Author: Steve711 - Steve Pantovich
E-mail Address: Steve711@concentric.net
Title: The Chronicles of Wanderer - Calling Out the Clan
Copyrighted : March 1999
Category: Crossover
Rating: PG-13 to Heavy R -
Violence, Sexual Situations, Foul Language and Description of Horrific Acts
Spoilers: A few, but who cares?
Keywords:
X-Files/Highlander/Buffy the Vampire Slayer Crossover with a few guest
stars.
The Following TV Series have been included in the story.
Disclaimers appear at the end with the cast list.
Air Wolf
Nash
Bridges
Pretender
Players
Leaving LA
A-Team
Seven Days
Star
Trek The Next Generation/Deep Space Nine/Voyager
Cobra
Walker Texas
Ranger
The Night Stalker
Gargoyles
Mike Hammer
Kung Fu the Legend
Continues
Xena, Warrior Princess
Due South
Trapper John M.D.
La
Femme Nikita
The Following Book Series have been included in the
story. Disclaimers appear at the end with the character list
GI
Joe
Casca - The Eternal Mercenary
The Executioner
Able Team
Phoenix
Team
Bureau 13
The Destroyer
Conan The Barbarian
The Last
Vampire
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan
R.E. Fiests Riftwar
Series
Blade
Summary: A series of vampire killings brings Mulder
and Scully back to LA. They team back up with Buffy and Steve to put an
end to the Queen vampire's plans to destroy the world.
All disclaimers
appear at the end of the story.
Any character whose names and
descriptions are used are the property of their original owners, and no copy
right infringement is intended or meant.
No money can be made from this
story. It can be distributed freely so long as it is kept in its entirety,
with all notices and copyright information intact.
The characters
Wanderer/Steven St. Wolf, Frank Iverson, Brother Aaron and Robert McCallister
and this story are mine. Anyone wishing to use them, please contact me at
my e-mail address: Steve711@concentric.net
Comments and Criticisms are
appreciated, please post to the above
referenced E-mail.
Author's
Note's: When I started to write this story I decided to change some
things concerning the characters.
X-Files Mulder and Scully are
married and Immortal - So Non-Relationshippers beware.
Highlander:
Richie Ryan shouldn't have died in the end of the fifth
season. So here he hasn't.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Buffy is an Immortal.
Casca, the Eternal Mercenary: Various of Casca's
friends are Immortal. Including the love of his life, Lida.
The
Executioner: Mack Bolan is an Immortal. How else do you think
he survived dying all those times?
Author's Thanks:
I'd like to
thank the people who helped me in writing this story. It took the better
part of a year to complete, but I think that it was worth it, but they stuck
with me, helping and encouraging me to complete it. They
are:
Lil-wolf, Elizabeth Flynn, Goblin214, Candy Blakely, Sara the
brown, Stone Cold, Doug Elder, Rebekah Sandell, Jason Weiser, Mark S Safransky,
Dalton Spence, and Avatar236. Thank you all for your time and input on
this story.
In memory: I'd like to dedicate this story in memory of four
great writers, whose works have been a constant enjoyment and
delight:
Gene Rodenberry, Don Pendelton, Mickey Spillane and Barry
Sadler
I'd also like to thank all those great fan fiction writers out
there, whose stories I've enjoyed. They showed me that I could let my
imagination run. (Where it went I don't want to know :))
Thanks and
here's the Story. Enjoy.
Frank Parker looks over the blue prints that have been handed to him and asks. "Why do I have to memorize these blue prints?"
The scarred man looks at Parker and smiles weakly. "Because you have to Mr. Parker. Those things will destroy humanity if you don't warn them."
"Who are you two? You suddenly appear from no where and tell us this all started in Los Angeles seven days ago. How can you be certain?" Talamadge asks.
"My name is Casey Romaine, my partner Fox Mulder and I were there when it started. We had the bastards. We could have killed them and prevented all of this from happening. Wanderer only made one mistake. He didn't take out all of the . . ." Casey's words to Frank Parker are cut off by the sound of a body hitting the wall behind them. Parker and the man called Romaine turn around and watch the security chief, Ramsey, slowly slide down the wall, leaving behind a blood trail.
Ramsey looks up at them through pain filled eyes and croaks out. "They've found us. You don't have much time. Get back there and stop them, Parker."
"Where's Donovan?" Parker asks.
"It killed him. That monster picked him up and just ate him whole. Now get your ass in gear and stop them." Ramsey orders as he slumps down, dead.
Parker's knocked out
of his reverie by the sound of gunfire as Casey fires into the monster that had
killed Ramsey. He picks up Ramsey's pistol and fires into the creature,
forcing it back. He quickly follows Olga out of the office and to the
hanger where the sphere is. Fox Mulder follows them, offering what little
protection he can. Casey Romaine
stays, holding back the monsters,
giving them precious seconds.
Casey looks at the monsters
coming for him and quietly asks. < God, please let Parker fix this. I
can't see you allowing this to happen. But, if I die tonight, at least let
me be with Lida and my family. > As the first monster approaches, Casey cuts
loose with his machine gun and cuts it in half. He goes through the last
of his ammunition and reaches for his
Gladius and lays into the monsters.
Suddenly, a vampire attaches itself to his neck and sinks
its teeth to Casey's neck. The vampire takes a single drink of Casey's
blood, screams horribly and falls down dead. Casey's luck doesn't hold as
a demon of the second circle reaches him and cuts him apart with its razor sharp
talons. As he falls, Casey cuts open the demon and his blood quickly
poisons it. As his eyes close for the last time, he sees the face of God
as he accepts
him into his embrace and forgives him for his past
deeds.
In the hanger Frank Parker has quickly donned his orange space suit and he straps himself into the chair. He hears Olga running an accelerated countdown and he quietly prays to himself. < Dear God, let me get to them. > Parker's forced out of his thoughts by the sound of Olga screaming. He quickly radios to the control room and asks. "Olga is everything all right?"
A strange voice, with a British accent, answers back. "No mortal, the lady is not all right. In fact she's making a fine meal for my Drusilla. The man with her is already dead. Would you like to be my next meal?"
"Fuck you asshole." Frank Parker yells out as he punches the button, starting his journey back.
Spike watches as the blue sphere disappears and grins as he comments. "Neat. I wonder where he went?"
Los Angeles - Eight Days in the past.
Robert Hascombe is feeling good tonight. His old friend, Quinn is coming by for a visit and dinner. Robert has just spent the last two hours gathering together the ingredients for Quinn's favorite meal. As he is reaching for the keys to his ground floor apartment, a pair of hands reach out of nowhere and grab him. His face is slammed against his closed apartment door and he's thrown onto the floor. The attacker, a large young man, easily overpowers the older Hascombe, as though he were a small child. Finally, he drags Hascombe into the stairwell.
He bends Hascombe's head back, exposing his neck. He rears his head, opening his mouth, baring his fangs, his face takes on a demonic form. Robert begs for his life, the vampire laughs as he savagely bites him in the neck, tearing it apart, sucking out his life blood.
A few minutes later the vampire gets up from his second victim of the night, sated, for now. As he gets up to leave, he hears the front entrance close. He immediately moves to the side of the stairwell door. Cracking open the door, he watches as a young girl enters the lobby. She looks directly at the grocery bag belonging to his last victim. She's blond and about 5'4" and about 110 pounds. She looks around the lobby trying to see what happened to the bag's previous owner.
The vampire decides to make it three for tonight, and attacks the girl. The vampire rushes out from his hiding place and with outstretched arms, attempts to drag the girl down and kill her. The girl turns around suddenly and kicks the vampire in the face. The force of the blow is enough to stun him. The vampire back pedals to get some fighting room.
This is no normal girl, the vampire realizes. She's entered into a fighting stance of some martial art form unfamiliar to the vampire. The vampire feints with a round house punch to the left and the girl moves to the right, going for it. The vampire smiles, he has her. As he moves into his real attack, the girl reverses his feint by grabbing his arm and twisting it and shoving him face first into the wall, at least a half dozen times. Hard.
As she let's go, the vampire falls to his knees and watches as the girl pulls out a Katana out of her trench coat. It's blade glowing a pale blue. He looks up at her and asks one final question. "Who are you?" Not believing that he could be beaten by this girl.
"I'm the Slayer." Buffy answers as the sword comes down taking off the vampire's head. The head and body quickly turn to dust.
She moves to the stairwell to check on the vampire's last victim. She looks at the neck wound and shakes her head. She didn't make in time. <Damn, another innocent life lost.>
Buffy puts her sword back into it's scabbard, as she walks out of the apartment building to the waiting car.
A tall, brown haired man sits behind the wheel of a dark blue Tahoe. As she gets in, he asks. "How'd it go?"
