Hellmouth Heroes

FIC: Hellmouth Heroes (12/?)

“Then we understand the plan?” Xander looked around his companions huddled around the bookstore that Giles had bought as his new cover now that Faith graduated, still a little insecure in his new role as operation planner. It felt treacherous to admit it, but it was a lot easier to do this without Buffy’s presence, she’d never let anyone have their say like this. Faith however had enough confidence in her own abilities to recognise when someone was better at something than she was and step back and let them take over.

And it wasn’t like the brunette beauty wouldn’t shout long and hard if she disagreed with him.

“Run through it again, honey,” Alana whispered.

Xander smiled at his girl-friend. It did of course help that he was dating one of the hottest girls at school. That always gave a geek’s confidence an ego-boost. “Okay then. Faith, Cordy, and Gunn are our three best fighters, so they’re the three that go inside, but only after Jenny-.”

“Ms. Calendar to you, Xander.”

“Uh, right, sorry.” Xander looked towards the gypsy beauty. “Ms. Calendar goes in and unlocks the back door, so myself, Jonathan, and Wes will go in through the rear to get any who try and run out the back. Giles, Wood, Alana, and the witches,” he looked towards Sunnydale’s own little coven, “will wait out front, taking down anyone who tries to escape or interfere.”

“I wish Oz was here,” Willow sighed wistfully.

”We don’t really need him for this operation,” Xander commented.

”I know,” Willow sighed again. “I just wish he was here.”

“Bear in mind,” Giles put in with a sigh and shake of the head, “these Miquots have been attempting to set up a child-smuggling ring here, there’s some who’d buy very well for a child born on the Hellmouth. Lilliad demons for example.”

“Nobody hurts kids,” Faith shook her head, smoky eyes suddenly fierce. “Not on my watch. Not ever.”

* * *

Jenny’s heart hammered and skin crawled as she approached the noisy bar, heavy rock blaring out of it, the ramshackle-looking bar reverberating with its loudness. Half an hour passed as she stood in the shadows to the entrance’s left, waiting for someone, anyone to either enter or exit the bar so she could slip in with them.

She’d been waiting half an-hour, every minute taking a skin-crawling eternity when he appeared, Jenny immediately turning her invisibility shield on as it approached. Jenny instantly recognised the demon from Rupert’s books. The Miqout was a tall biped with a yellow skin, two rows of bone spikes bisecting its forehead and bone spikes likewise jutting out from under both its forearms. It looked even more dangerous in the flesh.

The moment the oblivious creature opened the door, she was behind him, sliding into the murky bar, her heart hammering so loud that she was certain she would be heard. And yet, no-one reacted.

Jenny looked around as she crept through the obliviously raucous bar, eyes watering at the smoky air. The bar looked like it had never seen a cleaner, the floorboards, tables, bar, and drinks cabinet all coated in dust. Jenny strode through to the back of the bar and started down the corridor between the two toilets uproariously labelled ‘Guys’ and ‘Gals’.

”Eleven Miqouts and one other demon I’ve never seen before,” she muttered into her mouthpiece as she eased the rear door open, shining her pen-light so Xander would know it was in fact her coming out.

”We’ll take it from here,” Faith muttered her reply.

* * *

Faith’s lips dried as she spoke to Jenny, her blood pumping as she readied herself for yet another battle. She looked towards the dark bar and then her two companions. “Time to take some names gang.”

Cordelia winked at her. “Delighted.”

The door came off with a single kick, the force carrying the door flying across the bar to crash into the bar opposite. There was a moment of shocked silence, and then carnage broke out, every demon in the place rising and charging them.

Faith leapt into the air, flying over the nearest table and into the chest of the demon stood there. Her feet cannoned off the demon’s chest, sending him somersaulting into the bar’s garishly illuminated juke box, the demon and shattered jukebox landing in a heap on the floor.

And then the mystery demon that Jen had mentioned, a big grey-skinned bitch with pointed ears and dead eyes attacked. Faith winced as the demon caught her with a left that lifted her from her feet, twisting with the impact to deliver a single-footed thrust kick to the gut that knocked her adversary back a step and gave Faith the half-second she needed to land and drop into a crouch.

