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 Three
Ajaya stared at the raging alarm clock through squinted eyes from across the room. When Paige had set her alarm for 9:00 she must not have anticipated staying up all night talking about various modern developments in the world of science. Ajaya wasn't the heaviest sleeper and had woken up for the first of the many increasingly annoying tones. She had no idea how Paige could have slept through that noise for three straight minutes.
With a groan Paige rolled over in bed and slammed her fist on the alarm clock. In a shower of sparks, the noise and the alarm clock itself were both dead. Not even waking up, Paige made a few more noises before she returned to her dreams.
Ajaya's eyes were now completely opened. She was going to have to ask Paige a few questions after she eventually woke up. With a sigh, Ajaya reluctantly got out of bed and put on her bath robe. She grabbed a few toiletries from her bag and made her way down the hallway towards the bathroom. When she opened the bathroom door, there were two women in there. A panic quickly ran through Ajaya as she realized that she had met one of them before. She desperately tried to remember the name of the blonde girl with blue streaks and tried not to look paniced as she turned to her and smiled.
"Morning Ajaya," she said with the chipper tone that Ajaya usually had but lacked on this morning. "How did you sleep last night?"
"Good," Ajaya said as she went to the sink next to her and began to brush her teeth. At least if her mouth was full of toothpaste she wouldn't be able to talk.
"Are you ready for your first training session?" the woman asked while she continued to get ready. "Angel said that he was going to run you through a couple of trials before you train with the rest of us."
"You're on Alpha Team?" Ajaya asked as she spit out her toothpaste.
"Yep," she said as she finished getting ready. "Allison Hendricks, witch and member of Alpha Team."
"Allison," Ajaya thought to herself. "Allison Hendricks. Witch with blue streaks. Got it."
"Have you met Felicia?" Allison indicated the blonde woman in the bathroom with them who was also finishing up. Ajaya shook her head. "Felicia this is Ajaya Gupta," Allison introduced Ajaya. Felicia offered Ajaya a weak smile and a hello before she left the bathroom.
"Vampires in the morning," Allison said as she shook her head. "Not the best people to interact with."
* * *
Heath walked back to his room after a long, warm shower. He was glad that he woke up at the right time to avoid any one else in the bathroom. In the evening that he had spent at SCBI Tokyo, he had already lost count of the number of people that had harassed him. It was incredibly annoying. So he had made one mistake. He had made one tiny error in judgment. It's not like his entire family was without their mistakes.
As Heath opened the door to his bedroom, he was greeted to the sound of Rocky snoring loudly. Heath had completely forgotten about his friend's tendency snore when he had agreed to room with him. It wasn't that it was something that he couldn't deal with. It was just another complaint that he could add to his ever growing laundry lists of things that were currently going wrong in his life.
With a slight rush, Heath quickly got dressed and left his bedroom. He walked over to the next door and put his hand on the knob and became silent. With his advanced hearing, he knew that Dade was still fast asleep in bed. He couldn't tell where Todd was, but he knew that he wasn't still sleeping. Slowly, Heath opened the door and found his friend in a deep state of concentration. What impressed Heath was that he was concentrating while completely inverted and supporting himself with only one hand.
"Are you hungry?" Heath asked Todd from the hallway.
"I could eat," Todd said while his eyes remained closed in concentration.
"Do you think Dade is going to get up any time soon?" Heath asked.
"Think about what you just asked," Todd said as he gracefully flipped over onto his feet with cat like agility.
"Then I guess it's just me and you," Heath said while Todd shut his bedroom door on the way out.
"So I'm willing to bet that you got it worse than I did yesterday," Todd said to Heath in regards to the ridicule that all four of the friends were receiving. "And I'm guessing it's going to get worse before it gets better."
"I just can't wait until everyone gets over this," Heath replied.
"Have you talked to Angel yet?" Todd asked.
"Nope," Heath answered. "I've managed to narrowly avoid him every single time that he tried to greet me."
"And how long do you think you can keep that up?" Todd asked.
"You'd be surprised at what I'll go through to keep away from that conversation," Heath said with a smirk.
"Is that so?" Heath and Todd turned in the direction of the new voice, although they both knew who it was.
"That came out wrong," Heath said to Angel who was giving Heath an almost condescending grin.
