Constraints: follows 'Living Dead Girls 3: Baptism Of Fire', occurs during and after 'Not Fade Away'.
Synopsis: Tiffany comes back wrong from her holiday.
Living Dead Girls 4: Fighting Machine.
Content: Violence, some nudity, lots of death.
Legal: Daria belongs to MTV, Angel and Buffy belong to mutant enemy, The Bill and Ultimate Force belong to ITV, and I'm trusting http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Science/Nuke.html to steer me right when it comes to conventional nuclear weapons, also Dervish, Brother Grimace, Roentgen and Ranger Thorne helped me with this, the Bush Speech was written by Brother Grimace because my one sucked.
~-~
The hardest part about using a sword was moving her feet correctly, because the force to accelerate the sword had to go somewhere, but Daria was getting the hang of it. She had already gotten Tiffany to use it, and because of her existing proficiency with martial arts, she could pick it up in about 2 days. But Daria was still having to get her swings right, so she was still practicing with her katana in the back yard of the Lane house.
Jane was also practicing, but
had been practicing since Tiffany and Andrew had returned to
Daria had also gotten her automatic shotgun, a USAS 12 (with 20 round drums), the weapon looked like a mutant M16 crossed with a tommy gun, she had found it of use when picking off vampires from a vantage point (this would be to back up Tiffany in the event that they encountered a larger enemy formation then they could handle). But she knew that it would be useless if her position got overrun and Jane wasn't there with her flamethrower to maintain a defensive perimeter. She did have her Mac in the event she needed to incapacitate a lot of them, but she would be hard pressed to change the clip in the middle of a fur ball, even if the next one was taped to the one she was already using. This had been obvious to her from the start, so she had been training to use the sword ever since.
Daria checked her watch "where is she?"
Jane looked over at her and said "I dunno, you don't think she scored some collateral damage again, do you?"
"Statistically that's rare. Slayers can sense vampires, even Buffy didn't experience that many fur balls in Sunnydale. I should call her," said Daria, she headed inside.
~-~
The phone rang, Tiffany picked up and answered "Hello?"
"Hey Tiff, how's it going?" asked Daria.
"Sorry, wrong number," said Tiffany, and she hung up.
~-~
"Nuke?" suggested Winifred.
"How?" asked Angel.
"Just shoot the bastard," said Spike.
"Okay, once again, Civus Vail, extremely powerful wizard, he'll sense us coming a mile off," said Angel.
"I appear to be unreadable by Witches, possibly other
mystics, I also seem to be immune to the usual spells, I will ... Nuke, Civus
Vail," said
"See, sorted, who's next?" asked Spike.
"Gunn."
"Yo."
"Your friend Senator Brucker has a campaign office in west LA, you already know she's pure hell spawn, and tends to surround herself with vampires," said Angel.
Gunn pumped his fist triumphantly and said "I was hoping it'd be vamps, I Haven't dusted nearly enough this year."
"Spike-" started Angel.
Spike interrupted saying as he stood up "Right, first off, I'm not wearing any amulets, no bracelets, broaches, beads, pendants, pins or rings."
"Fine, all you need is a rattle," said Angel.
"Ah, the baby."
"And a legion of the Fell brethren. I want the kid returned to his mother, and the foster family dismembered."
"Done and done."
"Archduke Sebassis has over 40000 demons under his command, the other members of the council fear him, he's a key player, so he's mine. Wesley, Fred, Izzerial and three friends dine together almost every night," said Angel.
"Do they eat anything that goes with lead?" asked Wesley.
"Drive by?" asked Winifred.
"Still got my bike somewhere," said Wesley.
"Which I can't drive," said Winifred, ecstatic at the thought of being the killer on this mission.
"Uzi or MP5?" asked Wesley.
"I think, ... the MP5 tonight, the MP5SD2, with subsonic rounds, been wanting to try it since we took over that place," said Winifred.
"Alright then, moving on, Lorne-"
"Uh, I'm not a fighter Angelwings, I never had the stomach for it, Looks like I'm your weak link."
"I just need you to back up Lindsey."
"I still can't believe you brought him in," said Wesley.
"He's a part of this, it'll be as dangerous for him as it will be for everybody else on our team," said Angel.
~-~
"So, I told the watchers council what's up, and we discussed weather or not to recall me, because if Tiff's out, then there are other slayers that need my attention," said Daria.
"Slayers may not be that mobile, but you watchers sure are," said Jane.
"It's not unheard of for potential slayers to never come to the attention of the Watchers Council, and there are some cases where contact is impossible to make anyway. Some countries restrict the freedoms of women so much that any watcher trying to make contact would either get themselves killed, or themselves and the slayer killed. Other situations that are more recent are where potentials are in the police or armed forces, that makes contact neigh impossible since we'd come off as stalkers to the cops or would have almost no access at all."
"But now all slayers are active, those who are in the police and armed forces will have found their jobs suddenly easier," said Jane.
"Except for the sock parties thrown by jealous co-workers," said Daria.
"And how long are they going to live after doing that to a slayer?" asked Jane.
"And how long will the slayer remain in the army when half her battalion has been transferred to the morgue?" asked Daria.
"Hmm, good point," said Jane.
~-~
"Ready to go out?" asked Quinn.
"Absolutely," said Sandi.
The two girls left the
They doubted they would encounter anything interesting, but they would go out anyway.
~-~
Daria and Jane walked up the street and, using mirror tiles glued to rings on their fingers, set about identifying the vampires. They had their swords concealed under their jackets, the handles pointed down, the swords were held in place by a Velcro strap on the holster that went to a pad on the hilt. Jane's red shirt concealed the handle, but Daria's jacket stopped at the waist, so she used her shotgun bag to conceal it.
"11 o'clock, the redhead," said Daria.
The redhead was with two other girls who weren't vampires, which meant they were prey.
Or assistants to the enemy.
"You sure it's this way?" asked Daria, trying to make them seem lost.
"Yeah, I think," said Jane.
Daria got a book out and they both looked through it as the group passed.
Eventually the group had passed, and Daria and Jane started to follow them maintaining a suitable distance.