The demon grunted before swinging a right cross that she blocked on her left shoulder, the impact vibrating down her arm and not in a good way. Faith winced as the demon grabbed her free-flowing mane, yanking her upright out of her crouch. Seeing another incoming right she kicked the arm away as she pulled loose from the grip on her hair.

The demon swung a haymaker that Faith glided under only to be forced to block an up-swinging knee on her forearm before hooking the demon’s leg under the knee and pulling. The demon grunted as it left its feet to crash to the ground on its back. Faith dropped a knee towards the demon’s face, scowling slightly when it rolled out of the way and back up, attempting a kick that would like as not have taken her head off if she hadn’t swayed away from it.

And then Faith surged back up, leaping into a drop kick to the face that took the demon back down and through a table, drinks flying everywhere. Faith landed in a crouch beside the demon, snatched up a snapped off table leg, and began bludgeoning the demon to death.

One strike, its nose splattered across its face.

Second strike, its jaw shattered with a strident crack.

Third strike, a fountain of blood jetted out of where its left eye had been.

Fourth strike, the beast stopped moving.

”Wow,” Gunn muttered as she dropped the stick, “JL’s got even more nerve than I figured to be dating you, you’re savage.”

Faith shot the black a smirk. “Ya didn’t do so bad yaself,” she pointed out as she gazed around the devastated bar, five no six of the Miqouts lying dead amongst the wreckage.

She glanced towards the back when Jonathan, Xan, and Wes burst through. “We got three,” Jonathan proudly proclaimed.

“Right,” Xander pulled out a can of kerosene. “Now we soak the place and set it on fire, make sure no-one else sets it on-.”

“Oh good lord,” Wesley stepped forward, face paling as he stared at the mess she’d made of the mystery demon.

”Geez,” Faith shook her head in disgust. “Get a stronger belly for Christ’s sake, Wes!”

”No!” Wesley shot her an irritated look. “It’s not that, I recognise the demon.”

“Ooops.” Faith raised an eyebrow. “Killed a personal friend have I?”

“Hardly,” Wesley shook his head. “Xander,” the Watcher didn’t look away from the greyish corpse, “please radio Mr. Giles to come in.”

Seconds later, the door swung open and Giles strode in. “Goodness gracious is that-.”

“A Sisterhood of Jhe demon,” Wood finished for the middle-aged Limey.

“Apocalypse demon,” Wesley continued in doom-laden tones. “An entire cult of female demons intent on ending human reign over the world and bringing back the Old Ones.”

“Ah,” Xander nodded sagely, “PMS, explains it.” Faith fought back a snicker even as her fellow females glared at Xan, hey when you’re funny you’re funny.

* * *

Giles glared over his spectacles. “They’re a very committed cult, this is no laughing matter, Mr. Harris.”

”Hey,” the young man stared at him, something unsettling in the boy’s brown eyes, “just tryin’ to lighten the mood.”

“Huh,” Giles glared at Xander. “This matter clearly requires -.”

“Some research,” Faith, Xander, and Alana chorused in unison.

“Quite,” he shot the teens another irritated glance. “Back to the store then.”

“I still say we should have called it something cool,” Xander muttered. “The Batcave or Stark Tower, anything.”

Giles resisted the urge to bang his head against the nearest wall. “The shop is ‘The Pleasure of Reading’, and that is it!” he spun on his heel and started for the door.

“Tetchy ain’t ya?” Faith commented.

“I still think he should have put in an internet café section,” Willow wistfully commented.

”Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” These kids and their effects on his blood pressure would be the death of him.

* * *


“Oh dear,” everyone turned to Wesley. “I’ve finished the astral chart. It would appear the Sisterhood of Jhe will attack tomorrow night.”

“And where?” Giles looked toward his younger countryman.

“I can answer that,” Wood hurried in through the shop’s door, the ‘Closed’ sign resolutely hanging in the front door. “According to the spirit guides they intend to open the Hellmouth.”

