Disclaimer: I own none of the Mutant Enemy characters. Joss owns them all and I assure everyone that I am getting no money whatsoever from this story.

Ajaya the Vampire Slayer

Chapter Two

"Impressed?" Paige asked Ajaya as they waited for the elevator to take them from the training area up to the ground floor.

"I would go more with stunned or awed," Ajaya said to Paige with a laugh. "Regardless, I was thoroughly impressed."

"That's the typical first impression," Paige told Ajaya as they stepped into the elevator. "Now the second impression, the one you get after your first training session, that also has a very typical response."

"I'm guessing it's not nearly as positive," Ajaya said

"Not in the strictest sense," Paige explained to Ajaya. They walked out of the elevator when they were back on the main floor. "And speaking of first impressions, get ready to make a lot."

"Where are we going now?" Ajaya wondered.

"The gathering room," Paige explained. "It's where most of the Fang Gang hangs out."

"Fang Gang?" Ajaya had no clue what Paige meant.

Paige laughed a little. "It's a nickname for the agents of SCBI Tokyo," she informed Ajaya. "Mostly because of Angel, but also because a large part of our staff here of the vampire persuasion."

"How interesting," Ajaya said quietly as they entered the enormous gathering room.

The ceiling of the gathering room had a large dome in the middle of the room which was painted with a scene that Ajaya guessed was part of some Asian mythology that she didn't know. The room was littered with statues and paintings. Also along the walls were couches and chairs and the occasional coffee table. In the center of the room was a large circular couch. Although there was no one standing in the room, there were practically no empty seats in the entire room.

"Come on," Paige said as she took Ajaya by the hand. "We'll start with the people that you know." Paige flashed some grins at a few people who looked her way as she walked through with the girl that they had never seen before. Ajaya looked in the direction that Paige was taking them and saw a few couches and chairs arranged in a rectangle around a coffee table. Sitting with about a half dozen other people was Cordelia.

"Oh, hi!" Cordelia said to Ajaya as she saw her and Paige approaching.

"Ajaya you know Cordelia right?" Paige tried to do the talking for Ajaya.

"It's just Cordy," Cordy said as she reached over to shake Ajaya's hand. "And it's good to finally meet you while I'm slime free. Actually, it's good to just be slime free." Cordy offered Ajaya a friendly smile and Ajaya chuckled slightly. "So have you see all of our happy little home?"

Ajaya nodded. "It's very different from New York."

"Different places and different people," Cordy agreed. "But it's still the same mission." Ajaya smiled and nodded but then there was an awkward silence between the group. "Oh right," Cordy said with a smile. "You don't know anyone."

Cordy motioned for Ajaya to come sit by her on the couch. "This is Allison Hendricks," Cordy motioned to the young witch with blue and blonde hair sitting in the chair to her left. "Over here we have Collin and Matthew," Cordy indicated two young men directly across from them. "You're going to notice that a lot of vampires have this whole Madonna/Prince thing going on with the one name only thing." Ajaya had noticed that most vampires really weren't big with last names.

"That's Liz Rowan," Cordy continued with her introduction. Liz gave Ajaya a smile. "You probably met about half of her family over in New York." Ajaya thought hard but she couldn't remember any Rowans. Liz did look familiar. "Dawn, Richard, or David?" Cordy offered some names to help jog Ajaya's memory.

"Oh!" Ajaya said. "You're a Salvatore?"

Liz nodded her head. "My mother is a Salvatore," Liz explained.

"Next to Liz is Rebecca Finn," Cordy pointed to Rebecca before she pointed at the green demon in a very loud suit who was sitting to Ajaya's right. "And that is Krevlorneswath of the Deathwok Clan."

"My friends call me Lorne," Lorne said as he took Ajaya's hand and kissed the back of it. "And you are?"

"Ajaya Gupta," Ajaya introduced herself to the assembled demon hunters.

"And what do you bring to the party?" Rebecca asked Ajaya. She didn't understand her question. "What can you do? Are you a witch or a demon or something?"

"She's one of the Chosen Seven," Cordelia explained.

"A Slayer," Collin said, obviously impressed. Ajaya blushed slightly.

Cordelia looked down at her watch and sighed. "Okay, this is bordering on excessive this time," Cordelia was slightly annoyed. "I mean seriously, this is bad even for him."