Buffy takes a deep breathe as the car pulls away from the building. "Not good, Steve. I didn't make it in time to save the victim. He looked like a sweet old man. *Damn It* I hate my life. Why can't I save everybody. The world would be a much happier place, wouldn't it?" She asks softly.
Steve looks at his student of five months, and replies. "Buffy, no matter how good we are, there will always be someone out there, who we can't save. Not even Superman can save everybody. We just have to do the best we can and go on." He tells her as he reaches over and squeezes her hand. Buffy just smiles and returns the squeeze, then leans her head on his shoulder for some moral support.
"How's about some food? We've spent the last four hours hunting down seven vampires, and I'm hungry." Steve remarks.
"Sounds like a good idea, there's a burger joint not too far from here, that I used to go to when I lived here, in LA. They make the best onion rings in town." Buffy tells Steve as they make their way down Nathan's Lane.
A few minutes later another tenant comes home and finds Robert Hascombe's body in the stairwell. The police are immediately called in.
The being known to Robert Hascombe as Quinn, walks slowly down the street to his old friend's apartment building. Hascombe and Quinn had been friends for the last thirty years and have always tried to get together whenever possible. Tonight was to be one of those nights. He had stopped at the bakery to pick up some pastries for desert. He had checked his watch and saw that he had time to spare, so rather than just popping into Robert's apartment, he decided to walk over, and enjoy the fresh air.
As he turns the corner onto Nathan's Lane, Quinn sees all of the police cars pulled up to the front of Robert's building. Worry for his friend quickens his steps as he hurries over to see if Robert is all right.
As he approaches the front of the building, a police officer politely stops him. Quinn, knowing that the police officer is just doing his job, doesn't blast him into atoms. Quinn asks about his friend, Robert who lives in the building. "Officer Russell," Quinn asks, reading the officer's name tag. "Can you tell me if my friend, Robert Hascombe is all right? He lives in apartment 1C."
The officer looks at Quinn for a second and asks. "Can you wait here for a moment please, Sir?"
The officer goes into the building and returns a couple of minutes later with a lovely young woman, who escorts him into the building. She identifies herself as Det. Tracy Vetter.
"Sir, can I have your name please?" Det. Vetter asks Quinn.
"Certainly, Detective. My name is Quinn." Quinn replies.
"Mr. Quinn, may I have your full name please?" Det. Vetter asks as she pauses in her writing.
"That is my full name." Quinn replies as they enter the lobby.
Det. Vetter looks up at the ceiling, rolling her eyes. <Only in California, Toronto was a lot better.> She thinks to herself.
The scene in the lobby is chaotic. Police and forensic people are everywhere. The detective escorts him to the chief investigator of the major crimes unit, Captain John Randall. Captain Randall takes one more look at the crime scene and turns to Quinn as Det. Vetter introduces him.
"Good evening Mr. Quinn. I'm sorry to tell you this, but it appears as though your friend, Mr. Hascombe, has been murdered here, tonight." Captain Randall tells Quinn.
"May I ask how this happened?" A very distraught Quinn asks. The box of pastries falls from his shaking hands.
Randall looks into Quinn's eyes and his gut tells him to give it to this man straight. "Someone grabbed your friend at his apartment door, slammed his head into the door and dragged him to the stairwell, ripped his throat out and drained all of the blood from his body. The murder happened about thirty minutes ago." Captain Randall bluntly tells him. "This is the twentieth murder like this in Los Angeles, this week.
Quinn is shocked. How could someone do this to Robert? Of all of the beings Quinn has known in his long life, Robert was one the most gentle and caring individuals he had ever known. Now this gentle, caring man was dead in a stairwell. Quinn was angry, somebody was going to pay for this. As he formulates a plan, he notices that Captain Randall is trying to ask him some questions, <Those questions will have to wait.> Quinn thinks to himself. <First, I have to save Robert.>
Quinn uses his powers to side step time and travel back to the murder, just as it happens. He witnesses the assault and watches as the being drags Robert into the stairwell. As the being laughs, Quinn stops time and grabs Robert, replacing him with a non-sentient double.
"Robert, open your eyes." Quinn tells him.
Robert opens his eyes and sees his friend, Quinn. Then he looks over and sees himself with the thing that was trying to kill him.
"Quinn, how?" Robert sputters.
"Don't worry, that's not you. It's a double I created and replaced you with." Quinn tells him. "Now I want to see what that thing is going to do."
They watch as the being rips into the double's throat and greedily sucks down the blood.
"My god, that's a vampire." Robert gasps out. "I thought they were only myths. Stories to scare children"
"Well it looks like this one is real enough" Quinn replies, as he watches, in fascination, as it completes it's feeding.
As Quinn is thinking of a suitable punishment for the creature, it suddenly moves to the door and opens it slightly, looking into the lobby. Quinn phases himself and Robert to the lobby, still out of time and observes the girl entering. They watch as the girl walks up to the spilled groceries and looks around. The vampire hiding in the stairway suddenly leaps out to grab the girl.
Robert, seeing this, turns to Quinn. "Quinn, you must help her." Robert pleads
As Quinn is preparing to help her, the girl slams a kick into the vampire's face, stunning it. Both Robert and Quinn are surprised at the turn of events and wait to see the outcome. They watch as the girl beats the vampire senseless, by repeatedly slamming him, head first, into a wall.
"My God, how can a little girl like that beat a vampire?" Robert mutters. Quinn is curious as well. They watch as the vampire asks in an awed voice "Who are you?" They continue to watch as she pulls out a sword with a glowing blade, from her trench coat, and the girl replies. "I'm the Slayer", and then she beheads it. Both watch, amazed, as the body and head turn immediately to dust.
The girl puts the sword back into her coat and goes to check on the double's body. Quinn and Robert both see how saddened she is by the sight.
As they follow her out, Robert asks. "Quinn, what's a Slayer, and where did that sword go? It should be sticking out of her coat, but I don't see it. And why was it glowing?"
"The Slayer part, I don't understand either, but the sword disappeared because of spatial displacement. Curious, humanity shouldn't have that knowledge, yet. The blue glow was something that I haven't ever run into before either." Quinn mutters, entranced by what has just happened. "Let's follow her." Quinn states.
They follow her to a dark blue off road vehicle, and listen to the girl and her companion's conversation.
Robert turns to Quinn. "Did I hear correctly? These two people have killed seven vampires this night?" He asks in awe.
Quinn nods his head. Turning to Robert, he says. "Let's follow them. This could prove very interesting."
"Ah Quinn, would you mind answering a question for me?" Robert asks.
"Sure, Robert. What is it?"
"How are you doing all of this? The double, people not being able to see us, everything." Robert asks in a hushed whisper.
Quinn takes a deep sigh and begins. "First
Robert, I'm not human." Robert nods in acceptance. "Second, I'm a
member of what's called the Q Continuum. What that is, is basically a
group of omnipotent beings who are superior to everything else in the
universe. We have almost ultimate knowledge and can bend reality as we see
fit. That about covers
it." Quinn tells him.
"Then why are you my friend? You could know anybody in the world, the richest and most famous. Why choose an old piano player?" An awed Robert asks.
"Because you never were anything but yourself and you gave me your friendship freely, Robert. You never asked anything of me either, just my company. Very few people are like that. It's something that I always liked about you. Besides, being omnipotent gets to be boring, real fast. And having good friends to talk to, or share an evening with is something that I've always cherished." Quinn answers.
"So what's to become of me now, Quinn? The police think that I'm dead and I can't just appear back in my apartment. There would be too many questions and the government would find out about you and try to hunt you down." Robert tells him.
"Oh that's no problem." Quinn tells him, with a smile, as he holds up a mirror. "Here's the present that I was going to give you on your next birthday." Robert holds up the mirror and looks into the face of a twenty year old. He touches it hesitantly, wondering if it was an illusion.
He turns to Quinn, and asks in awe. "How. . . , how did you do this?"
"Simple, I rejuvenated your body back to where it was when you were about twenty." Quinn tells him with a smile. "You're my friend Robert. I couldn't watch you die of old age, when you haven't even seen another world."
"Quinn, I don't know what to say, other than thank you." Robert tells him in a hushed voice.
"Just don't change on me, Robert." Quinn tells him with a smile.
They move in behind the couple as they sit down to eat at the restaurant. The man called Steve holds out the girl's chair. Robert smiles, acknowledging the man's sense of chivalry.
Quinn asks. "Robert, why did he hold out the chair for the girl? She looks able enough to do it herself."
"Quinn, it's not the fact that she could do it herself. It's the fact that he had the courtesy to do it for her. Manners say much about a man. And how a woman looks at him. And it's obvious that," Robert points to Buffy, "that girl adores him."
