Hellmouth #2
"Scarlet River, Part 2"
"Alright, Mr. Geller, a brief synopsis of our group." Nick sat and watched the man speak, a wave of pride circling the orator as the well formed speech left his lips. The orator in question stood tall, a curve of distinguish in his spine, with a nice pair of ironed slacks and a sweater vest over his long sleeve white tee. He seemed laid-back but well groomed.
"Brace yourself," Gene whispered to Nicholas, "he gives this same speech to all the new recruits."
"Gene, please. Cleveland is a full, industrious city. It is also the home of something we call the Hellmouth. It is the second in recorded history, as the first one fell in a small suburban town in Southern California called Sunnydale. It was recently destroyed, as well as the town with it."
"Okay. Hellmouth?" Nicholas chimed in.
"Alright, the Hellmouth is a mystical convergence point for all things. It is the only stable access to one of many 'hell' dimensions. Which one is unknown to any of us, but we are certain through several millennia of studies that it is the point in which anything that can happen, will happen. This is why anything subhuman is drawn here; it's because of the mystical energy that spews out of the Hellmouth."
"Okay, I kinda get that, but what's with the vampires?" Nick asked, noticing that Gene sat back with a smile on his face. He had heard this too many times, Nick thought.
"The vampire is the most common demon in this world. There are many different stories and interpretations of stories, but the one I know says that the first vampire was completely demon, not the demon/human hybrid we have now. When all the demons were cast from the world for the coming of man, a vampire bit and drank the blood of a human and then forced the human to drink its blood as well. The vampire was cast out but that human rose again after it was buried, and thus vampirism was spread throughout the world."
"Larson, man," Gene chimed in, "I know you love flexin your brain and all, but can we get on with this?"
"Right, well, okay. I'm basically done with the history. Any questions, Nicholas?" Larson asked with a glimpse of hope.
"Well, you said the first Hellmouth was destroyed. Who destroyed that one? Was it you guys?" Nick asked, wondering what he had gotten himself into.
"GAWD!!! Why did you have to ask that? We're gonna be here for hours, now!" Gene drawled.
Larson gave him a dirty look and began, "I am a former member of an organization called the Watchers' Council. We collected information on all things inhuman and supernatural, and most of all, we were in charge of training an entity, possibly the most powerful entity in the world. One girl in all the world, with the skills and strength to fight the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. We called her the Slayer."
"Job didn't work out for ya?" Nick wondered aloud.
"Actually, I never got a chance. I'm British by birth, but because being a Watcher is part of my family lineage, and that the Hellmouth is focusing the demons of the world to America, I was the first Watcher that was raised here. After the death of a slayer, a new slayer is chosen. With each new slayer comes a new watcher. I was supposed to be the watcher of the next slayer, which they told me numerous times that because of the most recent slayer's exploits, would have been sometime soon."
"So why didn't you get a chance?"
"Well, namely, she never died. Secondly, the Watchers' Council headquarters, as well as the council itself, was destroyed. But that's why we are having a major problem as of late. You see, the Sunnydale Hellmouth has been around for sometime. It didn't grow in strength until the slayer started patrolling there, but when this Hellmouth showed, the Sunnydale one was definitely the stronger of the two, and thus the drawing power was still there. With that Hellmouth in place, we were able to hold off the few demons that made their way here. Now that the Sunnydale Hellmouth his destroyed, however, this one is being overrun with the demons that were dwelling there. Problem is we have no way of finding or contacting either the slayer or her former watcher." Nick went quiet.
Several miles away on the rooftop of the Luxury Grande Hotel, The jade-skinned Ophelia stands over the edge looking down at the lights across the city. The door to the rooftop opens and out steps Docket, well dressed to match his majesty's provocative white, silky garments. He turned to notice three people, homeless, not to mention dead, their life breath sucked from their bodies, leaned against the edge of the building. "Why, Docket, do these people not live in houses as do their kin?"
"They are the less fortunate of their species, my dear. For every one that flourishes in wealth, many will end up here. Not to mention that some just don't have it in them to fight for contentment, and instead choose to fight for survival," he explained.
"Do these beings not care for them? Are they simply exiles?" Ophelia felt confused.
"The popular choice would be to say that they do care, but most do not. Most truly believe that only the fittest should stand tall in the world, and the weak should have no voice."
"Why do we not have a voice, then? Are we not stronger, with exceptions to your disabilities as a vampire, than these pitiful, self loathing beings?" Ophelia asked, seemingly appalled at the idea that her demon kind hasn't thought of this before.
"My dear, dear Ophelia, though pitiful as they are, they are strong in numbers." Docket felt justified in the statement.
"Than we shall gather our numbers and thin the herd, until our voice is louder than the beating of their drums." She turned back to the overwhelming city view.
"That is why you were summoned, majesty. That is why I stand before you now as your servant. Command me. Tell me how we can accomplish your vision."
" We will start with these exiles. We will use them as our voice. We will make a fluent point to the world with a voice more powerful than that of a god's," she preached.
"How then?" Docket began to sound slightly annoyed at her puzzled speech.
"We'll slaughter them all. We'll gather your kin, and massacre these exiles. We'll show the human world that these ostracized lives can speak volumes without a voice," she told her disciple, never taking her gaze from the city lights.
"I'll begin the gathering." Docket turned to leave, a smile from ear to ear.
"Why? Why did I sign up for this crap?" Nicholas complained, bruised everywhere his skin stretches from the last few days of hand-to-hand combat training Gene has provided. Gene has become immune to the whining, as this is a normal part of Nick's training routine. "Do you mean besides the fact that you are staying on my couch since you got evicted? Well, then, it's because you know what goes bump in the night and you chose to keep that bump from killing anyone else, practically the same reason we all do this." Gene sounded so precise and accurate, as if this is what he told himself to keep from asking the same question.
"Haven't you guys ever heard of divine will? If this was meant to happen, then we don't have the right to impede on that; then this is all for nothing." Nicholas seemed serious enough.
