Chapter 2.
MARCH 9, 1997
The six hundred-year-old vampire gripped his blonde child's throat with his gnarled right hand.
"I'm your little lap dog. You bring me scraps!"
"Forgive me, Master!" exclaimed Darla: "We had another offering. But, she was stolen from us by a girl!"
"And, there was a girl!" added Luke (the Master's burly Enforcer): "She was very strong, and she knew of our kind. It's quite possible that she was. . ."
"A Slayer?" guessed the Master: "It's been a long time since I crossed paths with one of them. How certain are you that she was a Slayer?"
"I know only that she fought me and, yet, lives!"
"Very nearly proof, in itself," mused his sire: "I can't recall the last time that happened."
"Madrid; 1847," Luke (reluctantly) admitted: "I was. . .caught sleeping."
"Newsflash!" exclaimed a new (and decidedly female) voice: "History's about to repeat itself!"
A shower of silver-coated shurikens suddenly entered the ruins of the deconsecrated church. Three of them lodging themselves in Luke's chest. And one hitting Darla- -quite literally- -between the eyes!. But, the rest merely wound up embedding themselves in the stony back wall of the ruins. As the Master had ducked beneath their flight path with a speed and agility that contradicted his gaunt and withered appearance.
"Who dares. . .?" he began to hiss in anger.
"The name is Helsing," replied the ninja-like Newcomer: "Vanessa Helsing! ' Van,' for short. But, only to my friends."
* * * * *
THE PENTAGON
(ONE WEEK EARLIER)
"The project was code-named 'D.A.R.T. Directed Alien Response Team.' Several Newcomers were smuggled out of Quarantine and taken to a certain desert facility in Utah that you might be. . .vaguely . . .familiar with."
Lennox grimly smirked.
"As these particular aliens were bigger, stronger, and faster than us," continued Jeffries: ". . .due to their off-world genetic engineering, it was thought they might make ideal assassins for Uncle Sam."
" 'Ideal,' as in unstoppable and expendable?" Lennox semi-rhetorically asked.
Jeffires nodded: "But, most of them had to be sent back to Quarantine. Too much inherent morality. Even under the influence of that mind-controlling gas they call 'jabrokah!' Among the suitable exceptions, however, was a Newcomer female called 'Alison Wonderland' (code-name: Dart One). And the reason she and those others proved to have the right stuff. . .is because they had already been brainwashed by their own people! As part of a pre-Descent resistance group called the Udara."
"Well, fancy that!" replied Lennox (with some mild sarcasm): "So, where do I fit in?"
"You and a small squad of Force Recon marines- -officially on loan to Delta Force- -will be backing her up on the Sunnydale job. Make no mistake, Lennox. If you accept this mission, you'll be facing creatures that make Titch's Folly look like Mary Poppins, by comparison!"
Lennox arched his eyebrows: "Well, with a sales pitch like that, how can I possibly say 'no?' "
* * * * *
SUNNYDALE, CALIFORNIA
(ONE WEEK LATER)
The quartet had been issued Steyr AUG's with infra-red scopes and built-on silencers. Moreover, each of their ammunition clips were a mixture of teflon-coated armor piercers (In case the vamps tried to augment their inherent immunity with bullet-proof vests) and bullet-shaped plexiglas capsules (containing micro-particles of ultra-violet irradiated selenium in a copper sulfate solution). Consequently, they had already disintegrated one vamp with a short, three-round burst, during the initial intervention on behalf of the redhead named Willow Rosenberg.
But, now, they were in the very lair of the head vamp, who had evidently "sounded" the psychic alarm. As his minions just kept on coming and coming. Fanatically sacrificing their own un-lives in an attempt to come to his aid!
"That dust pile's getting mighty high, sir!" First Sergeant Finn exclaimed: "And our ammo's getting proportionately low."
"Then, start using your flash/bang's," ordered Lennox: "We have to hold them back until Dart One has done her job."
Finn and the other recondos did as ordered. And, for about the first ten seconds, the aptly-named stun grenades appeared to have had the desired effect. But, then, Finn pointed toward the ceiling.
"Bogies; twelve o'clock! They're trying to pull a Spidey on us."
"Fire at will!" replied Lennox.
Meanwhile, Dart One (a.k.a. "Vaness Helsing") had already won half her battle. Or, more accurately, a third of it. One sweep of the silver battleaxe, in her right hand, had decapitated the blonde called Darla without any trouble, at all! The badly wounded Luke, however, had proven slightly more trouble. Grabbing her right wrist with his left hand, to halt the downward swing. While the under-handed blow she had tried to deliver with the silver battleaxe, in her left hand, was similarly intercepted by Luke's right.
"What. . .are you going to do. . . now,. . .little girl?" the Enforcer gloatingly challenged.
"This!"
Whereupon, Vanessa sprang upward, using her own axe handles to do a handstand! But, only for the first two seconds. She then allowed herself to fall, her legs opening upward in a V-shape. Though, only for a moment. Because, the next moment, she had brought them back together. Basically trapping Luke's neck in a flesh-and-blood vice! !
Vanessa then twisted to her left. Dragging the startled Enforcer to the floor, as a result. Which, in turn, landed him flat on his back, and broke his neck, at the same time. He would have regenerated, almost immediately, of course! But, only if she had let him. . ,which, of course, she did not.
One right-handed axe blow later, Luke was dust. Then, she turned to the Master.
"Now, it's _your_ turn."
tbc