The distance between Los Angeles and Sunnydale, was thankfully quite a short thing. It really only took us just over three hours to reach Sunnydale, and Buffy easily directed me towards her mother's home.
1630 Revello Drive.
It was quite the nice house. And I had to admire a currently single mother like Joyce being able to afford a place like that. From what I remembered of the show canon, Hank, Buffy's father, didn't pay anything to help them out. No idea how he avoided that to be honest.
Oh well, guy was a cunt anyway. Didn't even turn up to Joyce's funeral from what I remembered.
As I pulled the car to a stop in front of the house, Buffy sighed, lowering the gameboy. "Want me to come with you?" I asked. I need to talk to Joyce anyway. I didn't want to bring it up with Buffy and panic her, but two years from now, Joyce would have a brain tumor that would led to her death. Best to get her to get checked out, and if it couldn't be stopped, get something to heal her with.
Joyce is a sweet woman, and so far, I've come to like Buffy, already consider a good friend, not mention, seriously easy on the eyes. If I can avert her death, I'll be all for it.
If all else fails, I can always take on the trials for her in Los Angeles. Lorne should know where that place is, and he isn't exactly a hard demon to find.
Plus, I need to check and see if Dawn is around at this point. Canonically, the explanation given wasn't the best, so it was hard to tell if it was just creating her a body, fabricating memories and a little bit of reality warping and she was put in at that point, or reality warping to a huge degree where Dawn was created and literally inserted into the womb and born from Joyce and actually lived her life. So it's best to make sure. I could have just asked Buffy, but the situation revolving around Dawn is one I want to keep close to the chest for now.
"No, it's fine," Buffy shook her head, denying me, but she smiled, "If you do, my mom will think you're just random boyfriend I picked up and got confident enough from you to come back."
"Like I said before, I'm not not opposed," I grinned at her, "Besides, with your poor man keeping skills, I'd probably be single again by diner time."
She punched me in the arm, really hard, hard enough that even I felt it. Yet I was the one that was grinning as she cradled her fist a bit, "Damn the hell are you made of?" she complained, "And you wish." she added.
"Stronger stuff than you," I teased, "But fair enough, what should we do about meeting up after this? I don't want to run into your friends by accident and have them try to slay me or something." Left unsaid was that, the only one with a hope of a chance of taking me on was Oz on a Full Moon, and I'd snap him in half.
...Hmm, wonder if I can contract the Werewolf curse? Get that, and take in the primal spirit of a wolf maybe, like Xander did as a Hyena. If I can take a Turok-Han, I can take any of the spirits of those two. I should probably look into it before doing anything crazy, do a bit of research.
"Ehhh, why not come back here tonight, at around eight?" She replied after a moment of thought, "That should give me enough time calm my mom down and talk things through with her, and then we can see about finding my friends with you with me, so they can meet you."
"That's fine with me." I agreed, nodding my head. It would give me enough time to see about getting a place to live, and make some plans about what I'd be going after first.
"I'll see you later then, okay?" Buffy smiled prettily at me, and grabbed her bag from the back seat, and then left the car, "Oh, and by the way, I'm keeping this." her pretty smile turned into a full blown smirk as she waved the gameboy she was playing on at me.
"Oi, that's mine!" I protested.
"You've got another one," she pointed at the back seat, where Red Version and the other Gameboy packaged away was sitting, "Besides, I can't leave Charizard, Nidoking, Kadabra, Haunter, Dragonair and Lapras with you! They're my babies!"
But, I need two of them to trade between so I can get the full pokedex. "Tch," I clicked my tongue at her, "How come I get the cons of dating you, without the pros?" I complained.
"Just your bad luck I guess." she grinned cheekily, and then turned on her heel, bumping the car door shut with her hip and walking towards the house. She looked over her and met my eyes, before turning back. And..there was definitely some extra wiggling in those hips of hers as she made her short walk to her house.
I shook my head, grinning despite myself and drove off. 'Time to get to work.' I mused.
While Buffy was dealing with reuniting with her mother, and possibly her friends, I had to secure a place to stay. And a nice one at that.
One of the more useful powers I have, is hypnosis. I say hypnosis, but it's honestly more along the lines of compulsion that I remember seeing in the Vampire Diaries.
Just by looking someone in the eyes I can hypnotise them, and make them do my bidding, to the point where they see nothing wrong with whatever suggestion I put within their mind. The only drawback is, that the stronger willed the target, the harder it is to hypnotise them, and the quicker it will wear off.
