Imhotep's Key Chapter 21
By Joseph Black
Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone else belongs to me. I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.
Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.
Authors note 1: I am adjusting the Buffy time line slightly, this fic starts just after "Never Leave Me", moving things back about a month.
Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting. So anytime you see this ' anything inside is in a foreign language. And if you see this it's some ones thoughts.
Authors note 3: This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale'. It would be helpful to read that fic first.
Authors Note 4: I want to apologize for how long it took to post this. It was a lot harder than I originally thought to do the battle scenes, and it took for ever to get right.
Thanks to all that reviewed.
Notes to reviewers:
Jedi-Princess: Sorry for worrying you, this chapter was a lot harder to write than I thought possible. I'm also sorry for not emailing you when you put in your review, but I wasn't sure what your hubbies email address was. Hope your surgery went well.
OR Waldron: Thanks for the review. I hope this doesn't disappoint.
Union-Jack 2.0: Thanks for the pics. That was a very pretty area. While I have the most respect for Buff's abilities, I don't think she is quite up to Dr. Who's Master yet. Buford and Buffy aren't related, his ancestors were expatriated Confederates from the American Civil War who relocated to England when the South lost. I don't currently have any plans for Benderanko, but I do have some for Sergi Golovko, and 'Bronco' Winters. With Glory and the A-10, while I agree with what you wrote, if you are going to use modern weapons against her you better get her the first time, the big difference between wrecking ball and cannon round is the amount of area the energy is being applied to. While the wrecking ball would generate a lot more energy on impact, (man those things are heavier than I thought) it's spread over the whole body. The cannon round is concentrated in a single area. Thanks for the information on team load outs and rifles. And come on, traditionally in military operations, the 'Red Team' are the bad guys. Billingsly wanted to make sure there was no doubt.
Antonio: Glad to hear you are doing okay. You made some good points, especially the one about a character being only as great as her enemies. However, throwing a nuke would not be an easy decision. Not only because of the effects in the immediate area of detonation, which are horrendous. The after effects there would also be hideous. But LA was within 40 or 50 miles and San Francisco and Silicon Valley are just up the coast. Depending on the size of the warhead, you could destroy a good chunk of the computers in Southern and Central California.
Joe: Thanks for the review. Don't worry, it fell well within constructive criticism. After I read your review I went back and reread ROS and IK. ROS was a more liner storyline its true. With IK I had to branch a little more, both to cover plot holes, like the London Explosion, and because I was foreshadowing future events. One thing that drives me up the wall is when authors pull stuff out of no where so I'm trying to avoid doing that. I want people to be able to go back and trace events back to their inception. I happen to agree with you that Willow would probably been able to work her way through that situation on her own, but I have other reasons for Tara to be there.
APS: Thanks for the review, I hope you continue to enjoy the story.
Harry2: Next story, promise.
sirc: Sorry for the delay on this one. The final battle was so much harder than I thought to write. I knew what I wanted it to look like, but getting it down and coherent was tough. Thanks for your loyalty, and I hope it was worth the wait.
Paladin Steelbreaker: You brought up some interesting points in your review. Have to give it some thought.
John: Hope this doesn't disappoint.
Allen Pitt: I think you nailed it with your comment on budget limitations. I was sorry that we didn't get to see Marc Blucas in the last season. It was kind of a downer with just the generic colonel showing up. You are right about Glory being worn down, but then again, when was the last time you saw one A-10?
WBH21C: Thanks!
war90: Thanks for the review. Kennedy is presenting me with a problem, while she is an annoyance, there's too much growth potential to ignore her.
Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.
FIC Starts Here
Clark watched as the various groups scattered to get equipped. He noticed Buffy standing by the map table with a troubled look on her face. "Do you see a problem?" He asked.
Buffy started, "With the plan? Not really. It's just, I'm not used to someone else coming up with one."
Clark considered, "When all is said and done, this is a hostage rescue. Rainbow has a lot of experience with that. I didn't mean to step on your toes."
Buffy smiled, "You really didn't. Plus there's going to be a lot of guys with guns down there. The only time I've gone up against anything like that was the Initiative, and the plan was give up when they are pointed at you."
Clark nodded in understanding, "We need to get you and the Scoobies in for some training on firearms, it will be hard once the potentials start rolling in. Especially if you want to pretend you don't have a lot to do with us."
Buffy nodded, a frown on her face.
