A/N: A Reminder: I don't care what cannon says. A group of hyenas is a Clan, not a Pack. See the wikipedia entry on the Spotted Hyena for details. – I'd like to point out that I'm an equal opportunity canon-breaker. I don't care who wrote it, "because it's wrong."

Chapter 16.

Kyle easily snapped the zip tie holding his hands behind his back. A feeling of strength suffused his entire body. Now was the time to assert his dominance and take control of the group. He turned on the teacher that had challenged him and struck.

Jenny was expecting that, though, and easily deflected the clumsy blow and used his momentum to flip Kyle onto his back, knocking the wind out of him. She checked that Lance had left before taking the next step. She flipped Kyle over while he was still trying to catch his breath and pulled both hands up behind his back... hard. She didn't bother with the useless zip ties this time. "Who's the leader of the clan?" She had to wait until he caught his breath again. "Who's the leader of the clan?" she sing-songed this time.

"You are," Kyle admitted.

"That's made for you and me," she continued singing.

"Huh?"

"Em eye es," Rhonda caught the tune first.

"Es see aye," Heidi caught on too.

"El ee en dee aye-are," the last letter was kind of muddled between the three women as two letters were forced into a spot reserved for one. The words 'Miss Calendar' just didn't fit in the spot in the song as well as the original words did. The two girls and Tor started laughing at the joke. Kyle didn't find it nearly as funny, lying face down on the concrete still trying to breathe normally after having the wind knocked out of him and a woman sitting on top of him.

"Next time, just leave out the second 'es' in 'miss'," Jenny said to the girls, then picked Kyle up easily. She had to admit, this extra strength was nice. "Now, to the bus."

The laughter suddenly stopped.

"But- I thought-" Heidi began.

"You're one of us now," Rhonda stated what they all felt.

"Yes. And I'm the leader. Which makes me responsible for you. More so than before, even. So, you're going to go sit on the bus while I try to figure out what the hell just happened and why," Jenny said.

"You're not going to try and undo this are you?" Heidi asked. This feeling of strength was amazing. She never wanted to give this up.

"I don't know yet," Jenny said honestly. "This kind of empowering magic always has side effects. I need to figure out how we were empowered so I can figure out if the side effects can be handled, negated, or whether they'll drive us mad and consume us if we don't undo this."

Her warning didn't have the desired effect. All four children started laughing. Even she felt her lips twitching. Being consumed by magic was suddenly very funny to her. "Just go so I can figure this out. And don't pick on anyone on your way out. I don't want to have to deal with getting you out of detention to deal with this."

They finally left and Jenny was free to examine the sacred circle painted on the ground. She couldn't believe she had missed that when she entered, but she had been a little focused on saving Lance at the time.

It was clear from the design that it was a spirit-possession circle. And the only other animals in here at the time had been the hyenas. They'd been looking right at them when she'd felt the power hit her. Now she just needed to research hyena spirit possessions. She really wished now that that stuffy librarian hadn't taken all the good books out of the library when he disappeared, but at least he couldn't take the information off the internet. That was why she liked computers so much. It was very hard to erase information off the internet.

"It saps our intelligence. Or our ability to reason at any rate. It pretty much leaves us as animals if left unchecked," Jenny explained to the clan.

"I don't feel any dumber," Tor said, rubbing his head.

"That's 'cause you couldn't get any dumber than you already are," Heidi teased.

The group burst out laughing at that, even Jenny chuckled. "There are two ways to stop it. Either undo the spell-"

"No!" the other four shouted.

"-or, there's the second half of the ritual we can do." Jenny smiled at the eager nods all around. She drove them all to her house. They couldn't really do the ritual at school. First of all, they didn't have most of the herbs and other ingredients she needed, and secondly, this part of the ritual required them to be 'sky-clad'. AKA, naked. As she drove she explained. "Magic is real. There are things out there. Things that stalk the night. Things straight out of your nightmares. That's why this empowerment spell exists in the first place. African tribes developed it to combat the monsters. Because most of those things are faster, stronger, and see better at night than we do. But they didn't just want to create new, more powerful monsters. The second part of the ritual makes sure we keep our human minds in control. Mostly."

