed with the newest weapons the US gun industry has to offer," Buffy finally summed the situation up. "That doesn't sound good."
The End