A/N Guess I should have said that I would update irregular.Oh, and if you like this story, or even if you don't, let me know. No Turtles in this chapter either, they will make their first appearance in the next chapter. Now, on with the story.

We want you!

"They are not my buddies, they are my minions."
- Harmony

The Junkyard
"I say we leave the city now!" A young man shouted, pacing back and forth in front of the gathered group of Foot ninjas. It was almost a day since the disaster at the construction site and they had once again returned to their fallback spot. But not everybody had made it, including Shredder and Tatsu. That meant this place was compromised and that the clan didn't have any leaders at the moment.

So it was a defeated group that was now trying to sort out what the hell they were going to do next. To many, leaving New York made a lot of sense. Starting over somewhere else where the police didn't know about the Foot. Somewhere else where there weren't giant, talking turtles lurking in the sewers. The pacing man had removed his mask as had most of the others. The things were surprisingly comfortable but they did inhibit speaking.

"There is nothing left for us here. Shredder is gone as is master Tatsu. I say I should be the leader now, anybody got a problem with that?" He had stopped pacing and was now glaring at the assembled people, daring them to speak up against him. But the challenge came from behind, from the wooden shed that had been Shredder's dwelling.

"I do", a powerful voice rang out. It turned the blood of the would-be leader into ice as he recognized it. He quickly turned around to see an armored figure step out of the shadows and into the dying light of the setting sun. It was the Shredder; he even wore the model helmet he had worn until his first confrontation with the Turtles. To the youth's credit, he did not back down.

"You're not our leader anymore Shredder. You've gotten obsessed with killing those Turtles, you lost sight of the big picture. I say it's time for some change around here." It would have been reassuring if at least some of the guys behind him had given him support. Instead they were quiet as mice, silently observing how this confrontation was playing out.

Shredder didn't answer. He merely narrowed his eyes before calmly advancing. The young ninja waited until Shredder was almost into range and then he swiftly kicked the steel pipe lying near his right foot up. Not wasting any time he grabbed it and swung it overhand towards Shredder's head.

But the surprise didn't do him any good because Shredder reacted as if he had seen the attack coming a mile away. He grabbed the pipe as it came on but instead of blocking the attack he added his own strength to the swing, using the motion to lift the young ninja up and over. He flew over the shed and further, finally landing unseen behind a rusty truck with a dull thud.

Shredder watched him fly with savage satisfaction. Then he turned a predatory gaze upon the rest. Before his transformation he had considered them tools, now he saw them as delicious tools. Unfortunately, dinner had to wait until he had set things in motion. This city would be his. And this time, there was nothing that could stand in his way.

VVV

'Ha, the Bulls finally won a game this season.' Frank thought to himself as he read the sports page. He was supposed to be guarding the sliteye they had arrested last night. The guy had his ribs broken in several places so he had to go to the hospital. But it wasn't like he was going anywhere and his buddies wouldn't try anything either. Those chickens would have long flown the coop.

So Frank was reading the paper, sipping his coffee occasionally to stay awake. He didn't like nightshifts and he most certainly didn't like these shitty assignments. Worst of all was that his shift had just begun. He would be stuck here for hours.

A sword placed against his throat and a hand over his mouth interrupted his reading. From the corner of his eyes he could see men in green getups with green masks, then pain laced through his throat as the sword neatly severed his windpipe. Blood spattered on the newspaper as he struggled against the hands holding him down. His cries were being kept muffled by the hands over his mouth and the ones keeping his jaws together. But the rapid loss of blood as well as well as the lack of oxygen quickly drained him of his strength. When the Shredder passed the security guard he was already dead.

His hands were being tucked over his belly and his newspaper was settled over his face to make it appear as if he was asleep. The hallway was empty and peaceful again when the Shredder closed the door behind him. For a moment he stood stock-still taking in the broken body of his loyal second. Yet another weapon that had failed against the Turtles, but that would change.

He silently stalked to the bed, the beeps of the heart monitor covering the non-existing sounds he made. And yet still Tatsu somehow sensed his presence. His eyes opened, first from awakening and then in startled recognition of the figure looming over him. "Master Shredder," he whispered. The oxygen mask made speaking difficult, the broken ribs made it painful.

"Tatsu," Shredder returned as he efficiently removed the oxygen mask before removing his own mask. "I shall reward you for your loyalty. Once you awaken, make your way to the sewers below this hospital. A guide will wait for you there that will bring you to me." Tatsu only had a moment to ponder what his master meant by awaken before he saw Shredder's face morph and then bite him in the neck.

By the time the first doctor barreled into the room, Tatsu was dead and the room empty except for the constant whine of the heart monitor.

