Well the list is still giving me a hard time. I've been told part 2 came
though even if it didn't show up in my mailbox. Anyway, here's part
three. Enjoy.
It was another night in Sunnydale. For most people that meant
curling up in front of the TV, reading, or some other relaxing activity.
For Buffy and Angel it meant taking on a half dozen vampires with a punk
rock fetish in one of the city's many graveyards.
"I'll eat your eyes!" one vamp with a yellow mohawk and a ripped Sex
Pistols T-shirt shouted.
"May I just say eeewwww..." retorted Buffy as she nailed the creature
with a kick to the gut. "Oh, and FYI, Sid Vicious, the whole Mad Max
look is WAY out of style."
"You'll paying for joining up with the Slayer, you ugly sonnova bitch!"
shouted a vamp with piercings all over his face as he charged Angel.
"Ugly? Says the guy who's been making out the a tackle box," quipped
Angel as he caught his attacker by the arm, flipped him to the ground
and staked him. Behind him Angel heard the tell-tale sound of another
vampire being destroyed. Angel smiled.
A few minutes later there were five less vampires in the world.
"Hey, weren't there six suckfaces when this fight started?" asked Buffy
as she scanned the graveyard.
Angel nodded. "There was a girl with these five. She must of slipped
away
when her friends started to eat wood."
"Which puts her a whole ten IQ points above all the other vampires in
Sunnydale. Uh, present company excluded, of course."
"Thanks. Now that we're done here maybe we should head to Rice Field
Cemetery. I was there yesterday and saw some evidence that someone may
have been skulking around."
"As much fun as trolling for skulkers sounds, can I talk to you for a
second?"
Angel wasn't sure he was comfortable with the tone of Buffy's voice, but
he bade her to continue.
"First off, I guess I should thank you for going on patrol with me
tonight," began the Slayer. "I know you've been dealing with...stuff
since you, uh, came back. But tonight your seem kinda...distracted. Is
everything okay?"
Angel avoided Buffy's gaze. Damn that girl could be perceptive. "Bad
dreams. That's all," muttered the vampire.
"I thought I was the one with the exclusive on freak nasty dreams around
here."
"It wasn't a dream about the future. At least, I hope not. I was
dreaming about when I was...away. There was a woman who said I knew her
but I can't remember..."
Angel shook his head and took a few steps away from Buffy. "On second
thought, why don't you handle Rice Field. I'll track down that stray
vamp."
"It's still early. We could track her down and then head over--"
"Actually, I'd really prefer to handle this solo," interrupted Angel. "I
need some time to myself."
A pained look flashed across the Slayer's face but she tried to hide it
with a quick nod.
"Thanks." Angel then turned and headed for the north gate of the
cemetery. After watching him for a moment Buffy moved toward the south
gate.
"Buffy?"
The Slayer turned.
"This may be nothing, but could you ask Giles to see what he can find on
the name Mara. Just to be on the safe side."
"Sure."
Without another word Angel vanished into the night.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
As she ran though the streets of Sunnydale Courtney Wilkes thought back
on what had just happened. Dave, Cody, Paul and Nelson were dead. Staked
by the
Slayer and her pet turncoat vamp.
"Damn you, Dave. I knew that we should have stayed in Encino," spat
Courtney
as she turned down a sidestreet. "I told you this was a bad idea but you
wouldn't listen. 'The Hellmouth will rock!' you said. 'Don't worry about
the Slayer. If she gets in our way I'll eat her eyes!' you said. I
always knew you were a dumbass, Dave."
The fleeing vampire dashed down an ally and hid behind a dumpster. For
several minutes Courtney sat unmoving, looking for any sign of pursuit.
"Guess I lost 'em," chuckled the creature as she ran a hand though her
hair. Hair that was bright purple with neon green bangs.
"You may have lost the Slayer and Angel, but you've been found by us,"
informed a voice.
The vamp whipped around to see two men, one blond and dumpy, the other
tall and with red hair standing behind her.
"Oh goodie. I missed dinner," snarled female vampire as she vamped out.
"Now
who wants to be the entree and who wants to be dessert?"
Wally and Zack looked at each other and snickered. "Bite me," smirked
Zack.
"If you insist!" growled Courtney as she charged.
Zack merely raised his right hand and spoke a few archaic words. A
streak of red energy flew from his palm and struck the vamp in the
chest. Courtney fell to the ground, twitched a few times and then lay
still.
"They're certainly not making vampires any smarter these days," remarked
Zack.
"Couldn't we have found one with better taste?" asked Wally. "I mean,
look at this freak."
"Looks aren't important here. The boss said for us to grab a female vamp
and that's what we did. Besides, with what the boss has planned for
her--"
"Yeah, yeah, I guess you're right," interrupted Wally. "Let's get out of
here. I wanna grab some dinner."
"You're always thinking of food. No wonder you're so fat," teased Zack.
