FIC: MC 60. Nov ‘02 – Killers (1/?)
6,000,000 BC., what is now China
“Kill. Kill. Kill.”
The word chanted incessantly in Atum’s head until he was aware of nothing else. Not the sand under his sandals or the sun blazing unblinkingly down on his naked form, not even the watching demons encircling him. All he could see was his hog-tied mate and the squalling brats she’d spawned. A white-hot rage filled him at the gagged bitch’s pleading moans, his sweaty fingers almost slipping on his curved dagger’s ivory handle. “Shut your hole!” he thundered.
Tears formed in the bitch’s eyes when he reached down, grabbed a handful of her sandy-brown mane and roughly yanked up onto her knees. A smile pulled at his lips as he savoured the terrible helplessness in the woman’s eyes and her muffled pleas, then his knife thrust down and into her throat.
The woman’s back arched as blood bubbled up and over the blade, her eyes glazing as he leisurely twisted the knife around, widening the tear in her throat before yanking the blade out. The woman gurgled, blood spilling out from beneath her gag as her body first thrashed then slumped lifelessly to the ground, dust billowing with the impact. Then he strode over to the children, crouched by the side of each in turn, and quickly slit their throats, his blade slicing easily through their tender flesh, the blood spilling out over his fingers.
Once the third of them was dead, he rose and watched dispassionately as their blood soaked out, turning the sand under their stiffening corpses a coppery shade, enjoying every moment of their deaths. Then a sudden horrifying clarity washed over him, cleaning away the smugness and leaving in its wake a bitter realisation. “No, no, no,” his eyes bulged as he stared at his beloved wife’s corpse, the strong children he’d been so proud of dead by his hand. How could he have done this?
The blood roaring in his ears deafened him to the watching demons’ jeers as he peered down uncomprehendingly at the corpses at his feet. Then he was lifting the unaccountably heavy dagger, staring at its blood-streaked blade and jamming it deep into his heart.
* * *
Detroit, Michigan
The senator carefully wiped the mustard from his face as he glanced around the busy high-class restaurant. One didn’t want to be photographed out in public looking less than immaculate.
Satisfied that all traces of his dinner had been removed, he looked back towards his contact, a squirrelly looking man with constantly-moving eyes, thinning hair, and a nervous twitch. In other words, the exact opposite smart voters looked for in their representatives.
And yet, not a man without certain uses.
“You have the papers, I assume,” he asked, his expression the relaxed smile of a career politician.
“Oh yeah,” his dinner companion nodded nervously, “bank accounts of the deputy mayor, proving he’s taken bribes off at least two slum-lords being investigated by the DA’s office.” The other man smiled nervously. “This the sorta stuff that brings down people, it’s dynamite.” His expression turned nervous once again. “Have you got the money?”
“Indeed,” he smiled as he lifted his
grey A4 sized envelope, a twin to his companion’s, “I have your money.”
“Great,” his companion slid his envelope across the round table as he did the same.
“Thank you,” he palmed the envelope. “Now if that’s -.” He let out a small gasp as something collided with his head, all the strength leaving his photogenically robust frame as he slumped sideways, dead before he hit the floor.
* * *
800 yards away
The rooftop wind brushed at him as he sighted through his sniper rifle’s telescopic sight on the secondary target, then he tugged on the trigger, the custom-made rifle jumping slightly in his grip. A smile played on his lips as the secondary target joined the first on the restaurant’s floor, his blood staining the fluffy carpet underneath.
His eye remained fixed on the carnage he’d caused as he reached into his jacket, pulled out his .32, pressed its cold metal muzzle to the side of his head and blew his brains out.
* * *
Wichita, Kansas
“It worked,” he beamed as he strode in waving a copy of the day’s newspaper, the double murder and suicide headline newspaper.
Their group’s leader nodded, his expression more guarded. “And what do they say of the murderer?”
He glanced at the text. “That he was a disaffected soldier that went missing over a fortnight ago. Nothing to link him to us.”
“It really worked,” the third of their group and the only woman commented. “That spell from all that time ago still works today.”
“It appears so,” their leader smiled. “It appears mankind hasn’t changed all that much in the past millions of years.” The smile disappeared from the man’s face as he rose. “This however was the dummy run. This senator was unimportant next to the one on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Defence. We’re getting paid a great deal of money to kill him.” His leader’s eyes seared through him. “I trust you have a fitting subject for our next assassination?”
“Yes sir,” he nodded quickly, “a former U.S. Ranger of ten year’s experience, with sniper certification and received a Bronze Star in Operation Desert Storm in ’91, in addition to Silver Star in Kosovo in 99.”
“Sounds formidable,” the leader nodded. “And this warrior’s name?”
“Huh,” he glanced at his notes, “Chris Vaughan.”
“Pay our men and have this Vaughan character grabbed, he sounds perfect.”
FIC: MC: 60. Nov ‘02 – Killers (2/?)
A Hotel Room in Malaysia
“Yeah,” Xander walked onto the
eighteenth floor, the night’s cool wind lightly stroking him as he peered around
Kuala Lumpar’s illuminated skyline, “we’re on an encrypted line, right Brill?”
Brill chuckled, his amusement sounding like tossed gravel hitting the ground.
“Kid, I always talk to you on an encrypted line, hell double-encrypted.”
”Yeah, sorry.” Xander wiped an arm across his forehead, the sweat that came off
him not entirely caused by the steaming climate. “Only I wanna be real sure
here, what I’m planning is dangerous-.”
”When isn’t it?” grunted Brill.
Xander scored one for the hard-bitten
analyst. “True, but this one involves you.”
“Yeah?” Brill snorted. “I was in Iran when the Shah went down, I’ve been behind the Iron Curtain when the wall was still up, and I’ve dealt with the Contras, I know a little about danger, kid.”
“Yeah,” Xander nodded, smiling slightly
at the older man’s crotchety attitude, “but this one’s more dangerous than
normal.”
”Oh yeah?” Brill sounded interested. “Well spill kid, hell you’re a goddamn
tease! How does that gal of yours put up with your crap?”
“She often wonders,” Xander dryly
replied before continuing. “It involves Wolfram & Hart-.”
”Jesus, kid!” Brill interrupted. “I know a bit about swimming with sharks, but
from everything I’ve read, those W&H bastards are piranhas!”
“That’s kinda the point,” Xander commented.
“’Kay, lay out your grand plan son,” Brill prompted.
“Okay,” Xander took a breath, a tinge of trepidation brushing against him as he wondered what the veteran spook would think of his ‘grand plan’. “I figure whatever the great apocalypse my army is supposed to face it will be Wolfram & Hart’s project-.”
“How do you figure?” Brill queried, his tone interested rather than sceptical.
Xander blinked at the query. “Well when it comes down to major players in the supernatural world, there’s W&H ahead of everyone, then there’s us just behind-.”
“Kinda like the USSR and the US in the Cold War?” Brill suggested.
”Yeah, I guess,” Xander agreed. “Then you’ve got your medium-sized groups like
the Council, the Illuminati, the Vatican, and Angel Investigations. Then
there’s the Knights of Byzantium, the Demon Research Initiative, the Scourge,
the Gypy Clans, and the Danites, but none of them have any real power. The
threat gotta come from W&H.”
”Yeah,” Brill slowly agreed. “But don’t keep your eyes too fixed on W&H, no one
expected Iraq and North Korea to be the big worries in the new millennium. Or
hell, a wild card like Al-Qeada to be causing so much trouble.”
“Yeah,” thoroughly chastened, Xander nodded sheepishly.
“Still,” Brill continued, “it’s always a good idea to keep your enemy guessing. What’s your plan?”
“Yeah,” Xander collected his thoughts before continuing. “I want you to spread word that the Brotherhood will pay five million dollars to any W&H senior executive who gives them information on departmental short-term and long-term plans and working methodologies.”