“The one under the school,” Faith commented.

“It’s the only active one in America,” Giles commented.

Faith’s eyes narrowed, the foul-mouthed teen once again proving unexpectedly perceptive. “The only active one?”

”It doesn’t matter,” he waved the Bostonian transplant’s questions away. “What’s important is dealing with this threat.”

”It looks like we’ll be breaking in again,” Xander mournfully commented.

”It’s just lucky I had a set of spares cut,” Giles mused.

* * *

“First we need a plan,” Xander decided that now the esoteric research was over with, he’d have to put forward his strategic input. Sensing everyone’s eyes on him, he stiffened inwardly, momentarily self-conscious then smiled when Alana gave his arm a reassuring squeeze. “Faith, you said these Sisterhood demons were real heavy hitters?”

“Oh yeah,” Faith nodded. “Punched way harder than your average vamp.”

“Okay,” Xander added that bit of knowledge to what he already knew. “I’m guessing that they’re going to want to be at the Hellmouth to prevent anyone stopping the Hellmouth opening. In that case phase one of our strategy has to be making sure that the Jhe demons don’t get there. As only Faith, Gunn, and Cordy are gonna be able to go toe to toe with the Hellmouth Monster, they’ll be in the library with Giles. The rest of us-.”

“I’m going to need the mages,” Giles looked towards Willow, Amy, and Tara in turn, “to aid myself in re-closing the Hellmouth.”

“Okay,” Xander nodded before taking a second to reassess what he’d been about to say. “Well if we bar and chain the back door to the library, there’s only one corridor leading to the library front entrance correct?”

“With two direct corridors leading to it, one from the foyer, and one from the science department,” Giles supplied.

“Right,” Xander nodded. “In that case, I’m going to split the rest of us into three groups. Jonathan and Oz in one group guarding the foyer entrance at the last outer entrance. Me and Alana in another group guarding the science department entrance. And Ms. Calendar, Wes, and Wood guarding the central corridor.”

“Not smart,” Faith shook her head. “Even with your enhancements,” the Slayer smirked lewdly, “ya can’t go hand to hand with those bitches.”

Xander smiled as he rose. “I wasn’t thinking of going hand to hand with them. Come on.”

* * *

“You’ve got the stuff we need?” O’Toole threw his head back and laughed. “We’ll show that damn school, the whole place is gonna go boom!”

“We’ve got a real problem with that.”

“Oh yeah?” Jack O’Toole turned to face them, a sneer on his zombiefied face. “And how much of an obstacle do you think you’re gonna be?”

“Rather more than you’d think,” Scott Hope grinned. He’d never liked O’Toole and his gang, still remembered the beatings that O’Toole had given him. Now was time for some payback.

* * *

Faith’s puzzlement at Xan’s plan only increased when he led them to the lot he now called home. By the time G had parked up, Xander had already unlocked the metal grille door’s two padlocks and entered the three digit code that caused the door to slide to one side allowing them all inside. Once the last of them was in, Xander led them down the narrow corridor, past the two separate changing rooms, and into the spacious gym that was on the floor beneath Xan’s living quarters.

The gym sprawled out to the size of a decent-sized commercial gym, never mind one that only served the needs of around twenty of them. By the wall nearest the entrance stood a bunch of stationery bikes, treadmills, and steppers. The walls to the left and opposite of the entrance had a whole of weights including, Faith couldn’t help but smirk, a pair of dumbbells going up to 300 lbs. You didn’t get those in many gyms. There were bench press benches, squat racks, her, Cordy, and Gunn had a near constant competition to see who could squat the most, the record for now was somewhere close to forty-eight hundred pounds, a whole host of machinery all built with one purpose in mind, to build the best fighter, the best killing machine. And to aid that process there was exercise mats on the ground and heavy and speed bags dangling from the wall at the right side of the gym.

“Hate to shatter your illusions, Harris,” Faith’s voice echoed around the chill gym. “But an extra-hard workout ain’t gonna get ya in shape for those mothers tomorrow night.”