~-~
Quinn and Sandi walked along the dark streets, keeping their distance from any possible concealment.
They stayed alert, suddenly wondering if this was a good idea.
~-~
The group approached a building with a vampire sentry.
"That's a nest," said Jane.
"Sure is," said Daria.
A human left the nest, this person had bite marks on his arms, some old.
"Blood Whores," said Jane.
"Sure are," said Daria.
"Do we bother?" asked Jane.
"No, vampire brothels are to be left alone, this is another reason why we follow before engaging," said Daria.
They saw Quinn and Sandi run along the street crossing the front of the brothel, bows in hand and quivers on their backs.
"The fuck?" asked Daria.
They then saw a bunch of vampires, one with two arrows in his chest, another with three, obviously none of them in the right place.
~-~
Quinn and Sandi kept running.
"My Mom will KILL me if I come home late AND dead," said Quinn.
"I told you this was a bad idea," said Sandi.
"Did not."
"Did too."
They turned a corner and after weaving around some trash cans, found their exit cut off by a wire fence topped with razor wire.
They looked back and saw the vampires already blocking the way they had come.
"Now what?" asked Sandi.
Quinn took another shot at the inbound vampires.
She got one, Sandi joined her in firing, but they quickly ran out of arrows.
The vampires surrounded them. The one with three arrows in him said "I like my meals nice and tender," as he approached Quinn, who was now regretting their failure to consider the possibility of having to go hand to hand.
Then Jane appeared behind him, jumping from dumpster to dumpster, drawing their attention from them. She jumped onto the gang, using their shoulders as stepping stones, getting between the gang and the fence. She then decapitated three at once with her katana.
"Get down or get behind me," Jane said.
Sandi and Quinn moved to Jane, but they were grabbed by the remaining vampires.
"Now what?" asked Quinn.
"Pull your socks up," said Jane.
Jane jumped, moving her feet 270 degrees around, winding her body up for the swing, and at this point Sandi and Quinn got it. They were in a deep bow by the time the sword passed over them, and moved behind Jane the instant the vampires turned to dust.
Quinn then looked behind her and saw red hairs mixed with the dust, she checked her hair, and found it had shortened about 10cm.
Two vampires picked up the bows that had been abandoned, pulling two arrows from their friends. They didn't move fast enough to get their shots in, they did manage to duck Jane's first swing, and the four were weaving around Jane's attacks. They were not getting a shot in, the vamps without the bows pulled arrows out of themselves and made to stab Jane. Jane had not forgotten them. One was decapitated, the other fell on his ass. The ones with the bows drew, but Jane sliced through the bows before they could fire.
The remaining Vamp that didn't have a bow that was going to manually stab Jane got decapitated by a HE round from Daria's shotgun, since Daria was too tired from running to start slicing. So it was left to Jane to finish the last two, Daria picked up the two arrows and threw them to Sandi and Quinn, deciding they'd be better off grabbing the vampires attention than becoming human shields.
Jane decapitated another, and the last vampire who was well aware that the girls behind him were now armed, froze as he tried to think his way out.
He ran out of time.
Jane looked around before holstering her sword, and Daria walked straight to Quinn saying "ARE YOU COMPLETELY INSANE?"
Quinn had no response.
"MOM WOULD HAVE A STROKE IF YOU TURNED UP DEAD! WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?"
Quinn looked in surprise at Daria, which wasn't the 'Getting yelled at for doing something wrong' kind of surprised, that had passed. This was the 'Did you just say that?' Kind of surprised.
Daria quickly reviewed what she had just said, and winced.
"Go home, and tell no one," said Daria.
Quinn and Sandi headed home.
As soon as they were gone, Jane turned to Daria and asked "Think she'll tell?"
"I don't know, but she'll want to know for sure weather or not I'm Daria" said Daria, she then said "Come on, let's go home."
~-~
Civus Vail looked up as one if his guards entered.
"Excuse me master, but I have an important matter to discuss with you."
"Go on," said Civus.
The guard then lifted his arm and shot a rocket at him.
Civus erected a shield in time, but the shield was set up an appropriate distance away for a HE warhead, not the nuclear warhead it in fact was. He was blinded by the flash and felt the blast energy feed back through the shield into his body, knocking him out.
He didn't see the Guard turn back into
Every connection between the rocket package and launcher, mechanical or command, was magnetic, that allowed rapid assembly, loading, and firing.
Another thing Winifred had done was find a way to use the metal known as sodium in the propellant, this seemed insane to Spike and Wesley, but Winifred had explained it to Illyria's satisfaction, it had provided a better rocket fuel for them extending the range of the system significantly.
Humans: kind of weak, but kind of smart. Nothing like the weapon she was wielding now would have been practical in her time. Humans had exceeded her expectations by not only banishing the pure demons such as herself, but also by developing the kind of industrial and technological capabilities she could never have dreamed of.
But it did take a few hints from her to lead Winifred to think of designing this type of warhead.
This was why
Two guards entered, having heard the noise on account of not
being deaf and having a nervous system capable of sensing touch.
She then disguised herself again and made her exit.
~-~
Wesley pulled up besides Izzerial's car as it departed, and Winifred killed the two in the back first, the driver took too long to come up with any kind of plan (such as smashing the cyclists into the row of cars parked on that side of them) and ate the last burst after Izzerial.
They were clear before the car could swerve into them, and Winifred had the silenced MP5 out of sight.
~-~
Daria entered the school and headed to the library.
After she had checked the condition of the library and the organisation of the books, she headed back to the front desk and opened the library to the school.
She picked out a book for her to read, astrology for beginners, and a spell book, some of this was part and parcel of the real universe.
Just a pity there are so many con artists in the trade, horoscopes were an example. There were two kinds of magic, there was illusory magic (Penn and Teller type stuff) and there was spell casting (the real shit), that was the kind of magic the Watchers Council dealt with.
She sat down to read the books and waited for Tiffany to show up.
~-~
Sandi and Quinn met Tiffany outside school and they headed in. Tiffany had reverted to something more normal looking, jeans and a red tee shirt under an iridescent purple jacket.
"How was your holiday Tiffany?" asked Quinn.
