The Order
Disclaimer : We don't actually own these characters; we're only playing with them! Honestly, we're not making any money from this…as you can probably tell.
A/N : My friend and I are on holiday for teh next few weeks, so sorry if this doesn't get updated for a while!
Chapter 3
"…good morning Andrew." The voice said, sounding kinda bewildered. Faith didn't blame him; if scientists ever found out that Andrew existed, he'd be carted off for experiments. Honestly, how could one person be that much of a freak? She shook her head and perched on the end of one of the cream sofas, next to the super-speeding teen. Faith had to admit that it was also weird for her to be living with seven random guys, and to only know two of their names. Still, she pushed that thought to the back of her mind and focused on what the disembodied voice had to say.
"Faith, I hope you're settling in alright." The brunette slayer nodded, trying not to question why this guy had to use an intercom; couldn't he just come and speak to them in person? Maybe he was some sort of demon, or a ghost, or maybe just a random voice. At that moment, she was going for the latter option. "I'm sure you'll find the mansion to your liking, and if you have any questions, I'm sure…Andrew will be willing to help." Faith was sure that she could detect a whole heap of sarcasm in his last second. A smile formed on her face, so she quickly moved her hand in front of it, so she didn't hurt Andrew's feelings.
The voice continued, "Anyway, I've got an assignment for you." Wow, Faith thought, this really was like being back at Sunny Dale High, homework and everything. " It's been reported that there's a new vamp nest on the other side of town. I want you to train for a while, then put your skills into practice by going over there and killing the vampires," the disembodied voice paused for a second, then carried on. "The nest is in the south of San Francisco, and it's an old abandoned leather factory. There shouldn't be too many vampires, so you should be fine, but don't get cocky and underestimate them. Vampires are strong, remember that." There was a brief silence, then "Good Afternoon Andrew."
"Bye Charlie," Andrew mumbled, sounding insignificant.
The group all sat there for a while, until the strange, alcoholic pirate came in with "Well, you heard what Almighty said, we need to do some training," he stopped to take a swig from a bottle. Where did all the drink come from?
Faith waited, with her arms across her chest, for some to do something. Training usually involved a whole lot of moving around but as far as she could see everyone was quite happy lounging around on the furniture. "Come on, it's time we showed her the practice room." The man who stood up flicked his long hair over his shoulder and grinned at her. Faith wasn't quite sure what it was about him that she didn't like – maybe it was the fact that he looked like a complete pansy, or maybe it was because he kept coming up with really strange comments – but he gave her the creeps.
"Guess Dorian's right, let's go." The teen beside her sighed and moved to walk down one of the corridors. Gradually, everyone began to follow him, some of them groaning and protesting quietly. Faith was the last to walk out, a curious look on her face. The cowboy with the whip was walking in front of her, and she couldn't help but wonder about it; everyone here was so strange.
The Super-Kid led them through the kitchen, down a corridor, and through some double-doors into a huge room. Wow. Faith had never seen so much equipment. There were punch bags, exercise machines of every kind, targets, and among other things, a massive cabinet full of weapons, from crossbows to machine guns. The cowboy caught her staring at the cupboard. "Feel free to use any of them," he commented.
The group split up, everyone going in different directions. Faith moved towards the nearest punch bag, and began taking out a lot of frustration on it. She was glad that they had this training room, she hated going into battles cold, and lets face it, if she didn't have this punch bag, someone else, possibly Andrew, would get the full wrath of her annoyance.
Faith stopped abruptly, suddenly realising how long she'd been pummelling the hell out this. She took a step back and caught her breath, and heard a voice behind her. "Mind practicing sword with me love? Haven't trained in a while." Faith spun around to see the pirate standing in front of her.
"Sure." The pirate tossed a sword to her, and stepped back in to a stance. She pounced forward, attempting to strike him, but the pirate blocking and spinning round. "So, who are you anyway?" Faith enquired.