VVV

Faith wasn't a happy Slayer right now. When she had arrived at the new headquarters she was pleasantly surprised to see that the refurbishing was finished. Of course the library was lacking, but Faith was more of an action girl anyway and after a phone call to Giles that problem would soon be solved. Weapon-wise they were stocked since they hadn't expected the New York office to have many in storage.

Then the other shoe dropped. Faith had asked Vishe to do a quick locator spell so they could find the new Slayers and Vishe had told her he couldn't do it. Apparently when they did an inventory of the skills the various ex-council watchers had, they had only asked Vishe about his magical knowledge and not his skill. And of course Vishe had to be one of those people who knew a lot about magic but couldn't get a spell to work to save his life.

Impressive enough he had managed to locate three of the slayers with the clues Cleveland had supplied him with so they weren't completely screwed. Although why nobody had caught this before baffled her. But now she had to sweet talk the local coven into supplying them with some magic support until the NWC found one for her. So now she was stalking through this rundown neighborhood to find her first Slayer. She was just passing another dark alley when she sensed a vampire. Excellent, she needed to vent some frustration.

VVV

'She was too young to die!' Alice kept repeating that thought over and over in her head as her customer slammed her into the alley wall. He had seemed pretty normal when he had approached her, except for the dated clothes. But when they had gone into the alley for some privacy that had changed. She had struggled, kicked and screamed but nobody out there on the streets cared. And she wasn't feeling so hot, that was why she was out here in the first place.

At least her kicks had caused the guy to yelp, but she wasn't fast enough to make use of the opening. Instead it got her a face-to-face encounter with the wall. The man now turned her around and her eyes widened in disbelief as well as recognition at the yellow eyes and disfigured face the man was now wearing. 'Could this be just another dream? It couldn't be. She felt far too miserable and none of the dreams had been in first person. This was real!'

At some point she had closed her eyes, not wanting to see it actually biting her. But she opened them again when she felt him being yanked away. What she saw made her think again that she was dreaming because there stood one of the girls from her dreams. She spared a glance for Alice before fully turning to face the man she had thrown against the other wall.

"You do know the seventies are over?" The young woman said. The man didn't respond, he just attacked. Or better said, tried to attack because the one punch he got off was expertly blocked. And he didn't even have time for another because now the woman was on the offense. She started with a right hook that she then redirected into a backhand that made the man stumble back but the brunette didn't let up.

A few more punches and then she sidestepped to plant her left knee in his stomach, doubling the badly dressed guy over. Alice's attention had been more with the beating the man was receiving then the woman giving said beating so she didn't notice the woman pulling out a stake from her back. But she did notice it when she planted it in the guy's back and then he just exploded into dust. Not even a skeleton remained.

Her eyes lingered on the spot the man had occupied for a moment longer before staring at her savior; at least she hoped the girl was that. She was dressed in denim and sneakers, all of it looked quite new. The woman in turn didn't seem to spare the thing she had killed another thought and focussed completely on her as she put the stake back. "Alice, just the girl I was looking for."

"th-That's not my name," she peeped but even she wasn't fooled by that lie. The woman just gave her a look that said 'who are you trying to fool here?'

"How did you know my name and why are you looking for me? I haven't done anything!" Alice continued defeated.

The woman now gave her a small smile, probably trying to put her at ease. It just made Alice more suspicious. "Hi, Alice. My name is Faith and this isn't about anything you have done. This is about what happened to you, what you became about four months ago."

Alice wanted to deny that anything had happened to her. Although Alice desperately wanted to know anything this woman could tell her about the Change as she had dubbed it she just couldn't risk it. It didn't help that her distrust kept slipping away because for some reason she got the sense of family from Faith. She almost implicitly trusted her, which made no sense since her real family had never inspired such trust.

Faith cut her off even before she started. "You haven't even asked about the guy turning into dust and don't think I didn't see that look of recognition when you saw me. You have been having dreams about girls fighting things like Disco Dusty just now and you've had dreams about me fighting them too. Since those dreams started you've gotten stronger, faster and your senses have gotten better." Faith took a step forward. "And the shit you've been using hasn't had the same kick since then either." The tone in her voice had been vicious in that last sentence as she pointedly looked at her right arm. "How am I doing so far?"

Alice looked down and saw that her jacket had slipped of her shoulder during the struggle. The top she wore didn't have any sleeves and just enough of her bare skin had been visible for Faith to see the needle marks. Alice just wanted the Earth to gobble her up as she hastily covered up.

Faith softened her expression and tone. "That stuff is going to get you killed."

"How do you know," Alice spat out. Or at least tried to but it sounded more questioning then anything else.

"Cause I grew up in a neighborhood like this one. And because I went through those same changes a few years back. You see, you and me are Vampire Slayers or Slayers for short."

