SUNNYDALE POLICE DEPARTMENT
VEHICLE PURSUIT; 12:32 AM
"1122, we're just passing the intersection of 15th and Polk, still traveling northbound, speed approximately eighty miles per hour and where the hell are you guys?" Becoming frustrated in the few minutes he had been pursuing the vehicles by himself, Officer Koch completely threw radio etiquette out the window.
Robert's tires squealed and the rear end of his car fish-tailed as he made a sharp and unexpected left turn. He sped down Ellis Street, two blocks away from the intersection the pursuit had just passed. "Officer Bloodworth," the cameraman spoke up from the back seat, not distracting Robert from his duty of trying to get in position to join the pursuit. "If you could give us another update with what's going on right now."
Faith had to keep herself from laughing when she saw the look of annoyance that crept its way onto Robert's face. She would have to remind him when this was all done about how she thought the idea sounded terrible but he thought it would be interesting to have the cameraman along for the ride, detailing his night for primetime viewers to see. It seemed as though he was beginning to come over to his way of thinking. "Officer Bloodworth?" With the siren running, the cameraman thought he might not have been heard the first time.
"Come on Robbie," Faith quipped. "Give the viewers what they want now."
Robert shot her a quick glare before returning his attention to the road. They would be hitting 15th in just a few seconds and, based on Officer Koch's latest position report, he would be joining the pursuit only slightly behind them. After a long sigh, Robert gave in. "Okay, right now we're en-route to backup another Officer. He's in a vehicle pursuit of three vehicles matching the description of the suspect vehicles from the home invasion we just checked out."
"Great, great," the cameraman was beginning to see recognition, respect and most importantly awards more clearly. "Think you could give us some little line about how this is dangerous or unpredictable? Those really hook people in."
Faith gave him a wry grin as Robert thought of something that would be suitable to say. "It's a dangerous situation you know. We don't know exactly how many suspects there are and we think they might have taken hostages so it's going to be a difficult matter to handle as unpredictable as the whole thing is."
"Great! Great!" He moved the camera slightly away from Robert, focusing directly out the front window of the patrol car, wanting to catch the action as it happened from this point. When they were within a few feet of the intersection with 15th, they watched as two old and beaten-up trucks and a similar van flew threw a red light with a Sunnydale Police patrol unit moving fast behind them, its lights and sirens active.
Robert again made a hard turn onto the street, his car beginning to spin in response. He quickly recovered this, slamming his foot down on the accelerator. "1144 – PD, I'll be in pursuit of those vehicles with 1122."
"1020 – 1144, I'm about a minute away."
"10 – 4 boss, still northbound on 15th, just passed Ellis Street, coming up on Perry." Sergeant Myers acknowledged the information from Robert and went about directing other officer to set up a road block at a specific point, trying to end the chase there.
With the straight road in front of them, no sign of the bringers wanting to easily give up and no moves they could easily make at the moment, Robert was able to relax. After a minute of acceleration, he caught up with Officer Koch's patrol unit and eased off the gas slightly, settling in a short distance behind the vehicles being driven by the bringers or what they assumed to be those vehicles.
"Ideas?" Robert took his eyes off the road briefly and looked to the Slayer for guidance. The bringers did fall more into her jurisdiction than they did his, even though he had the police department fully involved in the matter now.
"Aside from take them down," Faith didn't exactly see what kind of advice he wanted. She could babble on for hours about when they fought the First, the fighting style the bringers use, their type of weapons, the best ways to kill them but she doubted that was what Robert wanted. "What kind of ideas you looking for?"
"Maybe which one of these vehicles Dawn and Kennedy are in?"
"I'm supposed to know that how exactly?" Her reaction was not what Robert had wanted but Faith didn't know what Robert was expecting from her. "Not like I was there watching or helped kidnap them you know."
"Come on Faith," he was trying to keep himself from becoming frustrated with her as his frustration level was already at a high thanks to the situation they found themselves in. "You and I both know you have," he struggled for the correct word. "Instincts. You must have some idea burning in the back of your mind. Tell me where those girls are."
