Title: Underworld Slayer Part 5 - Team B
Author: Nopporn Wongrassamee aka the Evil Author
EMail Address: EvilAuthor@aol.com
Spoilers: Anything goes
Summary: BTVS/Underworld crossover. Los Angeles has been a haven for those fleeing the vampire/lycan blood feud. That was until two new refugees arrived.
Disclaimer: Characters and concepts belong to their owners who I'm too lazy to list.
Author's Note: Don't try this at home, kids. The experts are fictional.
"You tried to bite me!"
"I said I'm sorry! What more do you want?"
Of all the things that could have happened on Selene's first night patrol, this would have been the last thing she had expected. Given some of the stories she had heard, what Selene had expected were running gun battles with cultists, maybe even hostile demons bent on destroying the world.
"Okay, you two," Ash said, interrupting the ongoing argument. "Why don't you both calm down and tell me what's going on."
What Selene hadn't expected was a. a domestic dispute.
"He tried to bite me!" the girl exclaimed, pointing at her significant other. Neither could possibly be older than twenty.
"It was an accident," the guy retorted. "We got all hot and heavy and." He shrugged. The boy was a vampire. His girlfriend looked perfectly human. He rubbed the bump on his head painfully. "Ouch. You didn't have to hit so hard."
"You didn't have to try and bite me," the girl shot back. That started another round of shouting. Ash tried with little success to get between them again.
"Slayer?" Selene whispered questioningly to Dawn.
"Yeah," Dawn whispered back, not taking her eyes off the fighting couple. "A lot of the new Slayers use Buffy as their role model. That includes getting a vampire boyfriend even if they aren't compatible with each other. I mean, sure, Buffy's had two vampire boyfriends, but it didn't work out with either of them." Dawn rolled her eyes at the fighting couple. "Somehow, girls like her conveniently forget that little fact."
Selene frowned, remembering the kiss Buffy had given Angel at the party she had met them at. "Angel and Buffy aren't dating?" Selene asked.
"Oh no," Dawn answered. "They're just good friends." She blushed. "Very. Good. Friends."
"Okay, you two," Ash was saying, tiredly. "If either of you want to press assault charges."
"What?" the Slayer gasped.
"No!" the vampire exclaimed at the same time.
"We love each other!" they both chorused.
"Why couldn't it be Deadites?" Ash muttered to himself, squeezing the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. "All they do is try to kill me."
***
A pulsing yellow dot appeared on the map table. Fred studied it for a moment, determining its exact location in the Los Angeles area. Her eyes searched to the nearest green dot and spotted it right away. It was marked with the letter "B".
"An unregistered portal has just appeared on Sepulveda between Seventh and Sixth Streets," Fred announced. "Team B is the closest." One of the dispatchers nodded started calling Team B.
"Team B," Giles murmured, approaching the table. "Isn't that the one with the new people?"
"Yeah, it is," Fred answered. "Don't worry though. They've got that ex Death Dealer with them, and Ash and Dawn know what they're doing."
"Dawn?" Giles frowned. "I thought it was Andrew who was supposed to be with Team B tonight."
"I saw Dawn leave with Team B," Fred told the older man. "Is there a problem?"
"Well, it's a school night for starters," Giles said. "Buffy won't be happy about this."
"Oh." Fred stared at the green dot for a long moment. "I won't tell Buffy if you won't."
***
So much for being inconspicuous, Selene thought.
Walking down the street, the team couldn't help but draw stares from passing humans. Had any of them been alone or had they dressed alike, they wouldn't have drawn a second glance in Los Angeles. As it was, they had all dressed differently. The team looked to passersby like they didn't belong together, but acted as if they did. The only unifying clothing they had were long coats to conceal weaponry.
Ash was dressed in a style one might call "non-descript normal". Jamal looked like a gangbanger, which Selene understood he actually used to be. Lestat looked like a color blind noble in King Louis XIV's court. Between the tight leather pants, tank top, and an assorted electronic devices adorning her person, Dawn had earlier described herself as looking like "geek's dream hooker". Selene herself was in her typical head-to-toe skintight black leather.
