Fic: Ultimate Slayer - Issue 1

Author: mkcrl120

Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system. The Ultimate idea comes from Marvel's use of revamping (pardon the pun) some of it's older titles.

Summary: Fresh universe… it all starts here folks

Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)

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Ultimate Slayer #1: Prelude:

October 1996
Rome

Doug Hanover was running through the streets like his life depended on it. His lungs were burning, his legs felt like rubber, and he seriously wished that he could just lie down and let death claim him; but unfortunately for Doug, it wasn't his life that was at stake, it was his wife's so rest wasn't an option. And while his body could still respond to his mental wishes to continue the chase, he would never rest. No matter how far he had to run, no matter how much each limb ached. He wished it were so simple that if she died he could just follow her, but he had a daughter to consider, and regardless of how small a life expectancy everyone told him she'd have, he'd believe in her until his last breath. As his vision blurred and exhaustion threatened to claim him, he remembered the circumstances which had resulted in the vaction to Italy.

They'd treated their daughter, Annie, for the grades she'd gotten in college. Annie had actually finished college, something he never thought she'd live to see after she'd been.... well... 'diagnosed' was how he always referred to it in his head, though obviously never voiced out loud. From that point on his daughter been living on a clock.

He couldn't bear to see her face, if he'd have to tell her that her mother was gone; she'd take it so personally, she always did.

Shaken out of his thoughts by two sets of footsteps behind him, his first thought was that he'd imagined it, that it was just his pulse pounding in his ears, but one of the sets of footsteps increased to an inhuman pace, 'This is it,' he thought. 'The end, I'm never going to see my wife or daughter again,' and with a silent prayer to the gods for their safety Doug slowed down, mentally prepared himself for what was to come, drew his weapon out of his coat pocket and with what he thought may be one of his final breaths turned around to face his attacker.

The weapon was snatched out of his hand effortlessly, and Doug could vaguely remember waving in the direction that he'd been running. He managed to get out something that sounded incomprehensible to him just before his legs gave way and he hit the ground... hard.

The footsteps seemed to be falling even faster and moving away from him, he vaguely heard a shout that sounded like, "Kafter him". Breaths came hard as he locked onto that thought. 'Kaftter me? Why would she want someone to kafter me? What does that even mean?' his thoughts were interrupted by the other footsteps finally reaching him. He looked up at another man crouched over him also breathing hard, the image refused to completely come into focus. Doug struggled to get out a wheezy "I don't think I'm built for this".

"No-one is," the blur responded "well, apart from your daughter that is."

"Yeah... her," Doug responded sadly "no-one else at the moment anyway."

"Come on we'll take you home."

"Shouldn't we make sure the girls are okay?" Doug queried.

"Annie told me to look after you, and I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't follow her over that wall."

Doug moved his head to see down the alley where Annie had run, "What wall?"

"At the very end."

Doug tried squinting, it didn't help. "I can't even see the wall never mind try climbing it."

"So its agreed then, we'll wait for them back at the hotel."

"Sure," Doug reluctantly agreed, "but could you give me a hand up? Please Merrick?"

=====

Same Time
Manhattan

Alice watched the short guy walking up the street. He seemed to be looking for something, that shouldn't have been a surprise, people always are in this neighbourhood. The odd thing was he wasn't looking at any of the girls. He seemed to be looking behind them, at all the alleys and such. 'Great a fucking perv.' she thought, 'doesn't want any action, just wants to watch someone else do it.'

One of the other girls hadn't seemed to notice.

Alice watched in amusement as the girl approached him from behind, "Hey sweetie, you looking for a good time?"

The man turned to face her, and just stared at her directly in the face. "I'm looking for a guy. Your type, tall, dark hair, I've been informed that he'll be hiding in an alley somewhere, though that hasn't been that helpful so far tonight."

'Great,' Alice thought to herself, 'Not only is he a voyeur, he's into men too. Give it up girl, there's no fucking work there.'

"So you're one of those, eh? Well I can tell you fer nuffin, no guys work this street, not if they know whats good for 'em. Come on try a woman for a change baby." The woman seemingly pleaded, "I may surprise you."

"Not the type of guy I'm looking for, and not what I meant."

The woman leaned in for a closer look. After examining the guy for a few moments. "Jeez, sorry dude, guess you're not my type after all."

"Forget it." He began walking away.

"Can't blame a girl for asking though, come on, girls' gotta eat right? Right?" She shouted at the rapidly disappearing figure, before turning and trying to catch her next customer. "Hey good lookin, want some fun?"

Alice watched as he walked straight past her and then stopped, he was staring down the alley behind her for a few seconds. She swore she heard the guy say "Not him!", before continuing off down the street. Curious, Alice turned around for a look. There was some guy with dark hair, leaning against a wall behind a skip. Moving to get a better look, she noticed there was a girl on her knees in front of him.