"Yeah, I have instincts about who's a vampire and who's not, who's evil and who's not. I don't have person radar built into my head, not part of the Slayer package," though Faith's instincts had served her well in the past, she didn't want to put the fate of those two girls solely on them.
"Ummm ... did you say vampires?" The cameraman suddenly became very confused. In the period of a few seconds, he had gone from filming a police pursuit to listening to some woman talking about how she can sense vampires. Not that the producers hadn't warned him about Sunnydale and its history of odd occurrences.
"Yeah," Robert decided to try covering for her as he expected the Slayer didn't have much of an excuse in mind. "The first kid she counseled at the school, real troubled guy. He had kind of pale skin and pointy teeth. She used to say he looked like a –"
"Vampire!" The cameraman made the connection, things suddenly not seeming quite as weird now. "So now, she refers to troubled kids as vampire," Faith raised her eyebrows at Robert when she realized how this was making her sound.
"Oh you come up with something better," he whispered.
Faith shrugged. "True."
"Okay, so I get the thing about vampires," the cameraman continued trying to determine the meanings of Faith's odd statement. "But what about the thing about sensing evil? I mean, troubled kids aren't necessarily evil."
"No," Faith's voice trailed off as she again tried to quickly come up with a way to explain what she had said.
"But some might be," Robert quickly followed her lead and came up with another story. "And Faith is good at picking those out, talking to them and stopping them before they do something terrible that they might regret." Faith was sure the cameraman wasn't going to but that.
"Okay," much to the surprise of them both, he accepted the answer. "I guess that makes sense." Before anything else could be said, another Sunnydale Police car came squealing around a corner, joining the pursuit in between the cars being driven by Robert and Officer Koch.
"1020 – 1122 and 1144, I'm with you guys." In front of the three patrol units, the suspect vehicles began to spread out, taking up both lanes of traffic traveling north and one lane on the other side of the road. The van was in the center with a truck on either side of it. Instinctively, the police officers began to spread their patrol units out as well, each ready to follow if one of the vehicles made a break down another road.
"1122, we're just about a mile from a major intersection here, these guys might be getting ready to split up," Officer Koch surmised from the new behavior being portrayed by the suspect vehicles.
"If it comes to that, we each take one until more backup can arrive," Sergeant Myers issued his orders next over the radio. Robert and Officer Koch acknowledged. Now Robert really needed those instincts Faith thought she didn't have.
"Help me out here Faith," his request was almost a plea. Even though he hadn't known them nearly as long, in many ways, he felt as though he cared as much about Dawn and Kennedy as Faith did. In the short time he had been in Sunnydale, they had all been through a lot together. "If those cars do split up, which one of them do I follow?"
"Robert I'm telling you I don't know," Faith was trying but couldn't get whatever instincts Robert thought she had but she couldn't come up with which car Dawn and Kennedy were being held in.
"Then give me a guess Faith," Robert's tone shifted drastically as he became increasingly annoyed with the situation. "'Cause I don't have any ideas, instincts or educated guesses of my own so we might as well go with your blind luck over mine."
"And what makes you think my luck is any better than yours?" She beginning to think she needed to give Robert the story of her life again whenever this ordeal ended.
"They're spreading out more," Officer Koch's voice came through the radio speaker behind Robert and Faith. "Looks like they're definitely going to split up at the intersection."
Faced with having to do so, Faith made a decision. "That one," she pointed to the truck closest to them, Robert instantly turned the steering wheel to pull in behind it, while grabbing his radio microphone off the dash and pressing the transmit key.
"1144, I'll take this truck."
"1020, got the other truck."
"1122, I'm on the van."
As soon as the officers finished talking on the radio, the suspect vehicles split off in three different directions. The truck Robert was following turned left, the van continued on a straight path and the second truck being followed by Sergeant Myers turned right. Robert took the sharp turn at a significantly higher rate of speed than the truck, allowing him to close the distance between the two vehicles as they continued on the single-lane.