"Well, because for every hundred lives we save, God has yet to come down and tell us to cut it out." Gene threw a punch, which he was glad to see that Nick had developed some reflexes since beginning the training. They stopped, exhausted, and sat down on the bench to drink some water.
"This is a nice place you have here. What is it?" Nick inquired.
"It used to be the old firehouse here in town. We saved the guy who bought it a few years back and he donated it to us. We have a few guys that stay here, including Larson, in some of the rooms upstairs, but mostly we use this as a training and meeting facility."
"So most of the things that you guys have come from people you've saved?"
"Yeah. Some of them are really generous and will help us out with something we were really lacking. Some of them are cheapskates and ask why you saved them and not their dogs. that's a long story. And some of them tell you they are broke and want to sleep on your couch."
Catching the joke, Nick smiled and asked, "Really?. What happens to them?"
Gene stood and, in deadpan fashion, said, "They're dead in the first month, on the average." Nick's smile faded.
Well across town, in a lower-class slum in the city, a battle is waged, courtesy of course of Lock and his band of regulars. They followed a group of about twelve vampires on their haunt and struck when they were led to an open area. Sabrina, one of the regulars, sat on a bench with Jamie. They nuzzled and caressed one another until the vampires had circled them. Jamie had put on a brilliant show of playing the valiant boyfriend, offering to give them everything he had as long as the two weren't hurt. The second the vampires turned from the human faces into their vampiric faces, Lock, Antoine, Matt , and Ky jumped out into the fray. Small vials of holy water slowed the beasts' attacks and short swords were able to hurt them just enough to finish the vampires off with the wooden stakes. Ky, herself being a witch, was able to pop small crackles of sunlight in the night air, not only hurting the demons but distracting them long enough to stay wide open for the stake through the heart. The organized plan of Lock's dwindled the dozen down to three, who started to give way to retreat. Lock ordered his group to follow the vampires, and found quickly how bad a decision that was, then the dozen-to- three vampires ran into about four dozen more. Lock and his group stopped.
"Oh gawd," Lock stuttered, "Ky, you got anything for this?"
"Nothin boss," Ky stuttered back.
Out of the mass of vampires stepped one in particular who was dressed surprisingly well for a vampire in the Cleveland slums. He walked forward in a suit as if he were going to a major settlement or an awards ceremony, and he walked in such a smooth manner that one could hardly noticed his ridged, vampiric face.
"Lock. Locklear Taylor. you are the new leader of the Hunters, right?" asked the gentleman. "You see, I haven't had a chance to meet you yet. Name's Fabini. I run these parts. I had assumed you knew."
"Well, Fabini," Lock asserted himself, "if I had a dime for every time I heard a vampire tell me he ran wherever he was from, I certainly wouldn't be here right now."
"No, you misunderstand me," Fabini smiled a coy but straightforward smile, "I mean I really do run these parts. As well as the next few slums over, and the eastern part of downtown. Have you ever heard stories of the vampire mafia? Dreadful name, I know. In fact, we don't like to use it ourselves, but it does give a general point of who we are. I know you guys have to do your job, but I have been able to at least be slightly diplomatic with your last few bosses, and we've been able to work around this nasty little human/vampire rivalry."
Lock looked over at Ky. The shared a look back and forth, and Matt chimed in, "He's right, Lock. I've heard of these guys. Larson told me once that they had something like a fangy goodfellas or something like that. He said we have a deal not to kill them unless we catch them directly threatening humans," Matt explained, doing no more than confusing Lock and downright angering him that he didn't know about this already.
When Lock turned again to Fabini, he noticed Fabini talking to one of the three who got away. Fabini let out an angry snarl and looked at Lock again. "Look, I understand that a few of my good men bit on your charade and you staked the majority of them. I lost nine good men tonight. Is there any chance you would be willing to let me spare these last three, assuming they will not be hunting again anytime soon?" Confused, Lock let out an angry snarl of his own and stepped forward, expressing his frustration, "No! They went after two of my men, and regardless of whether or not it was a set-up, they took the bait and one way or another, they will die."
"I understand," Fabini mumbled. He pulled a sword of his own, a mighty sword that was possibly an ancient relic of some kind, and turned quickly, cleaning the necks of the three violators, each bursting instantly to dust. "Three more. they knew the rules," Fabini whispered to himself. He then turned to his group and loudly exclaimed, "This is why, boys and girls! This is why we train, this is why we work in silence. This world is our free world if only you play by the rules." Fabini turned to Lock and lowered his voice. "Alright, Mr. Taylor, they have met their punishment. Is everything content now?"
"No, it's not content. I don't care if you've been able to make deals in the past. We don't make deals with vampires. This is not how it is done! Everything is better when it's black and white. Humans are good. Demons are evil. We aren't going to change it up like this," Lock exclaimed, passion behind every word. "I don't think you understand, Mr. Taylor. This deal we made with the Hunters years ago has changed everything for the better. When a vampire joins my fray, he is offered protection and in return, we keep one more demon from killing the innocent humans. By law, we are not allowed to spread vampirism, and that helps your cause as well. Let me put it this way: you and your kind slaughter animals all the time, some for sustenance, others for game. Regardless, you have no way of knowing which animal deserves to die; you don't know if they are pure of heart or pure period. But in the business we are in, we know when someone's soul is caving in because of their sins. We know who deserves to die. We do not prey on the innocent, nor do we protect them. That is your job. We are simply purifying the earth of the bad apples and at the same time curving our hunger and trying to make our post-mortem lives as prosperous as they can be."