"I thought that might be the case," Angel said as he began to walk past the two boys. "You can explain to me what you really meant over breakfast. We'll go out. My treat."
Todd looked to Heath as Angel kept walking. He wasn't giving them a choice.
"Good luck," Todd said to his friend. "Tell me all about it later."
"You're coming too," Angel called from far enough down the hallway that if he were human he wouldn't have been able to hear Todd.
"That's not even fair," Todd complained as he walked with Heath with his shoulders slumped. They both had defeated looks on their faces. "I'm not even related."
* * *
"You have experience with vampires, right?" Paige asked Ajaya as they walked towards the dining room.
"It's kind of in the job title," Ajaya responded sarcastically.
"No," Paige said as she shook her head. "Not like that. I mean have you had experience with souled vampires? Specifically souled vampires while they are eating?"
"Yeah," Ajaya said as she thought about the few times she had seen Nicholas and some of the other vampires during meals. However, the more she thought about it the more she realized that she really didn't see vampires feed that often. "A little. Why do you ask?"
"Some vampires can be really self conscious about it," Paige explained. "They don't really like it when people stare at them when they are eating."
"Oh," Ajaya said as she thought about what Paige had just said. "Why?"
Paige shrugged. "I don't know," she admitted. "It's mostly the M.D. vampires."
"M.D.?" Ajaya asked as she wrinkled her nose in confusion. "There are different types of vampires? How come I wasn't informed of this?"
"Melodramatic vampires," Paige clarified. "They're usually the vampires that were vamped and ensouled against their will. You can identify them by the brooding."
"I'm guessing Angel is the traditional example?" Ajaya asked.
"See," Paige said with a smile. "You're becoming one of us already."
Ajaya laughed as they entered the large dining room. There were three long tables arranged in the shape of a U. In the middle of the tables was a large table full of different foods. Ajaya followed Paige towards the table and grabbed a bagel, a grapefruit half, and a glass of orange juice and waited for Paige to get her breakfast together so she could pick where they would sit.
"You know that you have a session today, right?" Paige asked Ajaya as she eyed up her plate. "A good breakfast wouldn't exactly hurt."
"This is a good breakfast," Ajaya defended her plate. She looked over to the piles of meat that Paige had selected. "It's healthy. Which is more than I can say for yours."
"Some of us aren't exactly tuned in to the mystical slayer power," Paige said while she walked towards a table. "We need to keep our powers up the old fashioned way. With meat."
"Which brings me to my next question," Ajaya said as she sat down next to Paige. "What exactly are your powers? I saw you kill the alarm clock this morning."
"Yeah," Paige said as she took a bite of her breakfast. "That happens sometimes."
"So what was it?" Ajaya repeated her question. "How did you do that?"
"It comes from my grandmother," Paige explained. "She had kind of this lightning toss thing going on."
"Demon?" Ajaya asked.
"No," Paige said as she shook her head. "At least, not specifically. She might have had some demon ancestry. She was kind of just a freak of nature."
"I have no idea what that must have been like," Ajaya said with a roll of her eyes.
Paige grinned. "I don't have anywhere near the kind of power that she had," Paige continued. "She could just point her hand and shoot a lightning bolt. I'm more of the manipulate electronics type."
"Manipulate?" Ajaya gave her new friend a smirk. "Is that what you call melting the clock?"
Paige looked slightly sheepish. "Well," she said between pieces of bacon, "my blows do kind of have a little bit of a bite behind them."
"I'm guessing that's just putting it mildly," Ajaya said as she tore off a piece of her bagel and ate it.
"I'm not really the front lines type of fighter," Paige explained. "I'm more of the sneak in, get the computer files and sneak out type."
"Espionage?" Ajaya asked.
Paige nodded. "Epsilon Team," she told her as she continued to eat from the barnyard on her plate. "It's the spy team around here."
"Well then, let's make a deal right now," Ajaya offered. "If you ever get mad at me, how about we talk about it instead of you breaking into my stuff and revealing any of my deep, dark secrets?"
Paige smiled. "Deal."
* * *
"You are so incredible, Dade," The gorgeous blonde who was hanging on Dade's left arm said to him. "I mean, not only are you the strongest person that I've ever met in my life, but you're also the best looking. How do you do it?"