On the other hand, they moved together like a pack of sharks. This had the handy benefit that most of the people on the street got out of their way and kept the catcalls to a minimum.
"I don't get it," Lestat was saying, not even bothering to force a fake accent.
"Get what, Pansy?" Jamal asked.
"Why were we bothering with." He waved his hands vaguely. ".that?"
"You mean the 'loving' couple?" Ash asked from where he had taken point.
"Yeah," Lestat said. He shook his head. "I mean, oui!"
"You might recall that I said that we're like cops," Ash said. "That means like regular cops, we keep the peace among ourselves. That includes mediating disputes between individuals, races, factions, and so on. That includes domestic disputes, something even regular cops deal with."
"But what about invaders from dimension X and all that?" Lestat practically wailed.
"'Invaders from Dimension X'?" Ash repeated, eyebrows rising. "Kid."
Dawn chirped. All eyes turned toward her. She chirped again.
"Excuse me," Dawn said quickly, pulling out a cell phone.
".it looks like you'll get your chance," Ash told Lestat.
***
"Hi, welcome to the Ministry of Peace," greeted the woman who answered the door. "I'm Barbara."
"Hi, Barbie. Can I call you Barbie?" Ash greeted in return, barging past the woman. The rest of the team followed him inside. "I'm Ash."
"Um, hello," Barbara said, closing the door. "Can I help you?" Whatever this Barbara was, Selene was absolutely certain that she wasn't human. And by Jamal's and Lestat's reactions, they knew it too.
"I'm kinda curious, Barbie," Ash drawled as he circled the apartment. The place obviously doubled as some kind of business although furniture was sparse. "What exactly do you do here?"
The vampires and sole lycan spread out, examining this and that. Selene followed Dawn. The human girl seemed to be following something only she could sense.
"Oh, we're a charity organization," Barbie said nervously, eyeing her intruders nervously. "We help kids on the street who don't have anyone."
"Kids who don't have anyone, huh?" Ash said, his voice tinged with sarcasm. "Yeah, I'll bet you do."
"What's this?" Dawn asked. She and Selene were standing above a basin filled with a black oily liquid.
"Oh, that's our baptismal pool," Barbara said blandly, moving up behind them. Ash followed closely.
"I don't think so," Dawn said, turning to face Barbara. She pointed at the pool. "That is a portal."
Selene had been a professional for centuries. She managed to resist doing a most unprofessional double take. Somehow, she had expected an interdimensional portal to look more impressive, maybe with sparkling lights or something.
"Oh, I guess there's no fooling you guys," Barbara sighed. Then with surprising speed, she hit Dawn, sending the girl tumbling back into the pool. Selene hand bolted out to catch the young witch, but Barbara's follow up strike sent Selene over as well. Selene automatically latched onto the nearest handhold. Unfortunately, Barbara was the first thing Selene grabbed.
The three of them tumbled into the portal.
***
"Oh, damn," Ash commented.
Realizing that something was wrong, Lestat and Jamal took a step towards him.
***
"You are nothing!" the overseer screamed at the fresh meat. The overseer looked like he was made out of spare parts. "From now on, you have no name, no identity but what we give you! Death awaits any who defies us!" He stopped in front of one defiant looking human. "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"
Before he realized the human had moved, he was staring at the end of some object in the human's hand. An instant later, he lacked eyes to stare with. But that was okay. His brain had ceased to function as well.
"What? No quip?" Dawn asked as Selene lowered her gun.
"Quip?" Selene looked at Dawn, confused. Had she done something wrong?
"Never mind," Dawn said, shaking her head sadly. The girl turned to the others present. They were mostly teens in ragged white shifts. "Anyone not having fun, follow us!"
"Hey, do you have a spare gun?" a boy about Dawn's age asked, coming to the fore. Unlike most of the kids, he was wearing normal clothing. "I owe these guys some payback."
