Happy Development
by Whedonist
And It Was A Whale of Tail Too
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Disclaimer: See Priors
A/N: G-man!!!!!!!!
Chapter 5- And it was a whale of tail too.
River was the first to step up and look at the vampire. She circled the demon slowly looking at the pronounced ridges and the elongated teeth. Simon looked on concerned as his sister studied the creature. Not wanting her to get hurt he stepped forward and pulled her back with a well placed hand on her forearm.
"River, I don't think getting that close is such a good idea."
River looked back and smiled at her brother, placing her hand over his. "It's okay."
Willow stood back watching the reactions of the rest of the group. Everyone wore similar expressions of shock and disbelief. Mal stood hands on hips staring at the vamp. Zo' was looking anywhere but at it. Kaylee and Inara were holding on to each other while Jayne stood statue still his hand on the hilt of his knife. Deciding it was time for a lesson in vamp dusting; Willow stepped from behind Buffy and motioned her to the side. Buffy smiled and moved over to allow Willow to address the group.
"So right, this is a vampire. I've already been over the finer points of making it a big pile of dust, but I just want to make sure that all of you understand. I don't want you to get a false sense of security and drop your guard out here. They are quick and very deadly." Willow took a long look at the three who now had their hands resting on the butts of their guns and shook her head. "You guys, guns don't work on these creatures. They are demons and mostly evil. Not saying that bullets can't hurt demons, but these ones, vampires that is, bullets aren't helpful with the killing or maiming even" Willow looked over to a grinning Xander and ducked her head. Thinking of another way to show them what she'd babbled out she motioned for Jayne to step forward. "Jayne, I'm not big on the guns, but can I have you maybe shoot him for us."
Jayne stepped forward and raised his handgun getting ready to shoot when the audible static of the COM Link came to life "Slayer 1 this is Command. Come in. Over."
Buffy jumped at the chatter in her ear. She had forgotten about the device right after she put it in. "This is Buffy. What's going on, Vi?"
"Buffy, I just received word from Red team they've got a class 2 demon. Three slayers are down. Faith and Carrie are holding their own, but they need bigger weapons than the stakes they brought. Advise. Over."
"Where are they at?" Buffy twirled the stake in her hand before slamming it into the bound vampire's chest. With out breaking her momentum, she span around and began making her way back to the van expecting everyone to follow her.
"Lakewood Park Cemetery."
"We're on our way. Tell them to hold on for five minutes." Buffy began picking up her speed and called out over her shoulder, "Alright everyone let's hurry up."
Xander and Willow had already begun picking up speed with the rest of the group following close behind. They reached the van barely breaking their momentum to hop in and allow Willow to turn the engine over peeling out of the cemetery.
The redhead reached down and flipped on the sirens. "Xander, get through to CPD and re-route everyone far far away from where I'm headed please."
The man nodded and began barking orders to Vi at the command center. Feeling relatively safe about not being followed by a cop car Willow pushed down on the accelerator and shot forward. It took 7 minutes to get to Faith and Carrie. Buffy left Mal and his group at the van while Willow and Xander were close at her heels.
They crested a small hill in the deserted cemetery and saw Faith and Carrie being thrown by a rather viscous, brown and green, mangy looking demon. As they approached, Buffy took in the size and defenses of the creature. Standing nearly 10 feet in height, the thing was massive. Stakes protruded from its body and even though its blood seeped from the wounds, the demon was not slowed. Muscles rippled underneath the leathery skin and Buffy watched on as Faith tried to land one of her best flying kicks at the creatures head, but was batted away like an annoying fly.
The blonde huffed out and tightened her grip on the sword in her hand, silently thanking River for having brought one with her. Buffy turned quickly to Willow and Xander, "Check the other girls, I'm gonna go help Faith."
The slayer took off at a dead run, sword raised, screaming at Carrie to watch out as a now visible 6 foot long tail came sailing around to knock the girl off her feet. The girl heard Buffy just in time and rolled out of the way. She bounced up to her feet and ran towards Buffy. The 17 year old was breathing hard and bleeding from a nasty gash along the left side of her face.
Buffy tried to give the girl a nice, encouraging smile. She was one of Buffy's favorite slay partners. Quick, funny and fiercely protective of the people she patrolled with. The blonde lifted a lock of pink hair away from the oozing blood on the teen's cheek and checked for any other injuries that would make her tell Carrie to go find Willow and get healed up.
"So, Buffy, are you going to concern mother me all night or are we gonna kill this thing." Carrie's thick Scottish accent did nothing to cover the sarcasm. The girl lent down and rested her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath as they waited on Faith to get done having her ass handed to her.
The two girls looked on as Faith noticed the two standing off to the side. The demon roared as Faith took a flying leap over its head and landed 5 feet behind it and came running towards the two other slayers.