“I like your balls kid,” Brill commented, “but getting someone to spill on an organisation as secretive and unforgiving as W&H will be pretty tough even given all that money.”
“I know,” Xander nodded. “But we might get lucky, and even if we don’t, like you said, W&H is a paranoid organisation, they might spend even more time looking over one another’s shoulder and not even notice what we’re doing.”
“Psych warfare 101,” Xander reddened
slightly at Brill’s approving tone. “Nice thinking kid.”
“Mithras’ influence,” he shrugged as he tried to down-play his part in the plan, “nothing really to do with me.”
“Kid,” and there was the disapproving growl again, “it’s you who’ve set up A-Team Industries, the Brotherhood, negotiated pacts with all these powerful people, and done all the shit over the last few years, I don’t wanna hear any more of this false modesty crap, you hear me?”
Xander stiffened. “Yes sir.”
“Good,” Xander sensed rather than saw Brill’s gruff nod, “I’ve got some experience at planting these sorta rumours, contacts who’ll make sure the right sort of people hear this information. I trust you’ll be getting in touch with Lorne about this?”
“Faith’s already on it,” Xander replied.
”Damn, the demon gets the babe and I end up with you, how fair is that?” Brill
complained.
Xander chuckled. “Hey, I ended up with
you, imagine my luck.”
”Wise-ass,” Brill chuckled. “Be seein’ you kid.”
“Bye,” Xander said softly as the computer whiz hung up on him.
* * *
Wichita, Kansas
Chris Vaughan strode away from the now deathly silent club, and into its parking lot. He forced his shoulders back and summonsed a stoic look even as he seethed inwardly. Ten years training as a Special Forces operative, decorated in two separate conflicts, and the best he could do when he got out of the service was head bouncer at a titty bar?
He stopped at his tinted-windowed SUV, opened up the rear passenger door and threw his sports bag onto the back seat. He slammed the door shut then raised a querying eyebrow as hairs prickled on the back of his neck. He spun around, eyes vainly searching through the darkness only to find nothing.
He shook his head and chuckled reluctantly at the thought of his battlefield senses getting the better of him. Then something leapt over the roof of the SUV and landed on his back.
Chris grunted as he staggered under the impact, his hands reaching up instinctively to grab the attacker’s wrists, lean forward at his waist, and fling his attacker into the shadows. He heard another person lunging out of the darkness and shot out a side-thrust kick that sent his would-be assailant falling back. His fists balled up, he looked up and let out a gasp as he caught his first sight of his assailants. They were each tall and thick-set with red leathery hides with twin sets of horns protruding out of either side of their mandible and a bald scalp. “What the-.” Shock slowed his reactions enough for a boot to the gut to crash through his defences and knock him into the side of the SUV.
His monstrous attacker charged in with a right cross that Chris side-stepped, his attacker’s fist crashing through the passenger window as Chris grabbed the back of the thing’s head and drove it face-first into the roof as he kicked another of his attackers in the knee. The demon stumbled to one knee, in time to catch his knee to its face, the momentum knocking it on its ass.
Chris’ elbow snapped into the side of the demon’s head to his left, then grabbed him by his collar, and threw him into the rising demon. Even as the two demons fell to the ground, two more sprang out of the shadows in a flanking manoeuvre.
“Fuck,” Chris grunted as his mind reeled with shock. The creature to his right lunged in, Chris turned to meet its assault, blocking its punches on his arms as it came in. Then he felt an arm wrapping around his throat from behind. His hands shot up to grab the arm but then grunted as his rival in front of him drove a knee into his gut, and would have doubled up but for the arm squeezing the air from him, a fist to the face further stunning him.
And then darkness descended over him.
FIC: MC 60 Nov 02 Killers (3/?)
Kula Lumpur, Malaysia
“Well,” Lorne breathed as Faith finished outlining Xander’s plan, “isn’t your lil cherry-pie ambitious?”
“Comes from datin’ me,” Faith airily replied. “That much babe on his arm can give a guy lofty ideas.”
“But of course it can Midnight,” Lorne
giggled. “And I hope your young man is treating you alright.”
“Hell yeah,” Faith grinned as she gossiped with her friend, “otherwise he gets my boot up his ass.”
“You go Pankhurst!” Lorne cheered.
“Who?” Faith nodded as she remembered
the name from one of the really boring books Tara had excitedly insisted she
read. Man, learning could be a major buzzkill. “Oh yeah, suffragette gal.”
”That’s right Honey-Buns,” Lorne praised. “So Kula Lumpur hey? Business or
pleasure?”
“Lil bit of both actually,” Faith drawled. “Xander got wind of a mage trying to raise a bunch of Hantu demons, and we headed over here to find him, kicked some gangsters’ asses, and then headed over to the capital city to get a couple of days’ quality pampering.”
“Well I’m sorry Sweet-Cheeks, but I’m going to have to bring your vacation to an end.”
“Oh yeah?” Faith sat up on the edge of the bed, heart racing and mouth drying at the thought of some action. “Do tell?”
“Did you hear about the murder of a senator in Michigan?” Lorne queried.
“Back of beyond here, ‘sides I don’t read much of the papers ‘cept the funnies,” Faith admitted. Jesus, who needed to read ‘bout a bunch of corrupt assholes takin’ backhanders? Fuck no, with her temper, she’d be hunting down each of the fuckers and unleashing her own brand of justice in the form of a hellacious ass-kickin’.
“Fair enough,” Lorne said. “Anyway, he was assassinated by a respected soldier, former Green Beret, with absolutely no motivation to do so.”
”So,” Faith yawned, this really didn’t sound like their sorta problem, “hired
killer, right?”
“Not this man, honour-bound, no major debts, a real straight arrow, like the non-drinker at the Stones reunion. Besides-,” Lorne paused.
“Besides what? Don’t keep me in suspenders,” Faith chuckled dirtily. “That’s X’s job.”
”Oh you minx,” Lorne chuckled then sobered. “Besides the moment the shooting
was over, he put a gun to his head and blew his brains out.”
”Wow,” Faith whistled, “kinda hardcore.”
“Yes, and it fits with a rumour I’ve
been hearing the last couple of months.”
”Oh yeah?” Faith prompted.
“It’s a pretty wild one, that some mages have gotten hold of a really old spell that can mind-control people into killing for them, then killing themselves,” Lorne said.
Faith whistled. “Sounds pretty whack. Send us the paperwork, I assume you’ve got the paperwork?”
“One of my friends does a little hacking of his own, not to Brill’s standards of course, but he’s more than competent of hacking some local law enforcement agency’s database. I’ll email the reports to your lab-top,” Lorne promised.
”Wicked,” Faith’s voice caught for a second. “Hey Seaweed, be seein’ you soon,
you dig?”
“I’ll look forward to it dear child,” the demon replied before hanging up.
Faith stared at her slim cell before letting out a yell. “Hey X! I got us a job!”
* * *
“Okay,” Xander pursed his lips as he looked at the papers scattered throughout the room. “What we’ve got is the murder of a senator with no apparent link to his killer, with no enemies who’d hate him enough to pay an actual killer to get rid of him.”
“What about the Deputy Mayor?” Kennedy objected.
”Doesn’t make sense,” Xander shook his head. “According to all interviews, the
Deputy Mayor didn’t know the senator had found out all this information until
after everything came crashing down on him.”
“He would say that though wouldn’t he?” Faith queried. “Sorta watching his back.”
“True,” Xander conceded before shaking his head, “but if it had been the deputy mayor ordering the hit, he wouldn’t want it doing in such a fashion.” Seeing the others’ blank gazes he elaborated. “The papers he didn’t want to come out in public are now even more public than they’d ever have been. This hit did the exact opposite of what he would have wanted.”
“What are you getting at, Xander?” Tara queried.
Xander glanced towards the soft-spoken
witch. “This wasn’t a paid hit, this was a dry run, an experiment to see if
Lorne’s spell or whatever it is worked.”
”Well it did,” Faith unnecessarily commented. “So what now?”