His sword came into contact with hers. "I," he paused for effect. "…am Captain Jack Sparrow. Don't forget the Captain." Faith grinned and nodded, telling him her own name – he already knew it – before getting her head back into training. This was just what she needed; the week without a single fight, apart from that one last night, had left her restless. She could hardly wait to get to that vamp nest and get a good dusting.
After some hard training with Jack – despite all the drink he managed to get down, he was surprisingly fast on his feet – Faith moved over towards the weapons cabinet. There was a huge selection, probably even more than B had collected in her long years as a slayer. This was definitely something that gave the brunette a lift; she loved weapons. Give her anything with a sharp point and she'd be happy. She could hardly wait to try some of this stuff out. Her dark eyes glanced over to the tall teen next to her, who was also studying the arsenal in front of them.
"Hey…" The guy jumped a little, allowing Faith to chuckle slightly; it was weird to think that this kid was actually jumpy, considering the fact that there probably wasn't very much he had to be afraid of, what with his super-speedy blurring powers. Still, she was a slayer who had been in prison for murdering a guy, so maybe it was right to be a little bit on edge around her.
"Hi. I'm Clark – you're Faith, right?" He offered her a hand, and a wide smile that seemed to come naturally to him. She felt her own mouth curl into an automatic smile in return, but she didn't take the offered hand; handshake seemed a little too official for her liking. A quick nod of the head would do just fine.
The quick lapse of silence unsettled Faith, as most silences did these days; they felt far too empty, and he had enough emptiness inside her as it was. Best to fill it up with something, anything… "So, you can move super-fast, huh?" Ok, probably not the most intelligent conversation starter she'd ever had, but it was better than standing there stewing. So what if it wasn't world politics and a cure to cancer?
"Uh…yeah. That and I'm pretty strong and can see through stuff. Not really that much compared to what some of these guys can do." Modest Faith thought; from what he'd said, he sounded to her like some kind of uber-slayer. This made her slightly uneasy; if he thought his powers were little compared to the others, what did the others' in this room possess? She wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to find out. "So, what about you?"
Simple as this question was, it was actually hard for Faith to answer; how to you explain what a Slayer was? And, she was guessing that Clark wouldn't already know. "Well…I'm a Slayer. Which means I'm generally good at kicking ass. Oh, and I can read minds."
Clark's face looked vaguely puzzled, and his eyebrows shot up. Faith felt a mischievous smile grow on her face, though he didn't look nearly as surprised as she'd hoped; most people would freak if they knew she could read their thoughts. "Really?"
"Nah, just thought I'd try and freak you out." She replied, before bringing her attention back to the weapons at hand. Her hand instinctively went for one of the crossbows – a real beauty, all silver and engraved and…generally fancy looking – because she figured it was best to go with what she knew best. When she looked back up, Clark had disappeared, probably off to train with someone a little more exciting that she was.
The slayer turned, crossbow still in her hands, to survey the room. Most people in there seemed busy; Andrew was even having a go at fighting with Logan, though by the looks of things, Logan was just allowing the kid to make an attempt at punching him. A soft smile crept to Faith's dark red lips. This place seemed really nice, and the people here were friendly enough, with the exception of the claw-wielding maniac. Still, she couldn't help but wonder if she was really cut out for this kind of thing; she worked better solo. When she played with others, people tended to get hurt. Take any example you want; her first Watcher, Buffy, Angel, even all those mini-potentials had ended up almost killed because of one of her many bad decisions. Maybe all these guys would be better off without her. After all, if Clark was anything to go by, they had more than enough brute strength as it was.
These thoughts were smothered and pushed to the back of her mind, as she raised the crossbow and aimed for a target on the far wall. It was easy enough, and she knew she could hit the centre without even trying. Crossbows were one thing that she good with; she'd had more than enough experience with this. This was one of the reasons why she was very shocked when her arrow was knocked straight off its course by some white sticky thing, and attached itself to the nearest wall. Once eyebrow raised when she glanced over to the geek – hadn't he been wearing glasses the night before? – and she pouted slightly. Definitely more than met the eye, she though as she considered him. "Hey, that was a perfect shot!" She complained, sounding more upset than she really was. She lowered the crossbow and made her way towards the fallen bolt, pausing to consider the – web? – that stuck it to the wall. "What the hell is this stuff?"
