Order of Business

"Girl...we really have to talk..about your wardrobe," Rami whispered, her throat ravaged from screaming for hours. She was draped across her friend's shoulders in a fireman's carry.

"You don't like the Boob-tube?" Jenn responded as she ran down the hall, trying to find a way out and not jostle the horribly wounded girl more than was necessary. "It really does work wonders for the cleavage."

"It proves...that everything is..bigger..Texas," she muttered, trying to hang on to every shot of pain that being bounced on Jenn's shoulders caused as they were helping her to stay conscious.

"Well then, we'll have to get one for you," the blond Slayer said as a tall and very dark black man with cat fangs and wearing only tightie whities jumped out of a doorway into their path. Without pausing, she delivered a massive football kick right to his balls, dropping him like a rock and crossing his eyes as they continued around him. "I think your mom would let you wear it," she said with a smile, trying to not let Rami know that they were lost.

"You could leave...somewhere safe...get help." She was still holding on, but the darkness was creeping in as she watched her blood leaving a trail behind them.

"We both get out or we both die. Only two ways this is gonna end, Pepper...sorry, Ebony." The Texan looked both ways as they came to an intersection and had no idea which way to go and forgot that she was trying to stay cheerful so her friend wouldn't give up, not that she... She took a deep breath and flushed all the panic out of her mind. "There must be a psychic vamp power that gives these bastards directions, like a GPS or something...they sure as heck don't believe in signs."
She spun in a slow circle and waited for something to divine the right direction, but that didn't work so she picked a hallway and started down it.
On and on, hallway after hallway, she still had no clue where the exit was and Rami had stopped answering awhile back and she was too scared to check so she just kept going and prayed that something would roll their way for once.

"Valkyrie," the deep voice resonated off of the stone walls from behind them. Jenn slowed down and turned back to see the giant Frenchman that was one of their kidnappers. He didn't have his beret but instead a large floppy hat with a giant red feather in it. He was dressed like a musketeer with a cross on his blue tunic and held a rapier down at his side. The blond warrior had no idea what to do; she was afraid to set Rami down and she was pretty sure that the big guy would require more than a kick or two. Her mind raced for something, anything to let her save her only real friend.

Arturo held his ground and watched the bloody woman as she clung to the dying Slayer. "For so fearsome a warrior, it is an amazement to see you cry," he spoke as he tapped the tip of his sword on the ground.

"I can't find the way out," she said with softness, hoping that maybe her prayers were answered and she found a good vampire to help them. "And the only person in the world that I know without any doubt that she'd never leave me behind for any reason just happens to be the girl on my shoulders and I think she might be dead and I don't know what to do about that and..."

"She is not dead. I can hear her heart softly beat." He was sure that he didn't tell her out of kindness, her rambling was giving him a headache. He stepped forward, watching her closely, but she held her ground and did nothing when he reached his left hand out to lay on the dark girl's neck. "She does not have long to last though," he said as he put that hand on the side of Valkyrie's face.

Her eyes glimmered in darkness but she held still. He fancied the thought for a moment but knew that she was likely plotting his bloody and brutal demise.

"What do you want?" she said with barely disguised venom.

"Oh, my dear Valkyrie, If I were a few centuries younger and had not met my wife then you may have been in trouble." He laughed as he slid the rapier back into his scabbard. "I could make the girl vampire, but then she would also serve my mistress."

"She'd rather die," Jenn said, still watching for an opening in case she wanted to attack, in case Mr. Niceguy was setting up a trap.

"To each their own, it is not so bad a life. I have a woman who loves me and a mistress who pays her servants in sex. What is so very terrible about that? Nevermind, follow me, I will show you a secret path only known to me...and a few hundred others." He laughed as he walked by them, freely giving his back to her. She waited a moment, looking for a trap, but a soft wheezing breath from Rami had her running to catch up.

She thought that slayers were fast, but the speed born of slayer strength was nothing compared to the reality bending speed that this guy had. He had to have been sandbagging it back in Seattle she concluded the third time he had literally left them in the dust only to come around a corner and find him leaning against a wall waiting.

"Fast for a fat man, eh?" he said patting his sturdy belly. "We have made our destination." He grandly gestured to a small opening, in fact just a large crack in the wall. "This is La Renaissance Sanitaire. A hospital for your friend."

"Why would you need a secret path to a hospital?" Jenn asked, leery still of the vampire's motives.

"For the blood bank of course! The little packets are easier to catch than the tourists." His booming voice laughed out as he touched Rami's neck and jaw again.

"Why are you helping us?" she had to ask, having come to the conclusion that it wasn't a trap.

"Because my mistress has not told me not too of course. Valkyrie, Mademoiselle Carlyle will live but you should inform the docteur that she has bleeding on her brain. The pressure from that is what causes her to sleep." He gently pushed them to the small pathway. "It is a hallway behind the emergency counter, just go around the outside and it will be as if you walked in from the street. Go now, Valkyrie, and may you both be rewarded for your honor and faith."

"What does Valkyrie mean?" she asked as he helped her get Rami through the hole without hitting her head or feet.

