Chapter 7

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Major General George Hammond was having a bad day. SG-1 and SG-2 were in California investigating someone hacking the SGC public database. They had called in that there was something very, very strange going on there. And now he had just gotten off the phone with the President. Apparently the NID had claimed Sunnydale as their own and he was ordered to pull his people out. He had managed to negotiate one more day for them to check out the high school tomorrow and then they had to leave. He wasn't looking forward to O'Neill's (admittedly righteous) whining about the NID. And now he was on the phone with a young man from Sunnydale.

"Sorry, I don't know anything about a hacking. Our group doesn't use computers very much. Kinda old fashioned, you might say."

Hammond wasn't sure if the young man was telling the truth or not. But he was willing to give the young man the benefit of the doubt for now. "Then why are you calling?" he demanded (nicely).

"I saw your men here. I didn't want them to get hurt." the man said dubiously.

"Is that some type of threat?" the general growled. His men weren't in uniform and certainly weren't about to go banding words like StarGate Command around. Never mind the number to his office. Whoever this was had just shown that they knew an awful lot about the SGC, including recognizing his men on sight.. That someone knew that much about them in such a small town either meant that he knew the hacker or was the hacker.

A sigh came through the phone. "Sir, if I told you a year ago that messing with Apophis would be a bad idea... would you consider that a threat or a warning? This is not a safe town for the unprepared. And your men are unprepared for what they will face here. You don't bring a pistol to a death glider fight, sir."

"Just what are you saying?" Hammond pressed.

"Your men lack the weapons and the training to deal with the threat here." the voice answered.

"What exactly are they facing then?" George decided he was going to need more Tums.

"That's classified." Hammond could almost hear the smirk on the other end. Then another sigh. "Tell you what. I'll see if I can convince one of our freedom fighters to allow your men to come on patrol tonight. I'm sending a Dr. Rupert Giles over to the hotel right now. He tells me he and Dr. Jackson are already acquaintances. He'll explain to Dr. Jackson and his team what he feels they need to know, they can then brief you when they get back. If you don't like that, then I suggest that you pull your team out now."

Hammond hung up when his line went dead.

Xander chuckled after he hung up the phone. That was actually pretty fun. Being able to jerk around a 2 star general is not something you get to do every day. If they ever met, Xander was sure he was going to pay for that, but hopefully they would not meet. He checked his watch. Giles and Buffy should be arriving at the hotel any minute now. He silently thanked Buffy that she was brave enough to face the military for him. He started heading that way too. If nothing else, he wasn't going to let Buffy be taken in his place.

Slayer and Watcher entered the lobby of the hotel not long before sundown. She had saved the clerk one night not too long ago and he was only too happy to point out the rooms the military people were in and Dr. Jackson in particular.

"They're not...?" the clerk began.

"No, I'm just here to show them around town." Buffy answered with a somewhat devious smile.

The clerk looked out at the setting sun and gulped. Buffy and Giles walked down the hall to the indicated room and knocked.

The door opened and a tall man in green fatigues opened the door with a phone to his ear. "Yes, General. I think they might be here." He hung up. "Are you Dr. Rupert Giles?"

"I am. But please call me Rupert. Or just Giles is fine as well." Giles offered his hand. The other man hesitated a moment before taking it.

"Colonel Jack O'Neill, US Air Force." Jack answered. He then offered his hand to Buffy.

"Buffy." she stated when she shook his hand. She had kamikaze butterflies in her stomach meeting professional soldiers like this. But they suddenly cleared up and she squeezed a little harder than necessary when she saw a smirk forming on his lips. Then she released and looked up at Giles. "You're a doctor?"

"Later, Buffy." Giles said as a man with glasses stepped forward. "Ah yes, Dr. Jackson. A pleasure to meet you again." Giles grasped the man's hand.

"Dr. Giles. I remember you from my last seminar. You were one of the few people who didn't laugh at my presentation." Daniel greeted him warmly.

"Please, call me Rupert."

"Only if you call me Daniel."

The big guy who had been standing in the back of the room stepped forward. Buffy immediately placed herself in between Giles and the large man. "He's not human. Is he one of those alien thingamabobs?"

Teal'c quirked an eyebrow at O'Neill who waved for him to go ahead. "I am a Jaffa."

"A Jaafa? Really?" Giles was intrigued.

"It is pronounced Jaffa." Teal'c corrected.

"What's a Jay-fah?" Buffy asked her watcher.

"The Jaffa," Giles carefully pronounced the name just as Teal'c had, "were the servants of the demon-god Ra and his family."

"Okay, then what's he doing here?" Buffy asked.

