A/N: Okay, we're diving into a fluffier chapter, and then a coupla
surprises. I dunno about you guys, but Jess looks fairly volatile atm. And
I love to play...mwahahahahahaha! *coughs* Yes. Um. Where were we?
(afterwards) Well..That didn't go to plan. At all. There's fluff, in there. Just not in the dosage. And it doesn't help that I'm seeing images of the end of the fic..
Anyway.
Yeah, thanks y'all for reviewing, and whatever. Now, please, the World's End awards, at need votes for the awards there. So please, go support your favourite authors, and stories.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Connor stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes, yawning. He stopped.
A redheaded girl was fighting with a teenager about his own age for possession of the last of the Captain Crunch. A dark haired girl was avidly sketching the conflict. Another girl, a blonde, was spooning up cereal, and Jane was watching them all, giggling.
"Huh?" he mumbled, staring. The redhead turned, and flipped her hair behind her shoulders.
"Aww, not yet awake? Sorry to tell ya, we're not a bad dream. We're here to stay, apparently," she directed a glare at the black haired teen, and yanked on the box.
"You're Connor, right?" the older girl questioned, straightening up. Unlike the others, still in varying pyjamas, she was dressed, in jeans and a tee shirt, and her short curly hair was brushed neatly. "Hi. I'm Starr Reynolds."
"Jane, why are there so many girls here?" he whispered to the little girl. She looked at him complacently.
"Silly. There aren't *many*. That's Starr, and that's Gabby, and that's Faye, and that one is Jess," she pointed.
"Huh," he nodded, still bewildered. He turned, and walked back out the door. Starr watched him go, and raised an eyebrow.
"Well. *That* was rude."
"What do you expect?" Jess said, through a mouthful of the stolen cereal. "Looking like that, d'you expect him to know much about girls?"
"Jess!" Starr exclaimed. Jess shrugged.
"S'true, isn't it?"
"Good morning, my little smorgasbord of goodies!" the bright green-skinned demon sang out cheerfully, as he moved quickly toward the coffee pot. "I hear you're staying at Casa Angel for a few."
Starr gave Jess a warning glance then turned to answer him.
"Yeah, we are," she replied, a little uneasily. He might be a 'friend' according to Wesley, but she wasn't so sure what she'd been taught to kill was a friend of hers.
"Sweetie, I'm not a fightin' big on child eating demon," he told her patiently. "You couldn't get a demon more likely to sing Ella than fight. Really. Get knocked out, all the time. "
"Ella?" Gabby queried. He beamed.
"Queen of the genre, honeypie. Ella Fitzgerald."
"Riiight," Jess said sceptically, with a raised eyebrow and exchanging a look with Gabby.
"So, as far as I hear it, you're all doing some kind of training with Connor and Angel today," Lorne went on.
"What? That skinny little-"Jess muttered, cut off by Jane's excited,
"What? Me too, Lorne?" The demon smiled at her.
"Sorry darlin'. You're school-bound." The grin faded, and Jane hopped off the chair, and plodded away, disappearing from the kitchen.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
She cinched the belt tighter around her waist, hooking it onto the rope, quickly and efficiently checking the clasp. Divesting herself of additional material, she shook out her shoulders, and released the catch.
She dropped like a stone towards the polished, hard, black marble floor, and caught. Hanging a bare two feet above the floor, she undid the harness, and dropped onto her feet in the centre of the empty hall. Looking around, she flipped her long braid behind her shoulders, and strode towards the door.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
"So, what do we do? I think I speak for all of us, when I say, huh?" Jess said confidently, glancing at the basement, and folding her arms.
The large, stuffed doll looked sadly back at her. Someone, with the best of intentions, obviously, had drawn on a smiley, lopsided face. Someone *else* had added a pair of plastic fangs, and red 'blood'. The overall effect was..well. Pathetic.
"It's a vampire," Angel stated, folding his own arms. "You practise killing it."
Jess raised an eyebrow. "And this is supposed to be training, how? I gave up playing with dolls a long time ago."
"That's the point," Starr muttered. Angel met Jess's eyes.