Lock's mouth had already dropped at this point. His mind couldn't comprehend how anyone would deserve to get drained of their blood as a feast to these beasts, and he'd rather not think hard enough to actually see it that way. By the time he made up his mind that this was completely and unnecessarily wrong, Fabini made the best point the had made all night: "And if you cant see it that way, sir, you should see that as of right now, we outnumber you forty-eight to six, so I think that we should decide whether or not to fight you or not, and as of right now, we have better things to do," Fabini said in his trademark straightforward method. Lock glared at him for a moment and stepped aside. The others followed suit as the vampire army stepped through their ranks. Once all the vampire troops were cleared, Fabini straightened his suit and approached Lock, leaning in for a whisper, "Look, pal, we aint joinin teams or anything. We're two different groups with two different approaches to things. But the last few years we've respected each other's boundaries, and that way, nobody gets hurt."
"Except for the ones that you judge and execute," Lock added with distaste.
"As opposed to the ones they execute without judgment? Not everything's black and white, my friend. You wanna here more. You can reach me here." Fabini handed Lock a card with a cell phone number on it. Once the vampire had left, Lock screamed in anger. Dwelling in both embarrassment and confusion, he told Ky to dismiss everyone for the rest of the evening.
Back at the firehouse, Larson sat on a desk in front of Gene and a very broken, exhausted Nicholas. "Okay, Gene asked me to break this down for you one more time, so I will do it quickly and Gene will start to go over weapons. We have a simple pecking order here. Locklear is the head of everything. He is the one the last captain left in charge in his will. Locklear is also the one in charge of the regular units. Regular Units are those in who have a general knowledge of all the field training and fighting skills. They are trained for usage in all weapons but have a general specialty for those weapons they are either assigned to or choose to carry. You, sir, are being trained as a regular, despite us practically throwing everything at you at once. We have three 'second-in-commands.' Myself, simply because I am the Watcher of the group and I run the Research Units, which at least should not ever see field action, though we have been minimally trained. Gene here is another second-in-command. He is in charge of the Axe Units, which is a specialty unit which uses axes and other such sharp melee weapons in order to dispatch the foes. Ky is the last of the three, and she is in charge of the three person Coven Unit, which is basically our last resort if a situation is either too difficult or too suicidal to just throw a team of units out there. So we have Regulars, Axe Units, Coven Units, and Research Units, and you are to take orders from Locklear primarily, and myself, Ky, or Gene if anything else. Any questions?"
"Naw, stiff, we good," Gene threw out. He led Nicholas to a back hallway and punched in a code to a locked room. The door loudly unlocked and Gene pulled the door open. Inside was a legitimate cache of weaponry, both modern and medieval. Gene went from weapon to weapon so that Nicholas could get a proper feel of everything. "There are several different ways to kill a vampire. The main three are, in no particular order, 1) Wood piercing the heart, 2) Exposure to sunlight, and 3) Beheading. Here are the weapons we use: Here we have the stake. This is a MUST HAVE. Every unit, from the regulars to the bookworms, carry a stake at all times. This is the only weapon that does not have to be turned in at the end of the night. We encourage you to take as many as you want and take them home with you. They're a Hunter's best friend. Easy to use, as long as you remember your left from right and that a vampire's heart is not in the center of its chest. We have a crossbow here, which either Lock or myself has to pass you off on to use. I'm gonna pass you off on it tonight when we get through with this. They are all modified so that it's both quick and easy to load. This is holy water. The water is cheap and it's easily blessed because we have a minister that blesses a bunch of water for us every Wednesday and a guy on the research team that is really good at blowing glass for us. These wont kill unless there is enough of it on a vampire, but this hurts them like acid on human flesh, so it will stop them in their tracks. This right here is a cross, also standard issue for all units, and this is almost like your shield from vampires. They really don't like these things. We got the Axe and the short sword, something you might carry, and these are used for beheading, which is quicker than staking but takes years to master. And right here is something we call Hellfire Bombs. Basically, this is a really powerful incendiary that when the glass around it is cracked and its contents meet oxygen, it erupts into a napalm-y substance. Oh yeah, number four way to dust a vamp: They do not like fire. I know, you can kill most things with fire, but they REALLY don't like it. Let's see. I think that's everything. Any questions?"
"Yeah. Do I get to carry one of those wooden-tipped bullet guns you have?"
Across town once again, in the Luxury Grande Hotel Ballroom, many well dressed men and women walk around greeting one another. They smile and some hug, generally being nice to everyone, as if some of them hadn't seen each other in centuries. The doors open wide at the entrance. Docket makes his way across the room with a cloaked figure in tow, as well as a few minions. The group make their way the stage area of the ballroom, and the cloaked person rids herself of the cloak to show off her pale green beauty. Ophelia takes the mic, and as she does so, every person in the room vamps out into their vampiric faces. "Thank you, everyone, for making time for us tonight. Word spreads quickly through this town and if you have come here from down the street to towns over, you have heard my word and felt both my pain and my passion. We will make this world known to us. We will no longer cower when we should be worshipped. We will have our voice heard. Some of you look at me now and see me as nothing more than the Truluk demon that I am, but I will lead you, the most tragic and misunderstood of the demon ranks, to heights unheard of in your eternity- long existences. We have to start at the bottom, and that will be in the southeastern slums of Cleveland. By massacring the lowly spawn of the human race there, we will take our fist steps towards."
The room blacked out. All the windows in the ballroom caved inwards, shattering into the room and covering the crowd of vampires. Vampires, all dressed in black suits jumped through and lined the west wall. On the middle window climbed a man in a really nice suit, with a proud and benevolent stance, with a smile covering his face. Fabini introduced himself to Ophelia in his normal, cocky manner. "I understand where you're coming from, my dear, and we do need more ambitious demons in the world, especially those who want to inspire me and mine, but this plan aint happenin. Not anytime soon," he spoke, not a skip in his tone or hesitancy in his voice. Ophelia looked at him with her benign, child-like eyes, "Why, pray tell.?"
"Cuz its stupid! C'mon, Docket, man you used to run with my group. You know very well why this cant happen," Fabini yelled.