"Oh, it was quite good, went to
"Oh, thought I'd try something
different. So, how went
"Nice, hot sun, hot beach, hot males, zero vampires, right?" commented Sandi.
"Yeah," said Tiffany, for some reason she blushed as she opened her locker.
"Hot maaaaaales," Quinn prompted pointedly.
Tiffany smiled weakly and chuckled, she then said "yeah, I met someone, we had fun."
"Latex coated fun, right?" said Sandi.
Tiffany blushed harder as they headed to class.
"That is what students at this school talk about?" asked a familiar and disapproving voice from behind them.
Tiffany, Sandi and Quinn turned to see Angela Li, accompanied by Val and a camera crew.
The crew were dressed smart-casual. Val was dressed in a purple suit jacket with a grey shin length skirt, a silver crucifix on one jacket lapel, a looped black ribbon with a white tail under it, hair in a bun.
"I assure you that they were probably joking," said Angela.
"Were you?" asked Val.
Sandi decided to answer this question. She walked up to Val saying "well, considering that this was a private conversation amongst ourselves, and that eavesdropping is rude, and your opinions of us weigh less than a clean vacuum, my answer will have to be kiss my highly fashionable ass."
"Miss Griffin, that is no way to
talk to honoured guests of
"I was being polite," said Sandi.
The three of them started to walk off.
"What would have been rude?" asked Quinn.
"Telling her to suck my anus," replied Sandi.
The three laughed "You've definitely changed since I last saw you," said Tiffany.
"Yeah, it's not like I'm the leader of anything right now. Doesn't seem to be any point in resurrecting the fashion club, wasn't any point in it's existence to begin with, I could do with a change," said Sandi.
"Healthy I guess, Stacy's
"You're fine the way you are, Quinn. You never had any serious identity crisis, even when you were doing that fake smart thing a while back, you were in your happy place. That's one of the thing's I've always been jealous of," said Sandi.
Neither of them noticed that Tiffany had dropped behind with an anxious look on her face.
~-~
"This is getting ridiculous," said Gunn.
"It was ridiculous at dawn, now
it is ... ridiculouser," said
"Angel's dead," said Wesley.
"Are you sure about that?" asked Winifred.
"If he was successful he would be here by now, if he had to abort, he'd be here by now. What does that leave?" asked Wesley.
"Delayed, due to insufficient rain," Said Spike from the doorway.
"Perhaps my first assumption was
correct," said
"What first assumption?" asked Gunn.
"'Leery was speculating that Angel had been corrupted by the Senior Partners just before we encountered Droogyn," said Spike.
Everyone stayed silent for the next few minutes.
"How do we find out what's what?" asked Gunn.
"Mount an Obbo on Wolfram and Hart," said Spike.
Wesley thought about it and said
"Alright,
~-~
"And here is the library, the students have a lot of respect for the knowledge contained within this room, I have never found any sign of trouble here," said Angela.
"You never find any sign of trouble because this place holds no interest to them," said the librarian without looking up.
Val looked over and asked "Daria?"
The librarian looked up, a look of recognition on her face, but she said "nope, Joy Merryweather."
"Miss Merryweather was only joking, the students love this place," said Angela.
Almost on cue, the three girls they had seen earlier entered.
"See?" said Angela, but her smile was displaced as she remembered the earlier encounter, she sighed in frustration.
"What kind of reading do you like?" asked Val.
The three girls looked around and Sandi said "all kinds."
"We have a very good section on alternative religions," said Joy, holding up one of the books she had selected.
Angela nodded, smiling in approval.
Val then frowned and asked "you keep material such as that in a school?"
Angela looked confused.
"Oh, have you covered Evolution in science yet?" asked Joy of the girls.
"I think we did that last year," said Sandi.
Quinn and Tiffany looked confused, as did Sandi, not fully getting what was going on.
Val frowned even more and said "Miss Li, are you telling me you would expose the youth of this nation to such amoral ideas?"
"Yep, we're an evil cesspit of religious diversity and tolerance," said Joy, she then picked up a carton of leaflets with a blue looped ribbon on the front and offered them to the girls.
Angela was more confused then ever.
"Very interesting," said Val, who was frowning deeper than ever, slowly shaking her head.
"Right, well, moving on," said Angela.
~-~
"Okay, what was that?" asked Sandi.
"See that black ribbon with the white tail?" asked Joy.
"Yeah?" said Sandi.
"Symbol of mourning for the spiritually dead," said Daria.
"Spiritual- ... not getting it," said Quinn.
"As in, anyone who isn't a Christian fundamentalist. As in, 'we're sad that so many of our fellow humans are going to hell for not believing our fairy tales'. Treats anyone with a different opinion like they're mentally deficient," clarified Joy.
"Oh, you were having a laugh at them," said Sandi.
"Yep, looks like Val's found herself a new blood bank to rob," said Joy.
"Remember the last time you chased her off?" asked Quinn.
"Yeah, I, ... -" Joy winced again, now Sandi and Tiffany had strange looks on their faces.
"You could have just asked, you know," said Joy.
"Err, if you're Daria, then who's in jail?" asked Quinn.
"My stunt double, and the Watchers Council have been at me to return it to them for a while now," said Daria.
"'It'? ... What is it?" asked Quinn.
"An android," said Daria.
Tiffany started walking off.
"You all right there Tiff?" asked Daria.
Sandi and Quinn looked at her.
"I'm fine, ... excuse me," said Tiffany, as she headed off.
Sandi and Quinn looked to her and asked "you speak to her last night?"
"No. Well, I called when she ran late, she told me I had the wrong number. I'm not sure what's with her, but I'm not prepared to push her for answers right now. It's not like we need to draft the slayers any more, we have a sufficient pool of volunteers without doing that now. But if she doesn't show up tomorrow, then I will want to get some sort of answer, to be sure she's alright." said Daria.
~-~
"I keep hearing them talk about vampires and the Watchers Council," said Tiffany.
"But you're not acting as if the stuff is real, are you?" asked Margaret.
"No, but the whole thing is still to seamless, it's not like I'm nodding off and starting a dream, or anything," said Tiffany.