"It is not an insult, I assure you. It is a golden haired warrior woman that selects the most honorable dead to give them the reward of an eternity at battle in the halls of Valhalla." He waved at her as she finally passed out of sight. "That woman could be a good ride...but she talks more than my wife, not worth it," he said aloud as he made his way back towards the main hall. He wanted to watch the big fight...

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"Why do you keep calling me that?! Do I look like friggin Batman to you?" She bounded off of the wall and backflipped over the three vamps that rushed her after their opening shots all missed. She swung the Scythe as she landed, taking the head off of one of the attackers. A second group of three charged as the remaining two from the first group spun around and dove at her. She ran up the opposite wall and backflipped again, driving the stake end of her weapon into the eye of another unfortunate member of the first group as she landed. She dropped under a massive double barreled shotgun blast and then yanked the Scythe out and removed his head from his neck, all in one fluid move. A short dark haired guy wearing tactical body armor smashed into her but she rode his momentum, kicked off of the wall and launched herself back into a huge double footed kick to the face of a monstrous looking vamp in a black long-coat. She caught the last one of the first wave coming in too fast and ducked his blade while driving hers into his neck and severing his head.
She could hear an officer yelling for everyone to attack as she kicked the shotgun barrel to the side as it let lose again in a thunderous burst that hit the monster vamp right in the chest; the force of it launching him back against the wall to slide down in a bloody pile to the floor.

"Damn it! Get this Dark Knight bitch!" Captain Jonas Hooker yelled as he kept shooting at her through the crowd of his own people. "Sorry," he said somewhat quieter after clipping Jonathan in the leg by accident. He gestured to the former Navy Seal to stop glaring at him and worry about the killer woman.
Antonio, Clarke, and David had all fallen already and the she-devil had taken their heads. None of them were powerful enough to survive that. Basil was down from Edgar's damn Howitzer but he was pretty sure that he wasn't out of it yet. "Hermes, Renardo, opposite sides...go!" he commanded as he reloaded his pistols.
He had never seen anything like her. The gods of war shined down upon her, that was for sure. Bullets had a way of dancing around her and all of their attempts to use power to get to her mind failed as she just shrugged off everything they had.
Jonas considered himself a resolute man. He had once stood his ground with only a half loaded pistol as six Confederate cavalrymen thundered down upon him with sabers and pistols waving. He would be damned if some girlie was going to do what Robert E. Lee's entire army failed to do for four straight years of bloody battle.
He put the pistol back in it's holster and drew the Bowie. Using speed, his gift from his sire the Dragon, he darted around Clarissa as she came flying out of the mess with her blood sprinkling the air behind her and charged into the fight. His main attack was knocked aside by accident because of Renardo's body falling into two pieces and tripping him. He just managed to avoid her red axe from running a channel down his back and he twisted his body and swung his knife back at her. She turned sideways at the last second and his stab missed her gut but lodged deep into the inside of her left thigh. They were face to face for a moment, both of them screaming as he tried to pull the thick blade back out of her. She had the presence of mind to duck Hermes's massive hammer swing that only managed to connect with Pablo's face before bringing her weapon around and slashing Jonas open from groin to sternum. He reeled backwards without his knife as his intestines poured out onto the floor. She drove the weapon's top spike into Jonathan's face as his fangs tore into her neck before bringing it around and slamming the spike into the Captain's heart. Captain Jonas Hooker died the second time, 148 years after the first.

"Edgar, hit the ground!" Meyer yelled, and unloaded his Colt .45 when the Englishman complied. At least some of the seven shots hit the Dark Knight. He watched her spin with the impacts and still manage to sidestep Hermes's hammer as she side kicked the big Brazilian's kneecap into powder. The big man went down screaming and she was about to finish him when one of Clarissa's throwing dirks slammed into the slayer's back.
He reloaded his weapon as Clarissa and Edgar attacked simultaneously from opposite sides. Clarissa came in hard with her father's basket-ilt broadsword in one hand and another dirk in the other. Edgar, having dropped his shotgun, flew at the Slayer with Antonio's double-bladed battle axe. The bleeding and visibly slowed Dark Knight managed to use her weapon to block Clarissa's sword but the Scot's dirk found it's mark in the girl's stomach.
Hermes picked the wrong moment to surge back to his feet as he rose right into Edgar's huge roundhouse axe swing. The axe would have gotten the slayer's unprotected back cleanly and likely would have killed her if Hermes's right shoulder and head hadn't gotten in the way. The Brazilian's last thoughts were of Clarissa as he watched the Slayer headbutt her and pound her down to the ground with repeated forearms and right hooks before everything faded to black.

"Oh, bloody hell!" Edgar said as he witnessed his teammate fall to his own hand. He could hear the Yank shooting again as he bent down to shut Hermes's eyes. He could hear Meyer yell something as he stood up and came face to bloody face with the murderous Slayer Knight. "Oh, bloody hell," he repeated as the spike took him in the neck and then the stake at the other end pierced his heart.

