Disclaimer etc on first chapters.

"Match, set, and game!" Max declared as she triumphantly sank the eight ball into the left corner pocket.

A loud and sudden burst of very colorful swearing immediately followed her announcement as the unfortunate loser looked in disbelief at the now empty pool table.

The win had been a given.

As soon as he had agreed to the bet, Max knew she had him in the palm of her hand. Like a cat toying with a helpless mouse, the skilled huntress stalked her prey vigilantly and eyed him with care. Max took an almost sadistic satisfaction in carefully crushing and slowly annihilating every single shred of her current victim's ego. Step by painstaking step she'd planned his demise, and with every strangled cry emitted by the cornered prey, her smile had grown larger.

Moving in for the kill, Max casually extended her hand palm facing up towards him, demanding that he acknowledge his defeat by presenting her with the proper tribute.

"Pay up, man."

Truly terrified and still shaken by the horror of his ordeal, her victim ever so carefully set the money down on the table, afraid to make even the most minimal of physical contact.

Once he thought he was a safe distance away, her genetically enhanced ears picked up him muttering something about black magic and witches under his breath. At the mention of magic, Max felt a sudden urge to chuckle. Men were such sore losers: Especially when they lose to a woman.

'Oh well', Max thought cheerfully, fingering her wad of cash, 'If I give them enough practice at it, maybe they'll learn to become more graceful losers.'

Idly pocketing her not-so-hard earned cash, Max strategically the scanned the room, silently challenging anyone else stupid enough to throw their money away.

Seeing no takers, Max shrugged and confidently strutted back to her mini fan club, also known as her friends. Reaching the table, she was greeted with enthusiastic "Way to go's" and boisterous pats on the back: And of course there was the cheering. Her friends always cheered, regardless of the opponent. No one even tried to keep track of the score anymore. There was really no point.

In all the times she'd played pool: Or any other competitive sport for that matter, she'd never failed to win a game. Nowadays all her friends just naturally presumed she was victorious- and they hadn't been wrong yet.

Weaving her way through her crowd of friends, Max took it all in. Everyone cheered equally, they were all equally loud and equally enthusiastic but they all cheered for different reasons. Herbal 'cause he was just cool that way, Sketchy cause it meant beer was on her, and Original Cindy simply because Max's victim had been a man. As though thoughts alone were enough to summon her, Max saw Original Cindy coming towards her as soon as she reached the table. "Hey, boo, nice game," she smirked, handing Max a beer, beer that Max was paying for of course.

"Thanks," Max nodded. She then proceeded to guzzle down the entire bottle of beer in one long gulp. Really un-lady, but hey, when had she ever been concerned about appearances? Well.except for the fence or two. But that didn't count, that was . a hazard of the job: Ending that train of thought with a mental shrug, Max concentrated on the feel of the beer sliding down her throat. It was a welcome relief to her system and her body responded by letting out a loud burp in appreciation.

Having long since become accustomed to such displays of bodily humor Original Cindy did not so much as blink in response. Instead she waited patiently for Max to return her attention to more important things, like her.

The patience was probably what gave OC away. Eyeing her best friend carefully, Max skeptically raised one delicately plucked eyebrow in question.

"So, what's on your mind?"

"What you mean, Boo? Original Cindy don't got to have no reason to give her gal props."

The next ten minutes were filled with insincere denials by Original Cindy and quiet scrutiny by Max. Finally, unable to take another minute of Max's silent interrogation, OC relented. Rolling her eyes and slumping down her shoulders to show her general annoyance with the subject, OC finally revealed what had been on her mind for the past several days.

"Alright, you wanna know what's been on mah mind lately? You! As in how you been actin' lately. You come home and OC sees all these mad bruises and you tell your boo nothing? What's up with that?"

"Look, I don't wanna talk about it, k? Its not.it's not something I wanna talk about." Now instead of the cold, emotionless stare OC was so used to, Max had a look of genuine vulnerability: Something she didn't display often, if ever. It was a silent plea, willing her to understand and, hopefully, drop this subject as a sign of respect, for both her privacy and their friendship.

Knowing Max as well as she did and recognizing the signs that she would not budge on the subject, no matter how much OC pushed, Cindy relented and let it go.for now. Instead, she chose to move on to her next favorite topic of conversational torture.

"So, when are you and richie boy gonna hook up?"

"We're not like that," Max said, giving her standard reply: Even to her own ears the protest sounded hallow. It seemed she just wasn't up to playing the denial game tonight: Especially after experiencing the huge bout of jealousy no so long ago. Even now the green-eyed monster threatened to rear its ugly head just at the mere thought of Buffy going after Logan.

Almost as if on cue, a petite blonde wearing a silver ring chose at this exact moment to walk over to Max's general direction. Her ultra-human senses allowed her to spot the other girl right away and although her face was turned away, Max just knew in her gut that the girl making her way over was none other than Buffy, the mystery tramp herself.

The rest of her body quickly followed her gut's advice and promptly went into overdrive. Her once relaxed posture shifted visibly and the lingering hint of amusement, left over from her earlier slaughter, quickly faded. Max smiled, trying to her best to preserve her false countenance of casualness but there was no longer anything even remotely casual about her smile. Her posture was tense as she prepared herself both mentally and physically for any possible action. Like a lioness within striking distance of her prey, she was ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

Step by step the blonde slowly made her way over to Max, offering herself for the kill without even realizing it. As the frenzy in Max reached an all- time climactic high, the girl finally turned, allowing Max to clearly see her face.

It wasn't Buffy.

Max could instantly feel her alarm system deflating. It was just a girl, just some random, ordinary blonde who had come within inches of losing her life. Letting out a soft sigh, Max shook her head in disbelief at her own idiocy.

'Max, girlfriend, you need to calm yourself down, otherwise your paranoia's gonna make you jump every blonde in sight.' And that just wasn't right, cause as far as Max was concerned, blondes already had enough to deal with as it is, they shouldn't have to also worry about being attacked by some homicidal brunette, especially not a brunette killing out of jealousy.

Turning her focus back to OC, she couldn't help but notice the grave look of concern on Original Cindy's face as she tried to get back into the partying mood.

My life is yours for the taking

But only if you prove yourself worthy

Max spread out her senses instantly searching for the source of the conversation she had overheard.

'What the hell was that?' Her attention was diverted when she realized Original Cindy was looking at her a little too closely.

'Shit' "Listen OC, I gotta go k? I'll tell you later." By the time she was done with her sentence Max was already half way to the door and a glance back told her OC was not happy with her abrupt departure. Oh well, she'd smooth that out later. Right now there was work to be done. Something was going down, she could feel it.

Girls kick ass, says so on the t-shirt ~Max

AN: I know I know. Short. But I promise! I'll try to update much sooner next time and I know you guys have been waiting a while. Just to reassure I am determined to finish this so this story will never be left hanging I've just had a pretty severe case of writer's block and RL was no pretty trip through la la land. Anyways next chapter will have a lot more action I promise!