I do not own the characters I'm writing about. They are apparently owned by Bolivar Trask
Buffy skipped up the steps to her house, and let herself in with a lyrical "I'm hoooooome!" Her mother walked out of the kitchen, following the smell of her world-famous meatloaf, and ended up on the receiving end of a huge hug.
"Someone's in a good mood tonight. Something special happen at school today?" Joyce quirked with a grin.
"Nope. Well, a little. Someone pointed out that that moping around wouldn't make me feel any better, so I should try and be cheerful."
"Sounds like good advice to me."
"I'm giving it a try. Positive outlook, good things will happen, right?"
"It's a good start at least. Dinner's almost ready, why don't you wash up and set the table?"
Before Buffy could answer, the doorbell rang.
"Right, as soon as I get this."
Stepping over to the door, Buffy opened it with a hello on her lips. The words died there as she saw a menacing looking black man in a well-cut suit with several dozen thugs behind him. He smiled at her, showing just a bit too much tooth.
"Hello Slayer. I hope I'm not disturbing…"
What he was or was not disturbing was cut off by Buffy introducing her foot to his crotch, and her fist to the side of his head. She slammed the door shut, and ran into the kitchen.
"Mom! Call Giles! We've got…"
The sound of the kitchen windows being smashed interrupted her, causing her to grab her mother and make her way towards the living room. She barreled around the corner as the living room windows shattered as well, this time accompanied by a sharp pain in her left arm. Ducking behind the couch with her mother, she looked over at blood dripping down her shoulder.
"Interrupting me wasn't very polite, Slayer. You'll find I'm far more civilized when you're polite. All I wanted to do was ask you a few questions, but now, well, I'm gonna huff, "
Buffy risked a peek over the edge of the couch to see the well-dressed vampire holding a large pistol in his right hand just outside the window with his left hand extended to one of his flunkies.
"And I'm gonna puff"
His minions handed him a glass bottle with a rag in the end of it.
"And I'm gonna burn your house down."
Giles had just finished off at the library and was walking towards his car when his mobile went off. He grumbled as he searched his pockets for it, knowing that Willow had set it up so all of the Scoobies had specific rings, but she used that modern garbage they called music these days, and he didn't recognize any of it. He finally retrieved his phone, having placed some of his books on the ground.
"Hello, yes? …Joyce, a pleasure to…what? …How many? …She's been shot? …I'll call the others, and we'll be there right away."
Giles hung up the phone and started swearing at the infernal device, trying to decipher the modern menace's call listings. After a few seconds of fumbling, he managed to get Xander's number, and pressed dial.
"…Not now, this is an emergency…Joyce called, she and Buffy are under assault in their home…that's right, grab the weapon bags and get over there….at least a dozen, possibly more…Good."
After placing similar calls to Willow and Cordelia as he was getting into his car, he jammed the keys in the ignition and tried to push the accelerator through the floor.
Oz slammed on his brakes as they pulled even with the house on 1630 Revello Drive. He and Willow were first to arrive, seeing as they had still been in the car on their way to dinner when Giles called. Oz and Willow stared out the windshield for a moment, paralyzed at the sight of at least two dozen vampires swarming the house, not to mention the five vans and a limo on the curb in front. As flames burst through the front door, they were freed from their shock, and leapt into action.
Oz climbed into the back of the van as Willow jumped out the passenger door, keeping the van between her and the vampires. She opened the side door and took a paintball gun and extra holy water ammo from her boyfriend, as well as a pair of stakes and a crossbow. She strapped the ammunition on and slung the crossbow while Oz outfitted himself as well, trying not to worry that no-one was going to show up wearing armor, and that neither Oz nor Xander would have had the time to go into their meditations to power them up.
In the thirty seconds it took them to gear up, Xander and Faith screeched onto the scene. They jumped out of the car and met the redhead and the werewolf, forming up with Faith in the lead. Leaping on top of the limo, they leveled paintball and water guns, and immediately opened up on the rear ranks, drawing screams of pain and confusion from the vampires.
Faith's gun puffed empty and she dropped it, switching to a sword and stake combo as she charged into the fray, Xander and Oz on her heels with axe and sword as well. They were replaced by Cordelia, with her high-end red paintball gun, and Giles with a bag of powder and a sword. As Cordelia and Willow lay down cover fire, Giles dropped his sword and started chanting and tossing the strangely scented powder around. His chanting reached a crescendo, causing the fire to flare up for a moment, and then fly out of the house towards the closest vampires, immolating them in seconds. It looked for a moment that the tide of battle was turning, until the roof of the limo they were standing on was torn out from under them, and the three of them fell into the car, face to face with a very ugly vampire.
