Chapter 3
Duel, with Added Participation
As Hellboy watched the duel between the current Slayer and the huge female predator commence, he reflected back to the only other time he had watched a slayer in action. It was back in 1957, when he was a still a teenager. He and the Slayer of 1957, a girl from Mumbai, had fought together against a vampire coven in Cleveland.
The girl had not survived the fight.
Hellboy hoped that history would not repeat itself here. Like everyone else, he had been startled when Buffy had walked out of the conversation about the difference between male and female predators. He suspected even the predators had been taken off guard, the way they looked back and forth at one another. He knew most of the humans couldn't see them where they stood, but he could. The predators' cloaking devices bent the light around them, but he could still see their outlines. Evidently, the research boys at BPD were right, after all. He could see in a wider spectrum than humans.
So, apparently, could Buffy Summers. Her eyes never left her huge opponent as they circled one another. They had completed three quarters of a circle when a triangle of three red dots appeared on Buffy's chest.
Suddenly, Buffy was gone, leaping backwards. Her backwards standing leap reached almost 5 yards in height and 30 yards in length. The predator seemed disoriented. Hellboy was not surprised. He knew that the Slayer's strength, like that of the vampires she hunted, was mystical in origin. Buffy didn't weigh more than any other girl her size, but she had the physical strength of something that weighed at least as much as a bull African elephant.
Hellboy, like everyone else watching the fight, lost track of Buffy after that leap. He heard Zed, the leader of the Men In Black, yell at everyone to get down. The rest of the audience threw themselves flat, but Hellboy simply went down to one knee. Father had told him to watch for shenanigans, so watch he did. The reason for Zed's warning became apparent a second later, as the predator evidently found Buffy Summers and threw some shuriken style projectiles over the heads of Agent Clay and two other BPD agents. The projectiles slammed into the side of the gas station, but evidently didn't find their mark.
There was a whistling sound that came from overhead as Buffy apparently threw a projectile of her own, probably from the roof of the abandoned gas station. There was the impact of metal screeching against metal, and then the crackle of electricity. Sparks outlined the figure of the predator, and then the predator herself appeared, her cloaking device shorted out. Also destroyed was the shoulder cannon, which now had a sword sticking out of its barrel.
Suddenly, Buffy was back inside the unofficial circle outlined by spectators, having leaped down from the roof. She landed next to one of the piles of abandoned medieval weapons, where she picked up a replacement sword and a short handled battle ax. The female predator, now completely visible to all spectators, flexed her massive right arm, and two extremely nasty looking serrated blades popped out.
The two antagonists started to circle each other once again. Then, when Buffy's back was to the other four predators, one of the three smaller outlines separated itself from the rest, obviously a male, and advanced towards Buffy's unguarded back. Hellboy fumbled for his massive hand cannon, but he was going to be too late.
Buffy, though, half turned. Her left arm was a blur of motion as she threw the battle ax while never taking her eyes off of the larger female. The battle ax buried itself into the male predator's chest. Sparks flew, the outlined form swam into view, and then the male predator, much smaller than the female but still over seven feet tall, fell onto his face in a widening pool of glowing yellowish green blood.
This slayer was as good as her reputation. But then, this was the slayer who had killed three master vampires before her eighteenth birthday, and who had averted at least four apocalypses. Father suspected that this slayer might even be the Warrior of Prophecy.
Hellboy stopped worrying, and as the predator closed with the slayer, he felt an excited anticipation.
This was gonna be good.
...
Buffy ducked the first swipe of the predator's arm blades, but Xander could see that the thing was fast. Very, very fast. So, evidently, could Buffy, who used her own speed to leap backwards beyond the reach of those terrible arm blades. The next moment, however, the predator matched Buffy's leap. Buffy leaped again, this time sideways, and Xander just had a millisecond to realize that his friend had suckered the alien to commit to its own leap. As it landed with such force that the ground literally shook, and a cloud of already broken pavement fragments formed around it, Buffy was now running forward from the predator's left with a speed that matched the predator's own.
Buffy swung her sword, and the predator emitted a startled roar of pain as the sword cut a deep grove into the predator's left arm. However, the predator swiftly demonstrated that its right arm still worked just fine as it parried the next swipe of Buffy's sword between its two serrated arm blades, then twisted the sword out of Buffy's grip.
This was bad.
...
The predator felt a brief moment of triumph. This female Earth creature was impossible. Impossibly strong, and especially impossibly fast. Most disconcerting of all, the creature fought with an experience many times that of her chronological age, indeed almost as if she had fought a predator before.