Still, for the run of the mill mortals, they really have no defence against it, as such, it was incredibly easy to hypnotise an estate agent into showing me a lovely mansion, and just as easy, to get into contact with the sellers, and hypnotise them as well into believing they had received the payment into their bank account, which considering they were a pair of rich assholes, was fine with me.
It took up most of my early afternoon, but by time I was done, I was the proud owner, of a lovely mansion, with a sweet ass swimming pool out back.
And really, since the furniture all came with it, I didn't even need to decorate. The only thing I needed to deal with, was purchasing a gaming system or two, for the living room and the master bedroom.
It was a bit of a pain in the ass that I couldn't enjoy the pool in the sunlight right now, but I'll take care of that soon.
Sitting on my new massive couch, head dangling over the top of it, my thoughts whirled. 'I can't go for the Gem of Amara right now.' I mused. I had a rough idea where it was, but I'd need to see about getting some flunkies to do the digging for me. It was a longer term project for when I was more settled in.
Still, that didn't mean there weren't things I could go for right now. Off the top of my head, the two easiest to go for, would be, the Glove of Mynhogen and the orbs of Nezzla'khan.
'I'll go for the orbs first.' I decided after a bit of thought. They were the more important of the two. While the ability to fire bolts of lightning at will was a must have, I can conjure fire pretty easily at the moment, the massive increase in strength and durability the orbs will give me though, are much more tempting a target.
Still, while I know they're here in Sunnydale, I'm not sure where exactly, they were pretty vague in their location in the show.
'Guess I'll visit Willy.' after all, the rat knew pretty much everything going on in this town, and I can start spreading my reputation through the night life at his bar.
One problem occurred pretty quickly for me. Actually, it came about exactly after I decided to head to Willy's bar.
I had no idea where it was. I also couldn't just conveniently pick up my phone and use google maps to find it. Because, google maps doesn't exist. And wouldn't exist for another five or six years yet.
Google itself only became a thing here, roughly about a year ago. Hmm, note to self, invest in google. The shares should be criminally low right now.
Well, even if google maps existed, it would not exactly help me out at all right now, since this new house of mine doesn't have internet set up in it, or a computer. And my mobile or rather cell phone, is a literal brick only good for making calls and smashing skulls in.
Second note to self, get fucking internet installed.
That left only one avenue open to me for finding my destination, beyond asking for directions.
…Like hell I'll ask for directions though. That was for women in the passenger seat to do.
Thus, I found myself pouring over….shudder…the yellow pages.
For over an hour.
…There are multiple places listed under 'Willy' in Sunnydale, not a single one of them as a bar though.
The one I actually ended up finding luck with, was aptly named, 'Willy's Place'.
I miss smart phones already.
I need to learn locator spells man.
By time I stepped out of my totally legally owned car, night had already began to fall, dusk replacing bright blue skies and the sun replaced by the rising moon.
"This is it then?" I mused to myself, raising an eyebrow as I took in my destination.
A literal hole entrance, a narrow set of stairs leading up into a shitty looking building, above the narrow doorway, a lit up sign proclaiming 'Willy's Place' glowed in the dark.
Fucking hell, even if I did bother asking for directions, what are the odds anybody would really know where to find this crap hole?
Rolling my eyes, I made my way up the stairs and pushed on the door at the end, opening it and stepping into a dingy low-lit bar.
To be honest, dingy it may have been, but it wasn't that bad a set up, it looked almost like a repurposed cafe, with the tables lined up at the walls and sectioned off like booths.
Probably a smart idea with all the demons that frequented here, and just from a casual glance over, I can tell you, there are a lot.
From just a casual sweeping gaze, I noticed over a dozen different types of demon.
My eyes went to the bar where a short balding man was polishing the bar, a human-looking demon being the only one sitting at the bar stools.
A vampire my instincts told me, practically an ingrained impulsive recognition. They were like my inferior cousin's after all.
The vampire was male, pale of skin with short cropped dark hair, tall from what I could see with quite the stocky build, and was nursing a glass of what looked like blood, only, more watery.
He side-eyed me as I stepped up to the bar, before snorting and looking back at his drink.
"Can I help ya' kid?" Willy raised an eyebrow at me.
"Hopefully," I replied, "I'm looking for the lair of a certain type of demon, and you're the guy in the know around here for that type of thing from what I'm told."
"Sorry, ya' got duped kid, I ain't that kinda guy," Willy shrugged, "I ain't in the business of selling out demons anyway, you tend not to live long pulling shit like that."
