FIC: Slayer Wars (5/?)
Las Vegas, America West One
Angel gasped as he stepped through the darkened doorway to see a tiny, mini-skirted figure stood glaring at him, legs apart and fists on hips. "H….Harmony?" Angel gaped as he recognised the blonde vampire.
"Don't Harmony me, mister!" The blonde jabbed an angry finger at him. "And do you know how long it took me to get a new job after you blew up Wolfram & Hart? We're talking compensation, mister!"
Regaining his poise, Angel smiled. "Given the reference I gave you it must have taken you a while."
"Why you!" The blonde leapt at him. And landed on his stake, exploding into dust.
Hearing chuckles behind him, Angel turned and glared at both his companions. "You can both shut up," he glowered.
"Remember who's in charge here," Kate sniggered.
Oklahoma, America East One
Justine gasped as a huge scaled and red-horned demon rushed her as she stepped through the doorway, lunging out of the shadows. Justine had only half-turned when the creature caught her with a welting back-hand. Head ringing and blood misting her eyes, Justine fell to her knees even as she reached inside her jacket.
And then Colleen and Shannon were past her and intercepting her attacker, gliding into attack with their usual combination of unearthly grace and uncanny speed. They slashed at the monster even as they ducked its thudding fists. Soon blood was spurting from numerous wounds, its crimson soaking the walls and carpet as it crashed to the ground, body thrashing in its death throes.
After a studied look at the demon, the two Slayers rushed over to her side. "Are you alright?" Shannon asked.
Justine wiped away the blood streaming down her forehead before weakly nodding and struggling to her feet. "You don't have to come with us," Colleen offered.
"No," Justine winced at her thudding head. "I do." She was a Watcher, it was her duty.
Hong Kong, Asia One
Riley darted out of the office only to dive back in when bullets peppered the air. Hitting the ground on his shoulder, he rolled up and pulled out his polymer pistol. "Five shots left and they sounded like sub-machine guns," Riley muttered with a grimace. "Not good-." He grinned at the distinctive sound of his wife and Oz's Mossbergs, and his attackers' screams. "Cavalry's coming," he crouched by the wall, gun in hand, ready just in case his wife and her companions didn't win through.
His shoulders slumped, tension easing from his body when Sam rushed through the entrance, shotgun held ready. Sam grinned when she saw him, throwing him a spare shotgun. "When are you going to get off your ass and join us in dealing with these demons?"
"Join you?" Riley grinned as he caught the shotgun and jumped up. Already the room was filling with Slayers, two Sunnydale veterans in Chao-Ahn and Caridad, and three newer girls, with an ever watchful Oz brining up the rear. "Who dealt with security system and him?" he nodded towards the multi-limbed demon lying dead on the ground.
"Details, details, details." Sam's grin disappeared. "Let's get the clear out finished."
Nairobi, Africa One
"Shit!" Faith flung herself backwards as a huge claw reaved the corridor's air just before her. Dropping onto her back, she reached up, snatched Xander's shotgun from him, and gave the hulking demon lunging at her both barrels.
Cordite burnt the back of her throat and her ears pounded to the shotgun's boom. All that was rendered unimportant next to the sight of the demon being torn in half, its blood and entrails decorating the wall behind. "Damn!" Faith jumped. "I love it when a plan comes together!" Xander groaned as she passed him his shotgun back. "What?" she arched a saucily suggestive eyebrow. "If you didn't want me to quote the show you shouldn't have made me watch the DVDs!"
"I thought we were meant to be killing demons?" Dana eagerly interrupted.
Faith scowled at her fellow Slayer. "I know who's killing the joy."
Marseille, Europe West One
The Immortal grinned as his cell beeped. "Mon amour is ready," he whispered to his companions. "Now it is our turn." Cloaked by darkness, he led the trio of Slayers to their target and climbed on-board. He kissed his beloved on the cheek and nodded at Andrew.
"Andrew, you and Erna stay here," the German-born Slayer glowered at being left out but nodded. "Anyone gets past us, you deal with it." Buffy looked at the rest of them. "You, with me."