"Well, in that case, I'll write you a sick note and get your parents to pick you up, they can arrange for you to see your doctor about it," said Margaret.
~-~
Daria was headed to lunch when she heard the rantings of Barch and Dimartino. She headed towards the sound and saw the pair of them arguing with each other, ... and Val.
"FEW as the commonalities I HAVE with this PSYCHOPATH we HAVE for a SCIENCE TEACHER, I can assure YOU that we're in TOTAL AGREEMENT that your organisation is CHOCK FULL OF SHIT!!!" yelled Dimartino.
"You use this language in front of impressionable youth?" asked Val.
"Weren't you once trying to be the impressionable youth?" asked Daria.
"That was a long time ago," said Val, as she squirmed.
"Two years ago, wasn't it?" said Daria.
"Well, yeah, ... but that was before I saw the light," said Val.
"That's what you get for taking 'shroom tea," said Daria.
"HAH! I NEVER DID 'SHROOMS! TAKE THAT!" gloated Val.
"You didn't?" asked Daria.
"That's right," said Val.
"Hmm, ... Maybe you're not taking enough drugs then." she then continued on to lunch.
"HANG ON, how'd you know I was here before?" asked Val.
"Quinn told me," said Daria.
~-~
Daria was returning from lunch when she passed Tiffany and her parents in the hallway. Angela was a few metres behind the Blum-Decklers. She gestured for her to stop.
Soon as the Blum-Decklers were out of sight, she said "Earlier, when I was giving Val a tour of the school, you decided to antagonise her on camera."
"Yes," replied Daria.
"Do you like your job?" asked Angela.
"Oh lighten up, fundies get laughed at here. This gets to the public whose opinion you care about, they'll cheer us on because they think fundamentalists are full of shit, and because it's Val who's presenting. I just brought some honour to this sacred institution," said Daria, she then smiled and resumed her course to the library.
~-~
"Tiffany skipped class," said Quinn as she and Sandi entered the library.
"She left with her parents," said Daria.
"What's going on?" asked Sandi.
"I dunno, but I want you to talk to her this evening. Don't cause an incident, it's more vital you maintain the ability to talk to her, just gather what information you can get her to volunteer," said Daria.
"It could be something that
happened when she was in
"Okay, remember, ask, but don't prod, she's not ready to tell you, pressure will blow her away from you," said Daria.
~-~
Jane answered the door to see a woman holding a photograph, she asked "have you seen this boy?"
Jane looked at the photo and felt ill.
Good thing there's no BP to drop.
"No, sorry," she said.
The woman thanked her and moved on.
Jane closed the door and sat on the couch, staring blankly at the wall.
~-~
Mr Blum-Deckler answered the door and saw Sandi and Quinn standing there.
"Hi, Tiffany's not feeling well," he said.
"Mind if we look in on her?" asked Sandi.
Mr Blum-Deckler considered this, and finally said "fine, go ahead."
~-~
"Joy, how goes it?" asked Giles.
"Sandi and Quinn are going to talk to Tiffany now, she was
sent home from school today. Apparently something happened between Tiffany leaving
my sight at the start of Easter, and me calling her last night when she was
running late. I'm not sure how to approach her about it right now, she knows I
will support her in the event of an accident such as the one she thought she
had, but I can't compel her to disclose anything to me. I need to find out what
happened in
"I'll get on it, but we're busy here, your slayer isn't the only one that we have lost contact with. We have hundreds refusing to acknowledge our calls, and hundreds have just disappeared, we're trying to find commonalities now. The timing of them all is too tight for this to be accidental, we believe someone is making a move against us. We've buttoned the Council premises up tight in case someone tries to hit us, and we're sending a team from place to place to place chasing leads." said Giles.
"Safety in numbers." said Daria.
"That's based on having our HQ blown up and most our forces slain by bringers when we went against the First Evil. Now, it's possible we may have over compensated as a result, but I am not going to lose our reconnaissance teams to whatever is doing this." said Giles.
"Which means I'm at the back of a very long queue." said Daria.
"Yes, sorry about that." said Giles.
"Well, thanks anyway." said Daria, she then hung up and thought about what she was going to have to do.
She then started dialling another number.
~-~
Heather returned to her cell to find Daria standing on her bed, a cable coming out of her back leading to a socket, and a strong bleach type smell.
"Daria?" she asked.
Her cellmate turned around and said "I have to go. Sorry about this." before she turned back to what she was doing.
Heather saw sparks fly for a couple of seconds, then again, and then Daria dropped a severed bar from the window onto the bed.
Daria's right index finger entered view, the finger tip had been split and retracted back, revealing the tip of some sort of tool, when she placed that finger near the bottom of the next bar, a blinding light appeared between the finger and the bar, sparks flying from the other side.
Heather just stood there, Jaw dropped, as Daria used her finger laser to cut through each bar.
"Err, ... what exactly are you doing?"
"I have been ordered to escape." said Daria.
"By who?" asked Heather.
"By the real me, the one who doesn't have a plasma torch secreted inside her finger."
"Oh, ... I see." said Heather.
Daria removed the last bar, and unplugged herself from the socket under the bed, she then jumped through the window, and all these alarms started sounding.
There were megaphone enhanced voices telling Daria to stop, heather walked up to the window and watched as Daria looked around, guards seemed to end up looking away with their eyes shut for some reason.
Daria then ran to the inner fence, and cut through it with her plasma torch finger, the dogs on the other side running at her, biting her, and then recoiling and fucking off for some reason.
Daria then dragged herself up the smooth concrete outer wall, ridiculously fast.
~-~
"There's
"In retrospect, surveillance
devices would have been useful." said
"Indeed." said Wesley.
They were sat on the roof of a neighbouring building, supposedly federal agents watching for gangsters that were supposedly carrying out meetings. They had gotten their hands on some parabolic microphones, but the window to Angel's office was too stiff for them and they were getting nothing but wind, birds, planes, etc. bounced off the window. A laser microphone would have been more appropriate, but they couldn't find one. Winifred was busy making one, but she'd be a couple of hours.
"There's Harmony." said Wesley.