"He's a good Jaffa. He fights for our side now." O'Neill explained for what felt like the hundredth time. He was temped to get Teal'c a new tattoo that said 'Good Jaffa' so he could stop explaining it to people.

"Oh. Okay." Buffy stepped back and relaxed, allowing Teal'c to step forward.

Jack smirked a little at the way she went from ready to kill to cute little teen just like that.

"I am Murray." He shook Giles' hand.

Giles looked confused. "Is there a Teal'c here as well?"

O'Neill was torn between being irked and impressed. Their intelligence was top notch. "Murray is a cover name."

Giles nodded. Teal'c and Buffy then shook hands. They both looked uncomfortable.

"He's giving me the wiggins." Buffy explained.

"I too am experiencing discomfort being so close to this one." Teal'c explained letting go of her hand.

"Just what are you then?" Jack asked.

"Hey!" Buffy was offended. "I'm human... mostly." she looked at Giles and waved her hand. "Do your thing."

They had to wait a minute while Daniel ran and collected SG-2. There were more introductions then Giles gave them his speech and explained their new theory that it was the arrival of the Gould (corrected by Daniel to Goa'uld) that drove the demons/aliens from earth. Then he explained the Vampire Slayer and her powers. Buffy jumped in explaining in no uncertain terms that there would be no dissections.

Jack and everyone from the SGC readily agreed with her. None of them had ever met such a small girl that could strike fear into battle hardened men before.

"Well that certainly explains the desk clerk's actions last night." Jack observed.

Then it was time to patrol.

"No guns." Buffy said firmly.

"You've got to be kidding me." Jack complained.

"Colonel O'Neill," Giles jumped in before Buffy could retort. "the things we hunt shrug off bullets like they were bee stings. Running around in the dark with weapons that can hurt us, but not our enemies is a recipe for disaster. Now I have some weapons in my boot that you can use. They may be a bit archaic for your tastes, but they do at least work. You will not be unarmed."

"Boot?" Jack asked looking down at the watcher's footwear.

"Trunk of his car. It's a British term." Daniel offered. Ever translating, even on Earth.

"Ahh." Jack nodded.

Teal'c then pulled his staff weapon out from under his bed. "Slayer Buffy, will this be effective against the creatures we hunt?"

Buffy took the staff from Teal'c. She opened the window, activated the weapon as if she had fired one before and fired a shot into a tree outside, leaving a melted hole in the screen of the window. Then she closed the weapon and handed it back to Teal'c. "Awesome. That should work. It'll make a good quarter-staff if it doesn't."

"We can't take the staff weapon." Jack started to argue. "We can't let civilians see it."

"This town is infested with vampires, Jack. And no one notices. They're not going to notice a staff weapon." Buffy argued back. Then to Teal'c, "Just try not to fire it around civilians. K?" Teal'c nodded, and Buffy went on. "You wouldn't happen to have any more of those would you?"

"No!" Giles and Jack both said together.

"Okay, okay." Buffy threw up her hands. "You burn down one little gym and they never let you play with anything fun again."

"You burned down your gym?" Jack asked incredulously.

"It was infested with vampires." Buffy said as if that explained everything.

"Indeed."

.

Chapter 8

A/N: Well that was some interesting feedback. I have half my reviewers saying "Thank you for not making us read pages of disbelief from SG-1" and the other half saying "Where's the pages of disbelief from SG-1?"

And a VERY SPECIAL thank you to tasuxeda who proposed the challenge and has now offered us his recommendation. Thank you tasuxeda.

"Are you really buying this 'demons and vampires' thing?" Jack whispered to Daniel as they armed themselves.

"As in supernatural beings. No of course not." Dr. Jackson whispered back. "But we've seen stranger stuff on other planets. There's plenty of evidence that something is here. There's probably a much more mundane explanation of the creatures than they think. Just try not to say anything to tick them off?"

"Who? Me?"

Daniel shook his head at the grin his friend gave him and walked over to where everyone was kitting out.

The soldiers stood in the parking lot decked out for medieval warfare. Jack, Giles and two men from SG-2 had crossbows. The rest all had a sword or an ax. Jack and Giles also had swords. Everyone had at least 2 stakes.

"Listen up. These are the rules. You stick with Giles. No one leaves his side." Buffy told the battle hardened soldiers. Teal'c cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. "Fine. No one but Teal'c leaves the group. Just stay in visual range." Buffy changed her mind and Teal'c nodded his approval.

"Like she said. Stick together people." O'Neill backed up Buffy.

"How come he gets to go off on his own?" a young Lieutenant from SG-2 asked.

"Because he's faster and stronger than you and he's an expert with a weapon that actually has a chance of killing a vampire. If you had more staff weapons, I might consider smaller groups, but this will have to do." Buffy stated. "Any other stupid questions?"