Clark left her at the table and started checking out the new people and what they were planning on using. Rainbow had some extra equipment, but not enough for everyone. O'Connell was strapping on a second chance vest as Clark approached. "How are you guys set up for weapons?" Clark asked the police lieutenant.
O'Connell nodded at the door as Mendi, Pete Hill and Bob Lee came through carrying a bunch of plastic gun cases and a canvas roll. "We're, for the most part, Sunnydale's SWAT team. Standard load out is one guy with a shotgun, Two with MP-5s and one with a M-700, plus," he said as he took the canvas bundle from Mendi, "my stuff."
He untied the string that held the bundle closed and then opened it up on a nearby table. Clark was impressed. Inside there where four hand guns, two Colt Python revolvers and two Desert Eagle automatic pistols. Both handguns used the same .357 magnum ammunition. Inside the bundle was also a short double barrel 12 gauge shotgun and another pump action one. Finally, there was an old Thompson submachine gun, complete with two of the drum ammo clips.
"Does the Thompson work?" he asked at seeing the antique.
O'Connell nodded as he put his arms through the harness that supported the shoulder holsters that housed one of the Colts under each armpit. "I've even used it a time or two. .45 ACP's stopping power is useful against a lot of the stuff that .38 or 9mm doesn't phase."
Clark looked dubiously as O'Connell finished tightening the straps for the harness and began inserting guns, the two Pythons went into shoulder holsters, the double barrel shotgun went over his shoulder, then the two Desert Eagles went into hip holsters. O'Connell noticed the stare and smiled, "I know it's a lot, but I grew up hearing about what it takes to stop what we are going up against tonight."
Clark looked over the equipment that was being checked out, "Do you have any suppressed stuff? If not I can loan you some."
Pete Hill shook his head, "Thanks, but we have two of these." So saying he popped a case open and pulled out an Ingram M-11 with a suppressor already attached. "We got them off of a drug pusher a couple of years ago. They aren't the best, but they are .45 ACP and the suppressors work real well, at full auto the loudest thing you hear is the bolt working.
"They aren't the most reliable guns on the market," Clark countered.
"These have only had about five hundred rounds through them and we take them apart and lube them regularly, they'll be fine." Pete countered.
Shrugging Clark turned to go and check on Lady Croft and the Rovers. Lady Croft was getting into her 'working clothes', they consisted of a gray t-shirt, black leather pants, a backpack and twin pistol holsters on her hips. Judging by what he could see they were H&Ks. The belt the holsters hung off of was a thick impressive thing with a large belt buckle with a gold skull in the center. She was slipping shells into the magazine of a Spaz-12 shotgun. She glanced over at the Rainbow Commander and said, "Almost ready to go."
"Need anything?" He asked, noticing that besides about 15 spare rounds for the shotgun she seemed not to have any extra ammo.
"Nope," she replied smiling, "I'm good, and I think Bob's people are fine."
"You seem a little light on ammo," he commented.
Lara reached behind her and tripped a switch on the backpack. Two rails shot out of the bottom of the backpack, clips for her pistols lined the rails, the bottom most ones in perfect position for her to slam the pistols for a quick reload.
"You must loose a lot of clips that way," was Clark's only comment.
He then scanned Ranger Broadman and his men. Bob had a Remington 870 shotgun, three of his other men also carried them; the last was armed with another antique, a Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR. Is that standard Forestry Service Issue?" He asked when he saw it.
Jim Desouza, the possessor of the guns just shook his head, "I have a class D license. I never thought I'd actually get to use this thing for real, but I figure we can use the extra firepower."
Clark couldn't argue with that so he didn't.
A quick check on Ahmed's men showed that they were using Egyptian Army surplus. Mostly AK-47's, with a sprinkling of AK-74's, they all carried swords too. Watching them get ready it didn't take Clark long to conclude that they were a professional and experience fighting force.
About ten minutes later Graham Miller and Ed Trusken, walked in the door from checking out the area around the suspect's house.
Clark gathered everyone around the map table again as Miller pointed out where he had spotted security cameras. "The perimeter of the compound is completely surrounded by trees. The hill itself is invisible from the road, so we won't have to be worried about being spotted until we are right on top of the opening."
Ding pointed at the map, "It looks like this area isn't covered by cameras, we can sneak in there."
Riley and Ahmed shook their heads at the same time. Ding cocked an eyebrow at the other two in a 'What?' kind of way.