"You know how to use one?" Selene asked.
"Yeah, I have lots of experience," the boy answered crisply. Selene believed him. The way he moved suggested that he had combat training somewhere. Selene handed him her spare gun. "Thanks." The boy said.
"Okay, let's get a move on," Dawn said. She closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated. "The portal home is." She spun and pointed at a blank wall. ".that way."
"Gee, that's a great help," the boy said.
"So we'll have to go around," Dawn said dismissively, moving towards the sole exit. Everyone else followed. "At least I know which way to go mister-I'm-too-good-introduce-myself. I'm Dawn, by the way."
"Selene," Selene added.
"Jack," the boy replied. "Jack O'Neill."
***
The Slayer was going to kill him, was Ash's second thought. He had lost her baby sister.
Jamal and Lestat were half way to him.
***
"Kill them! Kill them all!" shrieked the demon Barbara. She didn't look quite so pretty without her human disguise. A hail of bullets sent her diving for cover.
A guard swung at Selene with a sickle. Stepping inside the arc of the swing, Selene grabbed the guard's descending wrist with her free hand and twisted, flipping the guard aside and breaking his arm. Selene used the momentum to drive a foot into another guard's neck, breaking the spine.
"I don't get it!" Jack shouted, dropping three guards running at them from a side corridor with headshots.
"Get what?" Selene asked as they moved into a corridor. They seemed to be momentarily free of guards. Between the human slaves toiling away and the ghastly. decorations, this place was an industrial horror.
"These are aliens, right?" Jack continued, reloading his borrowed weapon with a fresh magazine. "Where are the ray guns? Or any other kind of gun for that matter. The most advanced technology I've seen around here was a crossbow."
Selene just shrugged.
"This is it. The portal's here!" Dawn said excitedly as they entered a wide, high-ceiling corridor that resembled the interior of a cathedral. They could see the portal. They could also see its guard. "Oh crap."
The demon was at least ten feet tall. It had a skull-like face that was lit from with in. Sprouting from its back was a pair of bat like wings that were literally on fire. In its right hand was an equally flaming whip, scaled up to the demon's size. It stomped towards them
"What the hell is that thing?" Jack shouted as he and Selene shot at the demon's face. The bullets seemed to have no effect.
"A Balrog," Dawn answered, staring.
***
Lestat and Jamal had arrived, flanking Ash on both sides and looking confused.
Ash considered diving into the portal after Dawn and Selene. Then he saw the portal was quickly shrinking.
***
"EXTINGUA INCENDRE!" Dawn shouted, pointing at the Balrog.
The flames on the demon's wings and whip guttered and went out. The glow inside its head also died. The Balrog looked comically surprised for a moment before collapsing in a heap.
"Is it dead?" Selene asked as the escapees scooted around the unmoving body.
"No idea," Dawn said, shaking her head. She looked exhausted now. "Let's not stay around to find out."
"Seconded," Jack put in.
"Excuse me," one of the unarmed refugees said. "We can't get through."
Their heads whipped around. The portal was just above head height. It was also too small to fit anyone but a toddler through and was slowly but visibly getting smaller.
"No, don't close," Dawn said to the portal, pushing through the crowd to get closer. "Don't close. Don't close! DON'T! CLOSE!"
There was an explosion of emerald light.
***
Fred blinked. The rogue portal on the map table had changed from yellow to green. Having helped design the map table, Fred knew that the sensors must have detected a shift in the portal's energy signature, switching the color from "unknown" to "friendly".
But having helped designed the system, Fred was surprised to see an icon she didn't recognize flashing an alarm above the portal.
"Giles, do you know what this key symbol stands for?" Fred asked.
The teacup Giles was sipping from slipped from nerveless fingers to shatter on the floor.
***
Ash was about to give up on his missing team members when the portal blazed alive. From dead black to brilliant green, the portal widened back to its original size, rippling like the surface was water.