"You will practise fighting it. Or," he shrugged. "You could practise fighting Gunn. But the dummy is less likely to fight back."
"I pick the black guy," she answered, with a disbelieving tone in her voice. "Angel, maybe you don't get this scenario. We're Potential Slayers," she spelled out slowly. "Big on the demon fighting." She drew herself up, and put her hands on her hips. "The council already intro'd us on the beginnings. There's no way that is gonna do anything but kill time. Slowly, and painfully. So please, skip the baby talk."
Angel exchanged a glance with Starr who shrugged.
"Told you," she mumbled.
"Fine. Gunn?" he called. The man's head appeared around the door.
"You rang, Lurch?" he said, flashing a grin at the bemused vampire.
"Lurch was the Addams' family's butler," Gabby informed him, giggling. Angel scowled.
"Right. Come down, and let these girls attack you."
"How is that a good thing?" Gunn demanded. "If these are mini-Faiths...I don't wanna be here."
"Because the girls need a few things demonstrated," Angel replied. Gunn shrugged.
"Hey if they get hurt."
Three small bodies launched themselves at the black man, Jess with a loud war cry, Gabby echoing it. Easily, and quickly, Gunn shook them off, picking Jess up by the collar of her shirt, which made the girl furious.
"Put me DOWN!" she yelled. Gunn smirked.
"I doubt a vampire would listen to a 12 year old," he told her.
"I'm THIRTEEN!"
"Angel, am I done here now?" Gunn asked the vampire. He swung the girl dangling from his fist a little. "I mean, it's hardly a threat anymore."
"I don't know," Angel answered, refolding his arms. He looked directly into Jess's angry eyes. "Has she learnt the lesson?"
"Put. Me. Down," she ground out.
"I asked a question," he growled.
"Fine," she snapped back. "Learnt and all." To get revenge, and to make it *hurt*, she added, silently. Maybe dousing his sheets in holy water.?
"Put her down," Angel shrugged. Jess dropped painfully onto her side, and winced, biting her lip. She managed to stand up though, and glare at the black man.
"For someone a lot bigger than me, you seem to get your rocks off by hurting me," she accused. He grinned.
"Hey! You wanted to fight me, I just won," he lifted his shoulders. He rolled his eyes toward Angel, clearly bored. "So can I get back to real work?"
"Sure," Angel answered easily. "Just, one question? Who put the fangs and blood on the dummy?"
Gunn turn to see it, and smiled. "Fred," he answered, by way of an explanation. Angel's lips twitched into a small smile.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
She pressed one hand to the panel, and watched in satisfaction as it slid upwards smoothly, notching into place, revealing the inner wall.
"Rich people and metal security systems," she muttered, slipping one hand through into the vault, and extracting the prize. A yowling alarm blared, and she ran full pelt for the harness hanging still in mid air, as security guards raced around the corner.
"Going up," she whispered, as she glided upwards, even taking time to smile sweetly at the guards, and wave mockingly, the goal clutched in one gloved hand.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
"Um, Cordelia? Do you mind if I leave the girls here for the afternoon?" Starr requested, fiddling with the collar of her shirt, uneasily. "I want to get a couple of things, and, well, see L.A."
The brunette smiled at her. "Sure, it's okay, Starr. I'm sure the girls need stuff, so I'll take them mall-wise this afternoon. Guys, you happy with that?" she turned to the group of hot, sweaty girls clustered in the foyer. Gabby nodded. Jess held up a hand.
"I could use a new sketchpad," Faye spoke up, shyly. Cordelia looked at the girl, a soft look in her brown eyes.
"You like drawing?" she asked. Faye nodded.
"Mr Travers used to let the Watchers teach me. I used to illustrate some of the books," she mumbled. Cordelia's smile became rather fixed. What the skanky, nasty fat little man had told these children to do, she would really rather was not mentioned.
"Well I'm sure we can find you some better subject matter," she laughed. Faye held out the sketchpad tucked under her arm.
"I drew this," she answered. The page was turned towards Cordelia, and she looked down at it.