With his vehicle on the tail of the suspect truck, he could see multiple figures piled into the extended cab as well as a number of what he assumed to be trailers sitting in the bed of the truck. One of the figures seated in the bed of the truck turned and looked towards Robert's car. He stood up, reaching into his robe and drawing a curved blade knife that reflected the red and blue emergency lighting of Robert's patrol car. He pulled his arm back and hurled the weapon at the police car.
Robert jerked the steering wheel, swerving his vehicle out of the way of the knife as it bounced off the cement road. Although it failed, the attack did accomplish one objective in that Robert's swerving caused the gap between the two vehicles to increase. Acting as soon as he was back in a straight line with the bringer's truck, he drew his weapon, transferred it to his left hand. Steering with his right, he hung the gun out the window and fired two shots, knocking down the bringer who had thrown the knife. That made him feel better as he placed his weapon back in the holster. He then called in their location and a status update to the police department dispatch before again relaxing as the pursuit eased back into being almost casual.
"You know," Faith was now the one who was frustrated and, by the look on her face, bordering on angry. "I somehow don't see firing a gun at a car that might have hostages in it as standard police procedure." She promised Buffy she would look after Dawn and she'd be damned if she let anything happen to her that couldn't be avoided.
"Sorry," Robert knew better than to do what he did of course. "Couldn't hold back." This was the first time ever Faith had seen Robert and act like that, in a way, it scared her. "Just needed to burn off a little steam I think."
"Yeah, I can deal with burning off steam, just not in the direction of Dawn or Kennedy or both of them," despite the fact that she thought she was beginning to sound too much like B, Faith continued with her dressing down of him.
"I know Faith, I know!" As he seemed to get the point, the Slayer eased off of her attack. "Look it was stupid, I don't know why I did it but I did and I won't make a mistake like that again."
"Best documentary here I come," the cameraman muttered to himself. Before either Robert or Faith had the chance to say anything, another set of swirling red and blue lights appeared behind Robert's car.
"1156 – 1144," between Officer Koch and Sergeant Myers calling in their own status updates, Officer Tom Smith's voice appeared on the radio.
"1144."
"Robert he's about to hit a four lane road, we could move in beside him and try a PIT maneuver. It's risky but it might be our best chance to go ahead and bring this thing to an end." Officer Smith's suggestion seemed to be their best recourse as neither Robert nor Faith had any other ideas about how to bring this pursuit to an end.
"10 – 4 Tom, let's go ahead and give it a shot when he hits the four lane." At that moment, the road they were on merged onto the four lane road Officer Smith had just mentioned. The bringer's truck accelerated as did the two police vehicles in pursuit, both moving in on each side of the truck in a flanking maneuver.
"1156 – 1144, go ahead and try the PIT at your discretion when we're in position. If you don't get the job done I'll hit him again from this side." Both police vehicles continued attempting to move up on the truck. Robert trying to position his vehicle to bump the back side of it, hoping that would cause it to spin out of control. Closing the remaining distance however was proving to be a slow and difficult process.
"You got any other ideas Faith now is in the time," Robert suggested as he held his foot down on the accelerator and focused on the road. As the Slayer tried to think of any option that might be preferable to a risky pursuit ending maneuver, the three people in Robert's car heard something coming from behind it that no one expected. Despite the wail of the sirens, they could all clearly hear music coming from outside behind Robert's car.
As they listened to the familiar song, "Bad to the Bone" continuing to grow louder, the cameraman swung his camera around to face the rear driver's side window of Robert's car. He zoomed in on what was clearly the source of the music, a black motorcycle quickly closing on the police vehicle. When the bike, which apparently had a large boom box taped to the front, became even with the back window, he saw it was being driven by a blonde-haired man dressed all in black, his trench coat blowing in the wind.
Robert and Faith could not help but watch as Spike nonchalantly rode past them on his bike, closing faster than they were on the bringer's truck. Once he passed the hood of Robert's patrol unit, he popped a wheelie as he gunned his bike, waved and sped past them. "What the hell is Spike doing?" Faith had called him for help but she hadn't expected this kind of help.