The predator had not approved when her mother gave one of her brothers the order to assist. Although honor was important to predators, it was not that the predator's sense of fair play was violated. Predators were above all pragmatic. Accomplishment was tied not only to taking risks, but managing them.
No, the disapproval came from the realization that her mother would only have given that order if she was convinced that her daughter was losing the fight.
And yet, incredibly, the human had immediately neutralized the added threat while not letting down her guard.
But, her brother's sacrifice had not been for nothing. It had settled his sister down, and now, finally, she had the advantage. She had disarmed the Earth creature.
As she kicked the human's weapon aside, the predator came in low, intending to gut the human on her blade.
But the human evaded the strike and was gone. The predator looked around for the human, but it wasn't until she felt a relentless, vice like grip on her right arm that the predator realized where the human had gone.
The human had jumped onto her arm! The human was so light that the predator hadn't even registered the creature's weight on her arm! Not until the creature exerted her own strength, bending the arm back on itself, and turning the blades against their owner.
It was then and there that the predator understood the truly unnatural nature of her opponent. The creature's strength literally seemed to come from nothing! There was no muscle mass behind it. If the human had attempted to kick or strike the predator, she would not have done any damage. The human would simply have bounced off the predator's far greater mass.
But now, the human was using the predator's own muscle mass for leverage, and she felt her arm bend under the pressure. The predator had no choice but to bring her left hand over to support her right forearm.
Suddenly, the pressure ceased, and too late the predator realized what the human's actual objective had been.
It was her final thought.
...
Giles felt a sense of draining relief as Buffy rolled off the predator's body. She had pulled the sword out of the predator's shoulder cannon and shoved it through the predator's helmeted head, holding onto the cannon for leverage.
It had been the most remarkable display of raw power Giles had ever seen Buffy pull off.
Giles watched as Buffy turned towards the spot where she had said the predators were standing. She said something. Hellboy stepped forward and also brandished his weapon threateningly.
Then, from the spot where both Buffy and Hellboy were directing their attention, there was a shower of sparks, and three shapes wavered into view. The predators all seemed to be startled, and Giles himself wondered what had happened.
That is, until Willow Rosenberg stepped forward, her eyes black, and joined the side of Buffy and Hellboy.
Possibly the most powerful witch in generations had decided to take a hand.
The thought replaced Giles' sense of relief with one of unease.
...
"So," Buffy said. "Anyone else have any surprises?"
Buffy felt much less confidence than her words communicated. The female predator had been a tough opponent, extremely difficult to stay ahead of. Worse, the male predator would have taken her completely by surprise if it hadn't been for Willow's telepathic warning.
Then, suddenly, the cloaking fields for the three remaining predators shorted out. The three remaining predators were suddenly standing revealed, looking around as if trying to figure out what went wrong.
The answer appeared at Buffy's elbow.
"Hey, Buffy," Willow said.
And just like that, the balance of power shifted.
...
As he translated for the predator matriarch, K felt a little numb. He had seen many incredible things. At one time, so many incredible things he had asked J to wipe his memory. It hadn't worked, being a MIB agent was apparently in the very fiber of K's DNA.
But, to see a twenty year old California blond cutie barely break a sweat while taking apart two preds, one of them a female, well...there simply were no words for that.
"We congratulate the Earth female on her victory, and there will be no further tests," the Matriarch said. The Matriarch was extremely impressive. She was gigantic, and wore a necklace made up of jaws and teeth from some of the most terrifying carnivores ever described in the Encyclopedia Galactica, and even a couple of jaws and teeth from things that K was not familiar with (nor did he ever want to be). "We are ready to begin negotiations."
After K translated to Buffy Summers, the girl nodded.
"Let me check with my people," she said.
...
The first thing Buffy did was to go back and interrupt the hug between Dawn and Tara. She then gave the quiet and gentle blond witch a hug of her own.
"Welcome back, Tara," Buffy said.
"Thanks," said Tara.
"How did you...?" Buffy asked.
"It...it was Willow's idea, after she w...w...watched the alien doctor repairing Giles. The alien repaired my brain, and Willow used magick to jump start my pscyhe. There're some missing memories, quite a lot actually. That stuff is probably still with Glory. But, no more babbling craziness, so I'm happy."
"Well, thanks," Buffy said. "Willow said that you were the one who saw the male predator sneaking up on me."
"Yeah," Tara said. "These predators have such interesting auras. Willow figured I might be able to see them where no one else could."
Next
Chapter 4
Negotiations