"No, Fabini. I cant do this anymore. I am sick and freakin tired of living in the shadows here. Back in Sunnydale, people were stupid and naïve. They worried about shopping and never had to grow up in an atmosphere where you had to worry about protecting yourself. I've seen this town. It has so much to offer, but there are a lot of people here who have seen the hardships of life and who know how to protect themselves. They know about us, but they haven't seen what we can do, or how dangerous we can be. They don't fear us anymore, and until those who know we exist fear us again, we will always stay in the shadows," Docket finished.
Fabini smiled and laughed: "Not really. Do you know what our privacy can get us man? Me and my boys, we run have of the city man! Most of you people live in cemeteries, caves, and huts. I live in a beautiful twelve story apartment complex, with a king side bed, beautiful think curtains, cable TV. You all could have that too, without the fighting and the killing and the torture. We are feared and with fear, comes respect. We have assets others cant break down, and that can get us everything. Yeah we can fight and kill all the humans, and that would have been great a few centuries back when everything was 'big dress, hats, and drinking socials,' but now everything is bikinis, baseball caps, and Superbowl Sunday! C'mon folks, these annoying humans finally made a world where we can finally be hedonistic and not be worried about raging mobs with fiery torches. And we can even reap more of the benefits of the world than some of the actual humans themselves! Are you willing to risk all this just to make a point?"
Back at the firehouse, after three rounds of crossbow practice and another round of hand-to-hand and sword training, even Gene is wiped out against the wall as Nick lays on the ground in his fifteenth minute of trying to catch his breath.
"So how'd I do?" he asked.
"Well, hand to hand you did fine. Swords you're getting better, but you still failed the crossbow training," Gene gave him.
"What do you mean I failed?"
"You failed. It's a simple concept."
"I nailed the dummy in his heart every shot for the last two rounds, on all three dummies."
"Nick, buddy, where is the heart on a body?"
"Left side of the chest."
"Where did you hit the dummies?"
"Left side of the chest, just like you told me."
"Nick. did you hit them in the chest on their left or your left?"
"Crap."
A moment of silence ensued, and Nicholas saw Gene stare off, as if frustrated about something. "I'll pass next time. My aim was still pretty good, considering I was confused and all. So what's with you? You've seem pissed ever since we started with the swords."
"Naw. not pissed. Just. okay, pissed. No, when we took that break an hour back, I saw the regulars come in without Ky or Lock, and when I went to Jules to see if they've checked in or not, I heard Jules talking to him on her radio."
"So what? You got something for Jules or something?"
"Naw, Jules is Lock's woman. I'm married, bro. No, I just overheard him tell her to grab a member of the Reconnaissance Unit. Now I've heard jokes and rumors about a Reconnaissance Unit team, but nobody told me anything about em or if they were even real. Me and Lock have been best friends for six years now ever since he joined the group. Practically brothers. I mean, he was the best man at my wedding and everything. I'd have thought he would have told me something about a Reconnaissance Unit if we had one, especially since I take over if he ever dies. I dunno, man. I'm just talkin."
During the trading debate between Docket, Ophelia, and Fabini, no one could notice a small, slender figure, covered from head to toe in black, slowly repelling form the ceiling. The graceful figure arched her feminine back in order to hear better the debate from which she hoped would give her more information towards the actions of these creatures. "Look, like I said, you don't have to tell me or my men anything because we know how and why you guys are doing this. I'm just here to let you know that there is a better way to get around all this. My way. And I can respect you all doing what you wanted to do, but I'm here to tell ya, if this deal goes down, me and all my boys are gonna be there to stop ya. We're not in the business of saving humans, but we are in the business of savin our asses, and that's something we are willin to fight and die for if needed. Y'all have a good one," Fabini said in closing. He and his vampire mafia left the place in shambles, and Docket gave the closing words on the subject, inviting everyone still willing to the massacre, beginning at sunset tomorrow. Through the commotion of the vampires leaving and the Hotel manager screaming about the cost of fixing all the windows and getting an electrician down here at this time of night, the dark figure was able to pull herself back up to the hole in the roof.
"These windows are stained glass! They could cost thousands of dollars!" the hotel manager kept screaming at Docket as the cloaked female exited to her suite, "and I have so many people in the hotel calling me about the power outage that I cant even use the phone to call an electrician out here to fix it!. And you even put a hole in my roof?!" At that, Docket turned and noticed a hole in the roof from which he hadn't seen one of Fabini's vampires pop through. I would have noticed a vampire coming through the ceiling, he thought. He knew exactly what had come through that hole, and the idea ruptured an animalistic growl in him that shut the hotel manager up real fast. Docket pushed him to the side and walked out.
Outside of said hole, Lock sat on the ceiling as he and Ky helped her role up her rappelling cords: "Alright, Jenn, what did you find out?"
"Massacre. Bums. Southwest slums. The Risen is a Truluk demon, calling herself Ophelia. Army of fangs with her. Starts tomorrow at sunset," Jenn nonchalantly informed.
"Wait, I'm still not getting this: when did we get a stealth unit?" Ky asked.
"Reconnaissance Unit, and for six years now. Thanks Jenn, you can head on home now. We only use them in case of emergency because the whole team trains for the Olympics yearly. We use them as spies when we have no other way to go."
"Does Gene know about them?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because he didn't have to know. The only reason you know is because you were here with me when we actually had to use them."
"He's gonna be pissed if he finds out."
"Naw. he knows the game. At least he should. He knows that there is some need-to-know stuff going down. C'mon, nobody told me we had a treaty with the fang mafia down there."
"Still though, Lock, with times being as hard as they've been, you shouldn't keep anything from any of us."
"Everything will be fine. But this is definitely something we have to worry about," Lock opened his cell phone and radioed Jules at the firehouse, "Yeah, hey sweetie. This is an emergency. Call all units on hand to meet in three hours at the base. Call all their jobs and say that they'll all be out sick today. Have Larson get started on finding me everything on Truluk demons. We get started tomorrow before sundown."