The waitress comes over the table shared by Buffy and Steve. She gives the day's specials and takes their orders. Buffy orders a cheese burger and Steve orders a couple of slices of pizza. While they eat, they go over the night's events. Quinn and Robert listen in wonder and awe.
"I wonder where all of these new vampires came from. I thought we had cleared LA last week?" Steve asks.
"Don't know, maybe the big conventions attracted them. It's been a while since we got seven of them in one night." Buffy remarks.
"They might think that hunting's easier with so many strangers in town. Let's check in with Giles." Steve comments as he reaches for his cell phone and dials Giles' home number. He holds the phone between Buffy's and his ears. Jenny picks up the phone.
"Giles residence, can I help you?" Jenny asks.
"Hi Jenny, you guys naked yet?" Steve replies with a smirk.
"Buffy are you listening in?" Jenny asks.
"Yes, I am," Buffy replies with a giggle.
"Then smack that boyfriend of yours for me. Really hard," Jenny tells her with a giggle.
Buffy smacks Steve on the back of the head.
Steve drops the phone on the table and looks at Buffy. "What was that for?" He asks.
"Jenny asked me to smack you, so I smacked you." Buffy replies with a smug look.
Quinn gives Robert a look and asks. "May I ask what is going on, now?"
Robert chuckles and replies. "Young love."
Meanwhile Steve and Buffy are having their usual argument with Giles and Jenny, their Watchers . . . .
"Listen Giles, next time Jenny tells Buffy to smack me, she gets to do the hand to hand combat practice with her." Steve tells them.
"Steve, you brought it on yourself. The idea that Jenny and myself are here, naked, pleasantly cool and tucked away, while we should be watching you hunt vampires on a hot, humid July night in Los Angeles is utterly preposterous." Giles replies. His smirk could be heard through the phone.
"Okay, so which one of you is wearing the top, and which one the bott.. Ouch!!" Buffy smacks Steve, again.
"What was that for?" Steve asks.
"For stealing my line." Buffy replies with a giggle.
"All right children, that's enough." Giles replies over the cell phone. "Can you two stop bickering long enough to give me a status report."
Buffy and Steve look at each other and grin evilly as both reply at the same time, "Yes Giles, Oh Supreme Watcher of Miss Calendar's Behind."
"Steven St. Wolf, you are a forty year old Immortal, but you act like a teenager. Buffy Summers, you should act more like an adult and not drag Steve down to your level." Giles replies in an exasperated voice. Jenny could be heard in the back ground, laughing.
Steve and Buffy are laughing at Giles' comment. The rest of the patrons wonder what's so funny, but the go back to their meals with amused shakes of their heads. Buffy and Steve manage to get a hold of themselves and get back to business.
"Are we through having fun at your Watcher's expense?" Giles asks.
"Yeah Giles, sorry, just relieving the tension. The hunt's been a little heavy tonight. We got seven tonight. We were just thinking that maybe a new vampire clan moved into town." Buffy replies.
"You might be right." Giles muses. "So far you've killed thirty four vampires this week and it's only Thursday." Giles replies. "The previous three weeks have seen much less activity."
"I wonder what the hell they're planning." Buffy comments.
"Nothing good." Steve replies.
Meanwhile, outside the Burger-to- Go, a group of fifteen vampires finishes off two of their latest victims. The leader, a large and burly vampire calling himself Thomas, decides to fill up for a couple of nights and maybe add a couple more vampires to the population. He points to the Burger-to-Go and orders. "Let's take over that place and drain it dry!!"
Thomas orders three vampires to the rear of the restaurant, in case anyone manages to escape out the back. The rest of the vampires follow his lead as he walks through the front door and orders everyone in the restaurant herded into a corner. His vampires move to comply.
Above the vampires, Billy and Jinx have moved into position and are making ready to attack the vampires. The rest of their clan was about ten minutes behind them, but the lives of innocent people mattered and they have decided to attack the vampires as they try to take over the restaurant, giving the patrons a chance to run. Hoping that the rest of the clan makes it in time to save their lives.
Robert turns to Quinn and says. "You were right Quinn. This is turning out to be a very interesting and enlightening evening."
Quinn takes a quick look by the door, and tells Robert. "And it's about to get more interesting." Robert looks at Quinn, wondering why he would say that. Quinn points to the door that's now blocked by a dozen vampires.
"Are you going to help?" Robert asks.
"Only if they need it." Quinn replies, happy just to be an observer in this situation.
Buffy suddenly jerks when the first vampire steps through the door. She looks over to the door and sees a dozen vampires. Steve notices her actions and quickly tells Giles, "Giles, a dozen vampires just walked in. Gotta go." Then he hangs up the phone.
Giles stares at the phone in his hands and he offers up a silent prayer for the girl that he thought of as his daughter and the man who has become like a brother to him. He turns to Jenny, worry showing on his face.
Jenny seeing the expression on his face asks simply. "How many?"
"A dozen. I hope they can win against those odds."
"Rupert, those two are the best. Don't lose hope."
"I know, but sometimes it's just so hard."
"Hush now," Jenny tells him as she wraps her arms around him. "You know they'll win. They have to."
The leader, obvious by his sheer size and attitude, orders the other vampires to herd the patrons and staff off to one side. Making it easier to pick and choose their victims.
Quinn and Robert notice Steve and Buffy moving to the side, away from the other patrons. Thomas, the lead vampire, notices this as well, so he orders four vampires to attack them, thinking them easy targets. As the vampires pounce, Buffy takes out a stake and stabs one in the heart, dusting him. Steve grabs a vampire by the throat and plunges a stake into it's heart. Buffy then ball kicks another vampire. As it doubles over, Buffy gives it a taste of wood. Steve takes out the fourth vampire with a straight arm stab to the heart. The four vampires are gone in less than a minute. Steve and Buffy haven't even broken a sweat.
Quinn, Robert and Thomas watch the man and woman defeat the four vampires sent against them. Quinn and Robert are impressed with the couple's combat skills. Thomas suddenly finds doubt in his ability to take these two.
Billy and Jinx hesitate in their attack. After seeing the four vampires being taken down, they decide to wait and see what happens and help, if these two needed any help.
As they watch Jinx asks. "Who the hell are those two?"
"Don't know, but I think the fight's just gotten interesting."
The vampire leader steps forward. "Who are you two? No normal humans can kill four vampires in less than a minute." He said.
"Oh, so sorry, we forgot to introduce ourselves." Steve replies sarcastically. "Allow me to introduce us. I'm called Wanderer." The vampire leader turns even paler. "And the pleasant young lady next to me is the Slayer." Several vampires start to move toward the door.
Buffy executes several back flips and lands next to the two vampires guarding the hostages. As she lands, both vampires attack her. Her sword cuts in a complete 360 degree circle, taking both heads. Both bodies and heads disintegrate before they hit the floor.
Meanwhile, Steve heads for the door. As he jumps over a table to block the
vampires trying to escape, he pulls out his Katana, and goes into a
tumble, cutting off the legs of a running vampire. As he gets up from the
tumble, he takes the vampire's head. Another vampire, seeing Steve
distracted attempts to attack him with a flying tackle. Steve,
seeing
this, punches the vampire in the face with a tiger's claw strike. The
vampire falls down to its knees, its face smashed in, stunned. A normal
man would be dead from such a devastating blow. Steve takes a wooden knife
out of his coat and stabs it in the heart. Then, he takes the same knife
and throws it into the heart of the vampire standing by the door, dusting it,
before he could run.
In less than three minutes the odds have dropped from twelve to two to three to two. The three remaining vampires are scared. One of them attempts to grab a child for a hostage. Buffy stops him with a thrown stake through the heart. The leader and his last vampire rush Steve, who is now blocking the door. The leader grabs his crony and throws him into Steve, trying to knock him down. Steve, seeing what is going on, ducks down and slices the vampire's head off as he passes over him. A cloud of dust lands in the parking lot.
Outside the restaurant, Billy and Jinx watch in fascination, as the man and woman take out the vampires. Jinx turns to Billy. "Billy, those two are incredible. I've never seen anyone able to draw a sword while doing a series of back flips, and then behead two opponents on the landing."
"Neither have I, Jinx. Didn't they come here in that blue blazer?" Billy asks as he takes photos.
"Yeah, they were the last people in before the vampires attacked."
Billy moves to the car and plants a G.P.S. tracker on it. Billy and Jinx then move back to the roof, the outcome in the restaurant beyond question.
The leader, seeing what happened to his crony, tries for a window but Buffy trips him with a sweep kick. He gets up and grabs a chair, trying to beat Buffy down with it. Buffy steps back, letting the chair pass by her. Then she steps in and cuts open the leader's gut with her Katana. He falls to his knees, holding in his guts in with both hands. Buffy walks up to him and cuts off his head. The battle's lasted less than five minutes, but both are tired.