"Web." The geek answered, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. Faith chuckled and shook her head as she yanked the arrow from the wall. "I'm Peter." Some old memory surfaced at the back of Faith's mind – webbing?
"Hey, you must be that Spiderman-guy, right?" She asked, with a smile. Some newspaper she'd seen on Giles' desk once had had a front cover about some guy in spandex that seemed to think he was a super-hero. The Watcher had got very excited about it for some reason, and had been all for sending someone over to find him.
"That'd be me." He sounded uncomfortable for some reason. Faith guessed that it must be just because he wasn't used to people knowing his 'secret identity'. The thought gained her a silent giggle. Honestly, who really wanted to dress up and fight crime, only to have to press hate you? Peter'd be better off doing the whole Slayer-secrecy thing, instead of flaunting his powers. The guy pointed to the crossbow that was still held loosely in her hands. "You're good with that."
"Y'know what they say, practice makes perfect. I've had way too much practice." Faith knew that her voice sounded more than a little smug, but she didn't really care. It was true – she was a Slayer, and as such she was good with weapons. Why hide your assets? She never had, and wouldn't stop now. Her eyes flicked back up to the man in front of her, "You want a go?" She asked, holding the crossbow out towards Peter.
He drew back a little, to Faith's disappointment. Surely someone who spent their free time swinging around sky-scrapers wouldn't be scared of using a simple crossbow? He mumbled something about not doing weapons, preferring to rely on himself instead, but Faith just shook her head. "Well, you should at least try it. You never know when one of these could come in handy."
"Alright, but I won't be any good." Faith rolled her eyes as she led him over to the far wall from the target. Could this guy have any less faith in himself? If he was able to shoot his web-whatever accurately enough to drop a speeding arrow, he'd he good at this.
"Sure you will, you're learning from the best." Another of her proud personality traits shining through, but Faith didn't bother to dwell on it. Instead, she shoved the crossbow into Peter's hands, positioned his fingers properly and gave him simple instructions on how to use it – pulled a trigger wasn't that difficult, was it?
The weapon jolted sin his hands as he shot, and as a result the bolt was slightly off target; it was up about three rings from the centre. Still, Faith thought as she clapped for him and gave him a few vague words of praise, it was much better than her first attempt with a crossbow; she'd hardly even been near the board. She guessed that all of his web-flinging past-times had given him good aim. "Great! More practice and you'll be shooting like me in no time." She said, knowing it sounded arrogant to presume she was such an expert at it, but also knowing that she really was. After all, she hadn't been a slayer for over five years by just hiding away in prison that whole time.
By the time the whole training session was over, Faith and helped and been helped by pretty much everyone there. She'd learnt names – the cowboy guy with the kinky whip was actually an archaeologist called Indiana Jones – she'd learnt powers – Dorian was an immortal who couldn't be wounded without it healed up in a few moments – and learnt that Andrew annoyed pretty much everyone in the Order. The Order being her, Andrew, Peter, Clark, Dorian, Logan, Jack and Indiana. Logan had, in one of his more talkative moments – told her how Andrew had wanted to call the 'Justice League : The Next Generation.' But, fortunately, he was quickly over-ruled, so they'd named themselves 'The Order'…the Order of what, Faith wasn't quite sure.
All too soon, training was over and they were getting ready to go on her first assignment. Vamp nest; sounded fairly routine, but it would be good to get her slaying muscles back into action. As they were piling into the bus, Faith could tell a few of them were extremely nervous. Whenever Andrew spoke, his voice came out high and squeaky, but what could you really expect from him? Besides Andrew, Jack was quieter than normal, Dorian kept idling with his hair and Indiana had an apprehensive look on his face.