"What can I say," Dade said in between grapes that another equally beautiful girl was feeding him. "Some people just get dealt better hands in life."
"That is so profound," The brunette that was on Dade's right arm chimed in. "You are so smart."
"Why thank you," Dade said to her. "Very few people ever compliment me on my intelligence."
Dade looked around at the half dozen women who were surrounding him and all looking equally infatuated with him. He briefly wondered where he was and what he was doing there but it didn't really seem to matter. Just as he was about to suggest something very lewd to the girls around him, he felt something very cold and wet that shattered his dream.
* * *
Rocky was sleeping very peacefully in his bed. The lights were off and the only noise that could be heard were the occasional snores escaping from his lips. He was in a very deep sleep and he wasn't going to be woken up very easily.
Duncan, who had quietly entered Rocky's room without waking him up, looked down at the boy who was ten years younger than him and smiled. Holding the glass of ice water that he had in his hand out and over Rocky's head, he paused to enjoy the moment before he emptied the liquid all over him.
Rocky let out an alarmed scream as he shot up in bed. He looked around frantically for a few moments before he could piece together what happened. When he did understand what had happened, his eyes filled with fury as he stared at Duncan.
"Good morning," Duncan said with mock cheer.
"Don't bloody 'good morning' me!" Rocky shouted at his field leader. "What the Hell are you doing in here?"
"Waking you up," Duncan said, not changing his tone. "I figured since you had probably gone out again last night that you would need extra measures to be woken up."
"Okay," Rocky said very calmly. "You need to get out of my room before I started replacing parts of your body with insect pieces."
"Sorry," Duncan said. "I can't do it. You and Dade are scheduled for a training session now."
"What?" Rocky felt the anger inside of him building up once more.
"Did I forget to tell you?" Duncan asked Rocky with concern. Duncan was trying his absolute hardest not to smile but he felt the corners of his mouth beginning to betray him. "I'm sorry, that was my mistake. But you two have your first session scheduled in ten minutes. I mean, we know that you two can handle yourself against a handful of drunken Englishmen, but we need to see how you will handle yourself in the field."
Rocky's eyes narrowed as he took a few deep, calming breaths. "Just please tell me I get to go up against you."
Duncan let out a laugh as he walked towards the door. "You definitely don't want to go up against me," he informed the brunette warlock. "Now get dressed. You need to be down at The Ring in nine minutes."
Rocky stared at the door in disbelief for a full minute before he could react. He had no idea what he was going to do, but he knew that he had to find some way to get back at Duncan.
* * *
The restaurant that Angel had taken Heath and Todd too wasn't a traditional Japanese restaurant. It was a restaurant more in the style of an American diner. Despite being a vampire, there was still something that Angel needed in the morning.
"Thank you," Angel said to the waitress as she refilled his mug of coffee. Heath and Todd offered similar responses as the waitress gave them their breakfasts.
"I still can't believe how much you've grown since the last time I saw you," Angel appraised Heath as he took a sip of his coffee. "Are you as tall as Duncan yet?"
Heath shook his head. "He still has a couple inches on me. I'm taller than Brendan though." Brendan was Heath's other brother.
Angel smiled. "I'm sure he wasn't exactly thrilled when he found that out."
"No," Heath said with a small chuckle. "Not really."
"Where is he now?" Angel asked. "Is he still in Los Angeles?"
Heath nodded. "Yeah," he confirmed. "He's been there for a few years now."
"And I heard that Chloe was made a field leader in Capetown," Angel said as he took another sip of his coffee. "And Kelsey is in Miami?"
Heath shook his head. "She's in Belize now."
"How is she deciding where she wants to be stationed?" Angel asked. "Some kind of travel guide?"
Heath laughed. That probably wasn't too far from the truth.
"Have you talked to any of them since the incident?" Angel tried to bring the topic up casually.
Heath sighed. "Here it comes," he thought to himself. "No," he said to his great grandfather. "Just Duncan."
"You realize how much trouble you could have gotten into from that," Angel said. He turned from Heath and looked at Todd. "All of you."
"We know," Heath said. He felt like he was seven again and getting yelled at for not cleaning his room. "It was stupid."