Ahmed answered, "That is what is called a 'Road of Jewels'. It's left there as a lure, you can be sure that the area is warded. If we were lucky it would just sound an alarm if it were tripped. But knowing Anck-Su-Namun it would be most unpleasant to take that way."
"Okay, then we need to knock out one of the cameras so we can get in there," Clark said.
"Not necessarily," O'Connell replied. "I know someone who is real good with locks and wards. I hate owing him a favor, but we don't have much of a choice at this point."
978 Redwood Drive
Sunnydale CA
30Oct2002
1340hrs
Peter Langford was not overly happy to be called into Sunnydale on short notice. However, his boss had decided that helping O'Connell from stopping the world from ending was a worthwhile use of his time. So, he waited across the street from the property where it was all going down. He was peeking around the corner of a nearby house with O'Connell, Ding and the Slayer behind him. Doing magic in front of not only the Slayer, but also a government representative was not something he wanted to be doing, but sucking up to someone besides Andre' de Vries was something he wanted to do even less.
Langford pulled a slim stick out of an inside coat pocket and started to mutter.
"You actually have a wand?" Ding asked in a surprised tone.
His concentration broken, Langford turned and glared at Ding. "There are several different types of magic Major Chavez. For this I use a wand. Now this is very delicate work, so please hold your questions until later."
Chastised Ding dropped back. Langford continued to mutter to himself for a couple of minutes all the while staring at the empty space where the hole in the camera coverage was. Nodding to himself he raised his wand again and said a brief sentence in what sounded like Latin. Lowering the wand he turned back to the others and said, "Okay, the warded area is about twenty feet thick. I've created a corridor in the them," He reached into a pocket and brought out four marbles, "Give one of these to the people that are walking at each corner of your formation. As long as everyone stays inside of those people you're covered. These will get warmer as you get close to edge of the safe area. If they get too hot to hold, one more step and the holder will cross the border. Once they start heating if they go ice cold it means you've tripped the ward. The only thing you can do then is run. Which way is your choice."
O'Connell nodded that he understood, "Thanks for your help Pete."
Langford snorted as he walked back around the house, "Don't thank me yet, you haven't seen my bill. If you live through this, I'll get it to you early next week." Walking past Buffy he said, "It was a pleasure seeing you again Ms. Summers." He completely ignored Ding as he walked off.
Once he left Ding asked O'Connell, "Are you sure we can trust him?"
"No," Buffy replied for O'Connell, "But we don't have any choice. Plus, I doubt he wants the world to end, so at least we have self-interest going for us."
Ding motioned for the rest of the teams to move up. He passed out the marbles to the four guys that would be on the outside corners of the formation and explained how they worked. Paddy Connolly didn't look happy with his, but Kenshin didn't bat an eye. Neither did the two Medji that Ding passed the stones too.
At Dings signal everyone darted across the street. Anyone glancing out of their front windows would have been in for a shock, as a small army crossed the street into the tree line. But, for once Sunnydale's residents lack of curiosity over what went on in their town worked to the good guys advantage.
It took fifteen seconds for the company to cover the distance from the street to the cave mouth. As they reached it Kenshin dropped his marble and drew his katana. The mummies in the entrance were already reacting, but it made no difference. Kenshin took one across the throat and in the same motion bisected the other mummy through the abdomen, both collapsed into piles of sand.
Kenshin led the way into the entranceway; they hit the split almost immediately and the company seperated into platoons. Riley and the Rovers went left, Ahmed and the Medji went right and Kenshin led the way up the middle. Kenshin had gone perhaps ten feet when a red turbaned figure walked around the corner. He stopped in mid stride staring in horror down the corridor filled with unfriendly people; he didn't stare long because Ding shot him with his MP-10S. The three round burst hit him in the center of the chest and knocked him back against the wall of the tunnel.
Someone must have been looking that way, because before the man hit the ground there was a cry of alarm from out of sight.
Riley and Lara Croft were in the lead of their column. Lara had her Spaz-12 out; Riley had an USAS-12 assault shotgun. The corridor they were in was perhaps fifty feet long and not quite ten wide, they had gotten about half way down when three men and two mummies came around the corner at the other end of it. Riley and Lara moved to the sides of the passage and started shooting. Graham Miller and Ed Trusken, both armed with M-4 Carbines, started shooting as soon as their field of fire was clear. The three goons all but blew apart as they were caught by the rifle rounds of the two soldiers and a couple of stray pellets from Riley and Lara. The two squad leaders concentrated on the mummies. Laura's shotgun had eight rounds and was in semi-automatic mode, she got off three shots. Riley had his on fully automatic he got off eight. Each of the 12 gauge rounds had nine .33 diameter balls in it for a total of ninety-nine pellets filling the end of the passage. Laura took the left mummy while Riley took the right. Both of them evaporated from the storm of lead that passed through them.
