Chapter 31.

By Carycomic

KING O' CLUBS,

BEVERLY HILLS, CAL.

SEPT. 27, 1999 (1:30 A.M.)

Preston Lennox immediately switched over to full auto-fire before squeezing the trigger on his Steyr AUG for all he was worth. But, as swiftly as he had reacted, the mutated Newcomer called William Harcourt proved even faster. Lifting up a nearby table and using it to shield himself from Lennox' fusillade long enough to charge forward. . .and back-hand him through the kitchen doors.

Naturally, that attracted the attention of everyone else in the kitchen. With Matt Sykes, George Francisco, and Kate Lockley pointing their hand guns in that direction while Ultra-Violet did the same thing with her compound bow. Meanwhile, Angel, Doyle, Faith and Alison Wonderland formed a protective ring around the Newcomer commando called Dart Six as he dragged Pres to safety. So, ironically, they were the first ones to spot Harcourt as he appeared in the doorway. The upper half of his custom-tailored business suit now hanging off of him in tatters.

"Celine and Andarko have mercy!" exclaimed Alison.

"He's built like the Hulk," muttered Faith.

"Only somewhat thinner and less green, my dear," quipped Harcourt: "Indeed, I think it safe to say none of you will look anything like your old selves once I turn you into vampires."

"We'll see about that," snarled Angel as he charged forward, a wooden stake in each hand.

"Angel! No!" screamed the Tentconese-born Slayer. But, it was too late. He was already in mid-leap when Harcourt used his biochemically-enhanced height to his advantage. Grabbing Angel in mid-air and tossing him out into the main dining area as if he were so much dirty laundry in a bag! Of course, in doing so, Harcourt's back was momentarily turned towards the ones with long-range weapons. So, naturally, they instantly opened fire. The three police officers with their hand guns, Dart Six with his Steyr AUG, and Ultra-Violet with her compound bow. Yet, while the collective impact of all those projectiles was in no way painless, it quickly became obvious that the effect was not immediately fatal, either.

Especially when Harcourt removed each of the pyrokinetically-ignited arrows by hand.

"Now, it's my turn," he grinned malevolently.

Screaming at the top of his lungs, he charged forward. Raising both sets of fiery arrows over his head like shish kabob spears. But, even as he began to break into a full-speed run, Faith and Alison met him halfway. The latter, armed with her silver battle axes; and the former with Dart Two's katana. As a result, the Slayer managed to hamstring the mutated Overseer, on his right leg, using the axe in her right hand. While Faith used that opportunity to bring the katana down in a vertical arc that severed Harcourt's left hand!

"ARRRGH!" he screamed, before channeling that pain and rage into an attempt at impaling Faith with the fiery arrows in his right hand. But, Alison (nee Leeloo Songjet) quickly spun about, one hundred eighty degrees, and threw the axe in her left hand straight at Harcourt's back.

It lodged there with a sickening "thunk."

Once again, Harcourt screamed in bestial rage as he dropped the remaining arrows in order to dislodge the battle axe with his remaining hand. But, just as he grasped the bottom of the axe handle, Faith used that opportunity to sever both of Harcourt's feet at the ankles! Which, in turn, gave Alison the opportunity to use her remaining battle axe. . .to do the same with his head.

Only then did Harcourt fully die. His epidermis instantly decomposing to a powdery ash. But, strangely enough, not his skeleton!

EPILOGUE ONE

The early morning newscasts were quick to describe the violence that had broken out, at the King O' Clubs, as the simultaneous springing of two separate traps by two rival crime families. The "Newcomer Mafia," headed by William Harcourt, and their Earthling counterparts led by Russell Winters and "Cyrus Prince." With the bodies of the deceased crime bosses removed for autopsying elsewhere.

The elsewhere, of course, being the Initiative labs beneath UC-Sunnydale. Though this was naturally withheld from the press! As was the fact that it was Sil's Ratkin form that was going to be dissected for study.

"And she was able to metamorphose from human to rodent to extra-terrestrial with no difficulty, whatsoever?" asked Dr. Laura Baker (molecular biologist).