"Who?" Ajaya asked.

No one had a chance to answer the question because at that moment Angel stormed into the area where they were sitting. "Okay," Angel said as he flashed all of them suspicious looks. "Who did it?"

"What are you talking about?" Cordy asked Angel.

Angel hesitated for a moment. He obviously didn't want to say it out loud. "Someone took my gel again," Angel said quietly.

Everyone, with the exception of Angel and Ajaya, became instantly hysterical.

"You have got to be kidding me," Cordy was getting ready to dig into Angel yet again. "You are the biggest split personality on the planet! On one hand you obviously stay up all night making sure that you have your scowl down to a science. You can't go a single day without depressing at least twenty people. You might as well only have one outfit because lord knows you make no effort to add any variety to your wardrobe. But despite your extreme apathy towards all things fashionable, or possibly in spite of it, you spend more time in the bathroom in the morning than me. How can you possibly justify that because honestly, Angel, I would like to hear it?"

Halfway through Cordelia's in-depth analysis of everything that was wrong with Angel, Paige had taken Ajaya by the wrist and led her out of the gathering room and towards the entrance hall. They had both been trying to contain their laughter during Cordelia's outburst and by the time they got to the entrance hall they were both cracking up.

"What's so funny?" Duncan asked Paige as he and Mason walked into the entrance hall.

"Another installment of Everything That is Wrong with Angel by Cordelia Chase," Paige said with a final laugh.

Duncan rolled his eyes. He looked past Paige and noticed Ajaya. "Who's the recruit?" Duncan asked.

"This is Ajaya the Vampire Slayer," Paige introduced Ajaya.

"Pleased to meet you Ajaya," Duncan said to Ajaya. "I'm Duncan Angel and this is Mason Biggs." Mason gave Ajaya a nod hello as Duncan introduced himself.

"Duncan Angel?" Ajaya questioned. "As in the other Angel?"

"One in the same," Duncan told her. "I'm his great grandson."

"So Angel is his last name?" Ajaya asked Duncan.

"No," Duncan said. He thought about it for a second. "Well I guess kind of. Actually his name is Liam."

"Liam Angel?" Ajaya asked.

"Technically it's Geraldo Angel," Duncan said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Technically?" Ajaya asked.

"Technically," Duncan confirmed.

"But actually it's Liam," Ajaya was trying to understand all of this.

"Basically," Duncan said.

"Okay," Paige said as she began to lead Ajaya past the two men, "I'm getting sick of all of these '-lys.' We need to go back up to Keifer's office."

"Maybe you'll get to catch the tail end of Heath's meeting," Mason said with a grin.

"The barroom brawlers have arrived?" Paige asked.

"Yep," Duncan told her. "If you hurry you might get to catch the last bits of their meeting with Keifer."

"Let's go then," Paige said to Ajaya as they were leaving the entrance hall.

"What's that smell?" Ajaya asked Paige while they were leaving. Mason's eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

"Your laughing is not helpful," Mason told Duncan. Duncan was too busy laughing to reply.

* * *

Off the top of his head, Heath could think of about a thousand other places that he would rather be than in Keifer's office. For the last fifteen minutes, Keifer had done nothing but mock, tease, harass, and make fun of Heath, Rocky, Dade, and Todd. It was better than getting yelled at by Tony Giles, but it was beginning to border on excessive.

"Okay," Keifer said, still grinning from his latest crack. "I guess I've said just about all I want to say." Keifer grabbed four folders from his desk and tossed them to the boys. He also opened his drawer and pulled out four keys on two key rings. "Here are your assignments. Your rooms are in the east wing on the fourth floor. You can decide who is rooming with whom. You can go get settled in." The four of them got up and walked towards the door. "And if you're going back out to the bar tonight, make sure you call me first so I can come along." Keifer couldn't help but make one last joke.

"I liked it when we were getting yelled at better," Todd said as he looked through his folder. "There's something about getting laughed at by your supervisor that is just so unsettling."

"Yeah," Heath agreed while he held both sets of keys. "What are we going to do about these rooms?"

"I am not rooming with Dade," Rocky said plainly. "You're my friend, but I do not feeling like being exiled from my bed while you're with some girl."