As they make their exit, Steve comments. "I guess that this means no dessert."
Robert and Quinn standing off to one side, slightly out of phase are speechless. Quinn is the first to speak. "Never on a thousand worlds, have I seen a pair of warriors, this deadly. This is proving to be a real learning experience."
"You've got that right." Robert comments. "Are we going to follow them some more?"
"Yes, I do believe we will, Robert." Quinn states as they follow the pair to the dark blue Blazer in the parking lot.
Buffy looking at the large number of police car approaching, as they enter the Tahoe, comment wryly. "I think we should get out of here. The LA police doesn't like vigilantes too much. Especially when we've just killed a dozen vampires and left no bodies, but plenty of witnesses."
"So, shall we go home now?" Steve asks.
"Yep, but let's give Giles a quick update," Buffy comments.
Buffy picks up the cell phone in the Tahoe. She sets it on speaker and waits for Giles to pick up.
"Buffy, Steve. Are you both all right?" A worried Giles asks.
"Yes, Giles, we're both all right." Buffy replies.
"What happened at the restaurant?" Giles asks.
"Scratch another twelve vamps Giles." Steve comments.
"Another twelve? How long did it take you to defeat them? It's not even ten minutes since you hung up on me." Giles comments.
"About five minutes, Giles" Buffy replies.
"My word, you two are getting too good at this." Giles comments.
"Giles, I
think our earlier speculation was right. Another large group
of
vampires has moved in." Steve comments.
"It's possible. They might be filling in the vacuum you two have created by killing most of LA's vampires. I'll have to check with the other watchers and see who's on the move, so to speak." Giles replies.
"All right Giles, check it out tomorrow. We're calling it a night." Buffy tells him.
"Giles, who's doing patrol duty tonight?" Steve asks.
"Frank and a lady named Cassandra, are handling the patrol duties this night." Giles replies.
Steve smiles. His best friend, Frank, has had the hots for the Immortal Cassandra for the last seven years. And by the way she constantly made time to be with him, the feelings were mutual.
"We should make it back home in time for the final patrol. Want to make it a foursome?" Steve asks Buffy.
"Sure, it'll give me time to get to know the lady in Frank's life." Buffy replies with a smile.
The parking lot of the Burger-to-Go is filled with police cars. Captain Randall and Det. Vetter are on the scene. The police have found two bodies stuffed in the parking lot dumpsters. Both bodies had been drained of blood. < This case was getting too fucking weird. First that Quinn just up's and disappears with half the LA homicide unit watching. And now this. > Captain Randall thinks to himself.
All of the patrons questioned have basically given the same story. A dozen men had invaded the restaurant, and proceeded to herd the patrons and staff into a corner, and do what? That's where the stories split up. First, some of the patrons reported that a man and a woman had fought off the invaders with swords that glowed like light sabers. A second group had reported that the man and woman used wooden stakes. And the final group's story is the weirdest of the lot. Who could believe that two groups of aliens had fought it out? One group protecting the people, the other group, trying to drain their blood. The good aliens had won and left, destroying the bad aliens. But to top it all off, the security camera tape had been stolen by someone.
< Only in LA > Captain Randall thinks to himself. He turns to the FBI Agent assisting his team, Joe Tanaka. "Joe, what do you think happened here? I can't believe any of the stories those people," Captain Randall looks over at the witnesses, "are saying. It just boggles the mind. People do not turn to dust when they are killed."
"John, I can't make sense of this either. I don't want to do this, but it looks like I'll have to call them in." Joe tells Captain Randall.
"Who are you talking about, Joe. At this point, I'm ready to call in every psychic and gypsy in town to solve this case." Captain Randall replies.
"I'll have to clear it with my boss, but I'm going to request the 'Spook Patrol'." Joe tells him.
"The 'Spook Patrol?' Who the hell is that, the Ghostbusters' competition?" Captain Randall cracks.
"No John, it's the FBI's X-Files division. The two agents who run it, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, are nicknamed Spooky and Ice Queen, respectively." Joe tells him.
"You're kidding, I hope." Captain Randall replies.
"I wish I was. I meet them about five months ago, and they left a very bad impression." Joe replies, not mentioning that they had reprimanded him for attempting to interfere in one of their cases.
Officer Jarod Russell has just finished taking the statement of a young woman and looks over the scene in the Burger to Go. < What these people are describing is incredible. When I decided to involve myself in this case, I never thought that solving it would be beyond my skills. > Jarod fingers the vial of dust in his pocket. He would analyze it tomorrow at Cal State. < And what is a Slayer exactly? >
As he is standing next to Captain Randall and Agent Tanaka, he overhears their conversation and decides to look up Agents Mulder and Scully and the X-Files.
Meanwhile, across the street, Frohike of the Lone Gunmen, was standing there watching the chaos around the Burger to Go. He and his cousin Matt had stopped there to get something to eat and witnessed everything. Matt had grabbed the surveillance tape on their way out, before the cops came.
Matt, standing next to his cousin Frohike, couldn't believe what he just seen go down in the restaurant. The tape he had 'borrowed' contained the proof they needed to uncover another government conspiracy.
Frohike turns to Matt. "Let's get back to your place. I need to call my partners and Mulder about this." Matt nods his head and goes to his car.
On a rooftop, overlooking the Burger-to-Go, Jinx and Billy of the Storm Shadow Ninja clan watch as the police move about making notes and taking pictures.
"Jinx, I saw the battle, but I still can't believe what I saw." A shaken Billy comments.
"I know Billy. Those two were incredible. Do you think that it's the same people Scarlet and Snake Eyes told us about?" Jinx replies.
"Must be. Hope the photos I took come out." Billy replies, as Tommy, Nunchuk and Shuriken arrive.
Tommy noting the police cars asks. "What happened?"
Billy and Jinx quickly give a detailed report on the battle and it's outcome. Tommy looks down on the chaotic scene below and simply says. "Let's go."
The clan leaves the roof, going back to their base of operations.
In an alley across from the Burger to Go, the three vampires left behind by Thomas watch the scene before them. They had seen Thomas lead eleven vampires into the restaurant and get slaughtered by the man and woman. A vampire named Reggie decides to go back and tell their queen that the Slayer was in town and she wasn't alone.
At Matt's apartment, Frohike puts the tape into the VCR. They watch the video of the fight repeatedly. Especially the parts with girl in it.
"My God, she's a goddess." An awed Frohike states.
Matt is grinning ear to ear. He's heard his cousin only talk about one woman, Dana Scully.
Frohike reaches for the phone and calls Mulder's cell phone.
Mulder answers. "Mulder"
"Mulder, this is Frohike. I'm in Los Angeles and something's happened." Frohike tells him.
"What happened, Frohike?" A worried Mulder asks.
"I've got a video tape of government super soldiers armed with disintegrators, killing aliens." Frohike exclaims.
"Hold on Frohike, describe exactly what happened." Mulder tells him. Frohike then describes the situation at the Burger to Go and the two super soldiers who had rescued the people inside.
"Listen to me, Frohike," Mulder tells him. "Don't do anything. I have a friend in the area who will help you. Go to this address in Sunnydale." Mulder gives Frohike Steve's home address. "Tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 PM. He'll know what to do with the tape."
"Thanks Mulder, I'll be careful." Frohike tells him and hangs up the phone.
Frohike turns to his cousin Matt. "Can you tell me how to get to Sunnydale tomorrow?"
Matt nods his head. "Sure, no problem."
"Okay, let's boot up your computer, transfer this image to digital and send it to Langley and Byers, just in case." Frohike tells him.
After they finish uploading the tape, Frohike turns to Matt.
"All right, let's get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a long day." Frohike says.
At the Storm Shadow Clan's LA base, Billy has just finished developing and blowing up the photographs he had taken at the Burger-to-Go. He immediately takes the still wet photos to the conference room, where the rest of the clan is waiting for them. As he enters the room, a group of anxious people wait for him.
He places the photos on the situation board and then moves away. A man and a woman walk up and examine the pictures closely. After a couple of seconds, they turn to their 'family' and confirm the identities of the two people in the photos.
"It's them." The woman confirms. "The man is named Steve and girl is named Buffy. They're still alive." Her husband merely nods his head in agreement and smiles. Scarlet turns to Billy and Jinx and asks. "You only saw these two?"
Billy and Jinx nod.
"I hope Mack is also alive." Scarlet murmurs.
Tommy turns to Billy and Jinx and asks, "Did you get the license plate of the vehicle they were using?"