“Oh and I was so looking forward to seeing you in your spandex,” Xander snarked right back at her before turning serious. The young Sunnydaler walked to the centre of the room, flipped a mat over on its back, and pulled a piece of the caramel-coloured carpet back to reveal a gleaming key-pad under a plastic covering that he quickly flipped open, before dancing his fingers over the keypad.

Every one turned to the gym’s left corner when a part of the wall there slid aside to reveal a gleaming vault door behind it, complete with another keypad and some sort of scanner.

”Oh wow,” Faith heard Cordy muttered. “I knew he was a nerd, but this ridiculous!”

Xander grinned wryly at the cheerleader’s whispered comment but chose not to respond, instead striding over to the secret door, placing his left hand on the scanner while typing the keycode in with his right. “ACCESS GRANTED.” An electronic voice rang out as the door opened to reveal a darkened stairwell.

”Give me a sec,” Xander said as he leaned inside the vault and turned a light on.

”Holy shit,” Faith gasped as the vault filled with light, revealing a half of a dozen steps leading down into an extensive armoury.

In the centre stood stands upon which riot-shields and helmets hung together with Kevlar jackets. On the far wall hung a vast selection of axes and spears – spike axes, double-bladed axes, throwing axes, halberds, and pole-arms. The wall to the right was filled with swords, Roman Gladius’ shone next to Viking Spathas and Scottish Claymores. Turkish Yatagans were likewise arrayed next to rapiers and short swords. Swords from non-European nations were also displayed, the Egyptian Khopeshs, Arabian Scimitars, the Japanese Katana and Wakizashi, Indian Khandas and Tulwars. The wall by the door had more exotic weaponry – South American Bolos, Australian Boomerangs, Japanese Shuriken, alongside more traditional bows, spears, and maces.

Man, Faith licked her lips in a gesture of unconscious approval, a gal did like her weapons. It was however the wall to the left that garnered the most attention, filled as it was with automatic pistols, mini sub-machine guns, and even shotguns.

“Anyone else think he’s a perfect fit for the postal service?” snarked Cordy.

Faith smirked as she turned to Xander. “Daddy got guns,” she said in only half-joked awe.
“And there’s more,” Xander beamed at her approval before striding over to the far left corner, lifting one of the stands to reveal another keypads imbedded in the wall. After the keypad beeped approvingly the west coast native crouched down, pulled the carpet back, unlocked a padlock, and pulled a trap-door back. “My ammunition store is down here. And not just your ordinary bullets either. Incendiary, explosive, and armour-piercing too. I’ve also got a selection of grenades - fragmentation, smoke, incendiary, and stun. I’ve also got tazers, holy water in pepper spray cans and brass knuckles made from melted down crosses. I was figuring all those outside of the room could be armed with the shotguns while you did your thing in the library.”
“Xander,” Giles looked towards the youth, mouth gape and eyes wide, “how did you pay for all this?”

“Eeek!” Everyone looked towards a suddenly blushing Willow. “I sorta hacked a few companies known for their unethical policies – Umbrella Corporation, Weyland Industries, Cyberdene Systems, and Lumic Industries, and well I stole % points of interests from their slush accounts.”

“Oh good gracious,” Giles began to purple. Which was, Faith decided, a real interesting colour on him.

“Oh and one thing, folks. Only I know all the combinations and have the handprint to satisfy the scanner.” Xander grinned darkly. “There’s an incentive to make sure I’m not turned.”

“Well I needed one,” snarked Cordelia.

* * *

“You’re sure you don’t want a kevlar jacket, Faith?” Xander queried as they readied themselves for the battle. “Only I was thinking if you and Cordy want to make a ‘Babes With Guns’ DVD, I’d be in.”

“Only if you’re the ones we’re shooting at Harris,” Faith replied.

Xander sighed. “That’s a no then.”

“What have I told you about making inapproriate suggestions that don’t involve me?” Alana queried.

“Oh,” Xander kissed his girl-friend on the cheek, “I wouldn’t exploit you, you’re my baby.”

”Gag,” Faith mimed sticking her fingers down her throat. She looked around the shooting range that was located next door to the underground armoury and then at her watch. “We should really be headin’ to the school, gang.”