'Looking for a punter, eh?' She figured they guy probably had a lover that swung both ways or something. 'Good luck finding him, sweetie.' She thought, before returning her attention to the street.

=====

Several hours later
Rome

Doug was pacing the room, with only one thought continuously going through his head; 'Where were they?'. The other occupant of the room seemed to be picking books up seemingly at random, and occasionally swearing at them as he failed to find whatever it was he was looking for. Doug swore if the other man didn't show any concern for Doug's missing family soon he was going to make him eat one of those books. "It's daylight out now." had been Merrick's only comment, when they'd finally returned to the hotel.

Then he laughed at the thought of trying to intimidate Merrick with anything, Merrick could kick his ass without breaking into a sweat. Doug was fairly sure that the only reason Merrick hadn't kicked his ass already, especially if you took into consideration all the disagreements they'd managed to have recently, was that Merrick was intimidated by Annie.

Not that that should come to anyone's surprise. Annie could intimidate anyone if she chose to. Well anyone except Doug that is, Annie was and always would be Doug's little girl, even his wife Marie seemed to be worried occasionally about Annie and what she was capable of; but not Doug, Doug had faith in his little girl, it was that simple.

The sound of a phone ringing brought him out of his thoughts. He dived for it, initially to make sure he answered it before Merrick, but a glance showed Merrick was still in his books and muttering about Carpthians, Carstians, and something about the Lymsonin tongue being untranslatable, never mind the fact that it was and quote: Bloody unpronounceable for beings with only one tongue.

Doug managed to tune out the rest of Merrick's rant, and get out a tired, "Hello?"

Just hearing the voice on the other end filled him with hope, and the details being provided were backing it up all the way, he finally sat down and for the first time in several hours, Doug could feel the adrenalin rush finally leaving his system. He said his goodbyes, and promised to get there as soon as he could.

"How are they?" Merrick inquired, finally having moved away from the table full of books.

"Marie's lost some blood, and possibly fractured an arm, she's conscious and demanding morphine from the doctors, so Annie's not worried at moment." Doug stated as he began digging into the suitcase.

"And what exactly are you doing?"

"Looking for the travel insurance; apparently the doctors stabilised her, but are unwilling to do any more without either payment, or proof of travel insurance." Doug replied without turning around, deciding to give up on the first suitcase and moving onto the second.

"Didn't Marie put all the passports and other important documents into the safe." Merrick mentioned casually while trying to suppress a grin.

"Dammit... keys... keys...?"

"What exactly did Annie say?"

"Annie reckoned that Marie said, if she doesn't get drugs soon, she'd hold me personally responsible, and she'd have my knackers for dinner. Knowing Marie that was a heavily censored version."

"So Annie herself isn't harmed."

"She said she was fine. But I'll believe that once I see her myself. Found it, you coming?"

"Order a cab and I'll find my hat."

=====

Same Time
Los Angeles

Three teenaged girls were in the queue at the cinema, "So as I was saying." A short blonde said, "I told Tyler it was over. I mean, come on, I saw the guy checking out Louise. And you know what part of Louise, he was checking right?"

The other two nodded, "She is such a slut." said the taller blonde.

The brunette added, "Could she wear tops any smaller?"

"She's always trying to get in with us. What's with that?"

"I know what you mean Kim," the first speaker added. "She was giving me hassle the other day."

"What did she say?" the brunetter queried.

"It was all: 'Buffy, do you know if Grueller's seeing anyone. Buffy, do you think Grueller likes me?' I mean we all know Grueller's got no taste, but come on, she's trying to use him to get on the fringes of the in-crowd."

Kim whispered, "I heard Grueller slept with Mary-Anne at the last party. Maybe in that instance, Louise could be considered a step-up."

"Mary Anne is also a slut." Buffy commented.

"Grueller's tried it on with me before."

"Really, Nicole?"

"Yeah," she continued, pausing to point out a girl in a different queue.

All three checked her out, then faced each other, and started pulling faces at the combination of yellow's and pink's in her choice of outfit.

"Bad." BUffy said, voicing the opinion of the group.

Nicole continued with her story. "It was at another of his parties. You know, where his parents leave him alone for the weekend again. I don't think you two were in town, so I went with Jennifer." Buffy and Kimberley nodded their approval at her choice of party goer. "Well near the end of the night, Jennifer ended up with Simon again."

"Simon the basketball player?" Kimberley asked.

"Yeah." Nicole said, blowing a bubble.

"I never knew Jennifer was with him."

"Been that way for three weeks now. You knew, didn't you Buffy?"

"Yeah, Jeffrey told me."

"Jeffrey!!!" The other two said in girly singsong voice.