An unconscious Dawn was pushed through the surface. Ash, Jamal, and Lestat were quickly busy, pulling her and a flood of others out.
***
"Looks like we're the last two out," Jack commented.
"Yes, it does," Selene commented.
"And we're surrounded," Jack continued, eyeing the hundreds of guards arrayed at the other end of the hall on both sides of the inert Balrog. Several were actually climbing over the giant demon. The guards were maintaining a respectful distance from the duo's guns. They could see crossbows being passed around. The guards apparently intended to deluge the two of them with a rain of arrows.
"Essentially, yes."
"And we have what? Maybe half a dozen bullets left between us?"
"I think so."
Jack looked up, seeing the foot of the last refugee disappear into the portal above. "And only one of us can get the other out. That one has to stay behind because it's too high to jump."
"Hmm, no."
"Huh?"
"Trust me." With that, Selene grabbed Jack with one hand. Using her vampire strength, she hurled the teenager upward into the portal before he could react. Using the recoil of the throw, Selene went into a crouch. She uncoiled in the same moment that the locals unleashed their crossbows. As she entered the portal, she felt something strike her in the thigh.
An instant later, she was through the portal and hands were pulling her upward. Selene found herself staring into Ash's face. Was he blurry?
"Whoa, you're hurt!" Ash said, his voice seeming to come from far away. He was looking down, away from her face.
Selene looked down and saw an arrow protruding from her thigh. She thought that strange. Shouldn't it hurt? "It's just a flesh wound," she murmured. It didn't hurt, so it must not be too bad.
Everything went black.
***
Harsh white light flooded Selene's senses. Was she dead? There was light. And there was a face filling her vision. Maybe this was God. But it was odd. God looked a lot like.
"Michael?" she gasped.
"Selene!" Michael's face replied. "Thank God! You're awake."
Selene's mind was clearing fast. She hadn't realized until now how groggy she had been. Selene realized that she wasn't dead and that really was Michael in front of her. She was lying down too.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"You're in the Scooby Central clinic," Michael told her.
"What am I doing here?" Selene asked. Bits and pieces of the battle were coming back to her. "The team. What happened to the team?"
"Everyone's fine," another man in a white lab coat said, appearing next to her bed opposite of Michael. "In fact, you were the one who gave us the biggest scare. I'm Doctor Banner by the way."
"Huh?" Selene said brilliantly.
"You got hit with a poison arrow," Dr. Banner explained to her. "The poison was designed specifically to kill off the vampires by attacking the virus that makes you what you are. It's colorfully known as 'Killer of the Dead'. Luckily we had the cure on hand."
"What's that?" Selene asked.
"Slayer blood," said a third person. A new face appeared at Selene's bedside. "Mine specifically. Hi, I don't think we've been formally introduced. I'm Kennedy."
"Slayer blood?" Selene's eyes widened. "I drank."
"No, you didn't," Michael said quickly. "We did a transfusion."
"Oh," Selene said, unsure if she should be relieved. Things like transfusions still seemed new-fangled to her centuries old self.
"Don't worry about it," Kennedy told her. "I'm told that Transfusion took way less blood than drinking would have anyway. Besides, how could I deny the hero of the hour?"
"Huh?" Selene said again.
"You saved lives tonight, honey," Michael told her gently. "From the Scourge no less. Word's spreading like wild fire."
"I'd ask who the Scourge is, but I'm too tired right now," Selene said. She yawned.
"Of course, get some rest," Dr. Banner said paternally.
***
"How are our guests, Fred?" Giles asked.
"We got them stashed in a safe house for now," Fred answered. "For those who want to, we're arranging a ride home."
"Good, good," Giles said absently, examining the poisoned arrow that had been pulled out of Selene's leg. From what Jack O'Neill had told them, the Scourge had enough of these to equip an army. The Killer of the Dead worked on the werewolf strain of the virus as well as the vampire strain, albeit at reduced efficiency. The bulk of the combat capable Scoobies were vampires and werewolves as well.