Everyone hit the floor as an assault rifle barrel stuck around the corner and started shooting. Everyone but Lara Croft that is, she slung her shotgun behind her and pulling her pistols started down the corridor shooting at the rifle barrel. Riley looked up in shock; sure he had grown up watching the two gun heroes in Western Movies. Once he was old enough his father had set him down and before buying Riley his first rifle he had made sure Riley had understood the difference between real life and what was on the small or large screen. Riley had, on his own, done some further research and had been very disappointed to learn that in real life the cowboys who carried two guns never used them at the same time. The extra gun was so the cowboy could shoot longer with out reloading, not for the extra firepower. Using two guns at the same time was generally considered impractical. No one seems to have explained this to Lady Croft however.
As the thought went through his mind he saw the slides of pistols lock back on empty clips. She was only a little better than half way down the tunnel and would have to drop one of her guns so she could reload the other. "Cover her!" He barked to the riflemen of his squad.
"Get down!" he called after her.
Ignoring him, she moved her elbows back and her backpack opened up and rails, loaded with spare clips, slid out of the bottom of it. She slammed her pistols back and while bringing them up released the slides to load a shell into the breach as they were brought back up into firing position.
The goons that had been firing down the passage took the lack of firing from the crazy woman charging down passage was do to the fact she was out of bullets, seeing as she was using two guns and wouldn't be able to reload with both of her hands full, they popped around the corner, figuring that the crazy woman would keep them from being shot by the others. They barely had time to register surprise when Laura calmly shot them full of holes with her 'empty' guns.
From around the corner came several bright flashes and almost simultaneous loud blasts.
Ahmed and his men barreled down the right passage trying to get to its end before anyone noticed. At the end of that passage was a doorway. Suddenly, there were cries and someone looked down their tunnel. Two of the lead Medji tried to take down this person with full automatic fire, they missed. The door slammed shut, a moment later two, short barrel submachine guns stuck out through gun-ports in the it. Ahmed and his men dove for the floor as the guns started to spit fire, two didn't make it in time and fell backwards landing in boneless heaps arms spread. The remaining Medji started firing at the door, but the window that Anck-Su-Namun's men were shooting out of was too small for them to hit. Ahmed motioned to the man behind him who had a GP-25 Grenade Launcher fitted to his AK-74 rifle. Judging there was enough space for the grenade it fired to arm before it hit the door he nodded down the passage. Boulos, the grenadier, took aim down the passage and stroked the trigger of his grenade launcher.It fired with a soft chuff, a second later the door at the end of the passage was blown off of its hinges. Even prepared for it the Medji force was slightly stunned by the concussion of the blast. Ears ringing, they more saw the flash, then heard or felt the flash bangs that had gone off in the main chamber. Jumping to their feet the remaining Medji stormed down the corridor.
Ding held up at the corner of the tunnel, Paddy Connolly, George Tomlinson, and Scotty McTyler came up along side of him and each tossed a flash bang around the corner. Paddy threw to the left, George, down the center, and Scotty to the right. As soon as they went off Ding rolled around the corner with the others covering him.
Ding's quick scan showed they hadn't done to bad with the flash-bangs. It looked like Anck-Su-Namun had between eighty and a hundred men in the cavern. They had disoriented maybe about a third of them. That evened the odds considerably. Unfortunately, she had about forty mummies too, and it looked like the grenades hadn't bothered them at all.
Outside, as soon as the shooting started O'Connell, Xander, and the night shift started running to the backside of the hill. The spot they were looking for was easy to find, it had one of those revolving air vents on top of it. Hill didn't hesitate, he ran a line of det-cord around it and as soon as he was sure everyone was clear he hit the detonator. Det-cord is plastic explosives with a 'V' of copper running down its underside. When the explosives detonated the copper was converted to plasma that cut what ever it was up against. Bob Lee simply kicked the suddenly disconnected upper part of the ventilator over. Owen and Mendi quickly pounded stakes into the ground and connected ropes to it. O'Connell leaned over the shaft and took a quick shot with a laser rule he had picked up at Home Depot for fifty bucks. "Twenty-seven feet to the bottom," he said quietly. Mendi quickly measured off twenty-four feet and tied that to the stakes. They then lowered the ropes into the shaft.