"Sabassis's army can't get it together without their leader, what should we do about it?" said Winifred, as she approached them from behind, holding the device she was carrying (which was basically a black PVC project box with some holes in the front, some switches on the bottom, and an ear phone coming out).
"Sabassis's dead?" asked Wesley.
"Angel must have been successful."
said
"We ignore them until they can get it together. We are still recruiting replacements, we have no time for them." transcribed Winifred, she then relayed "won't the senior partners be disappointed we killed Angel?" and "No, their patience has expired with Angel, and he voided the Shanshu prophecy, so it is no longer our problem. Now, who are we interviewing today?"
"Angel died escaping after he
killed Sebassis."
The other two were silent.
~-~
"You may have heard me talking about vampires and witches or something." said Tiffany.
"Yeah?" said Sandi, trying to remember all the conversations they had ever had with Tiffany on the matter.
"I imagine you figured I was being funny." said Tiffany.
Sandi and Quinn went quiet, trying to remember all the jokes Tiffany had made, because she had made a few.
"I'm afraid I thought those things were real." said Tiffany.
And now Sandi and Quinn were just confused.
"What things?" asked Sandi.
"Vampires, ... witches, ... robots even, ... " she also laughed and said "The First Evil, a ghost that controls a bunch of people called 'bringers', how whacked it that?"
Quinn and Sandi looked at each other.
Tiffany laid back on her bed and placed her hands behind her
head, saying "Yep, your friend doesn't just act crazy, she is crazy. The starts
and ends of the hallucinations are just so seamless. You know that holiday I
was on? Wasn't to
~-~
Robodaria entered a cyber café and after a quick look around, pulled an Ethernet cable out of her wrist.
Her real self had ordered her to start looking for any
incident reports in
She quickly found something odd.
No passports under the Blum-Decklers names were ever recorded being used.
No credit cards under the Blum-Decklers names or credit card
accounts paid by the Blum-Decklers ever went to any hotels in
She turned to investigating the Blum-Decklers
movements during the time when they were supposed to be in
They had spent money on fuel at
several gas stations heading out of
There had been some expenditure
on some new clothes just before Tiffany's return to
And their last medical insurance bill was slightly higher.
She investigated the reason the medical insurance rate had climbed, the usual reason is that the policy holder had made a claim.
There was a number of payments to
Robodaria hacked the hospitals computers and found out it was Tiffany Blum-Deckler who had been treated.
The condition that was being treated was delusional schizophrenia and possible multiple personalities.
According to her medical database, these conditions described visual and auditory hallucinations structured as an imagined reality along with having more than one personality apparent in the individuals brain. She began a broad investigation of the condition, numbers of cases, commonalities, known research.
~-~
"So Angel buggered the plan then huh?" asked Spike, as the remaining members of Angel Investigations sat around the hotel room (Their old places considered unsafe to return to since the operation against The Circle Of The Black Thorn).
"He carried out the objective, but something important got left out." said Wesley.
"We destroyed the entire circle though." said Winifred.
"Obviously we have not, perhaps the member we failed to plan
for is Marcus Hamilton." said
"Then we need to take him out, before he can replace the circle of the black thorn." said Wesley.
"I can return to our earlier
observation point and use the nuclear rockets to kill Marcus." said
"Sounds like a plan." said Spike.
~-~
"Hey mom, can we talk about something?" asked Jane.
"We can always talk about anything." said Amanda.
"Before you put my soul back, did something happen?" asked Jane.
"I don't know what you mean, I did it the instant I discovered your condition." said Amanda.
"How long after me being turned was that?" asked Jane.
"I felt something was wrong the second I got home, the occupants aura had altered, I checked on Trent and you to find out if it was one of you." said Amanda.
"Occupants aura, ... " said Jane.
"The occupants aura is the force that stops uninvited vampires from entering a dwelling." said Amanda.
"Right. Okay, and you quickly found I was the dead one?" said Jane.
"Yes, ... I wasn't pleased that you were dead, but I couldn't bring myself to slay you. So I rushed out to gather the equipment needed to return your soul." said Amanda.
"You got home to find something wrong? What were you returning from?" asked Jane.
"It was a, ... the trip had lasted several days." said Amanda.
"Which means the length of time I could have been running around without a soul, ... Okay, thanks mom." said Jane, she then left.
~-~
"Oh you fucking cunt bastard." said Jane as she hung up.
Daria emerged from the basement and asked "problem?"
"Trying to get Angel or Spike, need to find out what they remember of their time when they were without their souls." said Jane.
"Why?" asked Daria.
"My mother re-ensouled me several days after she had departed on a long trip, so, ... well, ... " Jane gesticulated as she tried to figure out how to broach the topic.
"You're concerned you might have done something prior to your first memory as a vampire?" asked Daria.
"Exactly, ... " Jane sighed and looked at the floor.
"Well, both Angel and Spike have clear memories of their misdeeds."
"Yeah, well, I've got a dream, but I'm not sure it's just that."
"What do you remember of it?" asked Daria.
Jane took a breath and said "There's this boy, 12-14 years old. I lead him into a dark corner in an arcade, I then cover his mouth and drink him dry. Been dreaming that a lot lately, first it was fragments, then it's been getting more and more real. And then today, a woman knocked on the door, showed me a photo with the boy on it, asking if I had seen him."
"Ah." said Daria in response.
They stood in silence for some time, then the phone rang.
Daria answered it "Merryweather sunshine defecating."
"Eww, Joy, ... Listen, we just talked to Tiffany, she thinks
vampires are figments of her imagination, and she was getting treated for it in
"Oh, ... Okay, thanks for that, has she been taking anything?" said Daria.
~-~
She waited for him to sit down at his desk before initiating her strike.
She lowered her binoculars, startling the seagull that had perched on her hand, and loaded the first rocket. The small plasma screen in the side of the handle included a CCIP system calibrated to the rocket's trajectory, and the immense heat of the exhaust cloud would ensure the target would become visible again within 700 milliseconds of the first impact.
She shot the first rocket and immediately reloaded, having her shooting solution the instant the heat had cleared.