Maggie Walsh nodded; adding how the Abomination had also retained all of the original Sil's memories.

"Incredible!" muttered Laura.

"That's where you come in, Dr. Baker," said Colonel Burgess: "Because if this could happen a second time, by accident, then it's all too possible for this to recur, a third time, on purpose! We need a contingency plan to prevent that. Which makes it necessary to create a clone of Sil that we can keep on a short leash. . .and study, accordingly."

"If I agree, it'll be on one condition. That my support staff be all women! That way, there can be no hormonal interference, if you catch my drift."

Maggie Walsh grinned: "That sounds fair to me."

Meanwhile, out in the Mojave Desert, Deputy Director Roger Benson of the CIA was introducing billionaire Alexander Lucard to a brilliant Newcomer geneticist called "Dr. Zachary Smith."

"Dr. Smith is the one responsible for the wonder drug that so radically augmented William Harcourt."

Lucard looked at the newly-arrived skeleton of the late Overseer and shook his head in amazement and admiration. He then looked at Dr. Smith.

"If you were able to give one of your people vampiric attributes, could you do it the other way around? But, even more effectively?"

The Newcomer nodded. But, he added how he would need a suitable test subject.

Lucard smiled: "I understand you already have one. The vampire called Spike?"

Benson frowned: "With all due respect, sir; do you think it's wise giving that one Newcomer attributes? I would rather he be subjected to a series of more humiliating experiments!"

"On the contrary, Mr. Benson," replied the billionaire: "Spike is an anarch. A chronic anti-authoritarian. I therefore think it would reduce the anarch problem, considerably, if his kind could somehow be infused with the Newcomer proclivity for blind obedience following exposure to jabroka. It might even prove more reliable than the neuro-electronic system of behavior modification currently employed by the Initiative!"

"It certainly wouldn't prove a bigger failure," muttered Dr. Smith.

Benson swiftly turned and pointed an accusatory finger at him.

"Watch it, you! You're not so indispensable that I wouldn't be averse to anonymously leaking word that 'Chorboke' is still alive and well."

"And, you, Mr. Benson," snapped Lucard: ". . .conveniently forget that I am footing more than half the bill for most of your special projects. It is therefore you who might prove less-than-indispensable."

Benson laughed: "You're bluffing. I'm the public face of Special Projects! Langley would notice my absence in a New York minute. Plus, if anything were to happen to me, there are a lot of people who might subsequently wind up knowing the real name of 'Juan Trimerez.' "

Lucard smiled: "Oh, really?"

He then put his right index finger on top of the Newcomer scientist's head. Whereupon, the latter groaned as he underwent a somewhat painful transformation. . .into an exact double of Roger Benson! Although, minus the latter's spectacles and business suit.

Naturally, the real Benson was aghast.

"Oh, My God. How. . .?"

Lucard grinned: "You would not be the first one to underestimate Radu Dracula of Old Clan Tzimisce. Alessandro DiGiovanni thought he could control my spirit! He learned the hard way he was wrong. And, now, so will you."

The new Roger Benson merely smiled as he watched his predecessor's exsanguination.

EPILOGUE TWO

Dr. Cathy Frankel allowed the two sisters to converse in the privacy of her medical lab. And, as Alison seemed obsessed with staring at the floor of the lab in abject guilt, it was up to Jadeeka Songjet to break the awkward silence.

"So, Mom and Dad told everyone I was a Sardonak junkie?"

Alison nodded: "It was the only way they could cope with your being the lover of an Eeno-caste Kleezantsun. And I certainly didn't help matters by not telling them the truth!"

"Hey! Only one person was allowed to know I was a sleeper agent for the Udara. My handler!

That was the rule. And you're still the only I would trust to be my handler. So, stop blaming yourself."

Meanwhile, just down the hall in the hospital cafeteria, Josweedan Sorentz'ah was having a long-overdue reunion with his mother.

"Celine and Andarko!" she sobbed with joy and wistfulness: "I can't believe how big you've gotten. My little first-born is all grown up!"

The Newcomer formerly known as Dart Six smiled down at her.