A smart response, but total bullshit, "Don't give me the run around, I know for a fact you do," I snorted, "Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way, the easy way involves you telling me what you know and me giving you some cash in return, the hard way involves you telling me what you know after I break your nose."
Willy grimaced and opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, the vampire to my left snorted again, "You've got a tough mouth on you for a blood bag, huh?" he smirked at me, "You've got some stones on you for sure, a human like you coming in here and tossing around words like that."
…Is this guy a moron? Or is he just a fledgling? Either way, his senses can't be all that experienced, otherwise he'd dip the fuck out here and now. Any vampire I'd seen nearing a hundred years old or older had recognised on sight that I was strong and tended to flee.
At the vampire's words, Willy gave an audible sigh of relief and his shoulders that had tensed up, relaxed, "You should really watch yourself kid, this place is full of demons y'know?" he gave me a light, much more confident grin, and I heard laughter coming from the tables, many of the demons it seemed had stopped to see what was happening and hearing the vampires words, were apparently amused.
"…Alright, don't say I didn't give you a chance then." I shrugged, burying my annoyance. I don't exactly want to hang around this crap show of a place when I've got so much to do after all.
And well, there is something I'm interested in checking out.
Fun fact, vampires, no matter the line, tended to grow stronger as they aged. But, there are multiple avenues beyond that. One of those, is Slayer blood.
Another, is vampire blood. Draining the blood of another vampire, right up until there's nothing left, imbues part, a fraction really, of their 'age' as it were, into the other vampires own blood.
"Hey, how long have you been a vampire?" I asked him, looking away from Willy.
The vampire smirked at me, "Heh, caught on have you?" he puffed his chest out in pride, "I'm a bit of a veteran around these parts, been a vamp for around twenty years now, even used to run with the Master!"
…So in Vampire years, he's a toddler barely out of baby years? Well, whatever, it'll do for now I suppose.
I let my face shift into my 'game face'. All fanged teeth, glowing crimson slit eyes and bumpy forehead.
Another fun fact, the Turok-Han line, have red eyes compared to the yellow of the more 'modern' vampires.
"W-what the-!" The vampire's eyes widened in shock as he noticed my change, but he was far too slow to do anything else.
My hand lashed out in a blur, grabbing him around the neck and choking off his shocked words, and then with a jerk of my wrist, there was a horrible snapping sound as I broke his neck.
I saw Willy stagger back in horror in my peripheral vision and the laughing demons had all went silent.
This of course wouldn't kill him, being a vampire and all, but it made it so he wouldn't squirm at all.
I pulled him towards me and sunk my fangs into his throat and then greedily devoured the blood rushing through his veins.
His blood was rancid, tasted like utter shit, "Disgusting," I spat to the side a few moments later, "Give me some human blood." I ordered Willy who nodded shakily and frantically opened up one of his fridges, pulling out a blood bag.
While he was doing that, I shoved my free hand through the vampires chest, grasped his heart and ripped it out of his chest.
The pulsing heart was only visible in my palm for all of a second before turning to dust, the limp body in my grasp going the same way at the exact same time.
"Hmm." I hummed as I sat at the bar, wiping the blood from around my mouth and ignoring the rest in the bar.
It was hard to tell-
But, I'm sure I felt my magic power grow a little bit from that. Just a bit hard to notice with how miniscule it was in comparison to the power I had already.
I guess my power and strength has increased, but, from a mere twenty year old vampire, the gains were miniscule enough that it would be hard to notice.
Ugh, god though did that fucker taste nasty. I know there's variation in taste from human blood, so hopefully other vampires don't taste like this crappy fucker.
His blood tasted like cheap alcohol and cigarettes. And I've always hated the smell of cigarettes.
Unable to wait for Willy to hurry up with my drink, I grabbed the glass the vampire I just killed had left behind and downed it.
"Huh, not bad." I mused as a pleasant burn filled my throat. Some decent human blood and some cheap whiskey.
I'll need to try this out with some better whiskey in the future.
Oh wait…shit. I totally forgot to ransack that fuckers pockets for any good valuables before I killed him, oops.
Those thoughts were pushed out of mind when Willy deposited a glass full of blood in front of him, "S-so, about that info you wanted…" he stuttered through a grimace, "What'ya want to know?"
"Nothing much," I smirked at him, bet he was wishing he just accepted the easy way now, "I'm just looking for the Nezzla demon nest here in Sunnydale, and I'm betting you know where I can find them."