"Scarlet River, Part 2"
"Alright, Mr. Geller, a brief synopsis of our group." Nick sat and watched the man speak, a wave of pride circling the orator as the well formed speech left his lips. The orator in question stood tall, a curve of distinguish in his spine, with a nice pair of ironed slacks and a sweater vest over his long sleeve white tee. He seemed laid-back but well groomed.
"Brace yourself," Gene whispered to Nicholas, "he gives this same speech to all the new recruits."
"Gene, please. Cleveland is a full, industrious city. It is also the home of something we call the Hellmouth. It is the second in recorded history, as the first one fell in a small suburban town in Southern California called Sunnydale. It was recently destroyed, as well as the town with it."
"Okay. Hellmouth?" Nicholas chimed in.
"Alright, the Hellmouth is a mystical convergence point for all things. It is the only stable access to one of many 'hell' dimensions. Which one is unknown to any of us, but we are certain through several millennia of studies that it is the point in which anything that can happen, will happen. This is why anything subhuman is drawn here; it's because of the mystical energy that spews out of the Hellmouth."
"Okay, I kinda get that, but what's with the vampires?" Nick asked, noticing that Gene sat back with a smile on his face. He had heard this too many times, Nick thought.
"The vampire is the most common demon in this world. There are many different stories and interpretations of stories, but the one I know says that the first vampire was completely demon, not the demon/human hybrid we have now. When all the demons were cast from the world for the coming of man, a vampire bit and drank the blood of a human and then forced the human to drink its blood as well. The vampire was cast out but that human rose again after it was buried, and thus vampirism was spread throughout the world."
"Larson, man," Gene chimed in, "I know you love flexin your brain and all, but can we get on with this?"
"Right, well, okay. I'm basically done with the history. Any questions, Nicholas?" Larson asked with a glimpse of hope.
"Well, you said the first Hellmouth was destroyed. Who destroyed that one? Was it you guys?" Nick asked, wondering what he had gotten himself into.
"GAWD!!! Why did you have to ask that? We're gonna be here for hours, now!" Gene drawled.
Larson gave him a dirty look and began, "I am a former member of an organization called the Watchers' Council. We collected information on all things inhuman and supernatural, and most of all, we were in charge of training an entity, possibly the most powerful entity in the world. One girl in all the world, with the skills and strength to fight the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. We called her the Slayer."
"Job didn't work out for ya?" Nick wondered aloud.
"Actually, I never got a chance. I'm British by birth, but because being a Watcher is part of my family lineage, and that the Hellmouth is focusing the demons of the world to America, I was the first Watcher that was raised here. After the death of a slayer, a new slayer is chosen. With each new slayer comes a new watcher. I was supposed to be the watcher of the next slayer, which they told me numerous times that because of the most recent slayer's exploits, would have been sometime soon."
"So why didn't you get a chance?"
"Well, namely, she never died. Secondly, the Watchers' Council headquarters, as well as the council itself, was destroyed. But that's why we are having a major problem as of late. You see, the Sunnydale Hellmouth has been around for sometime. It didn't grow in strength until the slayer started patrolling there, but when this Hellmouth showed, the Sunnydale one was definitely the stronger of the two, and thus the drawing power was still there. With that Hellmouth in place, we were able to hold off the few demons that made their way here. Now that the Sunnydale Hellmouth his destroyed, however, this one is being overrun with the demons that were dwelling there. Problem is we have no way of finding or contacting either the slayer or her former watcher." Nick went quiet.
Several miles away on the rooftop of the Luxury Grande Hotel, The jade-skinned Ophelia stands over the edge looking down at the lights across the city. The door to the rooftop opens and out steps Docket, well dressed to match his majesty's provocative white, silky garments. He turned to notice three people, homeless, not to mention dead, their life breath sucked from their bodies, leaned against the edge of the building. "Why, Docket, do these people not live in houses as do their kin?"
"They are the less fortunate of their species, my dear. For every one that flourishes in wealth, many will end up here. Not to mention that some just don't have it in them to fight for contentment, and instead choose to fight for survival," he explained.
"Do these beings not care for them? Are they simply exiles?" Ophelia felt confused.
"The popular choice would be to say that they do care, but most do not. Most truly believe that only the fittest should stand tall in the world, and the weak should have no voice."
"Why do we not have a voice, then? Are we not stronger, with exceptions to your disabilities as a vampire, than these pitiful, self loathing beings?" Ophelia asked, seemingly appalled at the idea that her demon kind hasn't thought of this before.
"My dear, dear Ophelia, though pitiful as they are, they are strong in numbers." Docket felt justified in the statement.
"Than we shall gather our numbers and thin the herd, until our voice is louder than the beating of their drums." She turned back to the overwhelming city view.
"That is why you were summoned, majesty. That is why I stand before you now as your servant. Command me. Tell me how we can accomplish your vision."
" We will start with these exiles. We will use them as our voice. We will make a fluent point to the world with a voice more powerful than that of a god's," she preached.
"How then?" Docket began to sound slightly annoyed at her puzzled speech.
"We'll slaughter them all. We'll gather your kin, and massacre these exiles. We'll show the human world that these ostracized lives can speak volumes without a voice," she told her disciple, never taking her gaze from the city lights.
"I'll begin the gathering." Docket turned to leave, a smile from ear to ear.
"Why? Why did I sign up for this crap?" Nicholas complained, bruised everywhere his skin stretches from the last few days of hand-to-hand combat training Gene has provided. Gene has become immune to the whining, as this is a normal part of Nick's training routine. "Do you mean besides the fact that you are staying on my couch since you got evicted? Well, then, it's because you know what goes bump in the night and you chose to keep that bump from killing anyone else, practically the same reason we all do this." Gene sounded so precise and accurate, as if this is what he told himself to keep from asking the same question.
"Haven't you guys ever heard of divine will? If this was meant to happen, then we don't have the right to impede on that; then this is all for nothing." Nicholas seemed serious enough.