"I just had to room with Dade while we were stationed out of Los Angeles," Heath said.

"Looks like it's just me and you," Dade said as he put an arm around Todd.

"You try to have sex with someone even once while I'm sleeping and I swear to God, Dade, I'll piss on everything you own," Todd threatened Dade.

"Fair enough," Dade said with a grin.

"Bollocks," Rocky said as he flipped through his folder. "Duncan wasn't lying. I did get assigned to Sigma Team."

"Ouch," Dade agreed.

"Open up your folder," Rocky told Dade. "You're in the same boat."

"You've got to be kidding me," Dade said as he cracked open his folder. "Well, at least we'll be together. What do you have, Todd?"

"Epsilon Team," Todd told them. "Espionage."

"That's good at least," Heath said to his friend. "You've been training for espionage for a while now."

"Yeah," Todd said. "It should be pretty cool. How about you Heath?"

Heath was the last to open his folder. His first reaction to reading the information within was that there had to be some kind of mistake. There's no way that they were going to put him on Alpha Team.

"Well?" Rocky asked.

"Alpha Team," Heath told him.

"Wow," Todd was impressed. "Looks like Tokyo has some confidence in you."

Heath nodded but he didn't really look pleased with his assignment.

"Why the long face?" Dade asked Heath.

"Let me guess," Rocky said, "Angel is the team leader?" Heath nodded. "Well that won't be too much pressure now."

* * *

"So what do you think of our facilities?" Keifer asked Ajaya who was sitting in the seat directly across from his desk. Paige sat in the seat next to her.

"It's very nice," Ajaya said. "It seems like I'm going to like it here a lot."

Keifer smiled. "I'm glad to hear that." Keifer handed Ajaya a folder that was identical to the ones he gave to the four boys. "This will give you all the information that you need to know about your new team."

Ajaya took the folder from Keifer and opened it up. Paige looked down, and she gave a little gasp when she read the information.

"What?" Ajaya asked, worried that there was something wrong.

"You're on Alpha Team," Paige said to her.

"Is that bad?" Ajaya asked.

"Not at all," Paige said as she shook her head. "Alpha Team is like the varsity team. They're the best of the best."

"Really?" Ajaya said. She looked from Paige to Keifer. Keifer gave her a nod.

"Alpha Team gets priority on all missions that come into SCBI Tokyo," Keifer explained.

Ajaya was slightly flushed. "Keifer," Ajaya said to the supervisor, "I'm still a new recruit. Are you sure that this is a good idea?"

"When Alpha Team's leader heard that we were getting a Slayer, he demanded that you were placed on the team," Keifer explained to her.

"Who's Alpha Team's leader?" Ajaya asked out loud even though she had the information in her folder. She looked down to see for herself.

"That would be me," A new voice in the room called out from behind Ajaya. She turned around to see Angel and Cordelia walking into the office. "Sorry about our introduction," Angel said to Ajaya apologetically. "Or rather the lack thereof."

"When something comes in between Angel and his hair care products there is nothing that can distract him until the situation is resolved," Cordy said with a smile.

"Anyway," Angel said to Ajaya as he rolled his eyes at Cordy. He leaned up against the edge of Keifer's desk as he talked to Ajaya. "If you haven't figured it out by now I am Angel."

"Ajaya Gupta," Ajaya said to Angel as she shook his hand.

"I know that you are still a recruit and a trainee," Angel said to Ajaya, "But you are also a Slayer, and I've known quite a few Slayers in my life. None of you have ever really needed an extended training period."

"That doesn't mean that we're just going to throw you into the lion's mouth," Cordy interjected. "You're going to be on the front lines for all of our most dangerous missions, but you're going to be there with the finest agents operating out of this branch."

"We want you to feel perfectly comfortable about your assignment," Keifer explained to Ajaya. "If you feel that you honestly can't handle being a part of Alpha Team, we can have you transferred."

Ajaya thought about what they had said before she gave her final answer. "I suppose that I can at least try it," Ajaya said eventually.

"Great," Angel said with a smile. "You can go through a small training session tomorrow afternoon. It won't be that enduring, just something small that we can use to assess your skills for ourselves."

"After that you can start training with the rest of the team," Cordy told Ajaya.

