Thanks to kkenny, Bunny-Butler, texaswookie, Destiny's Dragon, and Igor the Great for the reviews, I love hearing feedback and please leave more next chapter.
Bunny-Butler: Well, first of all hockey ice is a lot harder than ground, so you have to wear pads for it. Secondly, most of the kids would be wizards anyways so they wouldn't have heard of rugby.
Texaswookie: Kill Kennedy? I can see she's not your favourite character lol. As for Oz, I haven't decided whether to include him or not yet.
Igor the Great: Yeah I have an idea for mini-jack you'll see in a couple of chapters. Thanks for the compliments by the way.
Well, that's it for now so on with the chapter!
Chapter 18
Buffy and her group stepped through the Stargate and emerged in a very earth-like coniferous forest on rocky soil. Shannon help up her electronic map. "We're about 2 kilometers east of the camp and 4 kilometers northeast of the cave." She said.
"Okay, let's move out. Remember, just get in, take out the Jaffa and get out." Buffy ordered. "If we get into trouble we back off and call SG-3. The last thing I want is to come home on Slayer short on our first mission. Let's check out the camp first, the Jaffa may have decided to set up guard there."
The group headed off in the direction of the camp. After a couple minutes of walking through the reasonably thick forest the camp came into view. Buffy immediately signaled for the group to get down. The group dropped behind a large rock and peered out to the camp.
"There are seven Jaffa there." Xander reported. "Three are on guard and the other four are checking out the equipment."
"How can you tell?" Faith asked. "I can barely see anything through the trees."
"I dunno." Xander said with a shrug. "My eyes can't see any farther than they used to, but I can really sense movement now. It's like every time something moves, it gets outlined in my mind."
"Cool." Faith said with an envious smile. "So B, what's the plan?"
"Well if there are seven there, then I guess the other three to five are out looking for the scientific team." Bufy reasoned. "We need to take these ones out fast, then we may not even have to fight the others, just grab the team and get out."
Xander looked up at the 15-foot sheer rock wall to his side. "This would be a good spot to set up my rifle if I could get up there." Before he could say anything else, Buffy grabbed the sniper rifle off his back and handed it to Shannon, then turned to Xander and kneeled down, lacing her hands together. "I'll give you a boost." She said with a smile.
Xander gingerly stepped onto her hand. "I don't know about this." He said dubiously. Before he could protest again, Buffy pushed up with all her strength and threw Xander up over to top of the cliff. To his credit, Xander didn't make a sound other than a muffled, "Ooomph!" as he hit the ground on the top of the cliff. Shannon then threw the rifle up after him. Xander made another, "Ooomph!" noise as the rifle landed squarely on his stomach. He leaned back over and threw the girls a thumbs up, then crawled back, found a long rock and lay down, then dropped the legs of the bi-pod on his rifle and took aim at the Jaffa.
While Xander was doing this, the group had separated, Faith and Shannon going left and Buffy and Vi going right, circling in for one of the more basic and effective attacks Buffy had been taught, the pincer attack. Dropping behind the cover of a clove of trees, Buffy picked up her radio. "Xander, you're the signal to start the attack." She whispered into it. "Hit the guard in the center. As soon as you do, we'll move in from either side. Got it?" Two clicks from the radio signaled Xander's response, and seconds later a loud crack announced the beginning of the attack.
Xander took careful aim, held his breath as he had been taught, then squeezed the trigger. The semi-automatic sniper rifle kicked back hard into his shoulder and let a bullet fly with a deafening blast. The aforementioned bullet flew at nearly four miles per second towards its target, an Asian Jaffa guard. The bullet hit him square in the forehead and kept going, exiting out near the base of his skull, severing his brain stem. The Jaffa was dead before he hit the ground.
Before the other two guards could even take stock of what had happened, two cloves of trees on opposite sides of the camp opened up with bursts of crackling sub-machine gunfire. The Jaffa on Buffy's side lit up with sparks as the armor piercing rounds bored into his metal chest plate. He dropped to his knees, the realization of what was happening appearing in his eyes right before death took him.
Faith and Shannon, however, were not fairing quite as well. The Jaffa there were attacking had immediately dove for cover behind the rock he had been resting on. The guard and the two Slayers were exchanging fire, neither party coming particularly close to hitting the other. Unfortunately, the other Jaffa had heard the shooting and had joined the fray. All four Jaffa had taken up position to the left of Faith and Shannon, pinning them down from two angles. "A little help would be nice!" Shannon shouted over the radio, still firing her P-90 with her free arm.