"Well, because for every hundred lives we save, God has yet to come down and tell us to cut it out." Gene threw a punch, which he was glad to see that Nick had developed some reflexes since beginning the training. They stopped, exhausted, and sat down on the bench to drink some water.
"This is a nice place you have here. What is it?" Nick inquired.
"It used to be the old firehouse here in town. We saved the guy who bought it a few years back and he donated it to us. We have a few guys that stay here, including Larson, in some of the rooms upstairs, but mostly we use this as a training and meeting facility."
"So most of the things that you guys have come from people you've saved?"
"Yeah. Some of them are really generous and will help us out with something we were really lacking. Some of them are cheapskates and ask why you saved them and not their dogs. that's a long story. And some of them tell you they are broke and want to sleep on your couch."
Catching the joke, Nick smiled and asked, "Really?. What happens to them?"
Gene stood and, in deadpan fashion, said, "They're dead in the first month, on the average." Nick's smile faded.
Well across town, in a lower-class slum in the city, a battle is waged, courtesy of course of Lock and his band of regulars. They followed a group of about twelve vampires on their haunt and struck when they were led to an open area. Sabrina, one of the regulars, sat on a bench with Jamie. They nuzzled and caressed one another until the vampires had circled them. Jamie had put on a brilliant show of playing the valiant boyfriend, offering to give them everything he had as long as the two weren't hurt. The second the vampires turned from the human faces into their vampiric faces, Lock, Antoine, Matt , and Ky jumped out into the fray. Small vials of holy water slowed the beasts' attacks and short swords were able to hurt them just enough to finish the vampires off with the wooden stakes. Ky, herself being a witch, was able to pop small crackles of sunlight in the night air, not only hurting the demons but distracting them long enough to stay wide open for the stake through the heart. The organized plan of Lock's dwindled the dozen down to three, who started to give way to retreat. Lock ordered his group to follow the vampires, and found quickly how bad a decision that was, then the dozen-to- three vampires ran into about four dozen more. Lock and his group stopped.
"Oh gawd," Lock stuttered, "Ky, you got anything for this?"
"Nothin boss," Ky stuttered back.
Out of the mass of vampires stepped one in particular who was dressed surprisingly well for a vampire in the Cleveland slums. He walked forward in a suit as if he were going to a major settlement or an awards ceremony, and he walked in such a smooth manner that one could hardly noticed his ridged, vampiric face.
"Lock. Locklear Taylor. you are the new leader of the Hunters, right?" asked the gentleman. "You see, I haven't had a chance to meet you yet. Name's Fabini. I run these parts. I had assumed you knew."
"Well, Fabini," Lock asserted himself, "if I had a dime for every time I heard a vampire tell me he ran wherever he was from, I certainly wouldn't be here right now."
"No, you misunderstand me," Fabini smiled a coy but straightforward smile, "I mean I really do run these parts. As well as the next few slums over, and the eastern part of downtown. Have you ever heard stories of the vampire mafia? Dreadful name, I know. In fact, we don't like to use it ourselves, but it does give a general point of who we are. I know you guys have to do your job, but I have been able to at least be slightly diplomatic with your last few bosses, and we've been able to work around this nasty little human/vampire rivalry."
Lock looked over at Ky. The shared a look back and forth, and Matt chimed in, "He's right, Lock. I've heard of these guys. Larson told me once that they had something like a fangy goodfellas or something like that. He said we have a deal not to kill them unless we catch them directly threatening humans," Matt explained, doing no more than confusing Lock and downright angering him that he didn't know about this already.
When Lock turned again to Fabini, he noticed Fabini talking to one of the three who got away. Fabini let out an angry snarl and looked at Lock again. "Look, I understand that a few of my good men bit on your charade and you staked the majority of them. I lost nine good men tonight. Is there any chance you would be willing to let me spare these last three, assuming they will not be hunting again anytime soon?" Confused, Lock let out an angry snarl of his own and stepped forward, expressing his frustration, "No! They went after two of my men, and regardless of whether or not it was a set-up, they took the bait and one way or another, they will die."
"I understand," Fabini mumbled. He pulled a sword of his own, a mighty sword that was possibly an ancient relic of some kind, and turned quickly, cleaning the necks of the three violators, each bursting instantly to dust. "Three more. they knew the rules," Fabini whispered to himself. He then turned to his group and loudly exclaimed, "This is why, boys and girls! This is why we train, this is why we work in silence. This world is our free world if only you play by the rules." Fabini turned to Lock and lowered his voice. "Alright, Mr. Taylor, they have met their punishment. Is everything content now?"
"No, it's not content. I don't care if you've been able to make deals in the past. We don't make deals with vampires. This is not how it is done! Everything is better when it's black and white. Humans are good. Demons are evil. We aren't going to change it up like this," Lock exclaimed, passion behind every word. "I don't think you understand, Mr. Taylor. This deal we made with the Hunters years ago has changed everything for the better. When a vampire joins my fray, he is offered protection and in return, we keep one more demon from killing the innocent humans. By law, we are not allowed to spread vampirism, and that helps your cause as well. Let me put it this way: you and your kind slaughter animals all the time, some for sustenance, others for game. Regardless, you have no way of knowing which animal deserves to die; you don't know if they are pure of heart or pure period. But in the business we are in, we know when someone's soul is caving in because of their sins. We know who deserves to die. We do not prey on the innocent, nor do we protect them. That is your job. We are simply purifying the earth of the bad apples and at the same time curving our hunger and trying to make our post-mortem lives as prosperous as they can be."