"Vampire Slayers?" Alice asked incredulously.

Faith just pointed at where the man had turned to dust. "Exhibit A."

"So vampires are real and somebody upstairs decided young girls would be the best choice in fighting them?"

Faith grinned. "Hot chicks with superpowers," she corrected. "And it were just some sorcerers that made the first Slayer. There is this whole dramatic exposition about what our job is but it all boils down to this: demons are real. We kill them. We also stop the occasional apocalypse but that's usually in May."

Alice blinked at that before focusing on something else. "Alright, if I really am one of these Slayers then why did that… vampire knock me around like that?"

"Because you don't know how to fight. And I told you those drugs were gonna get you killed, one way or the other."

"And what if I don't want to be like this? What if I want to be just normal?"

Faith shrugged. "We can do that. But once done it can't be undone. Besides, from what I have seen of your life so far I don't see why you would be so eager to be normal."

Faith let Alice mull that over for a moment before wrapping the discussion up. "Why don't you sleep a night on all this. It's late and you aren't looking so great right now." She produced a business card from somewhere. On the card where the initials NWC and underneath it an address and telephone number. "But if I were you I would hurry with that decision because a Slayer attracts supernatural trouble. Plus bright colors attract vampires," she added. "You were lucky so far but I am thinking that your luck is starting to run out."

VVV

Frankie was still counting the money in the envelope, pretending to be in pain in case anybody that had seen the fight was looking. Wouldn't want anybody to cry foul. Or in this neighborhood they would just call the fight rigged and start drawing guns. She was walking down this filthy alley to the less filthy but equally abandoned street when she suddenly became aware of someone following her.

Frankie's senses had become better too when she had gotten stronger but she couldn't tell how she knew this person was following her when Frankie's senses could barely tell the person was there. But her instincts told her she was being followed and she decided to trust them. So she stopped and tucked the envelope inside her coat before turning to confront the guy.

But it wasn't a guy but a woman of roughly her age. A very attractive woman at that and Frankie recalled seeing her in the crowd. She had noticed because unlike most there she hadn't cheered or anything. She had just stood there, assessing the fight between the two girls. Now that Frankie saw the way she moved she knew the woman knew how to fight too. Which lowered the odds she was a groupie, too bad. Fights left her very wired these days, even if she 'lost' this one.

The woman stopped and slightly tilted her head to the right before talking with a Boston accent. "I had this whole little speech worked out on the way but after that little show in there I just gotta ask." She indicated the building to Frankie's left. The building where the fight had been. "Why did you throw that fight."

Frankie didn't fall for it. She reacted offended, "Threw the fight? I don't know what you were watching but it sure wasn't my fight. And I got the bruised ribs to proof it."

The woman just snorted. "Unless miss Twinkie was pounding you with a sledgehammer while I wasn't looking, I don't think so."

"And the bruises are just make-up, of course," Frankie retorted sarcastically. The woman had begun to slowly circle Frankie and Frankie also noticed that she seemed to use her hands a lot when talking. All in all, she got the impression that this chick only stayed put when she was sleeping.

"Nah, those are real. But they'll be gone by morning while the bruises you gave that girl are gonna last a few days at least. But I didn't come here to dish you about how you earn your money. Getting beaten up for money is better then beating people up for money. When did you start doing this anyway?"

"A couple of months ago. And I usually win my fights," Frankie added.

"Which is why you got paid so well to loose this one," the woman finished for her.

Frankie had had enough and decided to wipe that smirk of her face. She punched, making sure not to put too much force behind it. She just wanted to make it clear she wasn't taking this shit lying down. The woman didn't move but just took the hit to the cheek, which threw her head to the side.

Then the dark-haired woman looked Frankie in the eyes again, the same smirk still on her face. "My turn," she said and while Frankie was still processing those words pain suddenly exploded in her left cheek before she hit the ground. It took her time to collect herself before she scrambled to her feet again, fully expecting the woman to pounce on her at any time.

But she hadn't moved and was just observing her with obvious amusement. "You do that a lot? Trying to win an argument with your fists?" she inquired. "And you lost this one, by the way," she added as an afterthought.

Frankie didn't know how to respond. Her jaw was still a little numb from just that one punch and she hadn't even seen it coming, the woman had moved that fast. Which meant she had to be as freakishly powerful as Frankie had become which opened a whole other can of worms. Like what the hell this chick wanted from her if it wasn't about the rigged fight.

"I forgot to introduce myself to you, Francesca. Name's Faith."

"Only my mother calls me Francesca, everybody else calls me Frankie." Frankie grumbled.

