Trials and Complications

Part 3 - Staged

Buffy parked her car across the road from 'The Ride', a local night club to those who lived uptown. After swapping her shoes for sketchers, the blonde exited the vehicle and grabbed her bag. She slung it over her shoulder and after locking the vehicle, walked across the road and slipped behind the crowded building, the loud music from the club aiding her to be inconspicuous. The slayer walked around the back of the building before deciding to do a s aro around its proximity. She looked around.

"C’mon vamps," she whispered, scouring the area. "Come out, come out wherever you are."

Finding nothing either suspicious or particularly interesting, Buffy found herself wandering and failed to notice when she had left the vicinity of the club and headed further uptown. The blonde continued through the darkened streets for a while before noticing that her vision was becoming a chore.
About to turn and head back, she stopped when she sensed danger and whipped around when streetlights were suddenly activated. Looking around, she was not surprised when vampires emerged from the surroundings.
"Oh," she said to one, who positioned himself directly in front of her, after counting the number of vampires present. "Only five of you?" she asked.

The vampire remained silent and rushed at the blonde.

Buffy took a deep breath. "Ok, let’s do it this way then," she decided as she hit the vampire as soon as he came close.

The vampire reeled from the punch, giving the slayer enough time to glance around and find that the other four were standing still and watching.

*What the-?* Buffy started to think, before the vampire she was fighting got a hit in. A single vampire no match for her, Buffy ducked the next inaccurate blow he threw, flipped back, dropped her bag and opened it.

In effort to stop the slayer reaching into her bag, the vampire got up and rushed towards her, only to find himself in a chest-on collision with her stake. He cursed as he turned to dust.

Buffy stood up as one of the other four vampires then moved into action.
"I’m starting to see a pattern here, guys," she told the other three whilst fending off her new attacker, with a kick. "But I’m telling you, this would be a lot easier for you," she threw a punch. "And a lot quicker for me." She deflected a blow and replied with her own. "If you all attack," she punched again, causing the vampire to double over. "Together," she finished, staking the vampire through its back.
When rushed at by the next vampire, she twirled her stake.
"Two down," she told him.

The vampire waved his arms violently in front of her in attempt to scare and disorientate the slayer.

Buffy almost laughed. "Are you for real?" she asked, grabbing hold of him. She pulled his body towards her own and introduced her stake to his chest.

"Next!" she called, starting to enjoy the workout.

The fourth vampire, having seen the speed at which the blonde had killed the others decided to approach cautiously. He walked towards the slayer, who motioned for him to hurry up.

Putting up his fists, he moved towards her in a boxer’s style and threw a body blow.

Buffy laughed and blocked it before it had a chance to hit her.

The vampire quickly threw another blow aimed at her face.

The slayer again blocked the punch, puzzled by the fact that this vampire looked relatively young compared to the others. She looked to the fifth to see that he was well on his way down the road.

"Uh-oh," Buffy uttered. She staked the vampire attempting to fight her and aimed her stake at the runner. She threw it and watched as she hit her target and the vampire turned to dust.
"Never get tired of that," she thought aloud, smiling. The slayer looked around for sign of anything else out of the ordinary and when she found none, walked back to her bag, picked it up from the ground and headed back towards her car.

--------------------------

Sat at Joyce’s bedside, Faith leant towards the youngster recalling a previous fight and telling it as a bedtime story.
"So I’m rushing towards them," she told Joyce. "And I’m like 'now youz are all gonna die, you little fu-" she caught herself and finished, "bad vamps!"

"What are fubad vamps?" the child asher,her, intrigued.

"Er," Faith replied, thinking. "They're like uber bad vamps. The baddest of 'em all."

"Wow," Joyce replied, amazed. She proceeded to inquire, "so what happened next?"

"Well then the vamps are like 'slayer, you can’t take all of us!' and I’m like 'oh yeah, punk? Bring it on!'"

The seven-year-old stared wide-eyed as the slayer demonstrated her fighting style.