Lock's mouth had already dropped at this point. His mind couldn't comprehend how anyone would deserve to get drained of their blood as a feast to these beasts, and he'd rather not think hard enough to actually see it that way. By the time he made up his mind that this was completely and unnecessarily wrong, Fabini made the best point the had made all night: "And if you cant see it that way, sir, you should see that as of right now, we outnumber you forty-eight to six, so I think that we should decide whether or not to fight you or not, and as of right now, we have better things to do," Fabini said in his trademark straightforward method. Lock glared at him for a moment and stepped aside. The others followed suit as the vampire army stepped through their ranks. Once all the vampire troops were cleared, Fabini straightened his suit and approached Lock, leaning in for a whisper, "Look, pal, we aint joinin teams or anything. We're two different groups with two different approaches to things. But the last few years we've respected each other's boundaries, and that way, nobody gets hurt."
"Except for the ones that you judge and execute," Lock added with distaste.
"As opposed to the ones they execute without judgment? Not everything's black and white, my friend. You wanna here more. You can reach me here." Fabini handed Lock a card with a cell phone number on it. Once the vampire had left, Lock screamed in anger. Dwelling in both embarrassment and confusion, he told Ky to dismiss everyone for the rest of the evening.
Back at the firehouse, Larson sat on a desk in front of Gene and a very broken, exhausted Nicholas. "Okay, Gene asked me to break this down for you one more time, so I will do it quickly and Gene will start to go over weapons. We have a simple pecking order here. Locklear is the head of everything. He is the one the last captain left in charge in his will. Locklear is also the one in charge of the regular units. Regular Units are those in who have a general knowledge of all the field training and fighting skills. They are trained for usage in all weapons but have a general specialty for those weapons they are either assigned to or choose to carry. You, sir, are being trained as a regular, despite us practically throwing everything at you at once. We have three 'second-in-commands.' Myself, simply because I am the Watcher of the group and I run the Research Units, which at least should not ever see field action, though we have been minimally trained. Gene here is another second-in-command. He is in charge of the Axe Units, which is a specialty unit which uses axes and other such sharp melee weapons in order to dispatch the foes. Ky is the last of the three, and she is in charge of the three person Coven Unit, which is basically our last resort if a situation is either too difficult or too suicidal to just throw a team of units out there. So we have Regulars, Axe Units, Coven Units, and Research Units, and you are to take orders from Locklear primarily, and myself, Ky, or Gene if anything else. Any questions?"
"Naw, stiff, we good," Gene threw out. He led Nicholas to a back hallway and punched in a code to a locked room. The door loudly unlocked and Gene pulled the door open. Inside was a legitimate cache of weaponry, both modern and medieval. Gene went from weapon to weapon so that Nicholas could get a proper feel of everything. "There are several different ways to kill a vampire. The main three are, in no particular order, 1) Wood piercing the heart, 2) Exposure to sunlight, and 3) Beheading. Here are the weapons we use: Here we have the stake. This is a MUST HAVE. Every unit, from the regulars to the bookworms, carry a stake at all times. This is the only weapon that does not have to be turned in at the end of the night. We encourage you to take as many as you want and take them home with you. They're a Hunter's best friend. Easy to use, as long as you remember your left from right and that a vampire's heart is not in the center of its chest. We have a crossbow here, which either Lock or myself has to pass you off on to use. I'm gonna pass you off on it tonight when we get through with this. They are all modified so that it's both quick and easy to load. This is holy water. The water is cheap and it's easily blessed because we have a minister that blesses a bunch of water for us every Wednesday and a guy on the research team that is really good at blowing glass for us. These wont kill unless there is enough of it on a vampire, but this hurts them like acid on human flesh, so it will stop them in their tracks. This right here is a cross, also standard issue for all units, and this is almost like your shield from vampires. They really don't like these things. We got the Axe and the short sword, something you might carry, and these are used for beheading, which is quicker than staking but takes years to master. And right here is something we call Hellfire Bombs. Basically, this is a really powerful incendiary that when the glass around it is cracked and its contents meet oxygen, it erupts into a napalm-y substance. Oh yeah, number four way to dust a vamp: They do not like fire. I know, you can kill most things with fire, but they REALLY don't like it. Let's see. I think that's everything. Any questions?"
"Yeah. Do I get to carry one of those wooden-tipped bullet guns you have?"
Across town once again, in the Luxury Grande Hotel Ballroom, many well dressed men and women walk around greeting one another. They smile and some hug, generally being nice to everyone, as if some of them hadn't seen each other in centuries. The doors open wide at the entrance. Docket makes his way across the room with a cloaked figure in tow, as well as a few minions. The group make their way the stage area of the ballroom, and the cloaked person rids herself of the cloak to show off her pale green beauty. Ophelia takes the mic, and as she does so, every person in the room vamps out into their vampiric faces. "Thank you, everyone, for making time for us tonight. Word spreads quickly through this town and if you have come here from down the street to towns over, you have heard my word and felt both my pain and my passion. We will make this world known to us. We will no longer cower when we should be worshipped. We will have our voice heard. Some of you look at me now and see me as nothing more than the Truluk demon that I am, but I will lead you, the most tragic and misunderstood of the demon ranks, to heights unheard of in your eternity- long existences. We have to start at the bottom, and that will be in the southeastern slums of Cleveland. By massacring the lowly spawn of the human race there, we will take our fist steps towards."
The room blacked out. All the windows in the ballroom caved inwards, shattering into the room and covering the crowd of vampires. Vampires, all dressed in black suits jumped through and lined the west wall. On the middle window climbed a man in a really nice suit, with a proud and benevolent stance, with a smile covering his face. Fabini introduced himself to Ophelia in his normal, cocky manner. "I understand where you're coming from, my dear, and we do need more ambitious demons in the world, especially those who want to inspire me and mine, but this plan aint happenin. Not anytime soon," he spoke, not a skip in his tone or hesitancy in his voice. Ophelia looked at him with her benign, child-like eyes, "Why, pray tell.?"
"Cuz its stupid! C'mon, Docket, man you used to run with my group. You know very well why this cant happen," Fabini yelled.