Buffy led them down the darkened, narrowed steps, the yacht's wood-panelled walls echoing and vibrating to Metallica. "Yet more proof money doesn't buy class," the Immortal muttered disdainfully. It was eight hundred years since he'd been cursed with immortality, to see all those he'd loved grow old and die, by a wizard who'd discovered him squiring the enchanter's bride. You'd have at least thought he'd wait until he'd finished before casting the spell.
Gah, the English, they just didn't understand.
In those eight centuries he'd heard all types of music, classical, jazz, pop, Tin Pan Alley, and another hundred besides. But none were so clearly the sound of Satan as Heavy Metal.
Not even rap. Spelt incorrectly without the 'c' in front.
They stopped at the doors of the galley. The Immortal looked around. "How many?" he whispered.
Buffy pressed her ear to the tan-brown door for a second before answering in a whisper. "Five or six maybe." Buffy licked her lips. "I'll kick the door open. You do the gun thing."
Knowing his girl-friend's religiously held feelings on guns, the Immortal nodded. Drawing his sawn-off, he stepped back. "On three," he tersely muttered.
"One. Two. Three." Buffy's foot slammed into the door, snapping it open. The Immortal had the briefest glimpse of five men sat around a long glass table laden with cards, beer bottles, and sub-machine guns. And then he was firing.
Caracas, South America One
A single kick sent the door crashing open. The darkened room beyond was empty, but the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps could be heard. Groo's torch swung in the direction of the noise.
Even as the torch-light fell on a quartet of vampires racing down the nearest side of the double-pronged stairwell, their golden eyes gleaming and fangs glinting in the torch light, the demons leapt into the air.
Before either demon who'd leapt specifically at her had landed, Kennedy had already flung a stake through the left demon's heart. The second caught her with a thudding left hook that inflamed her already aching head. Dazed, she staggered back, barely managing to duck under a right cross to the head, and block a kick to the ribs. The demon snarled before leaping up into a thrust kick that smashed into Kennedy's chest.
Pain roared through her gym-toned pecs, the force of the blow flinging her over a table. Hitting the ground on her shoulders, she barely had time to roll away from a leaping stomp to the face.
Kennedy hand-sprung to her feet, ducked under the on-rushing demon's wildly delivered clothesline, and planted a hook-kick to the small of the vampire's back. "Rrrrr!" the creature howled before stumbling and falling to its knees.
The vampire looked up in time to catch her kicking a field goal with its face. The demon's head snapped to the side and the demon fell onto its back. Before the monster had chance to react she'd dropped onto one knee beside it and thrust her stake through its heart.
"Hey sweetie."
Kennedy grinned as she looked up to see her girl-friend stood behind her. "Hey yourself." She looked up to the second floor. "Shall we stop in on the big cheese?"
Las Vegas, America West One
Oscuro Malva raised a hand as the vampire freak and his cohorts entered her inner sanctum. The trio instantly crashed into the wall behind them with enough force to crack it.
The effectiveness of her defence failed to alleviate her bad mood. Her Order had been around since Solomon's time and the Council dared to think they could take them on? A lesson had to be taught.
Malva levitated and pointed the blonde's automatic at the helpless hybrid's head. The room resonated to the sound of the safety being pulled back. Malva sneered at the desperate look on the vampire's face, her power holding the freak to the wall. "Watch your son die, traitor."
"I think not." Malva's gaze snapped to a blue-haired, leather-clad woman stood in the doorway. She waved an indifferent hand at the intruder. A wave of magic hit the elven-sized figure but instantly dissipated on impact. "As I said," Malva gasped as the figure strode imperiously towards her, "I think not." The last thing she saw was the blue-haired woman's fist rushing towards her face.
Oklahoma, America East One
Justine looked around the devastated ranch house. Doors had been torn off, what walls remained were splattered with varying coloured bloods, furniture smashed, and corpses littered the floors and stairwells.
Exhausted by the fight, Justine slumped against the dining room door. Despite her fatigue, Justine felt a smile tugging at her lips. "We did it," she muttered. "We took out the Order."
"That we did."
Justine stared at her dour-faced immediate superior. "So what's the problem?"