The implications were. ominous.
Author: Nopporn Wongrassamee aka the Evil Author
EMail Address: EvilAuthor@aol.com
Spoilers: Anything goes
Summary: BTVS/Underworld crossover. Los Angeles has been a haven for those fleeing the vampire/lycan blood feud. That was until two new refugees arrived.
Disclaimer: Characters and concepts belong to their owners who I'm too lazy to list.
Author's Note: Don't try this at home, kids. The experts are fictional.
"You tried to bite me!"
"I said I'm sorry! What more do you want?"
Of all the things that could have happened on Selene's first night patrol, this would have been the last thing she had expected. Given some of the stories she had heard, what Selene had expected were running gun battles with cultists, maybe even hostile demons bent on destroying the world.
"Okay, you two," Ash said, interrupting the ongoing argument. "Why don't you both calm down and tell me what's going on."
What Selene hadn't expected was a. a domestic dispute.
"He tried to bite me!" the girl exclaimed, pointing at her significant other. Neither could possibly be older than twenty.
"It was an accident," the guy retorted. "We got all hot and heavy and." He shrugged. The boy was a vampire. His girlfriend looked perfectly human. He rubbed the bump on his head painfully. "Ouch. You didn't have to hit so hard."
"You didn't have to try and bite me," the girl shot back. That started another round of shouting. Ash tried with little success to get between them again.
"Slayer?" Selene whispered questioningly to Dawn.
"Yeah," Dawn whispered back, not taking her eyes off the fighting couple. "A lot of the new Slayers use Buffy as their role model. That includes getting a vampire boyfriend even if they aren't compatible with each other. I mean, sure, Buffy's had two vampire boyfriends, but it didn't work out with either of them." Dawn rolled her eyes at the fighting couple. "Somehow, girls like her conveniently forget that little fact."
Selene frowned, remembering the kiss Buffy had given Angel at the party she had met them at. "Angel and Buffy aren't dating?" Selene asked.
"Oh no," Dawn answered. "They're just good friends." She blushed. "Very. Good. Friends."
"Okay, you two," Ash was saying, tiredly. "If either of you want to press assault charges."
"What?" the Slayer gasped.
"No!" the vampire exclaimed at the same time.
"We love each other!" they both chorused.
"Why couldn't it be Deadites?" Ash muttered to himself, squeezing the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. "All they do is try to kill me."
***
A pulsing yellow dot appeared on the map table. Fred studied it for a moment, determining its exact location in the Los Angeles area. Her eyes searched to the nearest green dot and spotted it right away. It was marked with the letter "B".
"An unregistered portal has just appeared on Sepulveda between Seventh and Sixth Streets," Fred announced. "Team B is the closest." One of the dispatchers nodded started calling Team B.
"Team B," Giles murmured, approaching the table. "Isn't that the one with the new people?"
"Yeah, it is," Fred answered. "Don't worry though. They've got that ex Death Dealer with them, and Ash and Dawn know what they're doing."
"Dawn?" Giles frowned. "I thought it was Andrew who was supposed to be with Team B tonight."
"I saw Dawn leave with Team B," Fred told the older man. "Is there a problem?"
"Well, it's a school night for starters," Giles said. "Buffy won't be happy about this."
"Oh." Fred stared at the green dot for a long moment. "I won't tell Buffy if you won't."
***
So much for being inconspicuous, Selene thought.
Walking down the street, the team couldn't help but draw stares from passing humans. Had any of them been alone or had they dressed alike, they wouldn't have drawn a second glance in Los Angeles. As it was, they had all dressed differently. The team looked to passersby like they didn't belong together, but acted as if they did. The only unifying clothing they had were long coats to conceal weaponry.
Ash was dressed in a style one might call "non-descript normal". Jamal looked like a gangbanger, which Selene understood he actually used to be. Lestat looked like a color blind noble in King Louis XIV's court. Between the tight leather pants, tank top, and an assorted electronic devices adorning her person, Dawn had earlier described herself as looking like "geek's dream hooker". Selene herself was in her typical head-to-toe skintight black leather.