"No, Fabini. I cant do this anymore. I am sick and freakin tired of living in the shadows here. Back in Sunnydale, people were stupid and naïve. They worried about shopping and never had to grow up in an atmosphere where you had to worry about protecting yourself. I've seen this town. It has so much to offer, but there are a lot of people here who have seen the hardships of life and who know how to protect themselves. They know about us, but they haven't seen what we can do, or how dangerous we can be. They don't fear us anymore, and until those who know we exist fear us again, we will always stay in the shadows," Docket finished.
Fabini smiled and laughed: "Not really. Do you know what our privacy can get us man? Me and my boys, we run have of the city man! Most of you people live in cemeteries, caves, and huts. I live in a beautiful twelve story apartment complex, with a king side bed, beautiful think curtains, cable TV. You all could have that too, without the fighting and the killing and the torture. We are feared and with fear, comes respect. We have assets others cant break down, and that can get us everything. Yeah we can fight and kill all the humans, and that would have been great a few centuries back when everything was 'big dress, hats, and drinking socials,' but now everything is bikinis, baseball caps, and Superbowl Sunday! C'mon folks, these annoying humans finally made a world where we can finally be hedonistic and not be worried about raging mobs with fiery torches. And we can even reap more of the benefits of the world than some of the actual humans themselves! Are you willing to risk all this just to make a point?"
Back at the firehouse, after three rounds of crossbow practice and another round of hand-to-hand and sword training, even Gene is wiped out against the wall as Nick lays on the ground in his fifteenth minute of trying to catch his breath.
"So how'd I do?" he asked.
"Well, hand to hand you did fine. Swords you're getting better, but you still failed the crossbow training," Gene gave him.
"What do you mean I failed?"
"You failed. It's a simple concept."
"I nailed the dummy in his heart every shot for the last two rounds, on all three dummies."
"Nick, buddy, where is the heart on a body?"
"Left side of the chest."
"Where did you hit the dummies?"
"Left side of the chest, just like you told me."
"Nick. did you hit them in the chest on their left or your left?"
"Crap."
A moment of silence ensued, and Nicholas saw Gene stare off, as if frustrated about something. "I'll pass next time. My aim was still pretty good, considering I was confused and all. So what's with you? You've seem pissed ever since we started with the swords."
"Naw. not pissed. Just. okay, pissed. No, when we took that break an hour back, I saw the regulars come in without Ky or Lock, and when I went to Jules to see if they've checked in or not, I heard Jules talking to him on her radio."
"So what? You got something for Jules or something?"
"Naw, Jules is Lock's woman. I'm married, bro. No, I just overheard him tell her to grab a member of the Reconnaissance Unit. Now I've heard jokes and rumors about a Reconnaissance Unit team, but nobody told me anything about em or if they were even real. Me and Lock have been best friends for six years now ever since he joined the group. Practically brothers. I mean, he was the best man at my wedding and everything. I'd have thought he would have told me something about a Reconnaissance Unit if we had one, especially since I take over if he ever dies. I dunno, man. I'm just talkin."
During the trading debate between Docket, Ophelia, and Fabini, no one could notice a small, slender figure, covered from head to toe in black, slowly repelling form the ceiling. The graceful figure arched her feminine back in order to hear better the debate from which she hoped would give her more information towards the actions of these creatures. "Look, like I said, you don't have to tell me or my men anything because we know how and why you guys are doing this. I'm just here to let you know that there is a better way to get around all this. My way. And I can respect you all doing what you wanted to do, but I'm here to tell ya, if this deal goes down, me and all my boys are gonna be there to stop ya. We're not in the business of saving humans, but we are in the business of savin our asses, and that's something we are willin to fight and die for if needed. Y'all have a good one," Fabini said in closing. He and his vampire mafia left the place in shambles, and Docket gave the closing words on the subject, inviting everyone still willing to the massacre, beginning at sunset tomorrow. Through the commotion of the vampires leaving and the Hotel manager screaming about the cost of fixing all the windows and getting an electrician down here at this time of night, the dark figure was able to pull herself back up to the hole in the roof.
"These windows are stained glass! They could cost thousands of dollars!" the hotel manager kept screaming at Docket as the cloaked female exited to her suite, "and I have so many people in the hotel calling me about the power outage that I cant even use the phone to call an electrician out here to fix it!. And you even put a hole in my roof?!" At that, Docket turned and noticed a hole in the roof from which he hadn't seen one of Fabini's vampires pop through. I would have noticed a vampire coming through the ceiling, he thought. He knew exactly what had come through that hole, and the idea ruptured an animalistic growl in him that shut the hotel manager up real fast. Docket pushed him to the side and walked out.
Outside of said hole, Lock sat on the ceiling as he and Ky helped her role up her rappelling cords: "Alright, Jenn, what did you find out?"
"Massacre. Bums. Southwest slums. The Risen is a Truluk demon, calling herself Ophelia. Army of fangs with her. Starts tomorrow at sunset," Jenn nonchalantly informed.
"Wait, I'm still not getting this: when did we get a stealth unit?" Ky asked.
"Reconnaissance Unit, and for six years now. Thanks Jenn, you can head on home now. We only use them in case of emergency because the whole team trains for the Olympics yearly. We use them as spies when we have no other way to go."
"Does Gene know about them?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because he didn't have to know. The only reason you know is because you were here with me when we actually had to use them."
"He's gonna be pissed if he finds out."
"Naw. he knows the game. At least he should. He knows that there is some need-to-know stuff going down. C'mon, nobody told me we had a treaty with the fang mafia down there."
"Still though, Lock, with times being as hard as they've been, you shouldn't keep anything from any of us."
"Everything will be fine. But this is definitely something we have to worry about," Lock opened his cell phone and radioed Jules at the firehouse, "Yeah, hey sweetie. This is an emergency. Call all units on hand to meet in three hours at the base. Call all their jobs and say that they'll all be out sick today. Have Larson get started on finding me everything on Truluk demons. We get started tomorrow before sundown."