It was a sketch of Lorne, sat next to Jane. The little girl was in her pyjamas, her feet curled under her, and her hair in a wispy braid, soft tendrils of hair falling across her face, as she looked up at the demon. Lorne was leant against the chair's back, an arm around Jane's shoulders, and his mouth open in a song. His eyes were warm, and soft as he looked at the child, and the sketch was well drawn, in such a way as to appear life like.
"This is.,...beautiful, Faye," Cordelia said softly, gazing at the sketch again.
"You can keep it," the girl mumbled, and stepped back. Starr smiled at her. Jess curled a lip in a look of disgust.
"Stupid fat little baby," she muttered under her breath to Gabby. Meekly, the younger girl nodded.
"Sucking up to Cordelia. No doubt she prefers hanging around with demons to going to the home of the *real* Slayer," Jess continued, a sneering toe in her voice.
"But there is a Slayer here," Gabby said, confused, meeting Jess's eyes. Jess scowled.
"Oh yeah. Real Slayer. Locked behind bars, 'cuz she kills people," she scoffed. Gabby bowed her head.
"Guys? You want to go get ready?" Cordelia asked. Jess cast a last glare at Faye, and marched away, followed by Gabby.
"Okay, well, I'm gonna head on ou-" Starr stopped, in horror, as Cordelia crumpled to the floor, her head clutched in her hands.
"Cordelia! Cordelia! Are you okay?" she asked wildly. Sparking pain behind her eyes made her sink onto the ground beside her, on her knees, holding her forehead.
Images flashed past. Blood, so much blood. Hands coated in it, bathed in it, scattering drops of the crimson liquid in the air. A symbol, carved into wood, burning. And then, a voice, high, and piercing, distorted. "Three, THREE!" it screamed, and then a face, but masked in darkness. Starr's head slipped down onto the floor, as she and Cordelia lay side by side, sprawled in unconsciousness.
Alone, the little girl leant her head against the side of the stalls, as she shivered with the pain. At the sights flashing across her eyes, she vomited, crying bitterly, as she dropped into darkness.
In a tall office block, the dark haired young man went unnoticed, as he put a hand to his temple, as he fell forwards, almost in slow motion, in the small waiting room.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
(afterwards) Well..That didn't go to plan. At all. There's fluff, in there. Just not in the dosage. And it doesn't help that I'm seeing images of the end of the fic..
Anyway.
Yeah, thanks y'all for reviewing, and whatever. Now, please, the World's End awards, at need votes for the awards there. So please, go support your favourite authors, and stories.
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
Connor stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes, yawning. He stopped.
A redheaded girl was fighting with a teenager about his own age for possession of the last of the Captain Crunch. A dark haired girl was avidly sketching the conflict. Another girl, a blonde, was spooning up cereal, and Jane was watching them all, giggling.
"Huh?" he mumbled, staring. The redhead turned, and flipped her hair behind her shoulders.
"Aww, not yet awake? Sorry to tell ya, we're not a bad dream. We're here to stay, apparently," she directed a glare at the black haired teen, and yanked on the box.
"You're Connor, right?" the older girl questioned, straightening up. Unlike the others, still in varying pyjamas, she was dressed, in jeans and a tee shirt, and her short curly hair was brushed neatly. "Hi. I'm Starr Reynolds."
"Jane, why are there so many girls here?" he whispered to the little girl. She looked at him complacently.
"Silly. There aren't *many*. That's Starr, and that's Gabby, and that's Faye, and that one is Jess," she pointed.
"Huh," he nodded, still bewildered. He turned, and walked back out the door. Starr watched him go, and raised an eyebrow.
"Well. *That* was rude."
"What do you expect?" Jess said, through a mouthful of the stolen cereal. "Looking like that, d'you expect him to know much about girls?"
"Jess!" Starr exclaimed. Jess shrugged.
"S'true, isn't it?"
"Good morning, my little smorgasbord of goodies!" the bright green-skinned demon sang out cheerfully, as he moved quickly toward the coffee pot. "I hear you're staying at Casa Angel for a few."
Starr gave Jess a warning glance then turned to answer him.