"Y-yeah…I can help ya' with that kid," Willy nodded rapidly, and I blinked. He was still calling me kid despite seeing my strength, something you'd expect from a much older demon, especially a blatant vampire like myself. Seemed he had some kind of way of telling peoples ages? "T-they ain't exactly liked around here, ya' can find the entrance to their place in the sewers under Main Street, though its hidden by magic, looks just like the walls down there, so ya' might have a little bit of a tough time findin' it."
"I'll make do," I replied easily, shouldn't be too hard, "Oh also, where about is the Warlock Rack making shop around here?"
Learning magic is a long and tedious process after all.
I'd rather skip the middle man entirely.
Willy goggled at me.
It wasn't long later that I stepped out of Willy's bar and made my way back to my car.
Once I did, I picked up my brick of a cell phone and dialled up a certain phone number I'd picked up from the yellow pages as well.
"Hello?" the familiar voice of Buffy Summers answered, quite dully sounding actually, a far cry from when I parted ways with her earlier.
"Hey blondie, everything go okay with your mother?" I asked.
"Oh, Yarden!" she perked right up, "Eh…kinda and kinda not? It's just real awkward, like she was totally happy to see me initially, but once that wore off, she's kinda been walking around on egg shells with me."
"Well, can't really blame her," I shrugged, "Though, not like it's really all your fault here either. Honestly, I think you jumping town at that point was the best move you could have made."
Sure, her mother had only kicked her out in the heat of the moment after learning about her being a Slayer, but that wasn't the only reason she had left. She had killed the love of her life due to the foolishness of her pig headed friend reaching into powers far beyond her, sending him to hell, she had been expelled from her school and was wanted for the murder of a friend of hers who had been killed by Drusilla in Kendra.
Buffy made a lot of foolish mistakes during canon, but leaving Sunnydale at that point, was not one of them.
"I know…it's just, hard, y'know?" I could hear the grimace in her voice as she replied, "But anyway, I'm honestly just about to leave and go find Xander and Willow, you ready to meet up?"
"Yeah, about that," I began, "I just got a lead on one of the things I came to Sunnydale for, so rain check?"
"Ah…right, you were looking for stuff like that, right?" Buffy laughed, a bit awkwardly, "Is it that Gerbal of Amanda thing?"
I cringed, "That's even worse than the last time!" I gaped, "And no, that one will be a bit harder to find, the ones I'm going for are called the Orbs of Nezzla'khan, they're guarded over by Nezzla demons, and hidden behind a barrier only they can get through."
"Orbs of Nettle-kun, got it," Buffy responded and I could practically see her nodding her head. Is she doing this on purpose? "You need a hand?" she asked.
"I'll be fine, besides, this definitely isn't something you'll want to get involved in," I replied, then continued before she could ask why, "To get passed the barrier, I'm gonna have to literally kill one of these demons, skin them, then wear the skin to get through it."
Buffy was silent for a moment.
"…Ew!" she sounded totally disgusted, "Yeah, I'll totally pass on that, we can just meet up tomorrow then, after you've showered for like ten hours straight."
"Told you," I laughed, "Anyway, if you need me, just call this number, or you can find me at my new place." I added, telling her the address of my new place.
"Wait, isn't that a literal mansion overlooking the beach!?" she sputtered.
"Yep," I boasted smugly, "Even has a pool and everything, so make sure to bring a skimpy bikini if you come visit."
"Sure, not that you'll get to enjoy it until you find that Amanda ring thing anyway." she teased me, before bidding goodbye and hanging up before I could fire back.
Well, at least she sounded more chipper I suppose.
Alright, and here we are boys and girls back again with the all chapter T to the H to the R to Double E...cup? Nah, unfortunately for you all, I don't think anybody is quite that stacked in Buffy. Well...maybe Cordelia I guess? But yeah here we are with chapter three.
Not a whole lot happened this chapter. He dropped Buffy off back home and secured a place for himself to live thanks to his hypnosis abilities. A nice big mansion. Yes, that is a reminder that while he's helping out Buffy and co, he isn't exactly the most law abiding person. Then again, he is a demon...kinda. Part demon at least. With that taken care of, he paid a little visit to Willy's to find a few locations, and beyond that, gave Buffy a call to check in on her and as expected things are awkward for her.
Well, that's it for this chapter. There's a few more chapters on the Pa-atreon if you wanna read ahead, as well as new advance chapters for the likes of Systematic Shinobi, Jordinio Version and more.
Anyway, again, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.