Faith cocked her head again. "Yeah, you look like a Frankie. But I am still waiting for your furious-slash-uncertain demand where I got that name."

Frankie just shrugged and worked her jaw a little, the feeling was coming back but it was a mixed blessing.

"Okay," Faith drawled. She seemed to be at a loss how to continue. "Here's the thing. Demons are real, most of 'em are bad and Slayers kill them. And you and me, we be Slayers."

Frankie edged a little away. Not only was this Faith stronger and faster then her, she was also insane. Her luck just wouldn't make up its mind tonight on whether to be good or bad.

"Yea, yea, I know. You think I'm nuts since I got no proof except for your strength and the dreams you've been havin'." She was silent for a moment as she contemplated something. Meanwhile Frankie was conflicted between leaving and staying to see if Faith wasn't lying.

VVV

Frankie was still dubious about all this, but she had followed Faith to this bar anyway. Making certain to keep a good distance between them all the way, she wasn't completely stupid. And now they were standing in front of a metal door, with blue-neon letters simply declaring the place to be Willy's. No windows and she could only hear some noise coming from behind the door if she strained her hearing. Faith had never been to this place before. Frankie knew that for sure because Faith had to ask her for directions a couple of times and had hesitated a few times during the walk over here.

But now that she was here, Faith didn't hesitate but knocked hard on the door. A panel slid open and a large eye was looking at them. The eye was easily as big as the face on most people and it was blinking and looking at them. Frankie reassured herself that it had to be a trick, something to do with animatronics. She glared at Faith. She didn't like being taken for a fool.

Then the panel slid close again with a bang. The door wasn't opened immediately but the thing that did open it was tall, orange and it had some kind of plates in a double row running along the top of his head. It also had serrated teeth, like a crocodile, which it was displaying at the moment with what seemed to be fierce delight. Then it moved aside to let them in and Faith stepped in without hesitation and after a moment Frankie followed.

She was curious now how they had managed the giant eye thing, because they had obviously done a great job on that guy's make-up. It looked almost real. And she wasn't disappointed when she came in. The eye belonged to a small thing without feet but long, spindly arms. The eye was on a very long, flexible stalk while its mouths were arrayed along this stalk. The whole setup was very imaginative. It got even better when it started talking.

"Oh my," it said with its three voices. Each of which had a slightly different pitch. "I would never have expected to meet the Slayer, let alone two of them!"

Faith smiled, "Yea well I don't do autographs. You're a Spectum demon, right?"

"Oh yes, ma'am," it confirmed.

Faith nodded to herself before turning to Frankie to explain. "Spectum demons can determine what you are and what your intentions are just by reading your aura. So they make great bouncers, if you can find one and can afford the food they eat."

"Which Willy can," the 'Spectum' interjected. "But I think Judar wants you to move along, you are blocking the entrance." Judar had to be the orange fellow that was glowering at them. Faith just smirked at him, daring him to make a move but it wisely didn't.

The scene in the bar itself wasn't such a shock after the scene at the door. It looked like a muppet show, except they were all quiet and looking at them. Some in fear, some hostile, the rest just cautious or studiously blank. The only guy without make-up was coming at them, apparently he was one of the barkeepers. He just looked like a weasel to Frankie, but Faith seemed to recognize him.

And the barkeeper recognized her too. "Faith," he exclaimed a little too loud. The amount of fearful stares doubled. The man stopped before he was in arm's reach. "And one of those mini-slayers," he added with a lower voice. Frankie bristled, but was interrupted by one of the customers that had risen from its seat. It had horns, wore leather armor and he was towering over everybody.

Frankie didn't even see the axe the thing was swinging at them until she had landed on her butt. Faith had pushed out of the way even as she ducked under the swing herself. Willy meanwhile had thrown himself to the floor and was scrambling to put more distance between him and the fight.

Frankie watched as Faith quickly took charge of the fight. Not giving the guy the chance to use that axe again she stamped his knee with her left foot. That action produced a crunching sound indicating she had broken the thing's knee, it also howled for good measure. But Faith wasn't done and brought down her elbow on his right forearm while holding it with her right arm. Again she managed to break his bones and she swiftly wrested the axe out of his weakened grasp. Faith swiveled around and then swung the axe neatly decapitating the man.

By chance the head rolled to right in front of her, close enough to touch. She didn't know why but that is exactly what she did. She poked it with one finger. It had come to rest on its severed neck but that little push was enough to tip it over so that she could now see the vertebra and other stuff. It was a real severed head, not make-up. Bile rose up as she realized she had just seen a thing being killed right in front of her. Not a man but a…demon.

Faith kneeled next to her with a sympathetic look, still holding the axe in one hand. "Convinced yet?" Frankie's only answer was that she vomited.

TBC