"We're here." Logan called back from the front, and Faith watched as the blood drained from Andrew's face. Clark threw the door open, and one by one they clamoured out, each checking their weapons. Faith had found herself fairly attached to the silver crossbow, but had opted for a stake instead; so much more practical. Besides, she'd only break the crossbow, so it was safer leaving it behind.
"Alright," Dorian's voice was as still as a rock, but Faith figured that he didn't exactly have much to be afraid of. After all, if a vampire tried to take a bite out of him, it'd just heal over. Then again, the others didn't have anything to be scared of either, if their descriptions of their abilities were anything to go by. "Let's go and show those vampires who's boss." She chuckled slightly; this guy had a never-ending supply of clichéd lines.
With that, Logan led them around to the front of the building, Jack motioning vividly behind him for everyone to remain silent. Man, this building was run-down. Its windows were boarded up, the bricks were chipped, and the paint was flaking. How could anyone stand to spend more than a minute here, even vamps? Weren't the undead supposed to have a heightened sense of smell?
However, Jack's plan to go in discreetly went out of the window when Logan kicked open the doors deafeningly and stormed inside, his loud footsteps echoing off the walls of the derelict warehouse. The group followed him cautiously, except Jack, who stood still in disbelief for a moment before muttering "Bloody idiot," under his breath and sauntering inside.
Faith followed, her tense hands holding the sharpened stake. She had an uneasy feeling, like someone or something was watching her every move, waiting to jump out at her, and in her experience, that was a bad feeling. Still, considering the fact that they'd just invaded, none-too-quietly, a vamp nest, that cautious feeling was to be expected. The building was deadly quiet, and since the electricity had long since been shut off, it was threateningly dark inside. Plenty of places for vamps to hide. Suddenly, she heard a girlie, high-pitched scream up ahead, and was aware of Andrew running to hide behind Clark.
This seemed to break the fragile stillness, as all around her Faith watched vampire, who had been previously lurking in the shadows, reveal themselves, smiling and baring their teeth. While the others seemed to take a moment of two to whirl themselves into action, she made a move towards the nearest, spinning in a perfected roundhouse, forcing him back against the wall in surprise. He still had a bewildered expression on his face as she dusted him – obviously not expecting a Slayer to be in the mist of the 'helpless humans' ho had wandered into the lair.
It's so good to be back in action She thought, while she vigorously threw punches, kicks and complicated combos. There were so many that it was hard to keep a track of what she was doing, even harder to sense what the others were up to. But, as of yet, she hadn't heard and shouts for help, so she was taking this as a good thing. The slayer looked up and away from the fight as one of her attackers disintegrated into dust, only to see Andrew huddled in a corner and yelling to various people. "Watch out Jack!" and "He's behind you Logan!" She felt a sudden thread of anger run through her veins as she wondered why on earth Andrew had even bothered coming with them, if all he was going to was hide like a chicken. Why was he even in the Order? Andrew was practically no use at all.
Faith was stirred from her thoughts when she heard him yell, "Faith, turn around!" She reacted just quick enough to slam her elbow into the face on a bald, tough-looking vamp. His fangs had been bared, and disturbingly close to her neck. She let rip with a series of kicks and punches that Bruce Lee couldn't have even compared to, before slamming the sharp side of her stake into his body. Ok, maybe there was a good side to having Andrew around. God, how many of these guys were there? There weren't normally this many in one nest, she wondered as she raced forwards to stake a few of the vampires that Peter had handily stuck to the walls for her.
About an hour and a half later, the group were back at the house, sitting on the sofas. Andrew's voice was still babbling on relentlessly about the fight. "…and that was so cool when you stuck them all to the walls, and the Faith came along like wa-pah and dusted them, and then when Logan beheaded, like, four vampires with his claws, that was awesome, and then when Dorian was all 'swish swish' with his sword, and I was like 'Look behind you!' and – " The most annoying voice in the world was cut off when Jack smothered his mouth was a grubby, tanned hand.
"Thank you so much," Logan said gratefully, causing a hidden smile to form on Faith's mouth. Good to know that there was someone else who just couldn't handle all that jabbering.