"Heath," Angel made his tone a little more sympathetic, "it's just that you have so much potential. All four of you can make a big difference in this world. I don't want to see all of that go to waste."
"We messed up," Heath admitted. "But it's not like it's the end of the world. It was just one fight."
"It's not the fight that I'm worried about," Angel clarified. "It's your attitude."
"My attitude?" Heath had no clue where Angel was going with his. He looked over to Todd who gave him a small shrug. Todd was beginning to feel very uncomfortable.
"Your brothers and sisters are so full of life and they always seem so happy," Angel said.
"You think I'm depressed?" Heath asked. It was true that Heath wasn't exactly walking through life grinning like an idiot, but that didn't mean that he wasn't happy.
"No," Angel shook his head. "It's not that at all."
"Then what is it?" Heath asked.
"You remind me of people that I knew," Angel told Heath. "You remind me of myself and my son. I don't want that for you."
"Angel, I'm fine," Heath defended himself. "It's true that I'm not any of my brothers or sisters, but I'm okay."
Angel nodded as he took another drink from his coffee. "You have a lot of potential, Heath. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it out of you while you're on my squad."
To Todd's relief, Heath let the conversation end there.
* * *
Ajaya sat nervously on a chair against the wall in the massive room that Paige said everyone called "The Ring." The room was in one of the subbasements of the Asian palace. In the center of the room was a raised platform where two people would go in and fight each other. Ajaya had already watched as a vampire fought a boy a few years older than her, and also another boy around her age who had fought Allison in some kind of magical battle. In both cases the older of the two combatants had won, which made Ajaya nervous for her upcoming fight.
As she sat deep in thought with a piece of her hair in her mouth, she spotted Cordelia walking through the room looking for someone. She held up her hand and waved. Cordelia spotted her and waved back before she made her way over to talk to her.
"Good morning," Cordy smiled at Ajaya. "So are you ready for your first session?"
"I guess," Ajaya answered.
"Are you nervous?" Cordy asked as she continued to scan the room looking for someone.
"Very," Ajaya told her honestly.
Cordy laughed. "I'd tell you not to be, but I don't think that you would listen to me."
"Who are you looking for?" Ajaya asked.
"Angel, as always," Cordelia answered. "He said he was going to go talk to the other new member of our team this morning but he's been gone for a couple hours now."
"There's another new member of the team?" Ajaya actually felt a little bit relieved. It took some pressure off knowing that she wouldn't be the only person who was going to be learning the ropes.
"Yeah," Cordelia confirmed for Ajaya. "He's actually Angel's great-grandson."
"I think I might have met him," Ajaya tried to remember the man she had met the previous day in the entrance hall. "I want to say that his name is Duncan."
"It's actually Duncan's younger brother," Cordelia told Ajaya as she finally spotted Angel entering the room. "There he is," she said as she stood up to walk towards him.
Ajaya lost sight of Cordelia as she made her way through the crowd. Ajaya was glad that there was another new person on her team but she wasn't sure if the other new person was going to be on her level. If he was Angel's great-grandson, he probably had a lot more experience than Ajaya had.
Looking up once again, Ajaya saw Cordelia, Angel, and a third person walking in her direction. She took a very quick breath when she got a good look at the person she didn't know. He was only a few inches shorter than Angel. He had dark brown hair and very piercing brown eyes. His features were strong and he walked almost with a purpose.
"Wow," Ajaya thought to herself. She instantly began to blush as she realized that this boy that she didn't know was only a few yards away from her. With movements that were slightly ungraceful for a Slayer, Ajaya quickly stood up to greet them.
"Hi," Ajaya said quickly as she hoped that her cheeks would return to their normal color.
"Ajaya," Angel said as he pointed towards Heath. "This is-"
Angel was cut off by an announcement that boomed throughout the room. Ajaya had heard it before. It was the announcement that came on right before a match that indicated who was fighting who.
"The next match is between Heath Angel of Alpha Team and Ajaya Gupta of Alpha Team," the computer voice announced as Ajaya's nerves shot through the roof.
Author's Note: Okay, I owe everyone a huge apology. I'm really sorry that this chapter took so long to come out. Blame finals, moving, and starting a new job. Hopefully I'm back on my old schedule for writing now.