The commander of the Initiative's Humvee group, Private First Class Walter Harmel, looked like a German tank commander straight out of a WWII movie, the sort of person who would be at home blitzkrieging Panzers across the French countryside. This only made the young, fair-haired soldier's current attitude all the more amusing. Buffy had to smile at the spectacle of Harmel, who was a good head taller than Riley, all but prostrating himself before the shorter man.

"I am so very sorry that this happened," Harmel said, "but the man simply would not listen to any sort of reason. I suspect he may have been slightly drunk, actually. Nonetheless, I take full responsibility for not supporting your men, and-"

Riley raised a hand. "At ease, soldier." He was trying not to smile either, but at the same time was angry at not getting his backup, especially considering the reason. After they'd come to Sunnydale, the Initiative soldiers had quickly learned of its astronomical death rate, and of the near-total failure of the police to even recognize the problem, let alone deal with it. A joke quickly began making the rounds: 'The S.P.D. To serve and protect- demons." It was only later, after hearing about the Mayor's true nature and the cover-ups among city officials, that they'd discovered how tragically accurate the joke had been. Tonight's incident had only served to reinforce Riley's contempt for the Initiative's civilian counterparts.

According to Harmel, the Humvees had been about to move in after getting Graham's call when an S.P.D. patrol car rolled up and a constable had loudly demanded to know what was going on. Apparently, the concept of 'military jurisdiction' wasn't something he'd been taught in police training. When the stun grenade had gone off in the park, he'd promptly drawn his gun on the whole force and called for backup, reporting 'possible terrorist activity'. At this point Harmel's patience had run out, and his command car had "gently nudged the officer's vehicle out of our way," he assured. "No harm done at all. He wasn't very happy, but no harm done."

Buffy thought this was bizarre. Sunnydale's police tended towards the incompetent, but what Harmel had described was pure looniness. She would definitely have to look into this.

A snarling and shouts distracted them. Although bound by several lengths of high-tech filament that made steel elevator cable look like Silly String, the newly-conscious alien was being quite lively as it was carefully loaded into the back of a specially reinforced truck. Several armed guards stood nearby, looking quite apprehensive. Mason was there too, lying stiffly on the ground and giving the creature the evil eye. At the moment, that was all he could do, thanks to the alien. The creature hadn't been able to tear him apart when it jumped him, but it had jabbed him with its tail, causing Mason to learn the hard way that the tail's venom produced swift-paralysis in the victim. However, the medics said that the effect was probably temporary, and had also verified that Forrest hadn't been injured when the creature tackled him. All-in-all, Riley thought, it could have been much worse.

Riley walked over to Buffy, having convinced Harmel that he wasn't going to be demoted. "So what happens now?" she asked.

"The alien? It'll be sent back to the Initiative to be studied. We still haven't figured out how the last one got loose, though, so we'll have to be extra careful. Not only that, but we had another unexplained power failure today, just like the one which let out Hostile 100. The phone lines just cut out on us for twenty minutes, and we still don't know why. "

"That's not good," she said. "But I meant what happens now that there's more than one of these things? Where did this alien come from? Either the big one is making little ones, or more eggs are landing. I don't know which is worse."

Riley nodded his agreement as Graham came up. "We're about ready to move out here."

"One sec," Riley said, "I want to have a closer look at those tracks Forrest saw before it jumped him. We'll follow them into the tunnel a short way, then catch up to you in a few minutes."

Graham eyed the opening in the bushes distrustfully. "Are you sure it's a good idea to go by yourselves?"

"I just want to see where that blood came from. We won't go too deep. Keep your channel open in case we run into trouble."

Graham nodded and jogged off as the first Humvees started pulling out. Riley turned towards Buffy as they began walking back to the bushes. "You said these tunnels are connected to the sewers?"

Buffy nodded. "They're all over town, and they've got openings in the graveyards as well. The Master used to use them to move his vampires around, and most of them are still intact. If Hostile 100's set up shop there, we're gonna have a tough time finding it."

