Ronins on the Hellmouth Chapter 8, a Ronin Warriors + Buffy X-overs Crossover fanfic

Chapter 8

Welcome to the fun, Faith!

Disclaimer: See Chapter One.

Twyla was in a rush this evening. While things were going well overall, tonight, things were somewhat up in the air. James had been experimenting with a new dish for dinner, and, while it was tasting good, it needed a different wine for it. Since this was a meat and pasta dish, white wine would NOT do! So, Twyla was hitting the stores looking for a specific bottle of Red Wine for the meal.

Twyla drove from store to store, trying to find the specific type of red wine that Jams had requested. The wine was not a California wine, which was a bit of a surprise. It seemed that in his travels, James had tried many different wines and beers, and had developed a personal preference when it came to them.

"My love, wine has different tastes depending on where the grapes are grown, and where it is bottled at. And that is something that I picked up on in my travels before I started my job as a computer salesperson" James explained to her. Seeing the look that told him she did not understand, James brought out three different bottles of wine. "These are all sweet wines, my dear Twyla. Try them, and I think you will taste the difference" he suggested.

With that, Twyla took out three small glasses and an assortment of crackers. From the tastings she had seen with James, she knew a little of what to expect. The wine went into the glasses, the crackers were for clearing the mouth out. Once everything was placed, Twyla poured some of the wine into each of the glasses, different bottles for each one. She then proceeded to take a drink out of a glass, write down her reactions, and then used the crackers to clean the taste out of her mouth before going on to the second glass. Upon finishing things up with the second, she proceeded to the third. When she was done with that, she turned toward her husband. "I can understand now what you mean. Different wineries may say that it is the same type of wine, but the taste is different. This one" she told her husband as she pointed to one of the bottles "tastes better than the others" she informed him.

"That, my love is from a winery in the state of Missouri called Stone Hill,. One of these days, when this mission for the Powers That Be is done, we can get a flight to Missouri and take a tour of the winery, maybe bring a few bottles back that we like" James suggested. (Stone Hill IS a real winery in a town in Missouri called Hermann. If you ever get a chance, head to the area. It's a part of the Missouri Wine Country and is a great place to visit)

It took some work, but Twyla found the wine that James was looking for, and purchased two bottles of it, one for tonight and a second one for the paying for them, Twyla took them outside and put them in the back seat of the car.

However, the time needed to find the right wine, purchase it, and get it to the car had resulted in the sun going down. Seeing this, and knowing what Sunnydale was like at night, Twyla quickly put the wine away, and got into a stance for a fight. If they wanted to fight, she would use Akido to wear them down. Once they were tired, she would finish them with Muay Thai.

A few minutes later, a trio of Vampires came into the parking lot. One was heavy set, a second was lean and tall, the third was normal, but had an aura of bossiness around him. The leader of this trio, who looked like they had died about 20 years ago, looked at Twyla. "Good. Some fresh meat, compared to what we usually find" he said, looking at Twyla. The leader, Charlie, was licking his chops, not noticing that Twyla was in a stance where she could either defend or attack.

"Yeah Charlie, most of the time we have to fight to get anything. This time, we get first pick" the tall, lean looking vampire remarked. This Vampire, Darren, had a feel of being used for his height. He accepted it, but didn't like it.

" I think that the three of you have chosen the wrong person to try and attack this night" Twyla told them, as she mentally prepared for combat. Hitting the tall one with a axe kick would be difficult. Might be better to cut him down with Seeing this, and knowing what Sunnydale was like at night, Twyla quickly put the wine away, and got into a stance for a fight. If they wanted to fight, she would use Akido to wear them down. Once they were tired, she would finish them with Muay Thai.

" I think that the three of you have chosen the wrong person to try and attack this night" Twyla told them, as she mentally prepared for combat. Hitting the tall one with an axe kick would be difficult. Might be better to cut him down with Aikido first and then hit him with the axe kick.

Also looking on was the third member of the trio, Alex was not as tall as Darren, nor did he have the leadership capabilities of Charlie. He had been more the quiet, withdrawn type of genius before having been turned. He was taking a look at this situation, and something about it was not setting well with him. "Charlie, something about this setup tonight, is rubbing me the wrong way" the third member of the trio started to say, when he felt a smack to the back of his head!

"When I want your opinion, I'll ask! For now, SHUT-UP! Now, Darren, get her. This time WE get first dibs instead of the others" Charlie crowed, looking forward to feasting on this lady. It had been some time since this trio had been able to feast like this, and Charlie was looking forward to being able to do so.

Alex, while being the quiet one of the group, was no slouch in the brain department. Seeing how Twyla was standing, was setting off alarm bells in his head! But Charlie and Darren wouldn't hear him out until it was too late. And if these alarms were right, things were not going to end well for this trio.

Charlie was the first one to make a move toward Twyla. He tried using his height to move her neck to allow him to bite her. Unfortunately, this left him open to strike, which allowed Twyla to grab his arm, and hitting some nerves, forced him to the ground. Charlie landed HARD, causing a sound of air to come out of his mouth from the hard landing. Twyla then followed up with an axe kick that put him down for the count.