“Now whoever’s behind this is going to need another gunman to kill whoever the real target is,” Xander grimaced as an even more disturbing thought occurred. “Heck, there might be several hitmen and several targets already lined up.”
“You’re always a cheery guy, stud,”
Faith snarked before sobering. “So what’s the plan?”
“Huh,” Xander shuffled through the notes for a couple of minutes before looking up. “Here’s the thing. We’ve got a timeline that has the soldier going missing in July of this year. That was reported by his boss in Arizona, no record of him found. The next thing we have is him catching a plane out of Wichita, Kansas to Detroit under an assumed name a week ago. Nothing inbetween.”
“So we’re going to Arizona, see where he got snatched from?” Faith guessed.
”No,” Xander shook his head, “we’re going to Wichita, and trying to back-track
him from here.”
Tara pursed her lips. “The police and FBI will probably be all over the town chasing down leads.”
“Probably,” Xander nodded. “We’ll just
have to be subtle won’t we?” Xander looked towards Faith. “You get subtle
don’t you, Faith?”
Faith shot him a glare and a finger. ”Bite me Harris.”
”That’d be a no then,” guessed Kennedy.
FIC: MC 60. Nov ‘02 – Killers (4/?)
Wichita Mid-Continent Airport
”So,” Faith hollered so to be heard over the airport’s constant hustle and the
whine of landing and departing jet engines, “what’s the plan?”
Xander glanced over his shoulder. “The
plan’s we go to the Hyatt, check in and then go on from there.”
Faith cracked her knuckles. “Takin’ names and kickin’ asses?” she eagerly
suggested.
“We’ll see,” Xander shot her an amused grin.
”Wicked.” After getting the bags they took on-board for appearances’ sake
through customs, they headed out into the chilly mid-day, headed to the nearest
rental agency, got their by now standard SUV and headed into the bustling city’s
by now early afternoon traffic.
“That the Hyatt?” Faith queried as they
headed towards a gleaming building towering into the cloudy sky.
”That’s the Hyatt,” Xander confirmed.
”Damn,” Faith whistled, “they build them big.”
“That they do,” Xander agreed as they pulled into the parking lot.
Faith sauntered into the expansive, marble-floored lobby. She still got a little awed by places like this, sorta feelin’ like she should be coming in the back entrance with the rest of the hired help. ‘Cept, Faith grinned, now she had enough money to freakin’ buy the hotel, tear it down, and build herself an amusement park if she wanted.
An amusement park, her grin widened Now there was an idea…
”Sweet,” she muttered as she saw Xander grab the keys off the immaculately furnished wooden reception desk. Faith’s neck ached from sitting in the plane, she needed to stretch.
* * *
Xander grinned as he unlocked the door
and strode inside their suite, having reserved two of the hotel’s four suites
for their party. “I’m going to have a shower.”
”Cool,” Faith glanced towards him, eyes narrowing in contemplation. “We goin’
in hard or easy tonight?”
”Easy,” Xander decided. Lorne had supplied them with a list of demon
hang-outs. “Just ruffle a few feathers, see what comes up. Unless we find
anything bad happening, then all bets are off.”
Faith grinned. “You know how I like
ruffling feathers.”
Xander threw back his head and laughed. “You’re an expert.”
Faith’s smirk widened. “Damn straight.”
* * *
The bar’s muttered conversation came to a halt as the door crashed open and they strode in. “You ain’t welcome here!”
Xander looked around before replying. It was your average low-class dive, peeling wallpaper, dirty floor, and a drinks cabinet that firmly had the emphasis on quantity rather than quality. Average unless you happened to take the rather inhuman quality of its customers, the demons all now staring in their direction. “Oh don’t say that,” Xander said, what he thought of as a fetching smile on his lips, “we’ve only just met.”
“We don’t care Meat Monkey,” a towering
Curtaill rose and glared down at him, “get you and your bitches-.”
BANG!
The boom of Xander’s hastily drawn shotgun interrupted the Curtail and blew a hole through the creature’s head, depositing his largely decapitated remains on the floor. “Meat Monkey?” Xander shook his head as he spoke, his tone mild. “That’s just rude.” Xander looked around. “In case anyone’s wondering I’m Mithras-.”
”Mithras!” A squat, fireplug type three-eyed demon with green scales and a
reptile’s face let out a laugh. “Every hunter around says that these days-,
ugh!”
”Does every hunter,” Xander glanced at Faith as his girl-friend grabbed the
demon by the front of his shirt and lifted him out of his chair, “also run with
a Slayer?” Faith smirked. “Say I believe you.”
The demon’s three eyes all bulged, not all at once, but one after another, which was a real interesting effect. “I believe you!” he gasped, forked tongue sliding over his teeth.
“Wicked.” Faith dropped him back onto
his chair. At least he was nearly certain that was what Faith meant to do when
instead the demon fell ass-first onto the dusty floor. “Now we got an
understanding.” Faith’s beam widened. “I feel like the UN, building
relationships wherever I go.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Kennedy muttered as they started through the bar, every eye on them. The moment they reached the bar, there was a general stampede from the customers out of the exit, leaving them alone with the shaking Brachen stood behind the bar.
”This is your lucky day,” Xander smiled at the bartender.
“Lucky how!” squeaked the spike-faced demon. “You just cost me my clientele.”
“Yeah,” Faith leaned over the bar and
poured herself a Jacks, “but we ain’t cost you your life yet.”
”Faith,” Xander reproved, “pay the man.”
Faith sighed long-sufferingly. “You’re such a freakin’ boy scout,” his
girl-friend groused as she slammed down a five dollar bill on the bar, “keep the
change.”
”Yeah sure,” the Brachen snarked as he picked up the bill, “that’ll make up for
all the tips I miss.”
”Hey!” Faith’s hand shot out, grabbing the Brachen by his throat and
half-pulling him over the bar. “Being a smart ass is a real quick way to lose
your teeth!”
”Faith,” Xander pulled Faith’s hand off the demon. “What she meant to say is
we’d appreciate your assistance.”
”I d..don’t know anything,” the demon’s eyes flickered from him to Faith and
back again, his head shaking all the time.
”That’d be a lot more convincing if I’d actually asked you anything,” Xander
patiently reproved before continuing. “I’m looking for a mage or group of mages
who’ve been boasting about mind-control spells or the like.”
The bartender looked relieved as he shook his head. “I don’t know anything, we don’t get a lot of mages in here, we’re more your run of the mill type of demons.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Tara decided after a long stare at the demon.
Xander sighed. “Okay, onto the next bar.”
FIC: MC 60. Nov ‘02 – Killers (5/?)
Vaughan grunted as he awoke, his mouth dry and head ringing from the beating he’d taken. He stared dazedly around, glaring impotently at the darkness as he waited for the world to stop spinning around him. Then he tried to stand only to belatedly realise chained shackles were fastened around both his arms and legs, securing him to the wall he was slumped against. His teeth gritted as he spat on the floor and started pulling at the chains, eyes narrowed as he searched for any weakness in them.
* * *
“That’s the sixth demon bar,” Faith
complained as they stumbled out of yet another hovel. “I never thought I’d say
it, but I am some sick of this bar-hopping drag.”
“It’s no fun unless,” Kennedy shrugged, “well unless it’s done for fun.”
“Look,” Xander said as they headed for the alley they’d left the SUV in, “the only lead we’ve come up with is that mage paying off that loan shark, so I fig-.”
“I figure it’s time we find out how tough you really are!”
Xander only had time to look up at the voice when two vamps dropped off the fire escapes fastened to the alley wall opposite, two more stepped out from behind an iron-grey dumpster at the alley’s far end, a trio hurried out of a door to the left of where the SUV was parked, and four blocked up the alley entrance they’d just walked through.
“Finally,” Faith beamed. “Some action!”
Xander sighed. Sometimes he wondered if his girl wasn’t a little psychotic. “Just leave one alive for questioning.”