Buffy was holding her mother tightly to her, trying to protect her from the flames that had begun to consume the living room when a sudden gust of wind pulled the fire out of the house and back onto the undead on their porch. Gasping for breath, Buffy looked over and heard the sounds of battle from outside.
"Mom, stay inside and grab the gear from the basement. There's holy water pistols and stakes, I have to help the others."
"Buffy, you're hurt! You can't go out there!"
"If I don't, my friends will be hurt. I'll be fine, I promise."
Holding her mother's eyes for another second, Buffy stood and slammed her foot through a charred end table, turning it into makeshift stakes. Then, in an inadvertent echo of her sister-Slayer, she, too, charged into the fight.
Faith was starting to feel the pressure. Their holy water attack had weakened the vamps, and when she and the boys had hit the line, they'd managed to get a half-dozen quick kills on the injured and confused demons. G's spell had bagged at least four more, and it was starting to look like a sweep for the home team. Then support from the rear had stopped, and the ugly undead started to pull it together. Xander had taken a solid right to the jaw that dropped him for a minute, forcing her and Oz to stand over him and defend him while he shook it off. Oz took a few broken ribs for his trouble, and was down to fighting one-handed, holding his damaged sides with his other, while Faith had picked up a knife-wound on her leg that was bleeding more than she was comfortable with. She could feel Buffy join the fight, but they had no way of joining up, there were just too many of the damn things between them.
She heard the puff of a paintball gun from her feet, and the vampires around her screamed in pain, leaving themselves open for the stakings and beheadings she proceeded to hand out. That bought enough space for Xander to climb to his feet again, dropping the paintball pistol he'd been carrying in his jacket, and reading his axe.
With the three of them standing again, and the vampires divided between Buffy and them, Faith was again feeling confident that they could burn through these vamps in no time.
Then someone punched her in the gut harder than she'd ever been punched, and the ground hit her in the face.
Cordelia screamed and reflexively pulled the trigger of her paintball gun, likely saving all of their lives as a stream of holy water paintballs impacted the pig-faced demon. He bellowed in agony and swung one of his cloven fists at her, missing as Willow dragged her to the side. Giles was still woozy from the spell and the fall, but he was fumbling for his dropped sword, not realizing it had fallen outside of the car. Willow grabbed her stake and lunged towards the horrifying figure, trying to end the fight quickly. The stake shattered against his back, leaving a blinking Willow holding splinters, and unable to react in time to get out of the way of his backhand. The monstrous figure growled "Enough!" as he grabbed Cordelia by the throat and kicked Giles into the door to open it. Stepping on top of the stunned Watcher, he looked over at the fight still going on and smiled.
Buffy paused in her slaying as she heard another gunshot. Feeling no new pain, she looked over at where the noise came from and saw the vampire in the suit holding his smoking pistol, and Faith collapsed to the ground. He smiled at Buffy and moved his gun so it was no longer pointed at Faith. Unfortunately, it was now pointed at Buffy's mother through the destroyed living room window. Buffy tensed to attack.
"Ah-ah Slayer, I wouldn't do anything foolish were I in your shoes. This gun is a bit twitchy, and I'd hate to see the mess it would cause on your dear, sweet mother. Drop the stakes, or mommy dearest gets a .45 caliber face lift."
Giles came flying out of the limo and sprawled inelegantly on the sidewalk as a huge vampire stepped out on top of him, dragging Cordelia with him.
"Mr. Trick, for your sake, Faith had better not be dead. Yet."
"Don't fret over it boss, she's bleeding a little, but it'll take more than a gut wound to stop a Slayer. What do you think? Should we take her friends, and continue what we started on her Watcher, or finish them off and go straight to the main event?"
Xander and Oz were facing off four vampires in front of Faith, who had collapsed, and was curled into a ball crying after she heard the ugly demon start talking. Xander still had his axe in hand, but Oz had lost his sword, and was holding them back at cross-point. Xander caught Buffy's eye, and tilted his chin towards the pistol-wielding vampire. Her eyes widened for a moment, and then she gave him a half nod. Tossing a light tap at Oz's ankle, Xander whispered "Under my coat. You get the ugly one."