“Oh good lord,” Faith had to smirk at her Watcher with a shotgun in his hands. He looked like one of those country spivs out pigeon shooting you saw on old British shows. “Is that the time? We must hurry.”

“Oh yes,” Faith tried her best English accent, “giddy up old bean!”

Giles glared at her. “Why oh why, don’t Slayers come fitted with muzzles?”

”Design flaw,” mused Wesley, a thoughtful expression on the younger Watcher’s face.

* * *

Faith looked around the erieely quiet library, the anticpation hanging thick in the air. Upon arriving, she and Gunn had shifted the chairs and tables out to the side, leaving the floor empty except for where Giles had skilfully chalked out a pentagram that Willow, Tara, and Amy now sat in, a candle at the centre of their witchy triangle. For their part, Gunn and Cordy were both brandishing double-bladed axes that were twins to her own, for some reason blast and blow wouldn’t work with higher demons – slash and hack was apparently the way to go, while Giles brandished a short sword with surprising flair and skill.

“So what do we do now?” Faith queried.

“We wait,” Giles replied with a heavy sigh. Faith scowled, Giles chuckled. “Yes I know, you ‘suck’ at waiting.”

* * *

Xander looked at the three chair high stacked barricade they’d made blocking the corridor. It wasn’t much really, but it would have to do. “Barricade ready,” Xander whispered into his radio as he hefted his Mossberg 590.

“Barricade ready,” confirmed Jonathan, his friend’s voice breathlessly excited.

“Barricade ready,” Ms. Calender replied.

“Grrrrr.” Xander’s blood froze as a gruttal growl could be heard, peering through the darkness he saw five no six over six foot grey-skinned monsters charging towards them, each the size of a linebacker.

No, the barricade didn’t look much at all.

* * *

“What the fuck!” Faith gasped as the floor ripped and long, grasping fleshy tentacles with what looked to be fanged mouths on the end of them erupted out of the floor, the creature looking Lovecraftian.

Gathering herself, she lunged forward, her axe swinging to chop off one of the thing’s lashing tentacles. Faith dropped into a crouch, another tentacle snapping overhead. And then she looked at the demon’s gaping maw and grinned. “Fuck this,” she snarled, something primevil stirring within her. Leaping forward, her axe swung down and at the monster’s huge head.

* * *

Xander’s shotgun boomed out, the weapon recoiling in his hand as the third of the demons hit the ground. He grimaced as he pulled the trigger down and heard a click. Even with armour-piercing rounds it took several rounds to put one of the demons down. Faith wasn’t kidding when she said they were tough. Xander looked towards Alana and shot her a reassuring grin. “I need to re-load, your turn to go.”

* * *

A spray of blood gushed out, splattering her. Momentarily revolted, Faith stumbled backwards. “Shit!” She gasped as a tentacle wrapped itself around her ankles and pulled her from her feet, hitting the ground on her ass. “Oh crap!”

Suddenly Giles was there, his sword slicing down to half-sever the monster’s tentacle. The monster jerked back, releasing its grip on her feet. “Thanks!” Faith yelled as she kipped up to her feet, smoothly ducking under another tentacle even as she swung her axe up to meet it, severing it in a single effortless blow.

And then a golden glow filled the room, a sort of cleansing shine that seemed to briefly fill every pore of Faith, and then pull away, leaving her feeling unbearably empty. “What the fuck!” Faith’s eyes widened as the demon pulled away, tentacles waving frantically as it disappeared, the ground it had erupted from, solidfying again. “We won!”

“Indeed we have.” Pride filled her at Giles’ smile. “I think I can shout us all for pancakes.” Giles pursed his lips. “Once we’ve cleaned up this place and taken a shower.”

“Oh Mr. Watcher, sir,” Faith purred as she fluttered her eyelashes, “I hope you weren’t suggesting little ol’ innocent me should join you? I’m precious hungry, but I don’t think the nuns would approve of me doin’ that for food.”

“Innocent? Ha!” Giles snorted.