On the other hand, they moved together like a pack of sharks. This had the handy benefit that most of the people on the street got out of their way and kept the catcalls to a minimum.
"I don't get it," Lestat was saying, not even bothering to force a fake accent.
"Get what, Pansy?" Jamal asked.
"Why were we bothering with." He waved his hands vaguely. ".that?"
"You mean the 'loving' couple?" Ash asked from where he had taken point.
"Yeah," Lestat said. He shook his head. "I mean, oui!"
"You might recall that I said that we're like cops," Ash said. "That means like regular cops, we keep the peace among ourselves. That includes mediating disputes between individuals, races, factions, and so on. That includes domestic disputes, something even regular cops deal with."
"But what about invaders from dimension X and all that?" Lestat practically wailed.
"'Invaders from Dimension X'?" Ash repeated, eyebrows rising. "Kid."
Dawn chirped. All eyes turned toward her. She chirped again.
"Excuse me," Dawn said quickly, pulling out a cell phone.
".it looks like you'll get your chance," Ash told Lestat.
***
"Hi, welcome to the Ministry of Peace," greeted the woman who answered the door. "I'm Barbara."
"Hi, Barbie. Can I call you Barbie?" Ash greeted in return, barging past the woman. The rest of the team followed him inside. "I'm Ash."
"Um, hello," Barbara said, closing the door. "Can I help you?" Whatever this Barbara was, Selene was absolutely certain that she wasn't human. And by Jamal's and Lestat's reactions, they knew it too.
"I'm kinda curious, Barbie," Ash drawled as he circled the apartment. The place obviously doubled as some kind of business although furniture was sparse. "What exactly do you do here?"
The vampires and sole lycan spread out, examining this and that. Selene followed Dawn. The human girl seemed to be following something only she could sense.
"Oh, we're a charity organization," Barbie said nervously, eyeing her intruders nervously. "We help kids on the street who don't have anyone."
"Kids who don't have anyone, huh?" Ash said, his voice tinged with sarcasm. "Yeah, I'll bet you do."
"What's this?" Dawn asked. She and Selene were standing above a basin filled with a black oily liquid.
"Oh, that's our baptismal pool," Barbara said blandly, moving up behind them. Ash followed closely.
"I don't think so," Dawn said, turning to face Barbara. She pointed at the pool. "That is a portal."
Selene had been a professional for centuries. She managed to resist doing a most unprofessional double take. Somehow, she had expected an interdimensional portal to look more impressive, maybe with sparkling lights or something.
"Oh, I guess there's no fooling you guys," Barbara sighed. Then with surprising speed, she hit Dawn, sending the girl tumbling back into the pool. Selene hand bolted out to catch the young witch, but Barbara's follow up strike sent Selene over as well. Selene automatically latched onto the nearest handhold. Unfortunately, Barbara was the first thing Selene grabbed.
The three of them tumbled into the portal.
***
"Oh, damn," Ash commented.
Realizing that something was wrong, Lestat and Jamal took a step towards him.
***
"You are nothing!" the overseer screamed at the fresh meat. The overseer looked like he was made out of spare parts. "From now on, you have no name, no identity but what we give you! Death awaits any who defies us!" He stopped in front of one defiant looking human. "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"
Before he realized the human had moved, he was staring at the end of some object in the human's hand. An instant later, he lacked eyes to stare with. But that was okay. His brain had ceased to function as well.
"What? No quip?" Dawn asked as Selene lowered her gun.
"Quip?" Selene looked at Dawn, confused. Had she done something wrong?
"Never mind," Dawn said, shaking her head sadly. The girl turned to the others present. They were mostly teens in ragged white shifts. "Anyone not having fun, follow us!"
"Hey, do you have a spare gun?" a boy about Dawn's age asked, coming to the fore. Unlike most of the kids, he was wearing normal clothing. "I owe these guys some payback."