“One alive?” the vampire group’s apparent leader, a black woman with dreadlocks and a linebacker’s shoulders, laughed. “Ain’t gonna be anyone alive when we’ve finished, sweet-meat!”
“Sweat-meat?” Xander’s gun came up and blew the demon’s face away. “I’m vaguely insulted.”
* * *
Faith laughed as she back-flipped onto the SUV’s roof then spring-boarded off it into the quartet by the alley’s entrance. One was dead before the four realised she was there, a backhanded short sword slash taking its head. Another demon lunged at her as she pulled her sword back, but a hasty kick to the gut put the demon to his knees.
Faith caught another demon lunging at her from her right, and leaned back at the waist, the demon’s rending claws finding nothing but night air. “Shit!” Faith grunted as the fourth demon caught her with a waist tackle, taking her from her feet. Faith’s knees snapped up and into the vampire’s gut, knocking it away from her, as her free hand reached behind her to allow her to one-hand handspring back to her feet.
Faith grunted as she straightened up into a right to the jaw that snapped her head to the side even as she side-stepped the demon’s follow-up front thrust kick, hooked its leg with her sword arm, and swept its grounded foot. Even as the demon crashed to the ground, it backwards rolled back up, but by then Faith had already launched herself up into a split-kick to the chests of the other two vampires that sent them falling into opposite walls.
Even as Faith landed in a crouch the two vampires sprang back at her. Faith took a split-second to decide which was moving fastest, then twisted at the waist to the left to meet it, her sword flashing up to take its head. Her blade was still moving through the demon’s neck when she shot out a leg to her right, her heel crashing into the other vampire’s gut, doubling her adversary up, and giving Faith time to spin around and hack down and through the demon’s neck.
Faith licked her bloodied lip as she turned back to the last remaining vampire, the sound of the battle raging behind her filling her ears. Then she smiled at the watching vampire. “Boo.” She laughed slightly as the demon turned and ran. “Scaredy cat,” she chortled as she spun around to see how the others were doing.
* * *
Even as the group’s leader fell away, her face a red ruin, her companion, a Mohawk-haired fireplug lunged at him, claws ripping at the air as Xander back-pedalled, his gun coming up and firing a round into the on-rushing creature’s left-knee. “Aaaaah!” the creature crashed to the ground, its leg hanging awkwardly as Xander ended its pain with a stake through its back.
Another vampire leapt onto the car’s roof and then at him, Xander’s hastily taken shot missing the vampire. “Damn!” he grunted as the monster crashed into him, the impact knocking him on his behind, the gun falling uselessly from his grip. The vampire caught him with a right to the forehead. Xander grunted as his head bounced off the tarmac under him then reversed the momentum to bring his head up and into the demon’s face as it straddled him and moved in for the kill while simultaneously driving his knee into the vampire’s groin. The vampire’s mouth opened in a pained scream that was cut short by his stake through its heart, its last action before exploding, a right into Xander’s mouth.
Xander rolled up and through the demon’s dust in time to block a kick at his face on his shoulder, charge through the pain, and into a waist takedown that lifted his attacker, a scrawny looking hippy-sort, off his feet and dump him head-first onto the ground, the stake Xander drove through his heart finishing him off before he even knew he was in a fight. And that was it, the fight was over, Tara and Kennedy having taken care of the other demons.
”You five by five, stud?”
Xander glanced over his shoulder as he scooped up his automatic and dropped it back into the Always Pocket. “Fine thanks, you?”
Faith shot him a saucy smile. “Three dead vamps, got my motor runnin’ you know?”
Xander flushed at the innuendo in his girl-friend’s reply. “I’ll have to do something about that later.”
“Make sure you do,” Faith replied before
looking down at the wounded vampire and kicking it in its already destroyed
face. “Okay, who hired you to come after us?” Xander winced when Faith gave the
demon an ill-tempered kick to the ribs. “Talk damn it!”
“No one, no one,” the demon arched in pain when Faith repeated her kick.
“Why then?” Faith demanded.
“We wanted to make our reps by killing you,” the vampire sobbed.
“Boy did you ever fuck up,” Faith humourlessly commented as she dropped into a crouch and drove her stake home, the demon disappearing into dust, then rose sinuously and flicked her mane back.
“What’s the plan now?” Kennedy asked as she wiped blood away from her nose.
”We’re going to run a sting operation on the loan shark,” Xander decided.
“Jeez,” Faith groaned. “Not bait again. I’m so sick-.”
Xander spoke before his girl-friend could start complaining. “You’re not bait.”
“Yeah,” Faith stared sceptically at him. “Why’s that?”
“Because I’m going in.”
FIC: MC 60. Nov ‘02 – Killers (6/?)
“How do I look?” Xander queried as he came out of the bathroom.
”Honestly?” Faith wrinkled her nose as she stared at her boy-friend. “A mess.”
Xander grinned. “Good, ‘cause that’s what I was aiming for.”
“Well when you go for an image, you really nail it,” Kennedy confirmed. “No-body could deny that.”
Faith couldn’t help but nod at the potential’s comment. Xander was dressed in a worn and crumpled polyester suit that not only looked to be a size or two too small, stretching across her honey’s broad shoulders and chest, but also frayed around the edges. The suit’s colour only added to its image, dirty, muddy beige looking thing. “Didn’t realise that the hobo look was back in,” Faith snarked.
Kennedy snorted. “With him, it was never out.”
“Hey!” Xander said. “I’m normally the very meaning of style-.” All three of them broke down laughing at that. “But I’m going undercover.”
“Couldn’t you have found anything better?” Tara asked.
”The thrift shop loved me when I gave them a hundred bucks for it,” Xander
grinned.
“Man, did they ever see you comin’,” Faith commented. “Anyhow how are you supposed to pull off down on his luck businessman when you look like Lennox Lewis used you as his punch-bag?”
“Oh that’s easy,” Xander grinned then winced, hand raising instinctively to his swollen mouth before falling away. “That’s why I need the loan. I already owe money to a debt collector; his boys beat me up after I missed a couple of payments.”
“I could rough you up a little more,” Faith smirked. “Make it look real convincing.”
“It’s times like this I marvel at your selflessness,” Tara muttered.
”I know,” Faith winked at her sarcastic sister, “I like to give.”
“We know,” Kennedy muttered, “we have
the next room, remember?” Kennedy shook her head and sighed. “Why do hotel
rooms have such thin walls?”
”Why the hell are you listenin’ to us instead of gettin’ busy?” Faith returned
serve with aplomb.
“Oh god,” Xander groaned. “Come on,
let’s go.”
”You’re sure about goin’ in on your own?” Faith queried, eyes narrowing in
sobering concern.
Xander grinned. “This demon is strictly low level and I have The Always Pocket
remember?”
* * *
Xander glanced towards his companions as they pulled up across the street from a derelict looking building, the refuse-strewn neighbourhood they were in reeking of desperation and bad intentions. “Keep the engine running, lights off, and heads down,” Xander counselled as he climbed out of the car.
”Jesus,” Faith groused as she slid into the car’s driving seat, “not our first
rodeo, stud. Just look after that sweet ass of yours, kay?”
“Ugh,” Kennedy grunted from the back, “I hate it when Faith gets romantic.”
“Yeah,” Tara agreed. “Next thing you know, politicians will be telling the truth.”
Xander ignored the bickering as he crossed the street and ducked under the walled building’s arched entrance and hurried up the path, a carefully manufactured look of nervousness on his feet. As he started up the path he heard but gave no sign of noting the thick shape in the shadows to his left.
Upon reaching the doorway he reached up to knock on the vault-like door. At that moment his shadow stepped out of the darkness, revealing himself to be a Kaliff demon, not exactly a surprise, it was Xander’s experience that many of those in the demonic underworld used Kaliff as muscle. They were capable of learning human tongues, powerful but unlike most strong demons capable of discipline, and more interested in profit rather than carnage, raising other demons, or any of the other fun stuff their type frequently got up to.