"I'm trying to grab this footage!" The cameraman remembered the little nickname Faith had coined for him in their first hour or riding together before all hell had broken loose. "This is great footage, the arrival of a dark vigilante or an aid to the fugitives," his narration ended as both Faith and Robert turned and shot him a glare. "Well, I don't hear much commentary coming from the two of you."
Spike brought his bike in closer to the bringer's truck. When the two vehicles were side by side, Spike stood up, still holding the throttle down with one hand and grabbing a battle-axe off the side of his bike with the other. The bringer's in the bed of the truck all jumped from their seated positions, drawing daggers from their cloaks and preparing other weapons.
"Robert get us closer," when Faith realized what Spike was doing, she had an idea of her own.
"Mind clueing me in on what you plan to do?" Apparently Spike's sudden arrival had sparked Faith's creative side and allowed her to come up with a plan of action after all.
"End this."
"Woah!" The cameraman exclaimed. Robert and Faith had been paying more attention to each other than watching what was happening when Spike jumped from his motorcycle into the bed of the bringer's truck. As he watched Spike fend off the seven bringers in the bed of the truck by himself, he suddenly realized what Faith was planning.
"You're not serious?"
"I've survived a lot worse jumps than that. Besides," a bringer flew off the back of the truck, with his own knife impaled in his stomach. Robert swerved to miss the body, his rear driver's side wheel running over the bringer's head. "Spike could use a hand up there."
Without going into the trying to figure out why Faith was calling the blonde-haired vigilante Spike as well, the cameraman became all to excited as he figured out what she was planning to do. "Oh my god, in a daring move, the civilian rider with this police unit is going to attempt to board the suspect truck in an attempt to gain control of the fugitive vehicle and aid this strange vigilante that has already taken the law into his own hands." Robert punched the accelerator, throwing the cameraman back into his seat as he attempted to get close enough for Faith to make the jump.
The Slayer rolled down the window of the patrol unit, pulled herself onto the rood of the car with her arms and walked onto the hood. Robert advised Officer Smith that they were going to try something else before the PIT maneuver. To aid Faith and Spike he turned on the spotlight near his door and shined it on the bed of the bringer's truck. He slammed the accelerator to the floor, the gap between the two vehicles slowly decreasing.
Spike ducked to his right as a bringer charged at him, a knife in each hand swinging for the vampire's head. As his anger and adrenaline continued to increase, Spike's face shifted to its demonic form. The bringer slashed at him again, this time Spike ducking and sidestepping to his left to avoid the attacks. "Well alright," Spike swung the axe over his head and down across the bringer's knees, sending him collapsing to the bed of the truck. "Let's have some fun," with the injured bringer collapsed to his knees, Spike brought the axe down upon his head, splitting his skull.
Losing two of their comrades did nothing to deter the five remaining bringers in the bed of the truck. Another closed on him, stabbing and slashing at him with his knife. He backed up and easily side-stepped every attack made by the black robed figure. As he was backing up, Spike was falling into a trap. A bringer stood behind him with a long, pointed, wooden staff, pointed towards the vampire's back. His instincts, however, did not fail him. With a grin on his face, he swung his axe low to the ground, knocking the approaching bringer off his feet as the blade swept underneath them. In the same movement, he swung the axe over his head and behind his back, cutting through the other bringer's neck, causing him to fall off the side of the truck.
Before the bringer had finished falling, Spike spun around to face him. He shifted the battle-axe to one hand and quickly grabbed the staff from the bringer with his other as the bringer toppled over the truck bed's side. Spinning back around and ducking to dodge another hurled knife from one of his enemies, Spike lunged the staff into the head of the bringer he had disabled only seconds before, the weapon landing on its mark between his non-eyes.
Next, Spike heard the unmistakable sound of a blade slicing through the crisp fall air, inches away from his head. He rolled out of the way, readying his axe and looking up to see Faith restraining the arm of a bringer who was swinging a knife at his head. "Need a hand?" Holding his arm with both of hers, Faith kicked the bringer in the side of the face, giving her the needed opportunity to wrench the weapon from his grasp. She rammed the weapon through his neck as she drew her own dagger to parry an attack from another of the remaining bringers.