"You know how to use one?" Selene asked.
"Yeah, I have lots of experience," the boy answered crisply. Selene believed him. The way he moved suggested that he had combat training somewhere. Selene handed him her spare gun. "Thanks." The boy said.
"Okay, let's get a move on," Dawn said. She closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated. "The portal home is." She spun and pointed at a blank wall. ".that way."
"Gee, that's a great help," the boy said.
"So we'll have to go around," Dawn said dismissively, moving towards the sole exit. Everyone else followed. "At least I know which way to go mister-I'm-too-good-introduce-myself. I'm Dawn, by the way."
"Selene," Selene added.
"Jack," the boy replied. "Jack O'Neill."
***
The Slayer was going to kill him, was Ash's second thought. He had lost her baby sister.
Jamal and Lestat were half way to him.
***
"Kill them! Kill them all!" shrieked the demon Barbara. She didn't look quite so pretty without her human disguise. A hail of bullets sent her diving for cover.
A guard swung at Selene with a sickle. Stepping inside the arc of the swing, Selene grabbed the guard's descending wrist with her free hand and twisted, flipping the guard aside and breaking his arm. Selene used the momentum to drive a foot into another guard's neck, breaking the spine.
"I don't get it!" Jack shouted, dropping three guards running at them from a side corridor with headshots.
"Get what?" Selene asked as they moved into a corridor. They seemed to be momentarily free of guards. Between the human slaves toiling away and the ghastly. decorations, this place was an industrial horror.
"These are aliens, right?" Jack continued, reloading his borrowed weapon with a fresh magazine. "Where are the ray guns? Or any other kind of gun for that matter. The most advanced technology I've seen around here was a crossbow."
Selene just shrugged.
"This is it. The portal's here!" Dawn said excitedly as they entered a wide, high-ceiling corridor that resembled the interior of a cathedral. They could see the portal. They could also see its guard. "Oh crap."
The demon was at least ten feet tall. It had a skull-like face that was lit from with in. Sprouting from its back was a pair of bat like wings that were literally on fire. In its right hand was an equally flaming whip, scaled up to the demon's size. It stomped towards them
"What the hell is that thing?" Jack shouted as he and Selene shot at the demon's face. The bullets seemed to have no effect.
"A Balrog," Dawn answered, staring.
***
Lestat and Jamal had arrived, flanking Ash on both sides and looking confused.
Ash considered diving into the portal after Dawn and Selene. Then he saw the portal was quickly shrinking.
***
"EXTINGUA INCENDRE!" Dawn shouted, pointing at the Balrog.
The flames on the demon's wings and whip guttered and went out. The glow inside its head also died. The Balrog looked comically surprised for a moment before collapsing in a heap.
"Is it dead?" Selene asked as the escapees scooted around the unmoving body.
"No idea," Dawn said, shaking her head. She looked exhausted now. "Let's not stay around to find out."
"Seconded," Jack put in.
"Excuse me," one of the unarmed refugees said. "We can't get through."
Their heads whipped around. The portal was just above head height. It was also too small to fit anyone but a toddler through and was slowly but visibly getting smaller.
"No, don't close," Dawn said to the portal, pushing through the crowd to get closer. "Don't close. Don't close! DON'T! CLOSE!"
There was an explosion of emerald light.
***
Fred blinked. The rogue portal on the map table had changed from yellow to green. Having helped design the map table, Fred knew that the sensors must have detected a shift in the portal's energy signature, switching the color from "unknown" to "friendly".
But having helped designed the system, Fred was surprised to see an icon she didn't recognize flashing an alarm above the portal.
"Giles, do you know what this key symbol stands for?" Fred asked.
The teacup Giles was sipping from slipped from nerveless fingers to shatter on the floor.
***
Ash was about to give up on his missing team members when the portal blazed alive. From dead black to brilliant green, the portal widened back to its original size, rippling like the surface was water.