Xander grunted but made no sudden move when the demon pushed him against the door, knowing it was just looking for an excuse to use his head as a football. Instead he allowed the beast’s hands to roughly travel his body as it searched him for weapons. After it had finished its search, the demon let out a growl. “What you want here?”
“I…I,” Xander put what he hoped was just the right amount of fear in his voice, “h…heard that you guys lent money. I need cash bad.” Now he allowed fear to be replaced by desperation. “If I don’t get it, I’m dead! You’re my last hope!”
Damn, he congratulated himself, he was a regular Kevin Spacey.
“Boss’ll wanna see you,” the demon decided before reaching over Xander’s shoulder, sticking a brass key in the door’s lock and turned it.
The moment the door clicked open, the demon placed his hand in Xander’s back and shoved him forward. Xander stumbled inside into a dimly lit hall with another pair of Kaliffs sat to the door’s left playing cards. At his entry one of the demons threw down his cards in disgust and rose, the other two laughing mockingly. Xander hid a grin, three Kaliffs, as long as the boss wasn’t anything special he could manage this. The two stood Kaliffs fell in beside him, and wordlessly more or less frog-marched him the length of the hallway to the doorway at its far end. One of the Kaliffs shot him a hard gaze, as if warning him causing trouble would have dire consequences before knocking on the walnut-coloured door to his left. “Sir, it’s a client, a human.”
“A human?” the demon at the other side
of the door sounded surprised. “Sure. Let him in.”
Xander stiffened his shoulders as the door opened. He’d got in okay, now came
the tough part, getting what he wanted and back out.
FIC: MC 60. Nov ‘02 – Killers (7/?)
Xander blinked as the door opened and
one of the demons’ heavy hands landed between his shoulder blades, shoving him
inside to find himself in an untidy-looking office with mouldy walls and a
rickety-looking desk behind which sat a Brachen. Which sort of made sense,
Brachens weren’t fans of the all apocalypse thing, but neither were they
universally good, and given their brains, it was only inevitable some of them
would gravitate to crime. “Let me guess,” the Brachen was short, maybe five
four and scrawny, dressed in a pair of black denims and a white T-shirt
underneath an alligator jacket, “you owe money to all the human loan sharks and
figured you’d try the demon ones, think I’m a soft touch do you?”
“Yeah,” Xander smirked, “that’s what three Kaliffs says to me, soft touch.”
“Kaliffs?” the Brachen’s eyes narrowed,
uneasy suspicion glinting in them. “You’re not just a walk-in are you? You
know something about us?”
“Not as much as I’m gonna,” Xander dropped a money clip with a dozen fifties in it. “I want some information.”
“I don’t talk to the man,” the Brachen shook his head before looking behind Xander. “Boys, show our guest the door.”
“I wasn’t asking,” Xander slammed his elbow into the Kaliff’s jaw and his heel into the demon’s knee as its hand landed on his shoulder, “I was telling!” Xander spun around to face the doubling up demon, his hand snatching at the back of his adversary’s head and pulling him down onto his rising knee.
Xander grunted as he ducked a right from the other Kaliff, his right heel snapping out to catch the other demon on his knee. The Kaliff doubled up and stumbled towards him, Xander snatching a hold of the demon by his collar and driving him face into the table.
“Damn it!” Xander cursed as he saw the Brachen racing through the doorway. He started after the Brachen, only to be confronted by the third of the Kaliffs charging at him with a whole bunch of bad intentions.
“I don’t,” Xander ducked up a haymaker right, coming up with a left he buried deep into his rival’s belly, “have,” he twisted at the waist to avoid a downward swinging left, “time,” he straightened up into a knee to the demon’s crotch, “for this!” His hand linked behind the creature’s head and pulled it face-first into his forehead. Bone crunched under his attack, Xander flung the bloodied demon to the side, the creature bouncing off and down the wall as he chased after his prey. “Faith,” Xander yelled into his cell as he reached the house’s doorway and saw the Brachen hurrying out of the entrance, “grab the demon running towards you!”
* * *
“On it lover!” Faith dropped her cell on the passenger seat and flung the car door open just as the running Brachen drew level with the car. The top of the door crashed into the demon’s chin, lifted him from his feet, and dumped him on the ground.
“Oooh,” Tara gasped. “That had to
hurt!!”
”Kinda the point,” Faith commented as she started out of the car.
“Hey!” the demon held his jaw as he sat up on the wet tarmac, eyes filled with indignation as he looked up at her. “What the hell-, oooof!” the back of the demon’s head bounced off the ground when the heel of Faith’s cowboy boot crashed into his chest and knocked him down.
“Stay there,” Faith warned as she
finished climbing out of the car to see Xander running up. “This the man, hot
stuff?”
”Yeah, thanks.” Xander grabbed the slightly built brachen by the collar of his
alligator-skin jacket and yanked him to his feet. The dazed demon shot up a
knee that Xander grabbed and held under the knee while leg-sweeping his
adversary’s grounded foot. Xander shook his head as the loan shark hit the
ground in a groaning heap. “Let’s try this again.” Xander grabbed the Brachen
by his lapels, lifted him from the car and threw him against the side of his
SUV.
“Ooooh,” Faith mock-cooed. “You’re so masterful!”
”Look!” the demon gasped, fear shining in his eyes as he raised his hands in
supplication. “Whatever Freddy’s payin’ you I can double it! Triple it even!”
”Hah!” Faith threw her head back and laughed. “He thinks we’re hired muscle.”
Faith grabbed the demon’s shoulder and shoved him back against the car when he
tried to make another run for it. “You should be so lucky. We’re far worse
than that.”
“Didn’t you hear a word I said in there?” Xander sighed. “I want information.”
“Oh crap,” the demon’s eyes shot from her to Xander, “you’re them, the Mithras Brotherhood. Look! I don’t wanna any trouble!”
“Then,” Xander smiled his dangerous smile that made her all warm inside, “don’t give us any. We heard that some wizards have paid off a big debt recently?”
“Is that-,” the demon nodded at Faith’s ominously clearing throat. “Yeah, this gang said they needed a ton of cash to research a spell or something. Asked me for fifteen K to do it. Three months down the line they owed me forty and I was about to send the boys after them, when one of them turns up, pays me everything just like that!” The loan shark clicked his fingers.
“Okay,” Xander pulled the loan shark
towards him. “I just know you’re going to tell me his address.”
”Sure,” the demon nodded jerkily before babbling out an address.
”Okay,” Xander released his grip. “Get out of here, and if it’s a lie, I’ll be
back for you.”
“Ain’t no lie!” the loan shark replied before staggering off, shooting fearful glances over his shoulder as he crossed the road.
”You sure we should let him go?” Faith queried as they climbed back into the
car’s warm interior. “Guy’s pond life-.”
“He’s small fry,” Xander replied. “We’ve bigger things to worry about.” Xander gunned the engine.
“What’s the plan?” Tara breathlessly asked.
“Oh nothing subtle, kick the doors down, etc, etc,” Xander replied.
“Gotta be simple for Faith,” Kennedy commented.
FIC: MC 60. Nov ‘02 – Killers (8/?)
Vaughan stiffened, eyes narrowing as he heard footsteps approaching. He forced himself to relax, head drooping forward, chin resting on his chest as he feigned unconsciousness. His heart pounded as the seconds crawled by as he heard the door being unlocked and heard two pairs of footsteps walk into his cell, and then a scratchy voice speak from the cell’s doorway. “Unfasten him.”
There was a clink as the chains on his arms and legs were unfastened. The moment the last was loose he lunged to his feet, catching the demon to his left with an elbow to the face even as he heel-kicked the one to the right in the shin. Both demons stumbled back a half-step and then lunged at him only to crash into each other as he jumped clear.