Billy replies. "No." Tommy casts his apprentice a hard glance. Billy smiles, as he tells them. "I planted a G.P.S. tracker on their car. I have it's current location on my computer map right now."
Tommy cracks a smile. "Good, we'll pay them a visit tomorrow afternoon. Now let's get some sleep. I have a feeling tomorrow's going to be a long day and night."
Scully's Apartment - Richmond VA.
Mulder wakes up to the sound of his ringing cell phone. He reaches for the phone, hoping not to wake up his wife, Dana. He hits the send button and answers. "Mulder."
"Mulder, this is Frohike. I'm in Los Angeles and something's happened." The excited voice tells him.
"What happened Frohike?" A worried Mulder asks.
"I've got a video tape of government super soldiers armed with disintegrators, killing aliens." Frohike exclaims.
"Hold on Frohike, describe exactly what happened." Mulder tells him. Frohike then describes the situation at the Burger to Go and the two super soldiers who had rescued the people inside.
Mulder could barely keep in his laughter. Frohike was describing a vampire hunt. Buffy and Steve were still at it, and Frohike somehow got caught in the middle of a battle.
"Listen to me, Frohike," Mulder tells him. "Don't do anything. I have a friend in the area who will help you. Go to this address in Sunnydale." Mulder gives Frohike Steve's home address. "Tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 PM. He'll know what to do with the tape.
"Thanks Mulder, I'll be careful." Frohike tells him and hangs up the phone.
After Frohike hangs up. Mulder lets out a long, wicked laugh. The laughter wakes up Scully, who's sleeping next to him.
"Mulder, what's so funny?" A sleepy Scully asks.
Mulder tells her about Frohike's call and where he sent him to drop off the tape. Dana starts to giggle.
"You are evil Mulder. Do you hear me? Evil." Dana tells him between giggles. "Oh I wish I could see Frohike's face when he walks into that house."
Just then, her phone rings. Dana gets control of herself as she answers it. "Hello, Scully here."
"Scully, this is Skinner." The caller identifies himself. "I've just had an emergency request for you and Mulder. Pack your bags, you're both leaving on the 10:00 am flight to L.A. But you have to report to my office first, at 8:00 am, for a quick briefing. Do you what me to contact Mulder and tell him?" Skinner asks.
"No sir, he's woken me up a lot of times in the middle of the night. Now, I'll have the pleasure of waking him up." Scully replies with a chuckle.
Skinner also chuckles. "Scully, you're starting to get Mulder's warped sense of humor. Enjoy."
"No problem, sir. Good night." Dana tells Skinner as she hangs up. "Well, it looks like I got my wish." Mulder arches an eyebrow. "Skinner's sending us to LA on the 10:00 am flight. Do you think we could make it to Steve's place before Frohike?" Dana asks.
"And you called me evil? Scully would you marry me?" Mulder asks.
"Too late, I already did." Dana replies with a grin. As she reaches for Mulder. "You know, we still have a couple of hours. And we could sleep on the plane."
Mulder takes her into his arms. "Why Mrs. Mulder, I do believe you want sex."
"Shut up G-man and turn off the lights." Dana tells him.
The vampire called Reggie approaches the figure sitting on the throne like
chair. Her name is Katherine. She was once an English noble woman,
but a vampire had changed that back in 1125. She now ruled several hundred
vampires as their leader. Thomas had been one of her best
lieutenants. Reggie approaches the throne and gets on his knees
before
her. She looks up from the newspaper that she's reading and asks.
"Where's Thomas?"
"Gone, Mistress." Reggie replies.
She drops her newspaper and commands. "What happened."
Reggie describes Thomas' plan to attack the restaurant and drain it's patrons dry. He then tells her about the battle he had witnessed inside the restaurant and how all twelve vampires were destroyed. After he finishes, Reggie kneels there waiting for his queen's judgment.
Katherine quickly digests the news that Reggie has brought to her. The Slayer was still hunting in Los Angeles and She had a partner. < So that's how she's been able to kill so many vampires. This could mean problems for my plans to bring back the Demon Throlog, the Merciless. I need time to think. > She calls over a female named Lisa and orders. "Lisa, take Reggie and the other two, and have Pamela draw sketches of what the Slayer and her partner look like. Then bring the sketches to me."
As Reggie gets up to leave, Katherine turns to him. "Reggie, you were correct in coming back here with this information. Good job."
Reggie breathes a sigh of relief, his queen would allow him to live a time longer.
Jarod is not having a good
night. He had almost been caught four times while he accessed Agents
Mulder and Scully's case files. The sentry program on their files was far
beyond what would be normal for the rest of the FBI. But his patience and
determination has paid off. He was finally able to get into their
files. And what he found there makes him
almost wish that he
hadn't. Some of the cases these two had assigned to them were so far
beyond the norm, that they should have qualified as science fiction or fantasy
stories.
Since Jarod had escaped the Centre, he had
indulged himself in various aspects of real life. Last Halloween, Jarod
had read up on the witches, vampires and other things that go bump in the
night. But, he had never believed that he would see actual FBI files, case
histories and investigations into werewolves, vampires, aliens, mutants and
other
supernatural phenomena.
The mere fact that the FBI had two Agents with the credentials of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigating them was enough to raise the hairs on Jarod's neck. This pretend had just gotten really strange, but Jarod was determined to see it through to the end. The death of his friend Heather Michaels demanded it.
< Heather, why did you have to die? > Jarod thinks to himself as he remembers the young nurse who patched him up after one of his pretends almost cost him his life. She never asked anything for herself, just that Jarod finish his work. Jarod's head straightens up and his eyes take on a hard look as he looks over the files in front of him. < You helped me and now I'm going to avenge your murder, Heather. And nothing will get in my way. >
Steve and Buffy make it back to Sunnydale by 11:00 p.m. Steve calls his house to see if Frank and Cassandra are in. The machine comes on. He turns to Buffy.
"They're not at the house. Where do you think they are?" Steve asks.
"Probably hunting in the grave yard." Buffy replies.
Meanwhile, Frank and Cassandra are at the Bronze, having a dance. Two vampires had been dusted that evening and the last three patrols were fruitless. So they had decided to see what was going on at the Bronze. The dance part had been Frank's idea, so they would blend in. The slow dance had been the band's, thanks to the hundred that Frank had slipped to the lead guitar.
The mood of the club is shattered by the sound of the door smashing closed and the shriek of the lead guitar player being impaled by a spear. Frank and Cassandra turn to face three vampires wearing armor and carrying weapons.
"We want the Slayer." The leader shouts out. "If we don't get her, everyone here dies tonight.
Frank is pissed, they've ruined his evening with Cassandra. He steps forward and pulls out his modified H&K Spec Ops 45 and points it at the leader. Cassandra steps over to their table and pulls out her sword. She moves back to Frank's side, ready for anything.
"You bastards ruined my evening. Now I'm going to make sure you never see another sunset." Frank tells them.
The leader laughs. "Bullets can't hurt us, mortal. Go ahead and shoot." He exclaims.
Frank shoots all three vampires in the chest. They become dust. Frank just smiles, and puts away his gun. < Too bad they don't know about wooden bullets. > He turns to Cassandra, and says. "Let's go home. I think the night is shot."
Cassandra just nods, reaching for her coat and puts her sword away. The sound of police sirens could be heard in the distance. The rest of the Bronze's patrons are getting up from the floor where they went when the fight started. Everyone looks at the body of the lead guitarist, still standing, being supported by the spear.
When the police come, they clear out the Bronze and make the usual reports ruling the death an accident.
Frank and Cassandra get to the house just as Buffy and Steve are pulling out to look for them.
Steve and Buffy pull their car back into the driveway and wait for Frank and Cassandra to pull in along side their car.
"Frank, how goes the hunt?" Steve asks as the group makes it's way to the side door of Steve's house.
"Fine Steve, we got five tonight. Two in the cemetery, and three attacked the Bronze, trying to get to Buffy. The three in the Bronze wore armor and carried weapons." A tired sounding Frank tells Steve and Buffy.
"Did you say that the last three wore armor?" Buffy asks, as she opens the door and turns off the alarms.
"Yep, they wore armor, but the bullets got through it and shredded their evil little hearts." Frank replies with a grin. < When did Buffy get a key to Steve's house? >
"Damn! It's the 'Three' again. I thought the previous master destroyed them." Buffy tells them.
"Well, we'll have Giles look it up in the morning." Steve tells her. "Do you need a ride home? I'm ready to hit the sack."
"No, I'll stay here tonight." Buffy replies with a smile. "In one of the guest rooms. Besides, it'll give me a chance to talk to Cassandra."
"Who's covering for you? Willow?" Steve asks.
"Yeah, Mom thinks I'm studying over there tonight." Buffy tells Steve.