"I'm not fat! This is muscle!"
"Newsflash, chubby, muscle don't jiggle when you walk."
Wally retorted with a few choice words about his companion’s mother.
Wally
just smiled. In a burst of red light Wally, Zack and Courtney vanished.
Moments later Angel appeared at the mouth of the ally and looked around
fervently. "I'm positive she ran this way. This ally is a dead end so
she couldn't just vanish. And what the hell was that flash?"
Angel spent several minutes going over the ally but found nothing. In
frustration he cursed and delivered a brutal kick to an unlucky garbage
can. Feeling a bit better Angel decided to go find a place he could be
alone with his thoughts.
"I've got a bad feeling about this..."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Tokyo, Japan
There’s an old saying that when the cat is away the mice will play. A
similar thought was going though Skuld’s mind as she plopped down in
front of the TV. But it was a bit more like “While the bossy, TV-hogging
older sister is away, Skuld will channel surf!”
-click-
“It’s GI Joe against COBRA, the enemy, fighting to save the day! He
never gives up! He’s always there! Fighting for freedom over land and
air!”
-click-
“Oh no! It’s Lina Inverse!”
-click-
“I am Justice. I am the Night. I am Batman!”
-click-
“In the name of the Moon, I’ll punish you!”
-click-
“Autobots, roll out!”
-click-
“To protect the world from devastation.”
“To unite all peoples within out nation.”
“To denounce the evils of true and love.”
“To extent our reach to the stars above.”
-click-
"M.A.S.K. is the mighty power that can save the day! Come see the laser
rays fire away!"
“I love cartoons,” giggled Skuld.
It was then that the front door flew up and Urd stumbled in. “Hoist the
mainsail! Batten down the hatches! Reverse the polarity of the neutron
flow! Warp factor six, Mr. Sulu!” shouted the goddess.
“Urd, you’re home!” yelled the young goddess in surprise. It was then
that Skuld noticed that her older sister’s eyes were bloodshot and
swimming in and out of focus. “You home and you’re…you’re totally
plastered.”
“Hey! I’m not as think as you drunk I am!” slurred Urd as she waved a
finger in her sister’s face.
“Right. And I’m a Chinese jet pilot.”
“Don’t sass me, Scully, er, Skuld,” growled Urd. “Now where’s Belldandy
and Kento, uh, I mean, Kensuke, no, that’s not it. Aw, hell! Where’s
Belldandy and the short, uptight guy we live with?”
It was that moment that Belldandy and Keiichi came in from the kitchen.
“What’s all the noise—Oh, Urd’s back,” said Keiichi. “And she’s
smashed. I guess someone had a good time on their trip.”
“Hey, I didn’t go stinkin’, Ah mean, drinking just for the sake of
gettin’ drunk!” retorted Urd blearily. “It’s Mara, you know? She’s up
on, uh, up to something. So I’m gotta be at full power for when she
shows up here.”
“Mara?!” gasped Belldandy. “Oh my.”
“You bet your ass ‘Oh my,’ sister!” proclaimed the blonde goddess. “So
we’d gotta be prepared. Belldandy, go take a nap! Skuld, start scarfing
ice cream and don’t stop till ya freakin’ burst!”
“If you say so!” beamed the youngest goddess as she dashed for the
kitchen.
She made it all of three steps before Keiichi grabbed her by the
collar. “Dream on, Skuld. Dream on.”
“Meanie!” huffed Skuld.
“Urd, before we do anything perhaps you could tell us just what
happened with Mara,” said Belldandy.
It took almost an hour, and a large pot of black coffee, but eventually
Urd managed to recount the story of her encounter with Mara in Los
Angeles.
“Damn,” cursed Keiichi. “It’s only been a few weeks since that whole
Lord of Terror mess and already Mara is looking to make our lives
miserable again. Why the hell can’t she find someone else to bother?”
“If what Urd said is right, she just may have,” said Skuld.
“Even is she has it won’t last long,’ muttered Urd who was finally able
to put together coherent sentences again. “She made it pretty clear that
she’s going to pay us back for destroying the Lord of Terror. Pay us
back big time.”
“I wonder if that’s what she was doing in Los Angeles,” mused
Belldandy. “After all, Southern California is quite far away from her
normal territory.”
“So now that we know Mara’s up to something what do we do?” asked
Skuld.
“I don’t think we’re in a position to make any decisions now,” said
Belldandy. She went over to where Urd sat and gently pulled the older
goddess to her feet. “Once Urd has had some rest we’ll talk some more
and try to figure something out.”
Then, ignoring her sister’s half-hearted pleading, Belldandy led Urd
off to her room.
“I think I’ll head over to Otaki’s place,” said Keiichi. “Maybe I can
borrow some more of those good luck charms of his to put around the
house.”
As Keiichi head off to do that, Skuld went to her room. She had some
thinking to do.