"Yeah, we are," she replied, a little uneasily. He might be a 'friend' according to Wesley, but she wasn't so sure what she'd been taught to kill was a friend of hers.
"Sweetie, I'm not a fightin' big on child eating demon," he told her patiently. "You couldn't get a demon more likely to sing Ella than fight. Really. Get knocked out, all the time. "
"Ella?" Gabby queried. He beamed.
"Queen of the genre, honeypie. Ella Fitzgerald."
"Riiight," Jess said sceptically, with a raised eyebrow and exchanging a look with Gabby.
"So, as far as I hear it, you're all doing some kind of training with Connor and Angel today," Lorne went on.
"What? That skinny little-"Jess muttered, cut off by Jane's excited,
"What? Me too, Lorne?" The demon smiled at her.
"Sorry darlin'. You're school-bound." The grin faded, and Jane hopped off the chair, and plodded away, disappearing from the kitchen.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
She cinched the belt tighter around her waist, hooking it onto the rope, quickly and efficiently checking the clasp. Divesting herself of additional material, she shook out her shoulders, and released the catch.
She dropped like a stone towards the polished, hard, black marble floor, and caught. Hanging a bare two feet above the floor, she undid the harness, and dropped onto her feet in the centre of the empty hall. Looking around, she flipped her long braid behind her shoulders, and strode towards the door.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
"So, what do we do? I think I speak for all of us, when I say, huh?" Jess said confidently, glancing at the basement, and folding her arms.
The large, stuffed doll looked sadly back at her. Someone, with the best of intentions, obviously, had drawn on a smiley, lopsided face. Someone *else* had added a pair of plastic fangs, and red 'blood'. The overall effect was..well. Pathetic.
"It's a vampire," Angel stated, folding his own arms. "You practise killing it."
Jess raised an eyebrow. "And this is supposed to be training, how? I gave up playing with dolls a long time ago."
"That's the point," Starr muttered. Angel met Jess's eyes.
"You will practise fighting it. Or," he shrugged. "You could practise fighting Gunn. But the dummy is less likely to fight back."
"I pick the black guy," she answered, with a disbelieving tone in her voice. "Angel, maybe you don't get this scenario. We're Potential Slayers," she spelled out slowly. "Big on the demon fighting." She drew herself up, and put her hands on her hips. "The council already intro'd us on the beginnings. There's no way that is gonna do anything but kill time. Slowly, and painfully. So please, skip the baby talk."
Angel exchanged a glance with Starr who shrugged.
"Told you," she mumbled.
"Fine. Gunn?" he called. The man's head appeared around the door.
"You rang, Lurch?" he said, flashing a grin at the bemused vampire.
"Lurch was the Addams' family's butler," Gabby informed him, giggling. Angel scowled.
"Right. Come down, and let these girls attack you."
"How is that a good thing?" Gunn demanded. "If these are mini-Faiths...I don't wanna be here."
"Because the girls need a few things demonstrated," Angel replied. Gunn shrugged.
"Hey if they get hurt."
Three small bodies launched themselves at the black man, Jess with a loud war cry, Gabby echoing it. Easily, and quickly, Gunn shook them off, picking Jess up by the collar of her shirt, which made the girl furious.
"Put me DOWN!" she yelled. Gunn smirked.
"I doubt a vampire would listen to a 12 year old," he told her.
"I'm THIRTEEN!"
"Angel, am I done here now?" Gunn asked the vampire. He swung the girl dangling from his fist a little. "I mean, it's hardly a threat anymore."
"I don't know," Angel answered, refolding his arms. He looked directly into Jess's angry eyes. "Has she learnt the lesson?"
"Put. Me. Down," she ground out.
"I asked a question," he growled.
"Fine," she snapped back. "Learnt and all." To get revenge, and to make it *hurt*, she added, silently. Maybe dousing his sheets in holy water.?
"Put her down," Angel shrugged. Jess dropped painfully onto her side, and winced, biting her lip. She managed to stand up though, and glare at the black man.
"For someone a lot bigger than me, you seem to get your rocks off by hurting me," she accused. He grinned.