Meanwhile Frank and Cassandra are whispering to each other. They both turn to Steve. "Steve, Buffy." Frank tells them. "Cassie and I are going to bed. Goodnight."
"Rats. Now I don't get any dirt on Frank." Buffy pouts. Steve and Cassandra laugh, and Frank just glares at her.
"Listen here, little girl," Frank warns. "I am not your boyfriend. He is." Frank points to Steve. "Do whatever you want to him. Hell, I'll help. But keep out of MY life."
Buffy starts to explain, but she breaks down and starts to cry. Steve immediately goes to her defense.
"Frank, relax. Buffy meant no harm by it." Steve explains.
Frank turns to Steve, and angrily tells him. "Steve, you've always been the type who likes to settle down and have a permanent partner. That's why you don't mind how she's been setting you up these last two months. Me, I don't let anyone tell me how to live. If Cassandra and I want to stay together, we will. But no seventeen year old match-maker will do it for us."
Cassandra, walks over to Buffy and quietly talks to her for a couple of seconds. After talking to Buffy, she gently hugs her and gives her a tissue.
Cassandra then walks over to where Frank and Steve are arguing. "Frank, Buffy wanted to talk to me about her relationship with Steve. Her remark about you was just an excuse, so Steve wouldn't be suspicious."
The anger just drains away from Frank's face. He looks over to Buffy, who's crying on the couch. He goes over and talks to her.
"Buffy, I'm sorry that I exploded like that. Cassandra and I were having a good time when those three vampires ruined it. That really pissed me off. I didn't mean to take it out on you. Sorry." Frank stammers out.
Buffy gives Frank a smile. "I know where your coming from Frank. Twelve vamps ruined my dinner with Steve tonight. No bad blood." Buffy holds out her hand. Frank takes it and she gives him a hug.
"All right, if everyone is finished. Let's all get some sleep. Buffy, treat the last bed room on the right as yours." Steve tells her.
"You mean permanently?" Buffy replies with a smile.
< What the hell did I just do? > Steve thinks to himself as he replies with a sigh. "Yes, permanently, if you like."
"Cool." Buffy replies, as she bounces up, gives Steve a hug, and takes her overnight bag upstairs.
"What did you just do, Steve?" Frank asks with a grin on his face. Cassandra walks up to him and wraps her arms around his waist, waiting for Steve's reply.
"I think I just asked her to move in." Steve replies in a whisper.
"Well worst things have happened, and you got through them. So get
used to it. Good night." Frank tells Steve. Frank and Cassandra turn
around and go to their room, quietly having a good laugh.
Steve just stands there, wondering who set him up. Buffy couldn't have thought of this on her own. Or pulled it off by herself. It had to be either Frank or Cassandra, but probably both. He will definitely get even for this.
As Frank and Cassandra enter their room, both laugh. "Did you see Steve's face when he realized he was set up?" Frank comments between laughs.
"Yes, but he didn't look too pissed. I wonder what's on his mind?"
"Probably figuring out a way to get even with us. It's definitely going to be something nasty. Bet on it." Frank replies with a grin, not caring in the least.
"Those two need to be together. Steve is taking far too long."
"Steve knows Buffy's history and doesn't want to hurt her."
"Frank, sometimes going too slow, also hurts" Cassandra tells Frank as she turns down the bed.
"I know, but Steve also has his personal feelings to sort out." Frank explains as he gets into bed with Cassandra. "He hasn't been with a woman since his wife Kathy died."
"Fifteen years? Frank, that's not healthy. Even for an Immortal."
"Tell me about it. But Steve loved Kathy a lot and Buffy's the first woman that's ever gotten past the shell he's built up around himself. Just give them a little more time and we'll have to drag them out of the bedroom."
"And if they don't?"
"Then we lock them up together for a week and let nature take it's course." Frank replies with a grin.
Cassandra shares his grin. "Think the others will help?"
"Oh yes, especially Willow and Cordelia. Those two are getting pissed that Buffy and Steve haven't done anything yet."
"Sounds like a plan." And with a grin Cassandra rolls over and turns off the light. "Now get over here." Cassandra orders.
"Yes, Ma'am." Frank replies with a grin as he reaches for her in the darkness.
J. Edgar Hoover Federal Building - 8:00 am
Mulder and Scully were making their way down the hall toward Assistant Director Skinner's office. He had ordered them in to brief them on the situation in LA.
Skinner's secretary waves them in. Assistant Director Skinner is sitting behind his desk, working on some reports. He waves them into the chairs in front of his desk.
After finishing the reports, Skinner looks directly
at Mulder and Scully as he tells them. "There have been a rash of vampire
type murders in Los Angeles over the last two months and in the last two
weeks, they've escalated dramatically. The local police are stumped and
the FBI field office can't figure it out either." Skinner tosses a thick file
folder across
his desk. "The field office has requested your
help. But they've asked me to rein in your attitudes," Skinner crosses his
arms and looks directly at Scully. "Especially yours Agent Scully.
Now I don't know where they got the idea from, and I'm quite curious. Care
to explain?"
Scully shifts uneasily in her seat as she begins. "Director Skinner, the last time we were in LA, one of Agent Daniels' people, an Agent Tanaka, attempted to usurp a case that we were working on. I took the liberty of informing him that our orders came directly from you, and that Agent in Charge Daniels had no right to order us around. If he had any questions on the matter, to take them up with you, personally." Scully explains.
Skinner looks at Scully for a moment, before he says. "Well that explains it. Daniels always was an asshole, this just confirms it." Skinner replies with a grin. "All right you two, have a good trip and don't piss too many people off."
Mulder and Scully get up and leave. As they're going to their car, Mulder slyly comments to Scully. "Well that's a switch, this time they're complaining about you."
"Mulder, if you ever want to have sex again, shut up." Scully replies with a grin of her own.
"Ahhh Scully, why can't I have a little fun?" Mulder whines playfully as they get into their car for the drive to the airport.
"Because I don't want you to." Scully replies with a mischievous smile.
"Why Mrs. Mulder, I do believe you are having fun with me." Mulder comments.
"Of course I am, what else is a wife for?" Scully replies with a smile.
"Let me call Steve and tell him what's going on." Mulder tells Scully.
"Mulder, it's 5:30 am in Sunnydale, and Steve is probably still asleep. Don't forget he and Buffy spend their nights hunting vampires." Scully replies.
"I know." Mulder replies with a grin as he reaches for the cell phone.
Mulder dials Steve's home number and a sleepy Steven St. Wolf answers. "It's now 5:30 am, if the world isn't ending in twenty minutes or you're not a super model who wants to jump my bones, then you are dead, whoever you are."
Mulder snickers, as he replies. "Wake up sleepy head. This is your favorite FBI agent calling to say hello. Hello." Then Mulder hangs up the phone. Scully shoots a 'what the hell are you doing' look at him. Mulder just grins.
A minute later, his cell phone rings. Mulder answers it. "Mulder is not here right now. He is on his way to LA to investigate a series of vampire like murders. Please leave a message at the beep. BEEP."
"Mulder, I am definitely going to beat the hell out of you, next time I see you. Couldn't you have called me in an hour?"
"Sorry Steve, I couldn't resist. Listen, we'll be in LA in about six hours. After we check in with the locals, then we'll come by the house. Got any empty rooms available?"
"For you and Dana, of course I have a room. Are you two really investigating the vampire deaths in LA?"
"Sure are." Mulder confirms it.
Steve chuckles. "Now that's irony. Buffy will be happy to see Dana again. Frank and Cassandra are here as well."
"Sounds like we're going to have some backup on this case. We'll be over by 3:00 p.m. There's another matter that we have to discuss with you and Buffy when we get there. Nothing important, but I think you two will get a kick out of it."
"Okay, see you at three o'clock then. Have a pleasant trip." Steve says, then hangs up and goes back to sleep.
After Mulder and Scully leave Skinner's office, a back door opens and the man Mulder and Scully refer to as Cancer Man enters. He looks directly at Skinner and comments with a smile. "So the Los Angeles office is having a problem with vampires. This type of case is their speciality."
Skinner looks at the man in distaste. "I take it that they won't be stepping on any of your toes this time?"
The man chuckles evilly. "Definitely not. Keep them out there for as long as they need to stay and solve the case. If Daniels gives you any problems, back them up. I'll make sure that twit doesn't screw with them."
Mulder and Scully make to it the Dulles International Airport with time to spare. As they enter the boarding area for their flight, both feel the familiar 'buzz' of another Immortal. The look around and see four men walking towards them. The man in the lead is known to both. Five months ago, he had helped them, Buffy and Steve, destroy two hundred vampires. The man's name is Mack Bolan.
