Chapter 25.

There followed an eternity of indecision (which was more like ten seconds of real time) on Lindsey McDonald's part. But, he ultimately decided to acquiesce. Lak Nepp noticed this when he saw Lindsey slowly turn his clenched fists downward, so as to let the sneezing powder drop to the floor. Whereupon, the fez-wearing mage closed his eyes...and concentrated.

As a result, Lindsey was psychokinetically forced to follow through on his original intent.

"Last warning!" exclaimed Kohanek.

"No!" screamed Lindsey: "Don't...!"

There was a thunderous report from Kohanek's Beretta 9mm. Followed by Lindsey McDonald's corpse landing flat on his back. His now-blank eyes staring upward at the ceiling. This, in turn, caused the Fyarl demons to roar in anger and charge straight at the police detective. Fortunately, for him, Buffy was lighter and faster. She charged forward, also, swinging the fireman's axe counter-clockwise in the process. And, as the axe head descended, she slid into a crouch. Thereby depriving the first Fyarl demon of his left foreleg, halfway between knee and hoof!

Kohanek side-stepped its crash landing on the floor, and finished it off by emptying his clip into its left eye. Meanwhile, Buffy (using the momentum from that spinning amputation) sprang upward from the floor. Simultaneously swinging the axe from right to left. . .and consequently lodging it in the second Fyarl's throat. The latter gurgled in pain as it sought to dislodge the source of its torment. But, Buffy was not done. In less time than it takes to tell, she had unslung the modified M-16 and aimed it. Using the zen archery training she normally incorporated into firing crossbows, she then pulled the trigger. Subsequently firing the assault rifle's entire ammo clip into both its eyes!

It was at this point that the SFPD SWAT team finally managed to get past the mucus-covered front half of the Hummer limousine (Lak Nepp having caused them to sneeze all over it, to reinforce the barricade).

MEANWHILE, AT SUNNYDALE GENERAL HOSPITAL. . .

D.R.I. Agent Doyle looked up as his younger partner returned from getting an update on the situation in Greece.

"Well?"

"It's been confirmed," replied Agent Mannetti: "One of the St. Ionnanes monks is unaccounted for. HQ thinks he's headed here, to meet the Slayer. But, she's still pre-occupied, up in Frisco. So, we've been given the green light. We transfer this one to the Dollhouse."

Within ten minutes, a paramedical helicopter was transporting them and the comatose Faith Lehane to a Learjet at the Sunnydale Commuter Airport.

tbc