All the windows in that room and neighbouring (sideways, up and down) floors had been blown out, Marcus stood up and looked out towards her. She realised the rocket was too slow, she needed to be able to predict his location at impact to be certain of a kill.
She shot the rocket at the wall behind Marcus, just as Harmony was approaching the door.
He struck the pavement that divided the carriageways.
Some people stopped their cars and emerged to render assistance to Marcus, some of them were looking up at her, since they had seen the second rocket smoke trail as it had entered the building (nuclear ordnance not exactly being the quietest items invented).
But if she allowed Marcus to recover, her mission would be a failure, and he would reprioritise Angel Investigations as the immediate threat, and would probably not come unprepared for Angel Investigations new weapons.
She fired.
Marcus didn't move, neither did the people who had seen her launch the third rocket, they just stared as the rocket came at them, not realising they could save themselves, or that they would die if they were that close to the warhead when it detonated, Illyria couldn't comprehend their lack of movement, it was totally illogical.
He was vaporised.
The predicted incidental damage occurred also.
~-~
"Err, ... yeah, that's about right." said Jane.
Daria entered the picture and waited for the response.
Then she got an Email alert from Daria.
"Getting lonely are we?" cooed Jane.
Daria opened the Email and read it.
"Well, we knew this, Quinn just told us, ... huh, that is odd." said Daria.
"What is?"
"The condition, or rather the combination of conditions, has
increased rapidly over the past few months, and affects only women, mostly in
their teens. ... Mostly in the
"The names? Who are we expecting to find?"
"I don't know, but Giles said a lot of slayers have ceased any kind of contact with their watchers, or even disappeared. And the cases are chronologically too close together for this to be coincidental. I want to get Giles to compare this new information with-" started Daria, but the other program started flashing. She checked on it, there were 5 missing kids, one of them had been killed by a vampire, all were found dead too far away or under conditions that excluded the attack Jane had described.
"I don't think you did this."
"Okay, then what's with the vivid memories?"
"I think we need to-" started Daria, but she was interrupted by the ceiling falling down from above them.
Except the plaster was being thrown too hard for it to be the ceiling collapsing, and a piece of the roof above was missing, also Daria's ears were ringing.
Daria and Jane started picking the splinters of the batons from them when Jane grabbed Daria and shoved her away from the computer into a corner.
Daria didn't have time to ask what was going on before the desk with her computer on it exploded.
The smoke rose through the hole in the ceiling, revealing a hole in the wall behind where the desk had been, and a sort of crater where the floorboards had been pushed down between the beams, which were bent and splintered, they no longer looked like they could support someone standing on them near the crater.
"Let's GO!" shouted Jane, as she picked up Daria and started dragging her by her coat down the hall.
Daria grabbed her phone and started dialling, there was another explosion above them, but the greater distance between the roof and ceiling above them meant they only got showered in plaster.
Amanda then came up the stairs asking "What's going on?"
"MOM! SHIELD! NOW!" shouted Jane, looking up.
Amanda did this and asked "what was that noise?"
"Some kind of artillery strike. Someone tried to blow up Daria, didn't know what had happened at first, the ceiling was blown down. I smelt high explosive residue, managed to get her out the way just in time." said Jane.
"I'd say it was a mortar." said Daria, her phone then stopped ringing and she said "Giles, I think I know what's going on."
~-~
Sandi and Quinn were stood around Tiffany's window as they tried to figure out where those bangs were coming from. They had seen some smoke rising up, and saw one blast being deflected by something invisible to them, and Tiffany was just lying on the bed, probably unsure weather what she heard was in fact real.
"Where's that smoke coming from?" asked Sandi.
"Looks like Jane's house." said Quinn.
"That last one was just in mid air, like it was on a force field or something." said Sandi.
Quinn pulled her cell phone and called the lane house.
Suddenly something hit the roof above the window, and a puff of smoke appeared in the garden.
The bang rattled the window.
"What was that?" asked Quinn.
They decided to head down stairs, they got out into the hallway when there was another bang, this shook plaster from the ceiling.
Tiffany emerged from her room and headed to the bathroom.
Then there was another bang, debris was blown out of Tiffany's room, some of it dug into the wall.
Mr Blum-Deckler came upstairs and asked "Where's Tiffany?"
"Bathroom" said Quinn, her cell phone stopped ringing.
"
"Hi, there are explosions going on here-" started Quinn.
Jane interrupted, saying "where's Tiffany?"
Another explosion occurred in the attic, shaking more plaster loose, Quinn answered "Bathroom."
"GET HER OUT OF THERE!" yelled Jane.
Quinn kicked the door in, Tiffany was just about to open a pill container, she didn't have time to ask anything before Quinn grabbed her and shoved her out of the bathroom.
Quinn and Tiffany felt bits of wood enter their skin and their skeletons jar.
Then they were pulled to their feet by Sandi and Mr Blum-Deckler.
Jane said something, but Quinn couldn't hear it very clearly.
"What?" asked Quinn.
"Get into the basement and keep moving around." said Jane.
Quinn relayed this instruction to the others and they headed down stairs.
~-~
Daria got the car into the houses shadow and Jane got on board, pulling down the blinds Daria had installed especially for Jane, as soon as Amanda was on board, they were off.
They headed out to Tiffany's place.
"Thank you." said Daria before hanging up, she then said "Giles is telling everyone what the situation is now." she then started dialling her stunt double, which picked up immediately "err, ... listen, ... listen." said Daria, then she started drumming her fingers, as if trying to come up with a plan, she tutted twice, hissed through her teeth once, tutted again, and then said "we need to, ... err, ... " she then tutted once and hissed four times, said "err, ... ", then hissed once and tutted four times.
~-~
"WHO'S DOING THIS?" asked Mr Blum-Deckler.
"NO IDEA, WE'LL ASK JANE WHEN SHE GETS HERE." shouted Quinn.
They had gotten to the basement, and were now moving around, but the latest shell hit the stairs leading out of the basement, the next one hit the wall along the front of the house.
"Am I imagining this?" asked Tiffany.
"No." said Quinn.
The next hit near where the last had hit.
When the third hit slightly further along than the last, Sandi said "They're trying to bring the house down on us."