Buffy stuck her hands up in the air trying to get the brunette to stop running towards them. Big and tailey had whipped around and started coming after Faith and coincidently straight towards Buffy and Carrie. "Faith! Damnit!" It was too late. The demon was too close to not engage. Buffy readied herself for her attack and looked to Carrie and smiled. "Can you distract it while I circle around?"
"Distract?" Carrie looked at her confused.
"You know make with the diversion." Buffy looked forward and winced as Faith was picked up and thrown nearly twenty feet to the right landing with a solid thud against the side of a crypt.
Carrie hissed, "That's gonna smart later. Watch out for his tail. Go." The girl shoved Buffy away from her and hefted a mace. "Oy, yeah, you. Is that all you got? A tail?" Carrie dove forward while Buffy made her way round towards the back of the creature.
The Serenity crew piled out of the van with the slayer and her friends, but were told to stay behind. Buffy using the excuse of not knowing what was up ahead and she didn't want to endanger anyone else unnecessarily. So Mal being the kind, respectful thief he was stayed put with his crew. He looked around the cemetery thinking that what he had seen of this place was similar to some of the central planets. Although, he assumed the government wasn't as meddlesome now as they were in the future. All in all it was a nice cool evening to be out and about. No one from the ship had stayed this long on a planet going on a year.
Mal noticed Kaylee and Inara moving towards the back of the van and called out, "Hun ta ma yao ming. Joo-ee (Watch your back.) Everyone else had gathered off to the side talking amongst themselves.
The two women had moved out of sight and rounded the back end of the van. Kaylee had her hands wrapped around her waist and was talking to Inara about some of the things the companion and Willow had talked about during the course of the day. Neither was paying attention to their surroundings. They were situated apart from the group when Inara suddenly went flying into the rear door of the van. Kaylee didn't even have the chance to warn anyone before she herself was knocked unconscious.
Three vampires and two demons rounded the corner of the van. Mal and Zo' looked up drawing their guns. Firing on instinct they hit the vampires first. The vamps staggered back, but kept on advancing. The first vamp to reach Zo' was struck with the butt of her rifle, but quickly recovered. It let go a series of punches that left the Amazonian like woman bleeding from her temple and then finally a well placed roundhouse connected with the left side of her head. She was unconscious before she hit the cold asphalt of the parking lot.
Mal screamed out and watched as Zo' crumpled to the ground. He was unable to go to her because of the attack he was under. The two vampires that remained made short work of the captain. One was able to twist the gun away from Mal while the other landed a solid punch to the man's face. The fight was over before it even began.
The two demons had taken hold of Jayne and Simon disregarding River in the process. Jayne had put up a decent fight, but was quickly subdued and joined the majority of the crew in forced slumber. Simon was held tight by one of the demons and watched as the other demon and the three vamps advanced on River. The small girl hefted a stake behind her back and let the vampires make the first move. Only one attacked the girl and she could handle that. She ducked low and shot her hand up into the creature's stomach sending it stumbling back a few feet. Righting herself, she leapt towards the vamp with a well placed round house sending it sprawling to the concrete unconscious.
The remaining vampires looked at the teen and hissed out in agreement, "Slayer."
River cocked her head to the side and smiled. The demons could think what ever they wished; she just wanted to protect her family. She let them see the stake she was twirling in her hands right before she threw it into the chest of the vamp standing to the left. The remaining vamp watched as its companion vanished and let out a yell of annoyance. The vamp wasted no time in lunging at the girl, but was stopped short by River meeting it half way. The vamp found itself sailing through the air landing solidly against the side of the van.
River watched as the vampire rose from the uncomfortable position it had landed in and couldn't help the small smile that formed. Thoughts whizzed through her brain and she held on to the one that couldn't help but think that this was kinda fun. She saw the larger demon trying to sneak up on her from behind. Right before he was going to wrap his arms around her she threw herself forward springing down on her hands and letting her left foot connect solidly with the underside of its chin. Unfortunately that wasn't nearly powerful enough to affect the demon. It grabbed her right leg as her legs began the upward swing in the flip and it shoved out causing River to go sprawling on the ground. The demon walked over to the small girl kicking her with its cloven foot to make sure she was unconscious.
The first vampire that had attacked River slowly came to and met its friends around the unconscious body of River Tam.
"Joe, which one's are we taking?" the vampire closest to the van asked.
"Take her, that one there," he pointed to Mal, "and take one of the other girls from around the back. I don't care which, just grab one and let's go. There are other slayers around."
"And that one?" The other vampire pointed to Simon, who was feebly struggling against the demon that held him.
Joe looked around for something to use to tie up the last conscious member of the group. Not seeing anything he looked down at River and smiled. Grabbing at the bottom of her dress, he tore off a long strip and tossed it to the other vampire, "Use this to tie him up and leave him in the van."
"What no snack?"
"Bill, we didn't come here to eat. We'll eat later once we deliver the cattle." Joe smiled and hefted River in his arms. "Let's go."