"And then there's the problem of stopping it," Riley said. "We've thought of several ideas, but they all involve artillery or attack helicopters. Nothing too covert."

They were at the opening. The tracks and blood had been smeared when Forrest fell on them, but as they moved further into the darkness of the tunnel, Riley's flashlight lighting their way, the clues became clear once more. There was also a trail in the dirt, as if something had been dragged through it. A thought occurred to Buffy.

"If Hostile 100 is reproducing somehow, its kids will probably need hosts just like it did. What if the alien had just captured somebody to be the next lucky parent when we showed up? Blood from the victim, tracks from the alien."

"Makes sense," Riley agreed. "If that is the case, we'll have to call back the troops and go in, no matter what. There's no way we can let someone die like… that."

"And remember the demons I told you about that got killed here last night?" She asked. Riley nodded, and Buffy once again thought a prayer of thanks that he hadn't thought to ask where she'd learned about the demons in the park when she'd asked him to round up a team. He'd been too excited at finally having a lead to wonder about the source of the tip. She hadn't quite figured out how to tell Riley that a vampire- one which had escaped from the Initiative to boot- was working with her under her protection. And an alien invasion definitely wasn't the best time for these things. Still, she felt guilty at hiding things. She'd tell him soon, she resolved, when this was over.

"I was thinking, what if one of them was taken alive?" she continued. "That tech guy said these things take on the DNA of their hosts to adapt to their environments. If that thing was a demon/alien hybrid, it would explain why it was bigger and dumber than the one I fought at my home."

"That's probably it," said Riley. "And a lot of subterrestials have faster growth rates than humans. That might explain why it's full grown already if the attack happened last night. Hey, look at the tracks..."

Up ahead, the trail became unclear. The floor of the tunnel was smeared all over, as if there'd been a struggle. Buffy and Riley knelt to examine the ground.

"Looks like whatever it was woke up," Riley said. "It was wounded and knocked out by the Xenomorph when it was captured, but it didn't stay down."

"Alien got it back under control in a hurry though," Buffy said, pointing up ahead, where the tunnel curved and the trail became normal again, with the prey being dragged. There were more blood spots as well, indicating the alien hadn't been very gentle.

"Buffy, look," Riley said as he indicated a spot on the ground where the prey had gotten on its feet briefly before the alien had put it down again. There, disfigured by the struggle but still easily recognizable, was a dog's paw print.

"So it's a dog," she said. "Do we keep going?"

Riley already had his walkie-talkie out, turning towards the entrance for better reception. "Let me check," he said as called the Humvee command car. There was a crackle of static, and Harmel's voice came from the speaker.

"Corporal, is that you? Over."

"Affirmative. Can you patch me through to Professor Walsh from there? Over."

"One moment please. Over."

More crackling, then Walsh's voice: "Agent Finn? Report. Over."

"Look out!" Buffy made a lunge at Riley, her hand shooting past his shoulder to grab something behind him. He twisted out of the way to see her holding a yellow, nightmarish creature by the tail, its many legs kicking. As the small alien wriggled in her hands, she swung it by its tail as hard as she could into the tunnel's wall. Dust exploded from the wall as the creature impacted, but it continued to struggle. Buffy began to draw it back for another swing, but it suddenly flipped itself over, latched onto her arm and started trying to crawl for her face. She shrieked involuntarily as she tried to keep a tight hold on the tail, the creature's legs scrabbling frantically at her arms.

Riley dropped the radio and drew his sidearm, ignoring the shouts coming over the speaker as Walsh demanded to know what was happening. "Buffy, drop it!"

She needed little encouragement, and threw the spiderlike creature to the ground between her and Riley. Before it could regain its feet he fired, putting three bullets through its center. Green liquid spurted with each shot, smoke rising where it landed. The creature's legs twitched spasmodically, then were still.

"Uh, Riley.." Buffy sounded worried.

"Don't worry. It's dead," he said.

"Look!" she pointed at his boot, where a glob of acid was beginning to eat through. Riley's eyes widened with shock, and he hastily kicked off the boot before the acid could start on his foot.