As Bolan's group approaches, Mack holds out his hand. "Mulder, Scully, it's nice to see you both again. It's been what, five months since we met?" Mack comments. His three companions share a common trait with Mack. They all have the look of professional soldiers.
"Hi Mack. What are you doing here?" Mulder asks taking his hand.
"Just wishing my friends here," He introduces Carl 'Ironman' Lyons, Herman 'Gadgets' Schwartz and Rosario 'Politician' Blancanales, "a pleasant trip. They're on the way back to LA for some rest and relaxation. Where are you two off to? Not LA, I hope." Mack replies with a grin.
Mulder looks at Scully, who nods her agreement. "In fact we are. There are a series of murders in LA that we're going to help investigate. You know the type, you helped us with the last one." Mulder tells him.
Mack thinks back to what happened five months ago, when he, Mulder and Scully, along with friends old and new, helped rid the town of Sunnydale of two hundred vampires. Mack makes a decision. Then he turns to his three friends, and calls them over. "Carl, I know I promised you three some time off. But Mulder and Scully may need some backup. Are you three willing to lend a hand?"
His three friends nod their agreement to help.
Mulder and Scully are surprised at Mack's generosity. They look at each other and silently agree, only if they need the help in the worst way, would they call in Mack's friends.
Mulder turns to Mack. "Mack, we already have local backup. Steve and Buffy are more than capable of helping us." Mulder explains.
"I know Steve and Buffy are capable, but if the shit hits the fan, call in Carl. He'll be able to cut through the bull shit and help you get things done. Especially with the LAPD." Mack explains.
Mulder and Scully look doubtful. Mulder voices his doubts. "Look Mack, Scully and I can't have a private vigilante group running around LA. The Bureau and locals won't stand for it."
"Mulder, have you ever heard of the Stony Man group?" Mack asks quietly.
"You mean the top secret, covert operations unit that doesn't exist, and answers only to the President? Nope, haven't heard a thing about it." Mulder replies with a grin.
Mack laughs. "Mulder, you are one dangerous bastard, I'm glad you're on our side. Let me introduce you to Stony Man's American operations group, code named Able Team." Mack nods to his three friends.
Lyons, Blancanales and Schwartz, who have been listening in, nod their heads in acknowledgment.
Lyons looks over the two Feds that Mack had introduced him to. They weren't your run-of-the-mill Feds. For one thing, they weren't full of themselves. Lyons looks over at Mulder and his partner, Scully in detail.
Mulder was tall and lanky. His eyes told his story. Grief, pain and loss. While most people would be down, it had only made this man stronger. Lyons could respect that in a man.
Scully was a head shorter than Mulder and well built. Her eyes mirrored Mulder's. These two had seen the dark side of humanity and survived. No, not just survived, become stronger as individuals, and as partners.
Lyons also notes one other fact. These two were partners in the truest sense of the word. They would back each other up, no matter what. < I wonder if they're sleeping together? Probably are, from how close they're standing together. > Lyons thinks to himself with a grin. His thoughts are shared by his two partners.
Schwartz is thinking. < Where have heard this guy's name before? > Then it hits him. < Bear mentioned this guy several times. > Schwartz doesn't remember what Bear was talking about, but he would definitely call him about it.
Mulder, Scully and Mack chat for a short while until the flight to LA is called. Able team and the two FBI agents board their flight. Mack wishes them all good luck and good hunting. As he watches the plane climb into the sky, he sends a silent prayer hoping Able Team survives this mission.
In the corner, off to one side, supposedly reading a magazine, an agent of the Cancer Man makes notes and takes photos of Mulder and Scully's meeting with Mack and his three operatives. After they board the plane, he gets up and follows Mack to his car and gets his license plate number.
The agent then goes back to his office and turns over his notes and photographs to his superior, who immediately gives him a fresh assignment.
The photos are developed, the license plate and it's owner are researched and a report is printed up. All of this is assembled and placed in the 'in' box of the Cancer Man's desk for his review.
Also in the 'in' box are the transcripts from Mulder's and Scully's phones, for the last 48 hours.
Buffy wakes up to the pounding on her door. She turns over and checks the time. It's 7:00 am. She rolls over and sleepily yells. "Mom, it's only 7:00. I don't have to get up for another half hour."
She instantly wakes up when a male voice replies. "Buffy, I want to get some early practice in this morning. Oh, and your mother's not here, so clean up your room." She hear's Steve's chuckle as he moves away from the door.
Buffy gets up and puts on a pair of sweat pants and her favorite 'Don't Trust Anyone Over 300 sweat shirt. As she goes to the door, she also gets her wooden kendo sword out for the practice. < Knowing Steve, I better be ready. > Buffy muses. As she opens the door, a sudden flash catches her eye and she brings up the blade in time to block the slash aimed at her head. She counters with a side kick and a slash of her own.
Steve back pedals and blocks both blows with his thigh and blade respectively. He starts to fence in earnest, cutting high, then low, then to the middle. Steve is setting up a rhythm to the fight. Buffy sees this and hopes that Steve will make a mistake and she can get past his guard. As he hits low, Buffy expects him to go to the middle, but he suddenly goes for her thigh. She barely gets her sword down in time to block the blow, but Steve follows this with a kick to her side, which does connect.
Frank and Cassandra are both rudely awaken by the battle outside their door. Both get up and are armed within seconds. Cassandra pulls open the door while Frank prepares to open fire on anyone outside the door. Frank watches as Steve passes the door. He gets ready to blast whomever Steve is fighting. As the figure draws past the door Frank sees that it's Buffy.
"What the HELL is going on here?" Frank yells.
"Well (ungh) Steve told me to get (omph) up and get in (ouch) some practice. This (ugh) is his (omph) idea." Buffy explains as she continues to fight Steve.
Steve is slowly backing down the stairs as he replies. "Sorry about (omph) waking you and Cassie (ouch) up, Frank. But (whack) I thought Buffy could use a little (mmgh) realism in her practice today."
As the two battle their way down the staircase, Steve sees his opportunity and stabs Buffy in the foot as she's stepping down. Buffy immediately loses her balance and falls forward. Steve, expecting the fall, drops his sword as he catches her in his arms.
"Couldn't let you break your neck." A smiling Steve tells her. "That would make you late for school." Buffy just smiles sweetly as she knees him in the groin. He quickly loses his smile as he bends over in pain. Buffy then touches Steve's neck with her practice sword and tells him. "Gotcha."
Frank and Cassie are standing on the staircase having a good laugh.
"He deserved that, Buffy." A laughing Cassandra tells her.
"That's for Damn sure." Frank adds between laughs.
"Okay, (umph)" A bent over Steve replies. "That's (ouch) enough practice for this morning."
"Thought so." A laughing Buffy replies, as she picks up her practice sword and heads back to her room to get a shower. As she passes Cassandra, Cassandra gives her a high five.
Quinn and Robert, still out of phase turn to each other. "Now that's a new way to wake up in the morning." Robert cracks with a smile. Quinn just nods and watches.
Meanwhile, in the vampire lair. . .
Katherine is looking over the sketches just given to her by Lisa, her assistant. The sketches are of the Slayer and her companion. She studies them in detail, especially the companion's. She turns to Lisa and asks. "What do you think, should we turn him to our cause?"
Lisa looks over the sketch and replies. "Well mistress, he's rather handsome and quite deadly from Reggie's description of the battle. He would make a fine general for you. But first the Slayer must be killed."
Katherine smiles. "Of course. Have copies made and spread around our community. I want the pleasure of changing him for myself."
Lisa bows as she replies. "It will be done as you ask, mistress." And as she leaves, Katherine gives another order.
"Lisa, tell most of our vampires to stay inside tonight. I don't want to lose any more to the Slayer and her companion. We can hunt them down after we free Throlog."
Lisa smiles as her queen gives an evil laugh.
A few minutes later, everyone is in the kitchen grabbing some breakfast. Steve then breaks the news. "Mulder and Scully are coming back today."
"Why?" A curious Buffy asks.
Steve's mouth spreads into a grin. "They've been put in charge of the case handling the vampire murders in LA."
"Talk about a Fox in the hen house." Frank comments with a chuckle.
"Yep." Steve replies, then turns to Buffy. "Buffy, could you have everyone here today at about two?"
"Not a problem. Giles and the rest will be happy to see Dana and Mulder again.
"Buffy," Steve reminds her. "don't forget to ask Giles about the 'Three'."
"Not a prob. He'll probably spend all day looking it up." Buffy replies.
At the school library, Buffy meets with her friends and mentors for a brief meeting before summer school starts. She gives a brief rundown on the previous night's hunts and passes along the information about the 'Three'. Giles is surprised.
"Buffy, are you sure it was the 'Three'?" Giles asks.