She spit out broken teeth and a mouthful of blood and slid down to one knee. She had lost count of the wounds, she knew that she had been shot, maybe several times, and she had at least two knives stuck in her but she couldn't feel her body anymore. Five of them were still alive, although only one of them was in any condition to fight. She looked at the gray haired bastard. "Are you even bleeding yet?" she asked.

"Not yet, Ma'am," he responded as he aimed his last clip of ammo at her.

"You haven't seen two girls have you?" she asked, spitting blood again and feeling around her right ear, finding that it was only barely attached, she stopped messing with it. "Tall blond girl and a short black one? No one has to get hurt, well...ya know, no one else, just bring 'em out and we'll leave all peaceful-like. How 'bout it?" She could feel the Slayer within screaming for action, her whole body was mostly ignoring the damage and her energy level was rising, even though she was trying to ramp it down. What the hell is going on? she thought as her hand closed on one of the daggers the redhead bitch stabbed her with. She paused with that thought and realized that the other dagger was still deep in her back and she couldn't feel it.

"Sorry, Ma'am," Meyer said as he picked up Edgar's shotgun and checked that it was loaded. As he was aiming and about to pull the triggers, he felt his master, Morte D'Amour tell him to stop immediately and come to him. The marine in him didn't question orders and he quickly turned from her and went to the next doorway. When he opened it, he saw the Dragon standing there in black armored leather pants with knee-high armored boots and a black spiked bustier that left both of her tattooed breasts exposed. The Dragon smiled at him as he retreated past her.

"I 'spose you're the witch that's screwing with me?" Faith said as she stood up, all wounds forgotten in another rush of energy to her slayer.

"That would be me, yes. I am the Dragon. You are very impressive, Dark Knight, and will make a fine addition to my family." The council member walked closer and slowly picked up the Brazilian's great hammer. "I am to combat what Belle Morte is to sex. We fit well together." She came to a stop only a few feet away from the brunette warrior.

Faith's mind was racing. You have fucking gotta be kidding me, she thought. This is Haven's world! All of that searching and it was the Douche's place the whole time! If he sold us out...

"Are you considering my offer?" the Dragon asked.

"Huh? Oh sorry, forgot you were here. What was that offer again?"

"Join me willingly and and it will be easier on you."

"Okay, how about...no, HELL NO, and before I cut you into little cubes, let me make a point...actually two points. First, I don't get the Batman thing, I don't look like a friggin bat or a dude in his underwear running around in a cape with a young boy at his side. So let's just stop with all of the Dark Knight stuff alright? Second point, just for your information, messing with me by feeding me a butt-load of power to kinda-like supercharge me isn't the brightest tactic that you coulda come up with."

"Really, you don't think so?" the vampire purred as she idly twisted the hammer in a circle.

"Not hardly, and while I'm on a rant...nice tatts by the way." She motioned to the tribal art going from both nipples, up the shoulders and neck to end on her forehead and around her eyes. "But do they not pay you enough that you can't afford the top half to this outfit?"

"A warrior woman's breasts are a great weapon in battle."

"Sure, and you're some kinda warrior chick right?" Faith was a little worried that she still didn't feel any of the wounds.

"Yes, I was the Gladiatrix of all of Rome. A seven time gladiator tournament champion and before that I led armies against Rome herself. I am a warrior woman as you are, it is why I can feed your power like I am."

"And why are you doing that anyway?"

"So I can do this," she replied as she took a step back from the slayer.

All of the wounds screamed to attention, the gunshots and slashes, the stabs and bites. Faith roared a guttural challenge and tried to raise the Scythe but it felt like she was moving in wet concrete. The knife in her back had pierced her ribs and she quickly found her lungs filling with liquid. She screamed as the darkness swept in on an unstoppable wave.
She fell to her knees, fresh blood bursting out of her thigh with every racing heart beat, and she watched helpless as the Dragon slowly walked up and measured a swing with the hammer. Faith watched it all, the windup, the smile, the swing, she couldn't get the message through her mind to tell her body to drop so at the point of impact, she merely shut her eyes.

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Jenn sat wrapped in a blanket, still covered in blood and surrounded by Police Nationale, as their coats proclaimed. An inspector was questioning one of the doctors that had worked on Rami before she was rushed into surgery.
The nurses had been nice to her, even though she probably looked like a horror show. The remnants of the sandwich they gave her sat unsettled in her stomach. The police inspector finished with the doctor and came over and sat by her. Jenn shimmied her chair a little ways away, what was it with these guys and invading personal space issues? She wondered as the questions that she had no idea how to answer started to be asked.

"I assure you that you are safe now," the man said. "The staff reports that you sound American, Are you?...Miss?...How did you become this condition?...How did your friend get hurt?...Are you going to answer any of my questions?" He signaled one of the officers to call the Chief.

Jenn didn't know what to do or say, until Rami came out of surgery, she couldn't really do anything so she just continued to stare at the wall. As the inspector became more and more insistent, she started to estimate how difficult it would be and how long she could manage to hold the entire hospital hostage. She really needed Rami to come through the operation quickly...