"Always," Spike got back and his feet and swung the axe back and to his left, into the chest of the last bringer that Faith was not already engaged against. The defeated enemy fell back into the glass window separating the cab of the truck from the bed. "From a hand as pretty as yours that is."
Faith used her knife and pushed the last bringer away; grabbing the other knife out of the neck of the one she killed and purposefully strode towards the last. Having to use little effort, she knocked away an attack and cut him across the arm, thighs and neck before finally driving the weapon she had taken from his comrade into his heart and pushing into the road, nearly colliding with Officer Smith's patrol unit. "What've I told you about the cheap flattery Spike?"
"That at least three times a week is a good idea if I want to stay on your good side?" The vampire repeated a joke she had made to him during the summer than seemed relevant at this point. "But seven times a week might be pushing it to the point that it wouldn't sound sincere anymore?"
"You're learning," Faith sarcastically complimented him. She rushed to his side, kneeling down, clenching her fist and smashing the separating window. She didn't even look to see who was inside, knowing she only had seconds to act. There were two bringers in the front seat, one driving and one in the passenger seat. Before he could react to the window shattering, she rammed her dagger into the back of the passenger. Doing the only other thing she could think of, she punched the driver in the face, grabbing the steering wheel and attempting to gain control over the vehicle.
From their cars, Robert and Officer Smith watched as the suspect truck began to swerve wildly across the road. "What the hell is going on?" Smith called over the radio. The bringer's truck and the two pursuing vehicles crossed into another residential neighborhood, roads lined with houses, trees and mailboxes. When Robert said nothing in response, Smith decided it was time for another suggestion. "We can try to push it off the road, get it to wreck out into one of these big trees, with the driver distracted it might be easier."
He wanted to give Faith a chance but Officer Smith also presented him with a genuine opportunity to end part of this chase here, something he could not refuse. "Let's go for it." Robert decelerated slightly, Smith was the closer vehicle and in a better position to attempt what they were planning to do. As Smith moved his vehicle closer, Robert again keyed his microphone to call into dispatch. "1144 – PD, 1156 is going to attempt to push the vehicle off the road, try to get it to wreck out into a tree."
"PD is clear 1144."
From the bed of the truck, as Faith still struggled with the driver, attempting to gain control of the vehicle, Spike watched as the Sunnydale Police vehicle closed alongside the truck. The expression in the eyes of the driver gave away his intentions. "Uh ... Faith," Spike said seconds before the driver nudged his car into the truck. Spike was knocked off his feet and into the bed of the truck, slowly pulling himself up. He was back to his feet in enough time for the truck to be hit again and Spike again thrown down. "Okay, that guy is cruising for a biting."
With neither Faith nor the bringer having complete control over the truck, it veered out of control when the police unit struck it for a third time. After it spun several times, Faith finally managed to gain enough control over the steering wheel to aim the truck for a large and nearby tree in the front yard to one of the many houses on this street.
As the truck impacted and bent into the tree, Faith was thrown forward, her head hitting the dash. She recovered from her momentary daze in just enough time to not stop the driver from throwing his door open and running out of the car, taking off across the grass front yard and towards a tall, white, wooden fence.
Robert slammed on his brakes, swinging his patrol car onto the sidewalk next to the now disabled truck. In a split second, he had his seatbelt off and was out of the car, his gun drawn as he chased the bringer towards the fence. "Police! Freeze!" As he huffed and puffed to keep up with the foot pursuit, the cameraman was glad he caught that line. Officer Smith peeled in on the other side of the truck and also took off on foot towards Robert, his weapon drawn as well.
Spike stood up in the back of the truck and shook his head as he watched the two police officers and the small man with a large camera chasing the bringer through the yard. "Cops take things too damn seriously," he thought they should try relaxing and having a little more fun with their jobs. He then saw Faith scramble out of the cab, rushing to join the in progress foot pursuit. "Ah, what the hell," Spike vamped out, leaped onto the ground and rushed towards the now large group chasing the bringer.
GO TO ACT THREE