An unconscious Dawn was pushed through the surface. Ash, Jamal, and Lestat were quickly busy, pulling her and a flood of others out.
***
"Looks like we're the last two out," Jack commented.
"Yes, it does," Selene commented.
"And we're surrounded," Jack continued, eyeing the hundreds of guards arrayed at the other end of the hall on both sides of the inert Balrog. Several were actually climbing over the giant demon. The guards were maintaining a respectful distance from the duo's guns. They could see crossbows being passed around. The guards apparently intended to deluge the two of them with a rain of arrows.
"Essentially, yes."
"And we have what? Maybe half a dozen bullets left between us?"
"I think so."
Jack looked up, seeing the foot of the last refugee disappear into the portal above. "And only one of us can get the other out. That one has to stay behind because it's too high to jump."
"Hmm, no."
"Huh?"
"Trust me." With that, Selene grabbed Jack with one hand. Using her vampire strength, she hurled the teenager upward into the portal before he could react. Using the recoil of the throw, Selene went into a crouch. She uncoiled in the same moment that the locals unleashed their crossbows. As she entered the portal, she felt something strike her in the thigh.
An instant later, she was through the portal and hands were pulling her upward. Selene found herself staring into Ash's face. Was he blurry?
"Whoa, you're hurt!" Ash said, his voice seeming to come from far away. He was looking down, away from her face.
Selene looked down and saw an arrow protruding from her thigh. She thought that strange. Shouldn't it hurt? "It's just a flesh wound," she murmured. It didn't hurt, so it must not be too bad.
Everything went black.
***
Harsh white light flooded Selene's senses. Was she dead? There was light. And there was a face filling her vision. Maybe this was God. But it was odd. God looked a lot like.
"Michael?" she gasped.
"Selene!" Michael's face replied. "Thank God! You're awake."
Selene's mind was clearing fast. She hadn't realized until now how groggy she had been. Selene realized that she wasn't dead and that really was Michael in front of her. She was lying down too.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"You're in the Scooby Central clinic," Michael told her.
"What am I doing here?" Selene asked. Bits and pieces of the battle were coming back to her. "The team. What happened to the team?"
"Everyone's fine," another man in a white lab coat said, appearing next to her bed opposite of Michael. "In fact, you were the one who gave us the biggest scare. I'm Doctor Banner by the way."
"Huh?" Selene said brilliantly.
"You got hit with a poison arrow," Dr. Banner explained to her. "The poison was designed specifically to kill off the vampires by attacking the virus that makes you what you are. It's colorfully known as 'Killer of the Dead'. Luckily we had the cure on hand."
"What's that?" Selene asked.
"Slayer blood," said a third person. A new face appeared at Selene's bedside. "Mine specifically. Hi, I don't think we've been formally introduced. I'm Kennedy."
"Slayer blood?" Selene's eyes widened. "I drank."
"No, you didn't," Michael said quickly. "We did a transfusion."
"Oh," Selene said, unsure if she should be relieved. Things like transfusions still seemed new-fangled to her centuries old self.
"Don't worry about it," Kennedy told her. "I'm told that Transfusion took way less blood than drinking would have anyway. Besides, how could I deny the hero of the hour?"
"Huh?" Selene said again.
"You saved lives tonight, honey," Michael told her gently. "From the Scourge no less. Word's spreading like wild fire."
"I'd ask who the Scourge is, but I'm too tired right now," Selene said. She yawned.
"Of course, get some rest," Dr. Banner said paternally.
***
"How are our guests, Fred?" Giles asked.
"We got them stashed in a safe house for now," Fred answered. "For those who want to, we're arranging a ride home."
"Good, good," Giles said absently, examining the poisoned arrow that had been pulled out of Selene's leg. From what Jack O'Neill had told them, the Scourge had enough of these to equip an army. The Killer of the Dead worked on the werewolf strain of the virus as well as the vampire strain, albeit at reduced efficiency. The bulk of the combat capable Scoobies were vampires and werewolves as well.
The implications were. ominous.