"My pleasure. I had to, before I became even more annoyed and did something I would later regret," Jack replied, before glancing towards the staircase with a large yawn. "Well, I don't know about you gentlemen but…" He trailed off and turned to Faith. "My apologies, lady and gentlemen…but I'm going to bed. That fight has really tired me out." A few of the others rose too, nodding their heads in agreement. Faith stifled her own yawn; she was tired as well, and her body would be aching with the strain of worn-out muscles the next morning. But, she didn't feel like retiring for the night just yet. There was still too much adrenaline thumping through her thin body.
"Yeah, I'm pretty exhausted myself." Peter added, as five of their members began to wearily made their way upstairs. Faith's dark gaze swept around the room. The only people left were her, Logan and Andrew. Logan barely spoke, and Andrew spoke far too much. What a great conversation this was going to be. Andrew started up again, with what Faith feared was going to be another gushing discussion on how 'awesome' the fight had been, but in truth, he was just saying goodnight. He wandered up the stairs, leaving the room in complete silence.
Alright Faith said to herself as she realised that any conversation starter's were going to be hers. She honestly just couldn't stand awkward silences – gave her too much time to think, and she had had enough 'thinking time' during her brief stint in jail. She opened her mouth, but couldn't think of anything to say so she shut it again, vaguely aware that she must resemble an over-grown goldfish. Stealing a glance at Logan, she saw that he was just sitting perfectly still, obviously not even trying to make an effort; he probably didn't even want to talk with her. Well, he was going to speak whether he wanted to or not.
"That was some fight," Faith suggested, hating the fact that she sounded a little like Andrew. And, on top of that, the only response she had ripped from Logan was a brief grunt. And then more silence. Her forehead creased in annoyance, what would it take to get a reaction out of this guy? "Nice hair…" She suggested, playful grin on her face and voice dripping with sarcasm.
He answered without a beat, barely even looking up. "Thanks. Nice trousers." Faith glanced down at the red leather that still clung to her legs; she liked them. Liked the looks she got from guys when she wore them. Still, at least she had him talking.
She was interrupted when Andrew came back downstairs, dressed in very fetching Wonder Woman pyjamas, sporting an empty mug. Faith looked at him questioningly – more wondering about the pyjama's that anything else – so he responded by saying. "My mom told me that a hot drink helps you sleep at night. What? No one ever tell you that? I find that Cocoa is the best; you two should try it."
As Andrew continued on his way to the kitchen, Faith stared at Logan, watching the suppressed smile grow on his face. "He's had a sheltered childhood. It can't be good for him." She paused, both to consider her words and to watch the hidden smile progress on Logan's face. Well, at least that was a reaction. Obviously, this was a good topic. Which meant, carry on rambling. "Still, guess that's better than a completely unsheltered one, with an alcoholic Mom and a Dad who ran off at the first sign of trouble…" Inside, Faith squirmed; had she really just said that aloud? Way to say something awkward. Quickly, her brain told her, say something else! Blunder on past this! "Uh…what were your parents like?"
Okay, she could have said anything else; even asking what his favourite colour was would have been better than that. She barely knew the guy, and already she was asking about his parents? Jesus, her foot really did just live in her mouth. She let out a sigh; wasn't as though she could just take it back, was it? Now she would just have to wait for his reply.
Logan's blunt voice broke through her despairing thoughts, "I don't remember." He lifted himself from the sofa opposite her and stormed off up the spiralling staircase. He didn't remember? What kind of an answer was that? How could anyone not even remember their parents? Sure, most of the time she didn't even want to recall her poor excuse for a Mom, but she still did. She shook her head and slumped down on the pristine couch with a groan as his footsteps slowly faded away.
"Man, what did you say to him?" Andrew asked as he emerged from the kitchen, his bare feet padding on the hard floors. He quickly realised from the murderous look on Faith's face that he really didn't want to make her any more mad, and he scurried away from the room. Oh god, Faith judged, I really need to get some sleep. Knowing her luck, there would be another fifty or so demons to kill tomorrow, or, even better, an apocalypse.