Pete Hill and Bob Lee quickly shrugged into climbing harnesses and taking the end of the rope they got up on top of shaft. Making sure their Ingrams were in place Pete started down the shaft with Bob watching so he could start down as soon as Pete was out of the way.
Ding cut off two mummies at the knee with a burst from his MP-10SD. Paddy and the others concentrated on Anck-Su-Namun's men. Scanning the room Ding saw that there was an altar at the far end that was flanked by two statues that looked like men with dog heads, it was perhaps twenty meters away, with a wrapped figure on top of it. There were some structural supports dotting the inside of the chamber that might provide cover, but other than that, just some statuary standing along the walls.
The fire of the four men cleared the entranceway so Ding and the others advanced into the room. Gunfire was starting to pick up as more of the minions in the cavern started to get involved. Ding realized the best thing they could probably do was to get in close with the bad guys. Unless the bad guys were prepared to shoot into their own people it should take their guns out of the equation. Of course it took theirs out too. But they also didn't have the men to just stand there and blast away at the bad guys.
Cory Unger ducked into the room and almost instantly grunted. Ding turned and saw Cory go down on his left knee as he grabbed his right leg just above its knee. Cory went flat on the floor and started shooting into the room, Ding saw that he had been hit, but judging by the amount of blood it wasn't too bad. WO Price came right in behind Unger and grabbed him by the back of the neck and started to drag him back into the entranceway. He got three feet before his head snapped back in a spray of blood. Ding spotted the terrorist with the assault rifle that had got Price and took him out with a shot to the chest.
Ding saw that Buffy had grabbed both of the injured troopers and got them back into the tunnel. He didn't have time to notice more than that as a half dozen mummies rushed toward him. Ding stood up and dropped his submachine gun. He pulled out his machete and crouching slightly, he waited for them.
Pete Hill hit the end of the rope and let go. He landed on his feet in the passage and was facing toward the chamber. He found himself in a side tunnel that opened out into the main chamber. He instinctually ducked as a couple of rounds ricocheted into the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel one of Anck-Su-Namun's men was facing into the chamber with an AK-47 in his hands. Some sixth sense must of warned him that there was someone in the passage behind him because he started to whirl around. Pete squeezed the trigger of his Ingram and put three .45 rounds into the center of his chest. The gunman stumbled back out of the passage and collapsed onto the floor. The 'clack-clack-clack' of the submachine gun's receiver working was lost in the din of the battle out in the main chamber.
Bob Lee hit the ground facing away from Pete. He found a passage ending in a door about ten feet in front of him. He moved to the door and tried the knob, it was locked, he noticed that the door opened out so taking a wedge out of his tool belt he stuck it under the door to keep anyone from opening it from the inside.
Moving back to the airshaft he saw that Pete had moved up enough to cover the entrance but not be obvious from outside of it. He looked up the airshaft and saw three faces staring back. He held up one finger, made a slitting motion across his throat, and waved the others down.
Ding cursed as the mummies pushed he and the others back, opening up a path to Buffy. Anck-Su-Namun walked down this path twirling a pair of Sais in her hands. Buffy stood up and away from the injured men she had pulled to safety and unsheathed the sword she wore at her hip.
"I knew we would face each other eventually," Anck-Su-Namun almost purred. "How much better it will be that it is as my Master awakes."
Buffy dropped her 'injured' leg back and assuming a defensive stance said, "Talk is cheap."
Anck-Su-Namun smiled and bobbed her head, "When I realized I likely would be facing you I had my men go out and capture some vampires, I must say I was not impressed. With you being injured I don't think this will be much of a fight, but lets find out." She then laid into Buffy with a kick aimed at her injured leg.
Riley could not believe what he had just seen. Sam was a little quicker of the mark, she was up and charging down hallway before any of the men. Not wanting to be showed up, the guys were up and running after the two women.
Lara Croft came around the corner at a run and discovered a group of four men armed with Berretta Model 12 submachine guns setting up to fire through a group of mummies and into the Rainbow Troopers at the door. She kicked one behind the knee, shot two, and then pistol-whipped the fourth before he could get his gun around. She then deciding that Ding's troops at the mouth of the cave where handling things all right, so she moved toward the altar and the wrapped figure.