The suited man stood at the cell’s door backed down in the face of his advance, cheeks paling as his lips moved with increasing speed. “Aaaah!” Vaughan let out a cry as pain exploded in his head, his legs almost buckling under him, but grim determination kept him going forward. Pain exploded again, but he shoved it away, hands reaching out for the retreating man.
And then the demons grabbed a hold of his shoulders and started to drag him back. His elbow caught the one to his right in the gut at about the same time the one to his left caught him with a punch to the back of his neck. A curse bubbled up on his lips as he spun to face his attackers only to catch a hook to his jaw that staggered him, then slap away a body shot only to be tackled around the knees and brought to the ground. He covered up as best as he could, but the demons’ kicks pummelled him back into unconsciousness.
* * *
“Seriously, that’s your plan?”
“It’s a good plan,” Xander defended as he stared at the walled 19th century-style mansion on the edge of town.
“The ‘my car’s broken down do you have a phone scam?’,” Faith shook her head. “Have you heard of cells?”
“Faith.” Xander paused as he got out of the car, “shut up.”
“Hey!”
He was half-way up the path by the time Faith and the others caught up with him. “Notice all the security cameras and alarms on the house? Lucky we weren’t going for subtle.”
“I always wonder why the bad guys bother
with home security,” Kennedy commented. “It’s not like they can call the police
and say ‘hello someone’s breaking into our den of diabolical evil’.”
“I suppose it’s for their own security,”
Tara commented as they reached the front door, a thick wooden thing that managed
to look formidable despite the ornate design carved into it. “Do you seriously
expect them to let us in?”
“Not really no,” Xander replied after knocking.
Tara’s brow furrowed. ”Then how do you-.” The witch’s voice trailed off when
the door half-opened to reveal a middle-aged man that Xander cold-cocked on the
jaw, the man’s legs buckling under the punch. “Forget I asked.”
“Yeah but if the guy hadn’t been eighty, he’d have me doin’ the hittin’ while he hid behind me,” Faith snarked.
“Lord knows there’s nothing in the world like a supportive girl-friend,” Xander muttered as he lowered the unconscious man to the ground. “And you’re nothing like a supportive girl-friend. Besides, he wasn’t much over fifty.”
“I’m so glad we’re all professional about this,” Kennedy commented as she followed them all into the house, a lavishly decorated and vast hallway with a sweeping stairwell.
“Heh,” Xander muttered, “that’d be a first.”
* * *
Faith took up a position in the head of
their party, eyes shooting left and right as they stalked through the hushed
house. “What we lookin’ for?”
”Oh the usual, a basement entrance,” Xander replied.
Tara sighed. “Why don’t people ever hold their occult ceremonies in the sunlight?”
“I think you answered your own question right there, sweetheart,” Kennedy commented. “People who hold occult ceremonies generally don’t want their neighbours noticing.”
Xander rubbed at his forehead. Oh yeah,
he was getting that familiar throbbing headache he always got after too long in
his companions’ presence. His eyes narrowed as he noticed something off about a
bookcase to his left. “There’s a piece of parchment stuck out from under its
corner.”
”My boyfriend going for Good Housekeeping, it’s so humiliating.”
Xander shot Faith a glare before crouching by the hall’s bookcase. “Look how tight the bookcase is to the floor,” he pulled at the paper, the paper tore, part of it coming away in his hand. “How did this ever get stuck under the bookcase?”
“Must have been moved,” Kennedy said doubtfully.
“You figure? Who by?” Faith shook her head. “Nah, there’s something-…” Faith’s voice trailed off as Tara stepped forward, waved her hand in front of the bookcase and stepped back as the bookcase slid soundlessly to the side, revealing a lamp-lit banister-less staircase heading down. “What the fuck?”
“I cast a spell to find and release the
catch holding the bookcase in place, “ Tara smiled impishly. “And you’re
welcome.”
”Yeah, yeah,” Faith groused. “Everyone’s a smart ass.”
“Welcome to my world,” Xander muttered as he followed his girl-friend. After about a dozen steps the stairs levelled off into a path. Faith held up a silencing hand then beckoned them on.
They crept behind the Slayer, their ears
picking up the sound of chanting. Then they came to a stop by a doorway and
peered in to find a quintet of robed figures encircling a coffee-coloured
muscleman in his early thirties with a square jaw and black crew cut hair. The
man was tied spread-eagled and apparently unconscious at the centre of a
seven-spiked pentagram, candles flickering at every point in the pentagram.
“Whoa,” Faith licked her lips as she looked through the gap in the door, “what a
hunk of man.”
”I’d say, look at those shoulders and arms!”
“Kennedy!” Tara gasped.
”What,” the unrepentant lesbian shrugged. “I’m gay, not blind!”
Tara sighed then nodded. “You have a point.”
Xander sighed. “Sometimes it’s like I’m not here.”
”Right now, kinda wishin’ you weren’t.” Faith looked towards him. “‘Cause if
you weren’t, I’d be busy making him the happiest man this side of heaven.”
”Faith,” Xander sighed long-sufferingly, “you’re drooling.”
”What of it Harris?”
Xander shook his head. “Can we at least try and be professional while we rescue him?”
“Only if I can get really unprofessional with him later,” Faith replied.
Xander tried counting to ten. It didn’t help. “Let’s just get him rescued, shall we?”
“You won’t be rescuing anyone.”
FIC: MC 60. Nov ‘02 – Killers (9/11)
Xander groaned as he turned to face the demons who’d followed them into the pathway. “Kaliffs, why is it always Kaliffs?” he muttered as he passed Faith some weaponry. “We’ll deal with the mages, you deal with them.”
“Why do I have to be the one who deals with the Kaliffs?” Faith pouted.
”Because we’re going into the cell to fight those mages and I can trust Tara and
Kennedy to keep their hands to themselves,” Xander glanced at the two lesbians
before shaking his head. “At least I think I can.”
“Yeah,” Faith nodded reluctantly. “That makes sense.”
“So glad you approve.”
* * *
”So glad you approve,” Faith mimicked before sniffing. “Killjoy.” Faith eyed
the half a dozen kaliffs and grinned, slowly rolling her neck from side to
side. “Which one of you is first for the tenderiser?”
Faith lunged forward before any of the demons had chance to reply, her sword back-hand slashing through the nearest one’s neck while her free hand came up in an uppercut that lifted its recipient off his feet and flung him into two more of his companions, knocking the trio to the floor in a heap.
Faith pirouetted away from a Kaliff’s mad charge, while skilfully leaving her foot behind for the demon to stumble over. Faith grunted as the last remaining Kaliff caught her with a right to the jaw, and then retaliated with a toe-kick to his crotch, her sword going through the back of the demon’s back and out of his chest.
”Shit!” Faith grunted as the kaliff she’d tripped grabbed her in a full-nelson
before she’d had chance to snatch up her sword. Faith drove her head and body
forward, bending completely at the waist. The Kaliff cursed as he flew over her
to hit the floor on his back.
Faith had barely straightened when she was ducking back down and under a left hook from one of the three Kaliffs she’d downed before, and blocking a knee to her face on her crossed forearms. Before the others had chance to join in the attack she leapt forward, snatched one of the Kaliffs around the waist, twisted at her own waist and released, flinging the demon into another of its companions.
The two still upright charged in, one throwing a right that Faith pulled her head back from before side-kicking her assailant in the gut. “Shit!” Faith grunted as the other caught her with a kidney punch, spinning into a retaliatory roundhouse kick that the demon jumped away from.
And then the other demon lunged at her, grabbing her in a waist lock that she
quickly broke with a bone-breaking knee to the gut and a downward punch to the
back of his head. The demon’s grip loosened enough for Faith to quickly grab
his head and drive it down into a trio of blindingly-fast knees to the face.
Even as the demon fell limply to the ground, the one who’d punched her in the
kidneys caught her with a right to the eye.