"Hey! You wanted to fight me, I just won," he lifted his shoulders. He rolled his eyes toward Angel, clearly bored. "So can I get back to real work?"
"Sure," Angel answered easily. "Just, one question? Who put the fangs and blood on the dummy?"
Gunn turn to see it, and smiled. "Fred," he answered, by way of an explanation. Angel's lips twitched into a small smile.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
She pressed one hand to the panel, and watched in satisfaction as it slid upwards smoothly, notching into place, revealing the inner wall.
"Rich people and metal security systems," she muttered, slipping one hand through into the vault, and extracting the prize. A yowling alarm blared, and she ran full pelt for the harness hanging still in mid air, as security guards raced around the corner.
"Going up," she whispered, as she glided upwards, even taking time to smile sweetly at the guards, and wave mockingly, the goal clutched in one gloved hand.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
"Um, Cordelia? Do you mind if I leave the girls here for the afternoon?" Starr requested, fiddling with the collar of her shirt, uneasily. "I want to get a couple of things, and, well, see L.A."
The brunette smiled at her. "Sure, it's okay, Starr. I'm sure the girls need stuff, so I'll take them mall-wise this afternoon. Guys, you happy with that?" she turned to the group of hot, sweaty girls clustered in the foyer. Gabby nodded. Jess held up a hand.
"I could use a new sketchpad," Faye spoke up, shyly. Cordelia looked at the girl, a soft look in her brown eyes.
"You like drawing?" she asked. Faye nodded.
"Mr Travers used to let the Watchers teach me. I used to illustrate some of the books," she mumbled. Cordelia's smile became rather fixed. What the skanky, nasty fat little man had told these children to do, she would really rather was not mentioned.
"Well I'm sure we can find you some better subject matter," she laughed. Faye held out the sketchpad tucked under her arm.
"I drew this," she answered. The page was turned towards Cordelia, and she looked down at it.
It was a sketch of Lorne, sat next to Jane. The little girl was in her pyjamas, her feet curled under her, and her hair in a wispy braid, soft tendrils of hair falling across her face, as she looked up at the demon. Lorne was leant against the chair's back, an arm around Jane's shoulders, and his mouth open in a song. His eyes were warm, and soft as he looked at the child, and the sketch was well drawn, in such a way as to appear life like.
"This is.,...beautiful, Faye," Cordelia said softly, gazing at the sketch again.
"You can keep it," the girl mumbled, and stepped back. Starr smiled at her. Jess curled a lip in a look of disgust.
"Stupid fat little baby," she muttered under her breath to Gabby. Meekly, the younger girl nodded.
"Sucking up to Cordelia. No doubt she prefers hanging around with demons to going to the home of the *real* Slayer," Jess continued, a sneering toe in her voice.
"But there is a Slayer here," Gabby said, confused, meeting Jess's eyes. Jess scowled.
"Oh yeah. Real Slayer. Locked behind bars, 'cuz she kills people," she scoffed. Gabby bowed her head.
"Guys? You want to go get ready?" Cordelia asked. Jess cast a last glare at Faye, and marched away, followed by Gabby.
"Okay, well, I'm gonna head on ou-" Starr stopped, in horror, as Cordelia crumpled to the floor, her head clutched in her hands.
"Cordelia! Cordelia! Are you okay?" she asked wildly. Sparking pain behind her eyes made her sink onto the ground beside her, on her knees, holding her forehead.
Images flashed past. Blood, so much blood. Hands coated in it, bathed in it, scattering drops of the crimson liquid in the air. A symbol, carved into wood, burning. And then, a voice, high, and piercing, distorted. "Three, THREE!" it screamed, and then a face, but masked in darkness. Starr's head slipped down onto the floor, as she and Cordelia lay side by side, sprawled in unconsciousness.
Alone, the little girl leant her head against the side of the stalls, as she shivered with the pain. At the sights flashing across her eyes, she vomited, crying bitterly, as she dropped into darkness.
In a tall office block, the dark haired young man went unnoticed, as he put a hand to his temple, as he fell forwards, almost in slow motion, in the small waiting room.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~