"How the fuck are they placing their shots?" asked Quinn.
Another shell hit.
Then they heard a car come right up to the house and stop.
Daria poked her head through one of the holes and asked "everyone alive in there?"
"Yeah, what's happening?" asked Quinn.
"First Evil apparently. Haven't seen any bringers or any intangible people, but that's the only bandit that has the capabilities we have observed so far. Move some of that furniture up to this wall and climb out."
Quinn and Sandi did as told, the Blum-Decklers followed with Tiffany.
Once they were all outside, Daria turned to the Blum-Decklers and said "you believe all this talk from Tiffany about vampires, demons, and any other weirdness she mentioned to be some sort of hallucination, right?"
Mr and Mrs Blum-Deckler nodded and Daria said "that's understandable, but I'm afraid it's all real. You all saw how the mortar fire followed Tiffany around the house? The First Evil can monitor any place it chooses to while simultaneously commanding it's minions known as bringers. That's how it managed to follow Tiffany around the house, tried to take me out earlier when I made the connection. Now, I need you to come with me, and I can't tell you where we're going, just get in your car and follow me, Sandi, with them, Quinn, with me, I have a plan, just have to trust me, okay?"
The Blum-Decklers nodded and everyone went to their vehicles.
Daria headed back to the Lane house, Jane said "WHAT PLAN? YOU HAVEN'T GOT ONE AT ALL, HAVE YOU?"
"I will have one, just trust
~-~
They arrived back at the lane house, Daria then told Jane to grab her flamethrower, while she herself would grab whatever ammunition and firearms she could carry, Quinn was to grab the swords, stakes and other contact weapons.
The Blum-Decklers pulled up behind Daria's car and entered the house.
~-~
Quinn picked up one of the swords, she couldn't resist drawing it part way out of its holster, and then giving a reverent "whoa." as she realised this was one of those ultra sharp swords the Japanese had.
She quickly remembered that they were in a hurry, so she put it back in its holster and started gathering the swords and axes from the wall rack.
Daria emerged from the basement with two Uzi type guns stuffed in her waistband, a vest full of longer shotgun shells (probably also explosive), a sports bag full of probably more guns and ammo, and a big fuck off rifle bag.
Jane came down stairs carrying that flamethrower.
"We need to get a move on." said Daria, as she noticed Quinn was still there.
Quinn obliged and carried the weapons out to the car.
Daria handed the guns to Sandi, and fished 5 long clips out of the bag, saying "Bringers are dead easy to kill, just watch your ammo, these things will use up a clip within 2 seconds", she then pointed out the various controls on the weapon, quickly explained how to use it, and then headed to her car telling Quinn to drive.
It was now dark enough for Jane to release the blinds on the windows in the back.
Quinn got in the drivers seat and asked "where to?"
"Head west for now." said Daria.
Suddenly Daria's phone rang, then it quit just as Daria went to pick it up.
Amanda suddenly experienced a dizzy spell, saying "okay, I'm wiped. I'm sorry, I haven't been well lately."
"Quinn, start evasive action." said Daria.
"Right." said Quinn, as she started weaving, doing her best to avoid accidentally ruining someone's front lawn.
"Wonderful." said Jane.
The Blum-Decklers were weaving around behind them as well.
There was an explosion behind them, it took out the front left wheel of the Blum-Decklers car, and lifted it almost over, but the car came back down again, pointing off to the right, it crashed into a house, Daria stopped and reversed to them, Amanda seemed to come to life again.
Sandi helped the Blum-Decklers squeeze into Daria's car and asked "What the hell just happened?"
Quinn then saw a trail of smoke overhead moving off to the horizon, another explosion occurred about three metres over them.
"Oh, that's just a maverick." said Daria.
The trail disappeared over the roofs and there was a flash just over them, followed by a cloud of smoke illuminated by a fire from underneath.
They heard the bang several seconds later.
"The robot, right?" asked Jane.
"What?" asked Sandi.
"Sorry for almost getting you lot killed, but we needed to take out the bringers now, and since the First Evil could monitor us all, I needed to make it look like I had no idea what to do about it." said Daria.
Amanda then said "I would have had to stop shielding us eventually anyway."
Once they were all on board, Quinn started off again.
"So, no more bombardment?" asked Mr Blum-Deckler.
"For the moment." said Daria.
"So where to?" asked Quinn.
"Take the next right." said Daria.
~-~
While explaining that she thought was under attack from an 81mm mortar, Daria had tutted 'F16 AGM65 CAS' in Morse code, referring most probably to the F16 fighter/bomber, the AGM65 optically guided missile, and CAS the mission profile, close air support.
So Robodaria blagged her way onto an airbase, having hacked her way through the USAFs computers to prepare the aircraft (loaded with an ECM pod, two drop-tanks on triple pylons with AGM65 Mavericks, and 6 mk82 1/4T bombs with retarding fins on triple pylons, plus the AIM9 Sidewinders that normally inhabit the wingtip LAU7s) and had sent a couple of other aircraft to jam AWACS on an 'Exercise', and got to Lawndale.
The next problem had been that there were no longer any shots being fired, she texted 'where's the party' to Daria, hoping for instructions.
Daria had been driving through Lawndale at the time, she started weaving, and at that point, a muzzle flash appeared several blocks away, it was a mortar on the back of an APC, she immediately pointed the aircraft at it, locked the AGM65, and fired.
Now she needed to hide the aircraft and wait for further instructions.
She located an airstrip that had no signs of use what so ever, like it had just ran out of business.
The runway was littered with large pieces of debris, so she imagined lots of small pieces too, the sort of stuff that could be picked up by the wheels and thrown into the airframe when she landed, and could get sucked into the engine when she tried to take off if she was unable to clear it all up before she was needed again.
She shut off the engine and made her silent approach, carefully draining the aircrafts inertia as it fell.
She would hide the aircraft until it was needed again.
~-~
"Can't get through." said Daria, as she tried to call Giles again.
They were holed up in the Lawndale Magic Box, and Daria had told Amanda to use some of the inventory to make a shield that Amanda wouldn't have to use her own power to sustain "-before the First starts using something in the 200mm high velocity range.", and now Daria was taking a moment to call Giles.