"And I went like this, pow! And the vamp was dust. And so I square up to the last vamp and she’s all, 'ok, so you got skills'. And I’m like 'you bet I do, baby.' And then she's like-" The brunette paused mid-sentence. She listened carefully before signalling at the door with her eyes to the youngster. Understanding, Joyce closed her eyes and feigned sleep.
"And then Cinderella goes to the prince," Faith continued. "'Dude, the shoe's mine' and he gets all happy and they get married and live happily ever after." She allowed her voice to trail off and stood. The brunette lovingly covered the child and turned to leave, noticing Buffy in the doorway.
"B," she said, feigning surprise. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long," Buffy replied as Faith walked towards her and gave her a kiss. She broke it to ask, "Joyce asleep?”

Faith nodded, closing the door behind her as she left the bedroom.
"You hungry?" she asked. "There’s only a slice of pizza left. J almost, like, ate the whole box."

Buffy’s eyes narrowed.

"Ok," the brunette confessed. "So I ate most of it."

The blonde laughed. "You know," she told her lover, pointing to the brunette’s stomach. "Pretty soon, all this pizza eating? It’s gonna start to show."

"Nah," Faith told her. "Not on these abs." She lifted her top to reveal her toned, tanned stomach. "See."

Buffy slowly ran her finger along the exposed flesh. "These?" she asked, looking into the brunette’s eyes.

Faith smiled. "That tickles," she stated, taking hold of the blonde’s wrist and re-locating it to rest on her hip. She pulled Buffy towards her and kissed her deeply, her tongue running along the blonde’s.
Faith pulled back.
"I missed you tonight," she told her girlfriend, before kissing the blonde again and then asking. "Where’d you go?"

Buffy reached for Faith’s trousers, undoing the top button. "Uptown," she breathed, in response, tugging down the trouser zip. She moved forward, forcing Faith back into the door she was standing in front nd knd kissed her.

Faith moaned, breaking contact between them to ask, "Why?"

Buffy tugged on the younger slayer’s top, answering, "work," before resuming the kiss.

Feeling Buffy’s tongue delve into her mouth again, Faith decided not to press any further with the questioning. She moved back, pulled her black top over her head and waited for the blonde to do the same; neither of them aware that their movements were being broadcast elsewhere.

The audio technician, belonging to renegade militia, listened to the exchange between the two females. He lifted the headphones from his head, attracting the attention of the man in charge.

"What’s wrong?" the lieutenant asked him. "Is something happening?"

"Sir, er," the man, replied. "I think they’re…." He motioned with his hands and eyes.

"What?" the lieutenant asked, impatiently.

"They’re," the man started, blushing. "They’re having sex, sir."

The man in charge rolled his eyes. "Cut the feed," he ordered. "Resume in approximately seven minutes."

He turned to the other soldiers within the cramped room. "Now, as I was saying," he continued. "What you are seeing is footage taken earlier of slayer number one fighting."

The soldiers watched as the blonde on screen quickly and easily took care of the first two vampires.

The lieutenant picked up his pointer. "Don’t be worried," he assured them. "These are just a few rookie hostiles we brought with us from project 17. Heck, they don’t even speak American," he told them, chuckling at the slayer's attempt at verbal exchange with the South American vampires. He continued, "notice how the slayer is completely egotistical in her approach. She is chatty and completely unaware of her surroundings. Definitely some of her qualities to note."

Those present began scribbling down on the notepads in front of them.

"Oh, but here," the balding leader added, pausing the screen to show Buffy having thrown a stake at a running vampire. "She has excellent marksmanship of what I would call about 3 metres, from the mDVDi footage. However, as long as no targets are presented and combat is undertaken with force and in high numbers, I do not see her presenting much trouble for the re-capture of Cadet Finn."

"Lieutenant Hammond, sir," one of the soldiers interrupted.

"Major," the lieutenant replied.

"We were told that there were two slayers holding Cadet Finn."

"That is correct, Major, but we have yet to capture footage of the other one in action. Of course, however, that is only a matter of time." He turned to the audio technician. "How are we doing?" he asked him.

The technician replaced his headphones and listened.

"Oh….Yes…Oh God, Faith!...Yesss....I'm-oh!" he heard.

He removed the equipment. "They’re still at it, sir," he told Hammond.

The lieutenant sighed.

TBC….