Faith twisted into the blow like a whirlwind, hooked his leg to her body when he attempted a follow-up thrust kick, and simultaneously head butted him in the face and brought her heel down hard on the shin with bone-shattering force. Even as the demon started to scream, Faith punctuated her victory with a vicious yank on its trapped leg that popped the hip right out of its socket.
Seeing the two remaining Kaliffs rising on slightly unsteady legs, Faith released her grip on the wailing Kaliff’s leg and let him fall to the ground. The remaining pair of Kaliffs charged in, proving convincingly that they were a race of demons with way more guts than brains.
Faith met the first with a sternum-splintering, leaping thrust kick to the chest that sent him flopping into the wall. “Shit!” Her elation at another enemy defeated was cut short when her final rival tackled her around the waist while she was still airborne and powered her to the floor, her head and shoulders crashing painfully into the solid floor.
Even as she was falling, Faith was fighting, her legs wrapping around her
adversary’s thick torso. The moment she hit the ground and her adversary
dropped towards her, his haymaker fist leading the way, she twisted her legs and
flipped him onto his back, with her now on top. The demon’s fist cracked into
the side of her jaw, knocking her head to the side and jamming her teeth
together, even as she retaliated with a series of lefts and rights to the
demon’s face, crushing its features with her powerful blows. The demon at first
tried a series of increasingly weak counter-punches and then an equally futile
cover-up, her fists hammering through his defence like an axe through rotting
wood. Once she was satisfied the demon was completely stunned, she grabbed its
head under the chin and twisted, neck snapping with a pistol’s crack.
Faith rose and wiped the blood off her face, it was a shame she wasn’t looking her best for the rescued hottie but she’d still look pretty damn hot, as she strode through the groaning and motionless Kaliffs, before peering into the cell that Xander and the others had gone into.
As expected the mages were all dealt with, either by bullets from Xander or
Kennedy, or magics from Tara. Tara was busily taking apart and destroying the
spell while Kennedy hovered by Xander’s side as he unfastened the mystery man’s
bonds. Faith voiced the thought that had been plaguing her ever since her first
sight of the brown-skinned Adonis. “Hey, if he needs CPR, I’m willing to
volunteer.”
Xander paused in unfastening the still unconscious man’s bonds to look over his shoulder and glare at her. “He’ll be fine, and you won’t be sticking your tongue down his throat.”
“Hey, I’m just tryin’ to save you the discomfort of necking with another guy,” Faith quickly defended. “Don’t take a pop at me for being considerate!” Faith threw her hands up in the air. “Jeez, you try and be a good Samaritan.”
“Oh yeah,” Kennedy snarked. “Real convincing.”
“Xander, do you have a bucket in the Always Pocket?”
Xander stopped shooting her the evils to look suspiciously towards a far too innocent-looking Tara. “Of course, why?”
Tara grinned. “I think Faith’s drooling again and I wouldn’t want us all to drown.”
Faith glared at her treacherous best friend, Kennedy’s influence was definitely starting to tell. “Whoever told ya ya were funny, lied.”
FIC: MC 60. Nov ‘02 – Killers (10/11)
“Unfortunately I checked around, and we couldn’t find out either who hired you to do the assassination or who the target was.”
“Right.” Vaughan forced himself to concentrate on what the young man was saying. Not only was there the shock of a world filled with vampires and demons while they sat in a hotel restaurant, genteelly drinking tea, but there was ‘the Slayer’ looking at him as if she wanted to eat him up, like a starving woman who’d just found a particularly appetising meal. To call it off-putting would be a massive under-statement. He was used to women coming on to him, what with being a bouncer and built like a brick out-house, but there weren’t many with Faith’s beauty and raw sexuality, and even less with her powers.
And even if he was interested, Vaughan tore his eyes from the Bostonian beauty and to her boyfriend, there was Xander. Even if he didn’t have a firm rule about not messing around with other men’s girls, there was the self-preservation issue to consider. Actually to consider twice, a half-smile tugged at his lips, once for the Slayer and once for her boy-friend. He might have two to three inches and an easy thirty-five pounds on the young man, as well as unarmed combat training up the wazoo, but there was something about Harris despite the younger man’s affable air that suggested to a trained eye that messing with him was a one-way ticket to the ER.
“We don’t think they’ll come after you again though,” Xander hurried on. “It seems as if we picked them all up.”
“That’s a relief,” Vaughan nodded.
“Well thanks for everything.” He rose, eager to leave the bemusing quartet
behind. “If I don’t go now, the boss will have my head.”
”That depends on you,” Xander said. Vaughan stared at the young man, confused
by his cryptic statement. “As I explained on the way here I run,” the boy’s
cheeks flushed as his voice trailed off, reminding him that this kid was about a
decade younger than him.
Suddenly the girl’s eyes were off him, looking with concern at her companion. “You ‘kay there, Harris?”
Xander smiled, seemingly taking strength from his lover’s concern. “Yeah, as I
was going to say, I run a global organisation called the Mithras Brotherhood
that attempts to keep people safe by fighting vampires, dark arts mages, demons,
and the like. I’d like you to come to work for me.”
Vaughan sat back down, his legs suddenly unsteady again at the shocking offer. “Why me?”
“According to Tara,” Xander glanced at the witch, whose sweet nature contrasted greatly with the other two women’s brashness, and was about the only one of the quartet that didn’t set his teeth jangling, “you read ‘good’. You’re also a former U.S. Ranger of ten years’ experience, with sniper certification and received a Bronze Star in Operation Desert Storm in ’91, Silver Star in Kosovo in 99,” Xander’s eyes returned to him after completing his recietal. “You’re experienced, you know how to lead people, how to fight. You’re just the sort of person we need to lead Mithras Braches.” The hesitancy returned to the younger man’s eyes. “If you’re interested.”
Vaughan felt a surprising surge of pride at the kid’s words, then realised he was being played, even if the kid didn’t know it himself. Whatever else Xander Harris was, and however he doubted himself, he too knew how to lead and motivate people.
And moreover the boy was right. Every day he spent bouncing his soul died a little more. This kid and his companions had opened up a frightening world to him, but also not one without opportunity, one where he could really matter and help people. “I’m interested,” he slowly confirmed, “but what do I get out of it?”
”The annual interest off a hundred and fifty million dollar trust fund to spend
as you wish, access to the best arms and electronics equipment in the world, as
well as access to our intelligence network,” Tara replied. “In return you obey
the protocols and work practices of the Mithras Brotherhood.”
“Okay then.” It was a struggle, but Vaughan managed to ignore Faith’s lust-laden sigh when he raised an eyebrow. The resources at these kids’ hands were staggering. “Where do you want me?”
“Don’t say it. Just don’t.” Xander shot the Slayer a warning glare before looking towards him. “That’s up to you,” Xander replied. “We try and accomo-,” Xander glanced back at the Slayer before looking towards him again. “We try and put people where they’d like to go.”
“Are New York and New Jersey gone?” Tara nodded at his query. “Okay, what about Pennsylvania?”
Tara glanced at the laptop she had open at the desk and nodded. “That’s open. Do you want the resources there?”
”Sure why not?” Vaughan nodded.
“Okay,” Tara flashed him a smile that was all warmth and compassion, with none of Faith’s predatory overtones. All in all, Tara definitely left him feeling considerably more at ease than the Slayer. “Philadelphia County has two teams of nine demon hunters, Allegheny County has two teams of seven, Montgomery County has a team of eight, Bucks County, Lancaster County, and Delaware County each have a team of six. In addition, both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have occultists living in them. The details are on the computer.”
After a second Vaughan nodded. It was a terrifying world that these kids showed him, but also one that gave him a chance of a purpose. “I’ll take it.”
* * *
Frank Simmons swallowed as he entered the darkened conference room. Yesterday’s news was another blow for the NID, one their organisation could hardly afford. “Hello everyone,” he forced a smile as he took his seat at the head of the conference room. “Thank you for coming at such short notice.”