Oz tilted his head and rolled his shoulder, waiting half a second before throwing his cross at the nearest vampire before batting his friend's coat to the side, revealing another paintball pistol. He yanked it out of the holster and opened fire on the vampire choking Cordelia as Xander took a step forward and hurled his axe at the one with the gun.
Trick was distracted by Kakistos' roar of pain, and almost didn't see the axe spinning towards his head until the last second. Grabbing a hapless minion to intercept the axe, he leveled his pistol towards the boy who threw it, shaking his head.
"Nice try, but you'll have to do better than that, kid."
"He did."
A searing punch to the face sent Trick tumbling away. He shook his head to clear it, and saw that the blond Slayer had retrieved the axe, and was making short work of the rest of his minions. He'd lost his gun when she hit him, and he knew it was time to cut and run. Stepping back into the shadows between the houses, he made his way to his backup car, parked a few blocks away for just this kind of contingency.
Oz, Cordelia and a somewhat recovered Giles managed to keep the boss vampire off-balance while Buffy finished off the rest of the minions. As she walked over to the ancient vampire, Xander had managed to get Faith back on her feet and they met up with Buffy. The blond looked over at the junior Slayer, who was having a hard time meeting her eyes.
"Faith, you know this guy?"
"Kakistos. He killed Diana. My Watcher." Came the mumbled reply.
Buffy stopped and thought for a second, looking over at Giles for a long moment before turning to Faith and handing her the axe.
"Then I guess it's time for you to even the score."
Emotions running freely across her face, Faith took the axe and, still trembling, walked over to where the demon who had been tracking her lay on the ground, moaning in pain from the holy water that was covering him. She stared down at him for a long moment before raising the axe over her head, and bringing it down on his neck, ending the terror of Kakistos for good. She leaned on Oz, her leg giving out as Willow crawled out of the limo. Xander took her and lowered her to the ground as Joyce came running out with the backpack-sized first aid kit. He spent a few minutes tearing cloth and wrapping bandages before turning to Giles.
"If it were anyone but the Chosen Two who'd been shot, we'd already be heading to the hospital, but as it is, I can patch everyone up back at the safe house. Oz has broken ribs, but he can heal those to badly bruised overnight if he changes, you have a concussion, so you're staying at the safe house so we can monitor you, Willow and Cordy are bruised, and I think I might have a concussion as well. I'll tape Oz up and he can move the vans and limos somewhere else so we aren't tied to them, Joyce can park your car here, and call the fire department for a statement before driving you over, and Willow and Cordy can drive the wounded to my place."
"I do NOT want to get blood all over my seats. And what about me? Bruised? That gorilla nearly broke my neck!"
Xander let out a long sigh, and reminded himself that this was just how Cordy coped with the violence. "Willow has some herbs that speed up healing. Add some Advil, bruise cream and ice, and you shouldn't even have a mark tomorrow. We'll put towels down to protect your car, it'll be fine. And Cordy?" The brunette looked over at him "thanks for helping out tonight."
A sad smile flashed across her face before she pulled her look of distain back into place. "Whatever, geek. Coming Summers?"
Oz started moving the cars as Giles and Joyce policed for stray weapons and figured out what lame story they needed to tell the police this time. Everyone else was loaded up into the cars, and slowly drove away.
Mr. Trick was driving three miles under the speed limit when city limits came in sight, and a smile broke across his face. He was free of Kakistos, after far too long working under that relic, and now he had a chance to shine. He was going to show the world what a modern vampire could do, and how technology could make being bad sooooo much better.
The smile left his face as a Bentley came out of a blind alley and cut him off, forcing him to stop. A pair of uniformed men yanked his door open and man-handled him into the luxury car before slamming the door on him.
Trick straightened his suit before addressing the shadowed figure across from him. "I have no idea why your boys stopped me and stuck me in here, but I assure you that one of us is about to regret it."
Before he could act, a feeling of cold dread passed through him, leaving him shaken, and fearful of the man sitting across from him.
"Now, I'm sure that we can manage to have a meeting without any unpleasantness, Mr. Trick. After all, an ambitious young man like yourself, capable of tracking a Slayer across the country and coming within inches of taking out not one but two Slayers at once, well gosh, he could have a great place doing business here in good old Sunnydale. But first, please, clean your hands. And take special care around the nails."
AN: hope you liked the fight scene. Please review, because it's a good natural high, unlike huffing mice.