Sam came out as she was taking out the fourth gunman and saw the first one was lining up a shot on the Tomb-Raider. She put a three round burst into his chest. Sam was trying a different load out for this fight. She had gotten two boxes of Blitz Action Trauma rounds and loaded her MP-5 with them. The BAT was a copper hollow point. It was originally designed to allow European police officers to deal with larger farm animals that got loose and presented a danger to others. Since they don't usually carry shotguns. It worked well, as the gunman demonstrated as his chest all but exploded.
Buffy had to hold herself back, Anck-Su-Namun was good, but she wasn't in a Slayer's league. Remembering Ahmed's instructions about her being a sorceress she had to balance letting her get enough shots in, while keeping her from doing any real damage. The fact the every second or third strike was for her 'bad' leg helped immeasurably.
Buffy was just able to keep track of the fight, the Medji had just decamped into the room from right side, Riley and his people were working their way across the room from the other side. She hoped that O'Connell would be getting to Willow soon, she thought as one of her opponent's kicks got through and landed right on top of the barely healed bullet wound.
O'Connell landed and immediately got out of the way as first Thurman, and then Xander landed behind him. Mendi was the last person down. O'Connell moved to the end of the passage and peeked out into the room. Chaos reined, the thundering echo of pistols, shotguns, rifles, and submachine guns threatened to deafen him. Looking to the right he spotted a mummy covered in hieroglyphics. Seeing that all of the bad guys attention was on the rest of the room he ran to the altar and pulled out a can of vandalism remover.
Buffy saw O'Connell make it to the altar. Showtime she thought to herself. Taking a step back she swung on Anck-Su-Namun. The other woman easily caught the sword blade between her sias. "A pity," she said with mock concern. "But as much fun as this is I think the time has come to finish this."
"Funny," Buffy smirked as she twisted the sword and tore both of the Anck-
Su-Namun's weapons out of her hands, "I was just thinking the same thing, except my fun starts now."
Anck-Su-Namun was still staring in shock at the display of strength that Buffy had just shown, so she was totally unprepared when Buffy planted her 'bad' leg and kicked Anck-Su-Namun halfway across the chamber.
O'Connell noticed Anck-Su-Namun going airborne, as he popped the top of can and sprayed down the length of the mummy.
"Stop!" a voice called from his left.
Looking that way he saw three or four fighters finally noticing him and starting to swing around, they never made it. Mendi with a MP-5, and Lee and Hill with their Mac-10's cut them down. Unfortunately this attracted the attention of every other thug at this end of the cave. The four other men dived behind the altar as fire started coming their way.
Buffy started after Anck-Su-Namun. She found Kenshin by her side and between the two of them they carved a path through Anck-Su-Namun's henchman and her mummy guards. Men and mummies exploded away from Buffy as she threw a flurry of punches and kicks. Henchman went down in bloody heaps in front of Kenshin, while mummies exploded into dust at the touch of his blade. Off to one side, an unengaged henchman raised his mini-uzi and started tracking the Slayer, after all he mused, the gun had already tasted the Slayers blood, surely it wanted a larger taste. He was about to pull the trigger when 125 lbs of fur and fangs latched onto his gun arm pulling it down before he could fire. Ginger then swung around and took the gunman's legs out from under him, and while he was stunned on the ground she tore out his throat. Bob Crugen moved in behind his partner and pointing at the altar he said, "Guard." Ginger made her way to the side of the chamber and started working her way toward altar.
Buffy, unaware of her close call, finally fought her way to where Anck-Su-Namun had landed. The Egyptian sorceress was just getting her wind back when Buffy grabbed her head and pulled it back, "And just so you know? They call us Vampire Slayers because that's what we kill the most of, not because we are built to beat one. It usually takes eight or ten to give me a work out." She then punched the other woman unconscious.
Buffy looked around, she remembered too late that she was supposed to keep her opponent awake until they had beaten the forces Anck-Su-Namun had. But, she saw that they had largely done that.
Which was a good thing, as the eyes of the two statues of Anubis glowed in a sickly yellow light and swept the floor. Everywhere there was an empty spot on the floor they hesitated for a second, when they moved on a shadow remained behind, a shadow that darkened and began humping up.
"Crud," Buffy said with real feeling.