"What?"

"He sooo wants you." Nicole added.

"Maybe..." Buffy replied shyly.

"You're soo lucky..." Kimberley added, "Now Tyler's off the scene, maybe you should consider it. Oh it's so unfair, you could be with Jeffrey and Jennifer's with Simon. I'm soo jealous."

"Hey what about me?" Nicole queried.

"You've got nothing to be jealous about." Kim commented cattily. "I mean, Grueller was after you."

"Eugh... thought is bad enough." Buffy added, as they approached the counter.

"You weren't the one who's neck he was trying to kiss."

"Eugh!!!" All three of them screamed, stamping their feet to show how much they thought of that idea.

The guy at the counter looked at them.

Kimberley was the first to regain her composure, "Three for Romeo and Juliet." she asked as snobbily as she could.

"Gotta love DiCaprio." Nicole nodded eagerly.

=====

Shortly Afterward
Rome

"Tonight we need to find the Carthinian Wheel." Merrick stated dramatically.

"Which is?" Annie queried, while chewing gum.

"What I believe my daughter is trying to say in her own unique way is: What does this 'wheel' do, Why is it so important and where the hell are we going to find it?" Doug shouted, getting a little bit angry at the end. "Cos I for one, am definitely not leaving town when my wife is still in hospital."

"Yeah, that about covers it." Annie gave her dad a friendly hand squeeze.

This was the bit Merrick had dreaded "To cover all your answers in one go... I don't know."

"Sheesh." Annie rolled her eyes at that one. "That's all you've got to go on. Absolutely nothing... Man I need a smoke."

Doug knew this was going to hurt but felt he had to ask anyway, "Have we any leads?"

"Just the dying words from the Brachen demon..."

"The demon that we failed to protect? The spikey one that I almost decapitated, because you weren't sure what type of demon we were going to meet? The one that we ignored when the fight broke out, because we hadn't identified him before we got jumped."

"They were both trying to persuade us they were named Croyst."

"They were fighting to the death when we turned up at the meeting place, of course they were going to lie to us."

"I was only expecting one demon. I don't normally deal with demons unless its unavoidable. They weren't the type that attack humans, so I must admit the details were a little hazy."

"Hazy??? Hazy??? One was green with spikes and the other was red and eight feet tall. God they teach infants not to put the square peg in the round hole... don't you guys even get similar lessons?"

"Annie!" Doug interrupted, "this is not helping. Merrick, how sure are we that you spoke to the correct dying demon?"

"I'm reasonably confident. The other wasn't attacked, so we'd have to presume that it was on the same side as the... group... Annie dealt with."

"So you don't know what they were called either????"

"If I'd known what the others were, then there wouldn't hav..." Merrick began.

"Annie calm down," Doug could feel a headache coming on, "So what we don't know was if they arranged it all and that this whole Croyst Information thing wasn't just a set-up to get a chance at taking us out?"

"Unlikely... but admittedly a possibility."

"A POSSIBILITY!!! My mother could have been killed due to a possibility!!!"

"Why is it unlikely?"

"The character playing Croyst got an axe shoved through the torso."

"Considering we still don't know the species with one hundred percent certainty, how confident are we that that would have been fatal?"

"Impossible to tell." Merrick acknowledged.

With that Annie headed towards the door, "I'm going out for a fag before I get even more wound up." the sound of a door slamming ended her part in the discussion.

=====

Los Angeles
Inside the cinema

The girls were unable to enjoy what would have been their third watching of Romeo and Juliet due to the people seated a few seats behind.

"This is such a chick flick." One of the guys stated.

"You wanna leave or stay and enjoy a brewski?" The one with a goatee asked.

"Beers?" the other questioned.

"Lovingly donated by my brother, less than three hours ago." The second said, pulling two bottles out of his jacket.

"I thought your brother hated your guts after you were unable to fix his 'Vette."

"That is not a 'Vette." He corrected his friend, "It was a 'Vette, oh say, maybe ten years ago. Now it's a piece of crap."

"Your brother loves that car."

"It's never worked properly. When he bought it, it didn't even have tyres."

That was it, Buffy had had enough. Turning in her seat and ignoring Nicole's attempt to drag her back. "Can you guys be quiet. We're trying to watch Leo"!"

"Why would you want to watch this, it's a complete chick flick."

"They are chicks, Benny."

"Benny is it? And you, with the goatee, yes you. You want to be quiet, or you want us to get the manager?"

Benny quickly stood up flicking various bits of popcorn from his lap at Buffy. "Get the manager if you want. We're paying customers. We have rights!"

His friend quickly dragged him down. "Dude, stop picking on the kids. We'll get done for child abuse or some shit."

"Pike?"

Pike whispered in Benny's ear. "And we didn't pay. Remember?"