"We're going to get night-vision?" Tor asked.

Jenny shrugged. "Really don't know. We won't find out for sure until tonight, but there's a good chance, though. Hyenas are visual hunters. But back to my point: monsters are real. Vampires are real. Pretty much anything you've heard of that goes bump in the-"

"Crap," Kyle interrupted.

"Yes. But there are things out there that bump back. We're one of them," Jenny said.

"Wait," Heidi said. "You want us to hunt monsters?"

"Only if you want to keep these powers. This isn't a free ride. With great power comes great responsibility, after all. Does anyone want to go back to their nice, boring, suburban lives?" Jenny offered as she pulled into her driveway. There weren't any takers.

Jenny did the ritual first as the example and also because she was much less shy about showing her naked body than the nervous teenagers. Male bravado was the only thing that let Tor and Kyle strip down and perform the ceremony. It was hard to say what motivated Heidi and Rhonda except the fear of losing themselves to the hyena. Or maybe just the promise of losing the hyena if they didn't do the ritual.

Once it was done and everyone was dressed again, Jenny addressed the clan, "Two men walked into a bar. The third one ducked."

There was a moment of silence, then snickering, before outright guffaws and giggles. Even Jenny was laughing.

"I guess they're still with us. Hopefully things won't get any worse. Everyone, let me know if you think you or someone else is getting worse," Jenny told them seriously.

Buffy and Xander were staking out the butcher's shop on 49th, hoping for Angel to show up. They needed more info on this Anointed guy. All avenues of research and every patrol had produced bupkis, and they hadn't even spotted Angel again. Which was why they were now sitting on top of a butcher shop's roof, since it was the only place they knew their 'informant' might stop by. Buffy was already muttering about the 'Annoying One,' since, thanks to him, it meant that they had to sit on the roof of a building instead of spending it navigating the air currents above the city. Or having sex, which was more fun than she'd ever imagined. But Giles had actually specified 'no having sex' as part of the rules of the stakeout. Though he probably should have left Amy and- No, that wouldn't work.

Buffy was pulled from her musings when Xander tapped her shoulder. She turned around in time to see a crowd approaching. A really big crowd of vampires. There had to be 50 at least, and Angel was nowhere to be seen. But there was a familiar vamp. Though he no longer looked like Dr. Claw and now looked more like Captain Hook. Both she and Xander ducked behind the lip of the roof so they were out of sight but could still listen. There was no way they wanted to try to take on a group that large. Even with the entire clan with them, that would have been too many.

"Ah! I was wondering when you guys would be visiting again. It's been a while," a male voice said.

"There's been trouble," a female voice answered.

The man sounded a little angry. "You haven't brought that trouble here, have you? You know the agreement-"

"Relax," she cut him off. "That's why we came in such a big group. There are some new players in town. They don't play by the rules."

There was a huff.

"Here's your money. We'll take everything you've got saved up for us," she said.

"Alright," he said. "Wait here. The boys'll be out in a minute with your blood."

Xander and Buffy shared a shocked look that a human was knowingly doing business with vampires but remained quiet. They stayed quiet as the sounds of men carrying and setting down heavy plastic buckets sounded. There was more shuffling, probably the vampires picking up the heavy buckets with their preternatural strength. They waited until it had been perfectly quiet for a full minute until they dared peek. The coast was clear. They didn't even bother extending their wings as they dropped to the ground. A stocky man with a great walrus mustache was standing behind the counter.

"So, you must be the mice that have been crawling around on my roof all night. Are you also the 'new players who don't play by the rules'?" he asked.

Xander broke into a wide grin, "That's us!"

Buffy did not smile. "You're feeding vampires!" she accused.

"Seamus. And you are...?" Seamus extended his hand in greeting.

"Xander," Xander took his hand carefully. When Buffy wouldn't shake, he added, "This is Buffy."

"Pleased ta meet'cha," Seamus smiled. "And I'll answer your question with another question. Do you know how many lives I've saved because I sold them blood so they didn't have to go out and hunt? If I didn't sell them blood, then this town would have been sucked dry decades ago."

Buffy looked a bit flabbergasted as she thought about that.

