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by Chris Kenworthy (scoobyhq@fcmail.com)
Disclaimer: I have no rights to the characters of Buffy, Faith, Willow, Xander, Oz, Cordelia, or Giles.
"Easy as pie," one of them, husky Rambo, muttered as he took hold of both Faith and Jonny's arms with one hand each. Oh, yeah, way too easy, Buffy thought. All I need to do is... as quick as thought, she levelled the dart gun at the other vampire in the room - a John Travolta whatever he was in FaceOff, and fired the gun. In a second, Travolta was cluching at his neck and buckling to his knees.
"Hey, what the..." Rambo started. He didn't get any further than that. Acting in perfect synchronization, Faith and Jonny snapped their bonds, twisted their arms forward, and knocked Rambo's knees out from under him. Poor Rambo didn't even have a second to catch his bearings before Faith's stake was through his heart.
"Buffy!" Oz called out, jumping up and running over to her. "Good rescue! I give you four point six out of five for style."
"Thanks, man," Buffy drawled. "Hi again, Leslie," The junior had been only two steps behind Oz. Hmm, well these two seem to have gotten pretty close tonight, Buffy thought to herself. I wonder if something's happening?? She shook her head, chasing those thoughts far away. There was no time to think about who's dating who in the middle of a rescue operation.
"Okay, listen up!" Faith called out quietly but clearly. "Everybody, follow us quietly and carefully to the back door."
The long-hostaged students were glad to follow those instructions, and soon they were at the small vestibule just inside the door. Jonny applied a tiny twist of wire to the lock, worked it for a number of seconds, and then swore.
"What is it?" Faith hissed.
"Security lock, honey," Jonny told her. "I can't get at that second deadbolt from here - it's entirely electronic. Probably directly controlled from the management office."
Buffy took that in and made a split-second decision. "Okay, here's what we do," she announced to the assembled students. "Everybody gets into the vestibule or one of the washrooms. If anyone tries to get into the vestibule from the rest of the club, except for one of us or other hostages, you fight them off as best you can. Once we liberate the green room, we can use some of the furniture from it as a barricade, okay?" She turned to Oz. "Can you handle this?"
Oz considered that. "What about Wi-"
"We'll get her out okay. Can you do this??"
Oz set his face. "Count on it."
(Back up the corridor.)
The sound of a gunshot rang out. "Can I get some backup over here?" Buffy called in her best impression of Shiyanna's voice.
The door to the green room poked open, and a vampire took a look out! Buffy waved him over furiously, and after he checked Buffy's headband, the private eye and another vampire, a lady spy headed down the corridor towards her position.
"Thanks so much," Buffy told him. Suddenly Faith and Jonny poked out of hiding and fired - Faith using the dart gun on Lady Spy, and Jonny firing a crossbow bolt into private eye. As the vampires collapsed and disintegrated, respectively, Buffy took out a stake and motioned Jonny up to follow her to the Green room.
There was only one vampire left in the room. "Sorry pally - your number's been cancelled," Buffy told the poor undead a second or so before he exploded into dust.
(Back in the vestibule,)
"So, what's the plan for the rest of them?" Xander pressed Buffy as he helped carry in a chair for the barricade.
"Uh." Buffy tried looking at Faith for help, which didn't much work. "I think for the main room we're pretty much gonna have to play it by ear."
"I wanna be on the scene," Xander told her.
Buffy shook her head. "No. I need you guys in here, to defend the barricade, just in case."
"Oz, Giles, and Celia will be in here," Xander reminded her. "I need to be there. To make sure Willow will be safe."
Buffy considered that, and caught a slight nod Jonny gave her. "Okay. You're in as designated untier." She presented him with a long sharp knife. "Get the kids on the altars in the main room first, then the girls in the office. Nothing more. Understood?"
Oz broke in. "Hey, what about me? I care about Willow too!"
"I can't risk you both, Oz," Buffy told him. "Defend the barricade. We'll get that door unlocked as soon as we can. Come on, guys."
Faith and Jonny followed Buffy right back into danger, but Xander delayed just long enough to to say one thing to Oz before closing the vestibule door. "Ha, ha!"
(Out in the main room.)
Cole Palmer's mind was drifting as he lay tied up on the altar. Was he going to die here, part of some crazy cult sacrifice? No, he didn't really think so. For one thing, these weird guys didn't seem too much like they were really cultists - more like they were acting the part for some reason. To convince someone to pay them off? He remembered hearing something a few minutes ago. "As you can see, we are quite prepared to carry out the sacrifices if we have to." Which implied that they didn't want to, but were using it as a threat for some reason.
No, Cole really didn't think he would die here. For one thing, there was Buffy. A lot was suddenly coming clear about her in Cole's mind. He didn't think it was coincidence that she had gotten hurt, or that she hadn't come back to the group after he cured her. Cole had heard a lot about Buffy from school friends over the past few years - strange and mysterious things. He had been there at the talent show in their sophomore year and seen the tableau as the curtain had risen. Just what had happened while he had been waiting in his seat for the show to begin?
The parent teacher night he had not been in attendance for, but that story was at least clearer. A gang attack or something similar, and Buffy had saved the life of several parents and teachers. Yet, it was a subject never spoken of aloud, only in whispered rumors. And there were other mysteries like that.
"Buffy Summers, just what is your secret?" Cole whispered. That was why he liked her, he figured. She obviously had a secret too. He didn't know what hers was, and he didn't think she knew about his, but still, it was a kind of common ground between them.
At that moment, a bit of movement caught the corner of Cole's eye, and he saw three headbanded figures stride into the main room. "Oh, no, this can't be good." But after a second, he realized that yes it could. Because he recognized one of those headbanded figures quite well!
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