Giles winced at his Slayer's lack of diplomacy. They would have to work on that later.

The patrol was going well. Buffy had found a fledgling and punched and kicked it over to a street lamp so that everyone could get a good look at it. She then handed it off to Teal'c, who hit it with staff weapon a couple times before shooting it once. It exploded in a cloud of dust.

"Guess we add staff weapon to the list of ways to kill a vampire." Buffy noted. "Everyone see that? That was a fledgling. It was his first night as a vamp and he was alone. The older a vamp gets, the harder they are to kill. But even fledges can be dangerous." Buffy felt like she was teaching class. "Where did that one guy go? Maybe he wants to try the next one?"

Everyone looked around. "Turner? Any one seen Turner? And where's Ferretti?" Jack asked.

Buffy got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach and her voice got very serious, "Giles, Teal'c. You take them back to the hotel. I'll get the others." With that, she took off.

"Okay, Daniel. You just saw a guy explode after taking a staff blast. Tell me what your mundane explanation of that is." O'Neill growled as they marched back to the hotel.

Lieutenant Turner had this in the bag. No stupid little girl was going to tell him what to do. He couldn't believe how the Major had bent over for the ditsy blonde. He had a sword and a year and a half of Kendo under his belt. He had seen how easily the little girl had manhandled the vampire. She even had time to make up bad jokes while doing so. Trying to scare them into thinking it was hard or something. A quick beheading and he'd soon have his first vampire kill. Until he came across an actual vamp and he found that it was both faster and stronger than he had thought. He barely had time to register what a bad idea this was before he was being drained.

The vamp had his back to him, had Lt. Turner in his grasp, and appeared to be feeding on him. Major Ferretti took aim and hoped that the bolt didn't go all the way through. Thump! came the sound of the bolt striking home. Just to the right of the monster's heart. Ferretti didn't hesitate. He charged the vampire with a stake while the beast was still trying to dislodge the bolt from it's back. They fell into stake to hand combat. And Ferretti knew he was losing. He wasn't sure if the bolt still in the vampire's back was hampering him at all. If it was, he didn't want to face a vampire at full strength. It would certainly rival Teal'c. Switching his stake to his left hand, he drew the side arm he didn't leave back at the hotel as requested. He emptied the full clip into his opponent. The vamp staggered for a second, then gave a feral grin. Ferretti didn't bother to reload the gun. He just threw it at the vamp's face and charged behind that distraction.

Buffy was searching the area she thought the soldiers had gone towards. Suddenly gunshots rang out. A lot of shots. Buffy was actually thankful that that stupid soldier hadn't followed that order. It might allow her to reach him in time to save his sorry a- butt.

Oh no! The vamp had him and was already feeding. A burst of speed and a stake and the vamp was dust. Buffy barely registered that he had already had a bolt sticking out of his back. The body of his last victim fell into her arms. But it wasn't Stupid Soldier, it was the other guy. The leader of SG-2. Buffy put a hand to his neck. He had a pulse but it was weak. She picked him up. Then she spotted the other guy. The one who had started all this was lying not far away. And she could see he was still breathing too. She threw the first soldier over her shoulder then did the same with the second. And she prayed that she didn't run into any more vamps on the way to the hospital.

When she got to the hospital she explained that they were having a barbeque fork fight and that they'd lost a lot of blood. It wasn't the first time she had used that line with this nurse. The woman no longer even blinked when she brought in people weighing more than 3 times her body weight. Instead, she gave her a knowing smile and then gave orders to type their blood and get IV's started.

Buffy called the hotel from the reception area phone.

"She found them." Giles said as he hung up the phone. "They were both drained almost to the point of death, but she may have gotten to them in time. We won't know until tomorrow I'm afraid."

"Fine, let's get over there." Jack stood up.

"I'm afraid Buffy is too tired and is heading home for the night. She wont be able to escort us over there. We'll be staying here until morning, when it will be safe again."

"Listen. My men-" Jack began.

"Are perfectly safe. There's not enough blood in them to interest a vampire any more. The rest of your men would be the ones in danger from such a trip. And do you honestly think you can sneak that staff weapon into a hospital? I doubt even the residents of Sunnydale would miss that in a brightly lit room." Giles argued.

"Fine." Jack growled. "First thing tomorrow then."

"I was wondering if I might take one of the injured soldier's beds?" Giles queried. At a look from O'Neill, he continued, "I said 'we' are staying here. I don't take any unnecessary risks myself if I can help it. And going home alone, at night, when I have a secure enough position here would be foolish."

Jack acquiesced and Giles ended up with a room of his own for the night.

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