“The Mihtras Brotherhood had interfered in our affairs again,” ‘FBI’ snapped. “What are you going to do about them?”
Frank Simmons felt his smile strain. “The senator is being dealt with as we speak, he’ll have an unfortunate car accident, and with his death the questions into the funds we siphon off will end, the others on the Select Committee are either bought, too dumb, or on-board with us. It’s better this way, less high-profile than a gunman. Less questions will be asked.”
“That’s all very well and good,” ‘NSA’ growled. “But that’s not what FBI asked. What do you plan to do about the Mithras Brotherhood?”
Simmons bit back a sigh. He’d dragged his feet for as long as possible, sensing that if there was an encounter between them and the Brotherhood, things would go badly, but the others kept on pushing, and the Brotherhood kept blundering into their affairs, disrupting NID schemes. The two factors made the confrontation between them and the Brotherhood inevitable.
Finally he leaned back in his chair. He’d have to set the wheels in motion, and
hope that his side came out if not unscathed as winners. And even more
importantly, that he came out of everything unharmed. “I assume you’re familiar
with the UniSol project?”
“Wasn’t that moth-balled in ’92?” queried CIA. “Some press scandal or something?”
”Yes,” Simmons nodded as he leaned forward in his seat, forearms resting on the
table before him. “But we’ve managed to locate one surviving unit,” he checked
his notes, “GR74.”
“And it still works after all this time?” asked AFT.
“The techs think the model has one remaining mission in him,” Simmons replied. “Given the enhancements done to it, it should be able to take on the Slayer and her companions.”
“How long will it take to get the unit ready?” FBI demanded.
“The techs estimate four to six weeks,” Simmons replied.
FBI nodded. “Make it four weeks.”
FIC: MC 60. Nov ‘02 – Killers (11/11)
Xander sat on the balcony of his hotel room, his girl-friend having long left with the others to do some shopping. Xander smiled wryly. At least his credit cards would be taking the abuse rather than him for a change. Picking up his soda with a soft laugh, he took a sip.
”I’d like to make ya an offer, ya can’t refuse.”
Xander was on his feet in a half second, spinning around to face the badly-dressed, fedora wearing man stood in the balcony’s doorway. Before the man had chance to react, Xander had him by his throat and bent face-up over the balcony railing. “Six floors down, wanna see how well you bounce?”
The short man’s, Xander realised he looked kinda like a wanna-be wise guy, face creased in a smile. “You don’t wanna do that Harris.”
Xander’s brow furrowed as he belatedly realised something. “You’re not human?”
”Relax,” the man’s mouth moved up and down as if he was chewing gum or tobacco,
“I ain’t a vampire.”
Xander glared down at the stranger.
“Not what I asked.”
“Yeah, okay.” Somehow the demon managed to get loose from his grip. “My name’s Whistler, I’m a Balance Demon working for the Powers That Be.”
“Whistler?” Xander’s eyes narrowed as he sat back down, a memory tugging at the back of his head. He’d heard that name before. “Whistler? Looking at you I’d have bet you came from the Sopranos not the Powers That -.” His mouth dropped open as he got it. “You’re the brains-trust who brought Deadboy to Buffy!”
“Hey!” the demon let out an irritated cry. “Not my fault. It wasn’t in the script for my boy to fall for the girl. Things happen, I’m a demon, not a seer.”
“Maybe you should have kept a tighter leash on your ‘boy’,” Xander suggested. “Because of him I lost a good friend.”
“Ain’t the way the PTBs work kid,” Whistler shook his head. “They’re all into free will, etc, etc.”
“Yeah,” Xander stared up from his seated
position, ”how’s that working out for you?”
“Has it problems,” Whistler flashed him
a half-smile, “but the vampire’s on the right path, he’ll be an important player
in the future.”
“You hope.” Xander fired back. He had his suspicions that Whistler had gotten himself a severe spanking from his bosses for what happened with Angelus.
“I hope,” Whistler admitted, “besides you didn’t lose your friend. Summers is still alive.”
“Is she?” Xander shook his head. “Buffy was never the same after Angelus escaped. The Slayer might still be alive, but the girl I thought I loved is gone, long gone.”
“Whatever,” Whistler shook his head irritably. “Angel’s on his path, I’m here to discuss your path.”
“My path?” Xander half-smiled even as his stomach tightened in anticipatory fear. “I didn’t realise I needed a compass and a map.”
“You’re a funny guy, not like Angel-.”
”I’m a real laugh-riot, now get to the point,” Xander interrupted.
”But all business too, I like that.” Whistler grinned. “You made the big
leagues, kid. We haven’t seen anyone like you in eons, we want you on our side.
We’ve got a major role picked up for you and your people, we want you as our
champion.”
Xander leaned back in his chair as he allowed the world-tilting offer to crash
over him. The Powers That Be wanted him for their team? To accept meant he’d
be working for one of the universe’s biggest players, but if he refused he’d
incur those same Powers’ anger. Xander smiled, it wasn’t even a hard decision.
”You said you’re a balance demon, right?”
“That’s what I am,” Whistler confirmed.
“In that case you get your balance demon ass and twaddle off back to where you came and tell them not interested,” Xander commented.
The demon stared dumbstruck at him for a second before speaking. “Kid, you don’t know what you’re turning down.”
“Don’t I?” Xander smirked. “I’ve done a little reading of the Eternal Archive when I can prise it out of Tara’s hands. Just little things, like who all the major players are and what they want.” Xander’s eyes narrowed. “And I’ve found a lot of interesting stuff out and pieced together even more. The Powers That Be like to tout themselves as older than dirt and the most powerful force out there, but that’s not even close to the truth.”
“You don’t-.”
Xander ignored the demon to continue to talk. “First there was the Creator, then there was the celestial war, when Lucifer tore the heavens apart with his army of Fallen. Those Fallen become known as the Old Ones and feasted on what remained outside of the heavenly dimension. They dominated this plane for eons, then came my ancestor and his friends who defeated them and in the process ascended to god-hood. Only then did the Powers That Be take over, they’re not the strongest, just most the recent and most interfering. When it’s all said and done, the Powers That Be aren’t that powerful, yeah sure on this plane they kick ass, but in the power hierarchy they’re nothing special. Strictly middle-management.” Xander chuckled as a mischievous thought occurred. “And so I’ve gotta ask myself what does that make you? After all you’re always doing their dirty work. Their janitor?”
Whistler’s eyes narrowed. “Who do-.”
“Even with all that said, they have power, real power to make a difference, to do some good. But they don’t use it, instead they’re content to play this long game, not caring who gets hurt or damaged in their schemes. Just as long as they don’t have to risk anything while they’re playing us like we’re pawns on their chess board. Well let me tell you, I’m no one’s pawn.” Xander paused as common sense and self preservation took over. “Well except Faith’s. I’m not playing for one side or the other, heck I intend to knock over the entire board. Point is, no. As in n-o.”
“You’re making a big mistake,” Whistler
growled. “We’re not the sort of people you turn down-.”
”Really? Look at my position, what’s one more enemy?” Xander chuckled. “Say
it again, say ‘I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse’, I’m beggin’
you.” His eyes sobered. “Not interested, now get out of here while you still
can walk.”
Whistler smiled, something in his eyes giving him a chilling hint to the demon lurking behind the wise guy’s exterior. “You couldn’t kill me if you tried.”
Xander forced himself not to react to what he’d seen lurking in the balance demon’s eyes. “Kill you?” Xander shrugged, his eyes fixed on his companion. “Let’s not be hasty now. Who said anything about killing you?” Xander reached into the Always Pocket and started pulling out swords, axes, shotguns, assault rifles, and sub machine guns, and placing them on the table before him. “But I’m willing to guess I can cause you a world of pain.”
Whistler’s face contorted in rage. “You’ll regret this Harris!”
“Not as much as you will if you don’t disappear your ass right now.” Xander smiled sourly as the demon disappeared. “Yeah, that’s what I figured.”