"Riley! What's happening over there?" Walsh was beginning to sound annoyed as well as worried.

"Sorry about that, Professor," Riley said as he picked up the talkie. "We got jumped by another alien, this one in prelarval form. It's dead now. Also, it looks like the hostile we just fought had captured a dog and was bringing it back to wherever it was staying. I'm pretty sure this means Hostile 100's breeding somehow. Buffy thinks the form we captured may have been the result of a subterrestial being impregnated by the alien, and that the dog's heading the same way. Should we call back the Humvees and go in? Over."

There was a pause on the other end as Walsh mulled over her options. "Negative," she said reluctantly. "We don't know what we're facing or where it is, and we have some problems right now. Bring the dead alien back to base, then report for an emergency conference ASAP. Over."

Riley switched off the radio, and picked up his damaged boot. "That's that," he said. "Let's bag the specimen and go, before any more of these things show up."

"You bag it. I've touched that thing enough for one night."

As the Slayer and her boyfriend left the tunnel and split up, Buffy heading for Giles', Riley for the Initiative, less-than-friendly eyes watched them.

Spike scowled as he stubbed out his cigarette. It had been a fun show to watch, no doubt, what with seeing that new creature almost shredding a few soldier-boys. He could certainly see how it could have taken down a few demons. But that didn't make up for the mud on his coat. Once those military goons had shown up in their cars and started crawling all over the place, he'd been forced to hide like a rat in the nearest ditch until they left. Then the Slayer and her lap dog had gone back in the tunnel for some reason, and he'd heard shots. He couldn't figure out what had happened in there, which annoyed him even more. And the Slayer… the new beastie hadn't come close to getting rid of her, which was why Spike had come out here in the first place. Still, he supposed the night hadn't been completely wasted. It always paid to stay on top of things, after all, and-

Spike whirled around and listened. The metallic scraping sound he'd heard didn't repeat itself. It had come from behind him, most likely the street.

Stalking forward until he emerged from the park, he found a manhole cover ajar, steam billowing from the sewer within. He remembered that, like the tunnel in the park where the creature had jumped the Slayer and her pals, this was one of the entrances to the Master's old turf. He looked around, checking whether anything had emerged from the hole.

Seeing and smelling nothing, he chalked it up to one more puzzlement this night and downed the rest of the Thermos he'd brought. The portable hot plate he'd swiped from the dump had done a lovely job of returning the pig's blood to body temperature, and the container had kept it at the right heat throughout the night. Although the flavor was slightly diluted, overall a little warmth made the stand-in for human blood much more palatable. Spike felt his body warming up the way it used to after a kill as the red liquid entered his system. It was a noticeably pleasant change compared to the gunk he got from Giles' fridge, he thought.

Something else noticed the change too.

Spike hadn't taken a look inside the manhole itself. As he lowered the mug and turned to leave, he suddenly felt something strike his back. His instincts took over in a flash, and he dropped the Thermos as he reached for whatever was on him. His hands closed around empty air, and he felt the thing scrambling up his neck, onto his head-

Feeling the beginnings of panic, Spike dove for the ground, somersaulting in an effort to shake whatever it was. It stuck tight to his scalp, however, and the last thing Spike thought before it scurried onto his face was whether the thing was making a mess of his hair.

Then its moist body covered his face, blocking his vision, and Spike realized he was being attacked by the same kind of face-hugging thing that he'd pulled off of Giles. Hair became the least of his worries as he felt a tube forcing open his mouth and sliding down his throat. He tried in vain to pull the creature off his face- it's a lot easier to pull an alien parasite off a face when its not your face in question, and Spike found himself unable to get a decent hold on the thing's slimy surface. Pain began to jab at him as the creature's grip dug into the flesh of his face. He toppled to the ground, feeling his hold on consciousness beginning to fade as the facehugger forced something into him through that awful tube.

The Slayer never said there was more than one, he thought. This is HER fault... Damn her, damn her, damn her...

And then blackness took him.