"Think they've been blown up again?" asked Jane.
"No clue, let's check the news, this place get cable?" asked Daria.
"Yes." said Derek Jamalia, the proprietor of the Lawndale Magic Box, he led Daria upstairs to his office, and turned on the news.
Daria saw the watchers council headquarters behind a police cordon on CNN with the subtext 'Vampire cult takes hostages'.
"The police are trying to negotiate with the cult leader, one Rupert Giles, who heads an organisation known as 'The Watchers Council', which is thought to be involved in a mind control conspiracy. The British Prime Minister has issued the following statement."
The image then turned to Tony Blair and his cabinet in the meeting room.
"While I'm still waiting for all the facts to be uncovered,
it looks like we have uncovered a vast conspiracy to corrupt the youth of
several nations, possibly for terroristic purposes. Right now, all my staff are
busy discussing the situation with their counterparts in
Daria turned to head back down stairs but found everyone except Amanda and Jane had come upstairs.
"That explains the communications blackout, I'm gonna try Willow." said Daria.
"At least the police are unarmed over there." said Quinn.
"Actually, some are. SO19, British equivalent of SWAT, but that's the least of
their worries." the phone stopped ringing and
"Yes, Giles mentioned this just before he was cut off, has the Watchers Council been blown up again?"
"No, but it's under police siege. There's an investigation going on, they think it's a terrorist cult out to brainwash the worlds youth, and because the link with terrorism has been assumed, and the watchers council are thought to be holding hostages, the SAS are most likely planning their attack right now, and these guys do not have a stun setting if you know what I mean." said Daria, making sure everyone in the room understood the situation perfectly.
"I see." said
"Also, if you're not already doing it, we need every slayer currently being detained in psychiatric institutions to be extracted and made ready to fight as quickly as possible." said Daria.
"On it." said
"Good luck." said Daria, she then hung up.
After a few seconds silence, Daria said "I'm not a great fan of the 'sit on our ass and hope everything works out' plan, do we have broadband here?", gesturing at the computer on Derek's desk.
"Yes." said Derek.
"Fire it up." said Daria, she then got on the phone and called her stunt double again.
~-~
They had managed to steal a C5 with some hacking, and
some conjured uniforms and ID tags, and were using it to get close enough to
the various locations so that
They had extracted 50 slayers so
far, and
Even with the aircraft, they still had a lot of distance to cover, and that was just in the United States, the council had other witches of a similar power level to Willow, but Willow didn't have their numbers, she had called Buffy, who had the same list as Giles did, so she would be working Europe and was informing all the watchers in every other region.
~-~
"There are two in Connecticut State, Three in Mt Sinai, five in New York State, one in Tisch, three in Silver Hill." said Daria.
"The shield spell at this place shouldn't need Amanda's presence to hold, that's assuming the bringers have no magical abilities." said Derek.
"Intelligence on the First Evil and the bringers is highly limited, they seem more willing to use good old, and new, fashioned weapons, unless it somehow convinces someone in command of a missile silo to execute Russia's version of plan R, we should be safe." said Daria.
"The shield would prevent matter from coming in." said Derek.
"Hundreds of kilotons of TNT is still a lot of energy, and given that the Russians during the cold war went big with their version of the minuteman, we can actually expect something in the 10s of megatons, the shield would have to take a lot of force from one of those." said Daria.
"We could always layer them." said Derek.
"Okay." said Daria.
"How are you going to get those girls out?" asked Derek.
"Well, I was hoping I would have a plan A, or 24 other alternate plans after that, but as it happens, I'm looking at plan Z as the most promising plan for success: Wave big guns around and politely ask for their release." said Daria.
"That will make you the most
wanted people in
"I'll talk to Amanda about some sort of disguise for us all, we're certainly not going to blag our way in without intimate knowledge of how these people interact, even if we knew the security codes and how to fake IDs for the places, they won't know about Glamours or other image altering spells, but they will know we're different people from those we pretend to be, we'd get found out too fast to be able to do anything." said Daria.
"But if you try to shot your way in, the police will be in faster than you can say 'lemme in'" said Derek.
"We'll be cutting off communications with remote detonated explosives, we'll use my car to pick the girls up, and a bus to carry them altogether, that will need to stay close enough to-" Daria was interrupted by some bangs originating from downstairs "Oh now what?" she said as she headed downstairs.
~-~
"Romeo zero one, Back door impenetrable, over" said Officer Dave Koni.
The door opened, it was
After trying to enter, and bouncing off an invisible force field, Dave asked "Are you the leader of your cult?"
"Cult?" asked Jane.
Joy Merryweather walked into view and asked "can I help you?"
"Yes, we have a warrant to arrest you and your associates for the abduction of the Blum-Decklers, Sandi Griffin, and Quinn Morgendorffer, you need to shut down whatever you have generating this forcefield, and surrender peacefully, if you resist arrest, you will be in deeper trouble than what you are thought to be responsible for thus far." said Dave.
Joy looked behind her, thinking about her response.
"Your surrender is not negotiable." said Dave.
"I'm going to have to consult with my associates, then I'll be right back." she then closed the door.
~-~
There were more armed officers visible through the shop window, pointing weapons inside.
"They think we're held against our will?" asked Sandi.
"Yes." said Daria.
"Why don't I just tell them that's not so?" asked Sandi.
"That would require you all to leave the area protected by the shield. And then, because they think we're a cult, they are likely to dismiss what you say as a conditioned response. You'll all be held for 48 hours in protective custody or committed for psychiatric examination, that would make you vulnerable to more bringer attacks, you could even be captured on the way to the holding facilities and used by the First Evil as hostages." said Daria.
"So we're all going to be fugitives, aren't we?" said Jane.
Daria thought about her response, then said "maybe not." she then pulled her phone and called her stunt double.
~-~
Giles was walking along the corridor on the 2nd floor to try to clear some of the frustration he was feeling when he saw a woman in a blue sweatshirt and grey jeans with shoulder length brown hair walking across the corridor.
He took a couple of seconds to think who it was, because she
was familiar, but not from her- "