A loud crack announced the death of another Jaffa as Xander picked off the remaining guard with another shot. However before he could help with the other group, he had to get up. "Buffy get in there!" He shouted. "I don't have a clear shot at the other group and Faith and Shannon can't hold on for long!"
Buffy was already moving, she and Vi were running side-by-side. Rather than stopping and firing from a covered postion, Buffy decided to take the, 'charge and shoot from the hip' tactic that only a Slayer can really take advantage of. Buffy fired from her shoulder while she ran, catching one of the distracted Jaffa in the shoulder and another in the thigh. Both cried out in pain but neither were out of the battle. The Jaffa turned their attention to the onrushing Slayers but it was too late. Buffy launched herself into a flying sidekick aimed at the largest of the group. She hit him in the chest, knocking him back into a dead tree. Buffy landed, then took the three steps needed to reach him and vaulted off him, kicking him in the jaw as she continued through into a graceful back flip. The impact broke his jaw, his neck, and the tree, which broke behind him and sent him tumbling to the ground though he was already dead. Buffy landed and ducked under a staff that the other uninjured Jaffa had swung at her. As she ducked she threw out a sweeping kick that knocked the Jaffa off his feet. He tried to get up but was gunned down by the approaching duo of Shannon and Faith. Buffy heard a zat being discharged twice and turned around to see that Vi had knocked out both of the injured guards. "I didn't see any reason to kill them if we didn't have to." Vi explained, though the nervousness in her voice betrayed that she had other reasons for simply knocking them out.
Buffy nodded. "Let's tie them up then." She picked up her radio. "Xander we're all clear."
"Okay, be there in a minute." Xander's voice replied.
"Faith, Shannon? Can you take care of these guys?" Buffy asked.
Faith nodded. "No problem B."
"Come with me Vi." Buffy said. "Let's take a look around the rest of the camp." Vi nodded and the two walked off. Once they were out of hearing range of Faith and Shannon, Buffy turned to Vi. "Are you okay?" She asked seriously.
Vi nodded, but looked miserable. "It's just, when I joined up with you guys back in Sunnydale, I had never been in any kind of fight in my life. Then suddenly I'm fighting vampires and the first evil and it was all pretty freaky, but I could deal with it. But I don't know if I can deal with this. Killing vampires and demons is one thing, but I don't know if I can kill humans."
Buffy nodded. "I know how you feel, and I remember that when Faith killed a human it freaked me out, and freaked her out so much she lost it. But I also learned a long time ago that you don't have to be a demon to be evil. I mean, from what Angel told me nearly half of Wolfram and Hart's clients are human, and look at the Initiative."
"Yeah, I guess, but I don't know if I can bring myself to kill another human." Vi replied. "I mean, maybe once I'm in a situation where it's kill or be killed, but right now I don't know."
"Well use your zat for the rest of this mission." Buffy advised. "When we get the team and get back you can decide whether you want to stay on or not. We can't forget that the Slayers still have demons and vampires to fight, so no big deal if you want to quit SG-Slay."
Vi smiled at Buffy. "Thanks Buffy, you're a great leader."
Buffy smiled. "Thanks. Now come on, let's get back." The two of the walked back to where Shannon and Faith had tied the two Jaffa, the two now awake and very agitated Jaffa, back to back. The two of them got there in time to here Faith start asking questions.
"Who do you serve?" She demanded. The Jaffa she was facing simply glared. Faith stuck her thumb into the bullet hole in his thigh and he roared in pain. "Who do you serve?"
"Kagutsuchi." The Jaffa said angrily. "He will destroy you."
"Anyone ever hear of this guy?" Faith asked.
"Sounds Japanese." Xander supplied.
"You think?" Buffy said, rolling her eyes.
"We will tell you nothing." The other Jaffa spat angrily.
"What should we do with these guys?" Shannon asked. "We can't take them with us, and we certainly can't just leave them here."
"Sure we can." Faith said with a smirk. She pulled out a cloth from her pack, tore it in two and gagged both guards. "On our way back we can grab them and throw them back through the 'gate or something."
Buffy nodded. "Good call Faith. Okay Shannon, how do we get to the cave?"
Shannon took out her map, then checked her bearings. "Looks like all we have to do is follow that path there." She said, pointing to an overgrown path that at one time had obviously seen heavy travel.
"A little convenient, don't you think?" Xander asked.