"What's the problem?" Robin Wood scowled. "The problem is what we've done today will make some very powerful demons and mages nervous. And nervous people make stupid mistakes. This could get out of hand and fast."
Nairobi, Africa One
"Haaa!" Harriet screamed as she ducked, her attacker's fist smashing into the wall. Harriet swung her sword at the demon but it just bounced off its scale-covered hide.
The creature, an Umla male, stood just over seven foot with a weight-lifter's muscles to match. Its entire body was covered in grey scales, barbs sticking out of its hands' knuckles and its forearms, its mouth filled with fangs, and a horn sticking out of its forehead. There were few monsters in the demon world as ideally built for murder and mayhem.
Suddenly the demon had her by a handful of swinging ringlets and she was airborne, crashing into the far wall, and sliding down to the threadbare carpet. Her head ringing, Harriet attempt to regain her feet but her stunned limbs failed to obey her. The Ulma lumbered over to her, a horrid smile twisting its stony face.
And then Faith and Dana were between her and the monster. The two Slayers blurred into action, their movements too fast for the Ulma's swinging hands, their axes slicing the demons to pieces, blood spurting from a multitude of wounds. Finally even the durable Ulma couldn't take any more and slumped to the ground. "Yo Curly!" Faith turned to her, dark eyes flashing angrily. "Where the hell are your Slayers?"
Harriet stared up dazedly at the Slayer before answering. "Dealing with two Martocs-."
"And you just left them!" the lead Slayer snapped. " Jesus, Har, you know the fucking rules! You don't leave your Slayers!"
"You left Xander," Harriet weakly parried.
"Don't even," Faith shook her head. "Xan's been through more demon shit than any of us."
"Plus he doesn't listen to her," Dana added.
Faith glared at the younger Slayer. "I swear…"
Marseille, Europe West One
The Immortal's shotgun took the nearest three gunmen full in the chest, shredding and tossing their lifeless bodies to the ground. The table was likewise obliterated by the attack, splinters flying up, striking one of the two survivors full in the face.
Blood gushing down his ruined face, the man attempted a lunge for his sub-machine gun only for Buffy to fell him with a hastily flung knife to the throat. The last survivor discarded his weapon in favour of diving for a latched door towards the back of the galley.
The moment the latch was clicked loose, the door was torn off its hinges and a demon charged out. Buffy's heart chilled as she recognised the monster as a Turok-Han. "Leave it to me!" she ordered before leaping forward, snatching the Immortal's shotgun from him before charging into the room.
By the time she reached the uber it had already torn the final assassin's head off, showering itself with blood. Then, as the uber's mouth opened in a gleeful howl, Buffy shoved the shotgun's muzzle between its teeth and pulled the trigger.
The gun bucked in her hand and the creature's dark blood and brains splattered the walls behind it, the creature dusting a half-second afterwards. Buffy spun around to face the others. "Where did they get an uber from?"
The Immortal peered into the entrance from which the demon had sprung. "I would guess that they," the Italian playboy glanced at the corpses strewn throughout the gallery, "were told it they were attacked that they should throw that latch either for aid or a magical escape route. Instead they unleashed a Turok-Han somehow held in magical stasis until the latch was loosened."
"Yeah," Buffy impatiently interrupted, "that's great, but how did they get their hands on an Uber?"
Caracas, South America One
Willow looked around as she led her group onto the landing, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling. Something very bad was about to happen. "Down now!"
Such was the urgent command in her voice that not even Kennedy questioned or hesitated before diving to the ground. And not a moment too soon.
The landing's solitary door exploded off its hinges with enough force to fling it into the landing's brass railing, the door splitting on collision. The door was followed by a fireball that scorched the door frame en-route to flying at Willow and the others.
Willow glared at the approaching fireball even as its heat caused her forehead to bead with sweat. As if frightened by her rage, the fireball stopped, and reversed direction back into the room it had come from.
"Ahhhh!"
Willow winced at the inhuman scream and the stench of burning flesh, an ashy taste forming in the back of her throat. Fire was such a painful way to die. Willow looked over her shoulder to her supine team-mates. "You can get up now, it's over."
For now at least.