"I missed you, too, Mom. How's Feniksa, these days?"

"Just fine. He's a straight-A student. The star player of his basketball team in high school. But, most importantly, of all? He prefers to go by the Earth nickname of 'Buck!' "

Josweedan laughed: "I can't wait to meet him. And the rest of the family!"

Meanwhile, in San Bernardino, California, Sarah Nader was conferring with a certain Gila monster in the privacy of her sweat lodge. Or, more precisely, with the spirit of Vinata Kartikeya as channeled by that Gila monster!

"Both the Abomination and the vampire that ghouled him have met their Final Deaths. So, you can tell that Nest of Elders that you've fulfilled your obligation to those cascabels."

The formerly cursed Nagah smiled in gratitude.

"Thank you. You have been of much help to me, Sings To The Moon. And your parents, Chief Manyskins and She Who Laughs At Luna, should be proud of you."

Sarah smiled and nodded in appreciation. Whereupon, Vinata's spirit faded from view, as she finally transferred to her own Ananata. At that same moment, however, another transfer was occurring in the basement of Angel Investigations.

"You sure about this, Jill?" asked Angel: "Or, should I say, 'Faith'? I've got to admit, it's very confusing calling you something else after all these weeks of working together. Plus, I still owe you big time for the way you and Alison saved my keester following my undignified exit from the big show-down."

Faith grinned: "Thanks. But, the Watchers' Council was dealt a harsh blow by Wesley Wyndham-Price's death. And they were evidently impressed by my after-action report surrounding it. So, they've asked me to take over his training of the real Jill Moloski."

Doyle responded with a mischievous grin of his own: "Well, it's not really that big a loss for us. After all, we'll be gettin' a highly trained veteran of the Beverly Hills Police Department! Won't we?"

Kate Lockley merely smiled as she shook hands with her new teammates.

Two days later, however, neither she, Angel, nor Doyle were smiling as they attended Anyanka's funeral at the Ionian Newcomer colony near Sunnydale. In fact, they were just as crestfallen as the Songjet sisters, despite not having known the ex-vengeance demon for that long. Yet, Whistler appeared, just after the funeral, to reassure everyone that Anyanka should not be mourned too greatly.

"The Powers That Be have promoted her to Whitelighter!"

Whereupon, the self-described balance demon disappeared. Not to be seen again for three whole years.

EPILOGUE THREE

UCLA MEDICAL CENTER

(SEPTEMBER 12, 2002)

Dr. Warren Michaels switched on his digital hand-held audio recorder as he looked at the watch on his left wrist.

"4:25 P.M./Pacific Standard Time. Buffy Summers has withdrawn into total catatonia. I will give her parents a week in which to grieve. I will then discretely euthanize her and diagnose it as loss of will to live. That way, Chairman Travers can finally get what he's been hoping for, these past six years. Resumption of the normal transference of Slayer powers to the next Earth-born Potential."

Meanwhile, at Angel Investigations, the re-ensouled vampire and his two colleagues were watching a special newscast about the U.S.S. Excursion. Namely; that the first manned expedition to the planet Mars had just performed the second of its painstakingly formulated trajectory-correcting maneuvers. Angel, however, was suddenly aware that he must have just entered a precognitive dream state. For there, on the TV screen, was Whistler the balance demon. . .holding seven-year-old Vessna Francisco in his arms!

Whistler then looked directly at Angel and said: "Brace yourself, Angel-baby! A new dawn is coming."

THE END?

GLOSSARY

Chorboke: Tenctonese nickname for a Newcomer version of Dr. Josef Mengele. First seen in the 1995 TV-reunion movie, ALIEN NATION: BODY AND SOUL.

Alexander Lucard: alias used by Count Dracula in the 1990 TV series DRACULA (starring Geordie Johnson in the title role).

Old Clan Tzimisce: Kindred term for the flesh-shaping vampire reactionaries who refused to join the Sabbat.

Alessandro DiGiovanni: my own tweaking of a minor character from one of White Wolf's Classic World of Darkness games about the necromantic Giovanni Clan.