Keifer looked at the clock. It was starting to get late. "I think that we've bothered Ajaya enough for one day," Keifer announced. "We should probably get you settled into a room now." Keifer picked up a data pad and punched up a list of available rooms. "Paige," Keifer said as he looked towards Paige. "You don't have a roommate right now. Would you mind taking Ajaya in?"

Ajaya wasn't sure, but she thought that Paige looked like she was slightly shocked by the idea. She paused for a moment before she answered. "Sure," Paige said. "That'll work."

"Is that all right with you?" Keifer asked Ajaya.

Ajaya nodded. "That's fine," she said, even though she wasn't sure that Paige wanted her as her roommate.

"Hey!" Angel said as he looked over at his bottle of hair gel and back to Keifer.

* * *

Ajaya, with all of her bags in her hands, walked a few steps behind Paige on their way to their room. Paige definitely looked slightly nervous about something.

"Is there something wrong?" Ajaya asked her new roommate.

"No," Paige said to Ajaya. "Well, I mean, not really." Paige sighed as she reached her door. "Just don't judge me, okay?"

"Okay," Ajaya said. She had no idea what to expect to find in Paige's room. Paige sighed again as she swung the door open.

"Oh my God," Ajaya said as she looked at Paige's room. It was like a small library. There were book cases that stretched from the floor all the way up to the twelve foot high ceilings. The book cases covered a whole wall of the large room and all of them were completely full of books. In front of another wall of the room was a table with four of the most powerful computers that were currently available.

"Yeah," Paige said. "Surprise. I'm a nerd."

Ajaya didn't even hear Paige. She was too busy looking through every single book that she saw. All of them were related to all the different maths and sciences. Occasionally, Ajaya would find a book that excited her more than the others. In reality, Ajaya had read most of these books. The occasional few that she hadn't read made her even more excited than the other ones.

"You have a copy of The Complex Universe!" Ajaya said in almost disbelief. "They only published like three hundred of these."

"Wait, what?" Paige said, slightly confused. "Are you trying to tell me that you are a nerd too?"

Ajaya turned around and gave Paige a large grin. "I skipped two grades when I was younger," Ajaya explained. "I'm currently a student of engineering who not only made Dean's List last semester but also got straight A's despite being called as a Slayer right before finals."

"No way!" Paige said in disbelief.

"Yep," Ajaya said with a broad grin. "That's why I transferred to Tokyo. I needed to be somewhere close to my University in India."

"That's great!" Paige said, a little bit too excited then someone should get about math or science. "My last roommate thought I was the world's biggest nerd. I was so afraid that you were going to think the same thing."

"As long as I'm still alive, there is no way that you're going to be able to claim my spot as Queen of the Nerds," Ajaya said to Paige.

Paige gave her new roommate a big hug. "This is so great," Paige nearly squealed. "We so have so much talking to do tonight."

Ajaya was still grinning. "Oh, we will," she said as she began to move towards the door. "But I have to make a call first."

* * *

"What took you so long?" Isabelle demanded of Ajaya. "I thought you were supposed to arrive in Tokyo hours ago."

"I did," Ajaya said to the video screen of Isabelle. "I just had a lot of stuff to do today."

"I see how it is," Isabelle said with a grin. "We're apart for a few measly hours and now all of the sudden you're too busy with your Tokyo friends to call little old Isabelle."

"Isabelle," Ajaya said with a laugh, "Calm down. Breathe."

"Breathing," Isabelle said.

"Good," Ajaya told her. "Anything new going on there?"

"You haven't even been gone for a day yet," Isabelle said to her.

"But you were the one that said that I took too long to call you," Ajaya pointed out.

"That's not the issue right now," Isabelle changed the subject. "What is Tokyo like?"

"Well first," Ajaya said, "Get a good mental image of Fletcher."

"Do I have to?" Isabelle asked.

"Yes," Ajaya said. "Now take away that's stuffy and rigid about him including his ability to clean, switch his accent for Spike's, and add a sense of humor."

"Okay," Isabelle said. Ajaya saw that she was clearly in thought.

"Meet Keifer Price," Ajaya said, "Supervisor of SCBI Tokyo." Ajaya watched while Isabelle disappeared from the screen as she fell over in shock.

Author's Note: Next chapter things should start picking up and Ajaya will meet Heath.