"I am not a kid."

Benny laughed, "Come on, you're like what fourteen?"

"Fifteen actually!"

"That's great... really, we're sixteen."

Pike corrected him, "Dude, we're seventeen."

Realising they weren't likely to be quiet, Buffy reluctantly allowed her friends to drag her back into her seat.

"When did that happen?"

"It was my birthday two weeks ago."

"What?" Benny asked shocked.

"We got drunk and you got slapped by that waitress."

Benny vaguely remembered the hazy event, "So when is it mine?"

"Ages ago."

"What?"

"Ben, we've been friends for what eight years, nine?"

"Sounds about right."

"And in all that time, you didn't notice that until two years ago, you were always in the year above me?"

"Seems some recollection, about that, somewhere on the edge of my brain."

"Your problem is that your brain has been destroyed by too much alcohol."

"So's yours then."

"I had more to start with."

Benny leapt on top of Pike and started to punch him in the arms. Pike retaliated by throwing him off and getting him into an head lock. He then dragged him down the aisle rubbing the top of his head. Benny was calling him all sorts of names.

Kimberley seeing this, quickly left to find a member of staff. Nicole was watching in shock as the playfight took them in front of the screen. Buffy was trying to stifle a laugh. At Nicole's look she added, "What, when Pike got thrown over the front seats it was funny."

"Pike eh?" Nicole asked, raising an eyebrow. "You remember their names, you love them, you want them both. Just like with Tyler and Jeffrey... Little Buffy likes to be ta..."

Buffy cried "You bitch!" and then started to attack Nicole by flailing her arms against her ineffectively. Nicole started to do the same.

They quickly stopped when the door opened and Kimberley returned with a staff member.

The guys however hadn't stopped. Their fight had now progressed to Pike chasing Benny, threatening to beat him with part of one of the seats. The fight brought them to a halt a few rows in front of Buffy when they noticed the newcomer.

"Hi." Pike said.

"You didn't pay to get in." The middle aged man said, suddenly noticing the arm of a seat in Pike's hand. "And vandalism too. You'll pay for that."

"Shit!" Benny shouted.

"Leg it!" Pike added, he went in the opposite direction to the staff member, only to notice that there were people sitting that were blocking his exit down that row. Deciding to try and vault the chairs in front of him, he started to make his escape.

Benny however had continued down the aisle. And was quickly captured when he realised he had nowhere to go.

Pike's escape was blocked by Kimberley, who'd managed to throw the remains of his box of popcorn at him as he vaulted another row of chairs.

The distraction caused him to forget about his trailing leg, catching that leg put him off his stride and he ran straight into the next set of chairs. Falling face first over them, he landed with his head in Buffy's lap.

Lifting his head up, he smiled. Just as a different staff member arrived to grab him by his coat collar. "See ya." He said as he was dragged out. Benny being dragged by the original member a few feet behind him.

=====

A Few Hours Later
Rome

"So where's Annie?" Doug asked for what felt like the hundredth time. "She said she was going outside for a cigarette."

"I don't know." Said Merrick.

"It's been two hours, Marie's starting to get agitated."

"We have no idea where she went. The only possibility I can think of is..."

"Is..?" Doug prompted.

"We need to speak to Marie." Merrick started to head directly towards her room.

Doug dived in front to stop him. "Hold it. My wife's in pain, we are not letting her know her daughter is missing."

"She may be the only one who knows where Annie is."

"How do you figure that?"

"Annie may have gone back to deal with whatever captured her mother."

"She would have dealt with them last night, when she freed her."

"She may have been concentrating on getting Marie back. She may have decided that if we need to leave to continue our search, then the only safe way to do that would be to deal with the threat to her mother first."

"We wouldn't have left before Marie was safe."

"I know that. You know that. But does Annie?"

"Shit. Let's go talk to Marie." They both moved inside to ask the questions that need asking.

=====

Los Angeles

It was late when Buffy got home. Her parents still weren't back. 'Typical.' She thought. She waved Nicole off from her doorstep then entered the house closing the door behind her. Walking into the kitchen she poured herself a glass of juice. She'd felt weird at sometime during the drive home. She was wondering if she was likely to come down with something.

'Hope not. Need to make sure I'm there on Monday. Otherwise, someone might get their hands on Jeffrey, and he doesn't know I'm single yet.' She thought, grinning as she planned ahead to what she might wear on Monday.

She was finishing off the last of her drink when the weird feeling came over her again. 'What the hell is it?' She thought, 'Just show some proper symptoms so I can treat it.'

Refilling her glass, she closed the fridge door and went up to her room. Getting undressed, she climbed into bed and snuggled up with her stuffed pig, Mr Gordo.

Sleep did not come easy to her that night.

=====

End Issue 1 - Prelude

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