Buffy nodded. "I'm sure the Jaffa are already on their way there, we better catch up."
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"Harry, there's no question about it, you are the Captain." Ron said with an air of finality before stuffing another bite of egg into his mouth. The two were sitting in the Great Hall for breakfast before their first classes. While they were discussing Quidditch with Gunny, Hermione was already looking over the textbook that had been assigned for their first class of the day, Defence Against the Dark Arts.
"Yeah, I agree with Ron." Ginny said. "And since we're the only remaining members of the team besides you, I think you're overruled."
"But I didn't play last year." Harry pointed out.
"Doesn't matter." Ginny replied.
"But don't you think-"
"No." Ron and Ginny said in unison.
"Fine." Harry said. "I'll tell Dumbledore at lunch." He took a bite of toast and swallowed, but before he could start talking, a voice behind him sneered. "So Potter, you back on the Quidditech team? Who'd you have to curse to get that rule repealed?"
Harry turned around to see Draco sneering at him, with Crabbe and Goyle flanking him. "Shut it ferret boy." Harry growled back.
"You're going to pay for everything you've done." Malfoy said vehemently. "You'd better watch your back, cause there's going to be a Slytherin waiting to jump you around every corner this year. You just-"
"Something going on here?" Jack's voice cut in as he approached the group.
"Nothing you need to worry about, Colonel." Harry said. "Malfoy and his friends were just leaving."
"Look at that, Potter's sank low enough to hide behind a muggle." Malfoy snorted.
"You know, I'm standing right here." Jack pointed out. "Besides, he's not hiding behind me, he's sitting right there."
Malfoy threw the Colonel a look of raw anger. "I still can't believe a filthy muggle is on our staff." He snorted contemptuously. "When my father hears about this-"
"Seems to me last I heard your father was in Azkaban." Hermione pointed out. "Something about a life sentence?"
"You just wait." Malfoy spat. "You'll all pay, especially you, muggle filth." Malfoy said, pratically spitting the word at Jack.
Jack gave Draco an annoyed look. "I'm not going to dock you points for that this time, but I do recommend that you visit Madam Pomfrey."
"Why?" Malfoy asked, his anger giving way to confusion.
"Well I hear she's got a potion that will clear that case of Jackass you've got right up." Jack said, keeping a straight face. Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny however, did not. The four of them practically feel over laughing.
Malfoy turned practically purple with rage, then stormed of with Crabbe and Goyle in tow. "Wow." Jack commented. "He seemed irritable. Maybe he should switch to decaf." The other four burst out laughing again.
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Buffy and her team had made it into the cave with no serious problems. In fact, the only time they had even caught a glimpse of the Jaffa, they seemed to be heading in the wrong direction. Once out of hearing range, Faith had said, "Jeez, these are the most inept guards I've ever seen. It's like they're completely ignoring this path, and how could it even be more obvious?"
Buffy had just shrugged. "Henchman just don't hench like they used to, I guess."
The group had made it into the cave, which was much larger than it looked at first glance. "Hello?" Buffy called, shining her flashlight down the cave.
"Who's there?" A voice called back from a fair distance away.
"SG-Slay." Buffy replied. "We're here to pull you out."
In the distance one of the members of the survey team had emerged from behind a bend and was making his way towards the group. "Ms. Summers!" He exclaimed. "We can't leave yet. There's something here you need to see."
Buffy shrugged and followed the scientist with the rest of her team in tow. "We were ambushed by these Jaffa and managed to escape into this cave." The scientist explained.
"They said they were serving a Goa'uld named Kagutsuchi." Vi said. "Ever heard of him."
"Ah, no. I'm a geologist not an archeologist." The scientist replied. "But I can guess that at this time this planet may have been under his rule."
"Why?" Xander asked. As he asked, the cave turned a sharp right and emerged on a hillside overlooking a large valley, in which lay the ruins of what looked like an ancient Japanese city. "Oh." Xander said.
"These ruins are incredible." The scientist said. "But what we found is more incredible even than that. Look at the town square."
Buffy squinted in the fading light. She could make out some kind of glinting black poles. "What is it?"
"It's bones." Xander said, his sight not affected by the darkness. "Shiny black bones, and you know what? They look like dragon bones."
End chap 18
Hope you guys liked the battle scene. I promised I would get a chapter out faster this time and here it is, and I promise the next one will be out soon too and have more action as well. Anyways, thanks for reading and please leave a review, especially all of you guys who are on the alerts list. You know who you are. Thanks again!