That stunned Darren! Never before had anyone used unarmed combat moves to take down a vampire. "Just what did you do?" Darren asked, shock showing on his face.

Upon seeing the determined look on Twyla's face Darren made up his mind. "Alex, you get in there and take her down" he ordered his second vampire.

Alex was STUNNED! Most of the time he rarely had to go in. Charlie was good at either making sure they got something from a gathering, or was able to get something for them.

"I'll do my best" Alex told Charlie, as he moved toward Twyla.

Alex moved forward, carefully avoided his stunned fellow vampire who was on the ground. He didn't want to risk tripping over him, and messing things up. When Alex made his move toward Twyla, he got hit! Twyla hit him with a sweep that took him down, followed with another axe kick.

With Alex down, and Charlie just starting to get his wits back, Darren knew he had to stall for time. He needed to get his associates back on their feet, to double, if not triple team this blood sack!

Twyla stayed back. Doing both Martial Arts techniques was impressive, but it took a lot out of her. She did her best to recover her strength and breath. One on one was fine. But, if these vampires started double or triple teaming, then her training wouldn't do her any good. And that was not something she wanted to happen, knowing that her dying would break both Mia's and James' hearts.

While the battle was going on, another set of eyes were watching. Watching was a young lady in her late teens, wearing a pair of tight leather pants, matching boots, and a red shirt. Her dark hair was flowing free, and she was decked out for a fight. Around her waist were a pair of wooden stakes, one on each side. Around her chest was a shoulder holster with a Glock 9 automatic handgun. On her back, sheathed, was a musketeer rapier. This was no ordinary woman: This was Faith Pryce, The Vampire Slayer! Faith had come across this scene while on patrol for the evening. Buffy and Steve had chosen one area of Sunnydale, and she had chosen this area. She had taken down a few vampires before she came upon this fight, and what she saw impressed her! "Lady is doing some good with those martial arts moves. Hell, I wouldn't mind picking up on them. Might make some of the hand to hand fighting easier" Faith thought to herself.

What Faith saw next had her moving toward the fight, and getting the Glock pistol out of its holster. The vamps were getting up and were triple teaming the lady! And they were giving her grief!

Darren's orders were being carried out. Alex and Charlie had tried double teaming the lady, and had moderate success in doing so. So, they switched to triple teaming her, and were able to stop her attacks. With their prey now unable to stop them, Darren moved forward, and bent Twyla's neck so that he could bite her. But, before he could bite her, a shot rang up from nearby, and Charlie turned to dust!

Faith had been practicing with the Glock, and was proficient with it. But still, this was her first time using it in an actual fight, and was surprised at how it had felt in her hands, and how quickly the bullet had taken out the vampire! "B's boy toy was right. A gun, with the right ammo, CAN do as good a job as a stake, and from a distance as well" the Dark Slayer thought to herself.

Darren turned toward where the shot had come from and saw Faith there. He switched from his normal human face to his demonic face with the ridges, the yellow eyes, and fangs. "You little mortal! I'm going to take my time draining you, so that you suffer" the leader of the trio yelled at The Slayer. However, his charge at Faith ended up short, as he was dusted the same way that Charlie was, a 9mm wooden bullet to his heart.

Alex knew that he was in trouble. He carefully moved Twyla away from him, and carefully cleaned her off. "Sorry about that Ma'am. It's just that Darren was the leader, and what he said was the law" Twyla was informed. Alex was in a bind. If he followed up on what Darren wanted him to do, he would be dust. Yet, he needed to feed, otherwise he would be pickings for other vampires around Sunnydale.

"OK Fangface. You've got two options: You either get out of town or you get dusted. Your choice" Faith told him in no uncertain terms. The only reason that Faith was giving him a chance to leave was the way he was treating this near victim. Normally, Faith would be willing to dust him and be done with it. But something about the way this vampire was treating this lady was telling her that while it did not have a soul, he was more interested in staying around for at least one more day.

"I'll take the deal. There is a bus leaving for San Francisco shortly. I can get on it, and find a place to exist up there" the vampire told the Slayer. And with that, Alex left the parking lot. With Darren and Charlie gone, the cash that they had would help him get out of Sunnydale. On the way to the lair, he stopped off and got a pint of blood that the hospital was disposing of, as it was expired. Once that was done, he got to the bus station, and got himself a one way ticket to San Francisco.

"Thanks for your help," Twyla told her rescuer. Seeing how the mixture of Aikido and Muay Thai had done this night gave Twyla some insights. 1) It was successful in a one on one situation. 2) It was not successful in a two or three on one situation. 3) She needed to increase her stamina in case she ever got into another long fight.

"No problem. Glad to see that you are five by five" Faith replied. "If you want, I can escort you to where you were heading for '' the Dark Slayer offered. "Besides, I might want to learn some of those fancy foot and arm drag moves" Faith suggestd.

Twyla nodded, as she accepted the offer. It would not only help out in getting the wine back to the house, but getting a pupil to teach her martial arts would be a pleasure!