"And now, since you don't know the rules, and there are plenty you need to know; but the one you need to know right now is: no huntin' around my place. You got a feud with the vamps, I don't care, but you leave it be when you get here or I don't serve ya," Seamus warned.

"Wait," Xander said. "You're willing to serve us even though we look like this?"

Seamus chuckled, "Ya got any money?"

"Well, not on me," Xander admitted. "But we have some, yes. Can we buy other things from you too?"

"You got money, I'll sell you blood, meat, hides, and any other meat or animal byproducts. You want anything else, see Willie over at the Alibi Room. That's another place where you leave your fights outside. But he'll get you what you want or can direct you to whoever you need to see to get whatever you need," Seamus told them. "Oh, and one other thing. Billy! Mac!" he called over his shoulder. Two young men walked out. "These are the new demons in town. Xander and Buffy. Xander and Buffy, these are my assistants, Billy and Mac. No eating them," he shook a finger warningly.

"Oh, uh, we don't eat humans," Buffy said quickly waving her hands in front of her emphatically.

"Yeah, that's kind of why we have a feud against the vamps," Xander nodded. "Or at least one of the reasons. Actually, we're looking for a particular vamp by the name of Angel."

Billy obviously recognized the name.

Seamus looked like he was going to try to lie until Billy blew his cover. "Yeah, I know him. He's not very popular with the others 'cause he doesn't hunt humans at all, supposedly."

"That's the story we heard too, and that's why we're looking for him. We only want to talk to him," Buffy assured him.

Seamus frowned. "Usually comes on Wednesdays. Early, just after sunset."

"If I don't get here in time, tell him Buffy wants to talk. He knows where to find me. Anyway, it was nice to meet you." This time, Buffy held out her hand for the shake and Seamus magnanimously took it.

"Likewise," he said.

Xander and Buffy bounded to the roof and then up again to take off.

Giles was not particularly pleased that they had revealed themselves to a human. He was relieved that the human had reacted well, but supposed that was only par for the course of humans that dealt with vampires day to day... or night to night, as the case might be. That he'd thought they were demons was almost insulting, but Giles was pleased that they hadn't corrected him. "I think I shall have a talk with this 'Willie'," he mused, mostly to himself. "But for now: training. Hop to it."

Living in California, especially near Los Angeles, Giles had fallen out of the habit of watching the weather reports. It was nearly always the same. Bright and sunny. Highs in the 90s in the summer and 50-60s in the winter; lows in the 50s or 30s depending on the season. He never mentioned to his Slayer that California winter temperatures would be met with great enthusiasm in England. What he'd forgotten was that California had a Mediterranean climate complete with hot, dry summers and cool, (relatively) wet winters. November through April was considered the rainy season. Somewhere around 16 inches of rain would fall over the next six months. And he was remembering that now, since it was late in arriving but currently soaking him and his clan to the skin.

Still, even though he felt the rain and knew that it was cool, it failed to chill him like it should. The other gargoyles similarly looked more annoyed than cold.

"Great. Leather takes forever to dry," Buffy groused.

Giles had other priorities. The area they were standing in was cleared of the chaparral but that meant that the vegetation was no longer holding the meager soil in place. Their camp, such as it had been, was now a mud pit. Also, none of their gear was terribly fond of the rain.

"I vote we stay inside during the day today," Willow said.

"Seconded," Buffy agreed.

"Hey, what about your place?" Xander asked Giles. "We'd have a watcher and a Slayer to guard us while we slept."

Giles sighed. He didn't want to have to explain this to them. "Because they aren't here to guard us, Xander. They are here to evaluate us and determine if we are threats or not. And quite frankly, I don't like some of the looks Mr. Zabuto has given us when he thought we weren't looking."

"Me too," Buffy said. "I was voting for staying at my mom's."

"We'll see," Giles said diplomatically. "I would rather that Sam had to look somewhere other than your mother's house if he desired to find us."

"Good point," Buffy nodded.

They all took off and headed for Sunnydale in the rain.

A/N: Just so we're clear: Do not own anything by Disney.

A/N2: Captain Hook is part of the Peter Pan universe. I looked it up and supposedly the copyright on that has expired in the US. Still, it doesn't pay to take chances so: Do not own!