"Well, I wasn't there. But Frank and Cassandra described them to a 'T'." Buffy replies.
"Well, I'll just have to look this up in the Codex." Giles comments.
"One other thing guys," Buffy comments. "Dana and Mulder are coming back this afternoon. And Steve wants us by his place by two, for a meeting with them."
"May I ask the nature of their visit? Is it business or pleasure?" Giles asks.
"Business mostly. They've been put in charge of hunting down the 'vampire' serial killers in Los Angeles." Buffy replies with a grin.
"Oh my, now that is most ironic, isn't it?" Giles comments with a wry grin. Every body else laughs. And with that, the first period bell rings.
As they walk out Willow asks. "So how are things going with you and Steve?"
Buffy smiles. "Steve just gave me my own room. Frank and Cassie helped set him up last night."
"Does he know he was set up?" Cordelia asks.
"Yeah, but he's not going to do anything about it." Xander replies.
Buffy turns to him and asks. "Why?"
"C'mon Buff, you mean you haven't seen how he looks at you? The guys got it bad." Xander tells her.
"Oh please. He does not have it bad." Buffy replies.
"Yes, he does. Only the two of you don't see it." Xander says.
Willow nods in understanding, thinking of Xander and herself.
The flight to LA is uneventful, other than Mulder and Scully get to know the men of Able Team better. As Mulder, Scully and the men of Able Team deplane, they exchange local phone numbers. As they make their way to the luggage carousel, Agent Tanaka, finds them.
"Agents Mulder and Scully, I'm so glad you could make it out here so quickly." Agent Tanaka comments.
"Couldn't refuse a case like this one, Agent Tanaka." Mulder replies with a smile.
"Let's get your luggage. I have some bad news. We couldn't get you hotel rooms because of several major conventions in town. And all of our safe houses are full." Agent Tanaka tells them.
Scully smiles as she replies. "Don't worry about us, Agent Tanaka. We have a friend in Sunnydale. He'll put us up."
"Sunnydale? Isn't that were you two were going on your last case?" Tanaka comments.
"Yep, it sure was." Mulder replies non-commitadley, as he gets their suitcases.
Before Agent Tanaka can reply, Carl Lyons walks over. "Mulder, Scully, we're leaving now. You have my phone number in case you need some backup on this case. Otherwise, see you around." Carl, Gadgets and Politician then walk away.
Agent Tanaka obviously doesn't like the interruption, but Carl's large size and demeanor keeps him quiet. < Shit, what the fuck are THEY doing here? And talking to Spooky and the Ice Queen? The boss had better know about this. > As the three strangers walk away, Tanaka asks. "Who were those three men, Agent Mulder?"
"None of your business." Mulder replies with a cold smile.
"Very well then, let's go meet Agent in Charge Daniels and Captain Randall of the LA police major crimes unit." A stiff Tanaka tells them as he leads them to his car, waiting outside the terminal.
The ride to the LA office of the FBI, is quickly over. As Mulder, Scully and Tanaka pass through the office, Mulder accidentally bumps into a female agent and three of her colleagues. One of them is agitated about something.
"Sorry about that, ahhh, Agent Kowalski." Mulder apologies to the female agent as he reads her name tag. Her three colleagues hold back, waiting to see what happens.
"No problem, Agent Mulder?" Agent Kowalski replies, looking at Mulder's FBI identification. Her three colleagues relax. "Nice bumping into you." She replies with a smile.
Mulder, Scully and Tanaka watch as Kowalski and her friends leave. Mulder asks Tanaka a question. "Those three with Kowalski, they're not Bureau are they?"
Tanaka sniffs in distaste. "They're Kowalski's pet project, paroled ex-cons who work for the Bureau, doing stings." Tanaka explains.
"Interesting concept. Does it work?" Scully asks.
Tanaka just glares at her. Scully looks to Mulder and silently tells him // Guess it works pretty well then. Tanaka doesn't want to talk about it. Must be embarrassed by their success. //
Any reply is cut short as they're ushered into Agent Daniels office. In the office, sitting behind his 'power' desk is Agent in Charge Daniels. Standing off to one side is a pair of LA police detectives, being unimpressed by Agent Daniels. Mulder and Scully immediately take in their surroundings. The entire office screamed 'Look at Me, I'm Important'. < Skinner was right, this guy is an asshole. > Mulder thinks to himself. < He'll probably blame us and the LAPD if the case goes south. And take the credit, if it gets solved. >
Agent Tanaka introduces Mulder and Scully to everyone. Agent Daniels rises up and shakes their hands. Captain Randall and Det. Vetter only nod their heads in greeting.
< So these are the FBI's specialists in the weird. > Det. Vetter thinks to herself, looking the pair over. < They look pretty normal to me. >
Captain Randall gets right down to business. "You two ready for the weirdest case you've ever been on?" Randall asks.
"Depends on how you define weird, Captain Randall." Mulder replies with a straight face.
"How's about vampires, Agent Mulder? Is that weird enough for you?" Randall asks.
"Nope. Been there, done that." Mulder replies nonchalantly. Agents Daniels and Tanaka are shocked at Mulder's comment and nonchalant attitude.
"Agent Mulder, there is no reason to be flippant with Captain Randall." Agent Daniels tells him.
Mulder turns to Agent Daniels and tells him, "Agent Daniels, we've hunted down and Captured serial killers who 'thought' they were vampires before. < and the real thing as well. > This case is nothing new to me or Agent Scully."
Captain Randall looks Mulder directly in the eyes. After a minute, he shudders and turns away. < What the hell has this guy been through? He's too young to have been in Vietnam. No wonder they call him 'Spooky'. > Captain Randall thinks to himself. "All right, Agent Mulder, have you and your partner looked over the case files?" He asks.
"We looked over the abridged version on the plane ride over." Mulder replies. "Is there anything else to add to the file, since yesterday?"
"Yeah, there is." Captain Randall replies. "It appears as though our vampire serial killers have attracted a pair of, get this, light saber armed 'vampire hunters'."
"Light saber armed vampire hunters? What is this a Hammer/Lucas film crossover?" Scully asks.
"Yeah, light saber armed vampire hunters. They've been stopping the serial killers. We have several reports of a man and a woman rescuing people from the killers. Every time they show up the serial killers just disappear. We haven't been able to track those two either." Randall explains.
A thought passes between Mulder and Scully. < Buffy and Steve have been busy. >
"Do you have any ideas?" Agent Tanaka asks.
"Nothing at this time." Mulder replies.
"So, we basically start at the beginning, again." Captain Randall comments.
"No, not at the beginning. Is there any way that Scully and I can see all of the incident reports?" Mulder asks.
"Yeah, sure. Can I ask why?" Randall asks.
"We want to study them for patterns and similarities. Who knows, we may find something you missed. Our outlook and view on things might be different than yours." Scully explains.
"Sounds good. When do you want to get started?" Captain Randall asks.
"Later tonight. Right now we want to get settled in." Mulder tells him. Then turns to Agent Daniels. "We'll need the use of a Bureau car for the duration of our stay."
"Where are you two staying in town?" Agent Daniel asks, his voice hard with tension. < I don't like these two, one damn bit. >
"Since all of the hotel rooms are full, Scully and I are staying with a friend in Sunnydale. We left the address and local phone numbers with your secretary." Mulder tells him.
"Sunnydale? Nothing ever happens there. At least you'll have some peace and quiet." Captain Randall replies.
"That's the truth." Mulder tells him. < If he only knew the real truth about Sunnydale. He would have a heart attack. >
"That's it for today then?" Agent Daniels says, relieved that the meeting is over. "All right, Agents Mulder and Scully, we'll see you later tonight then."
"Yes, we should be back by 9:00 p.m. But we won't be here. We're going directly to the police station and review the files there." Mulder replies just before he leaves. "Oh and by the way sir, nice desk. My mother keeps one just like it in the garage. She uses it to arrange flowers."
"May I ask why you don't want to work at the Federal Building, Agent Mulder?" Daniels asks, put off, but ignores the desk insult. < For the present. >
"Because, all of the case files are at the LAPD. Why do they have to be dragged up here, when we can look at them just as easily over there? We'll also have an easier time interviewing the detectives and officers involved." Mulder replies to Daniels. Then he turns to Randall, who's smiling now. "Captain Randall, do you have a problem if we interview your officers and detectives, as they become available, at your offices'."
"No problem at all. In fact they'll appreciate it. I'll set you up with an office and a couple of desks." Captain Randall replies as he and Det. Vetter are covering the their grins. Mulder just told Daniels off. And insulted his 'precious' desk as well. He was starting to like this guy.
Christine Kowalski and her three colleagues walk into her office. As she closes to the door, she leans against it for support. Her friends can hear her mutter. "I can't believe they brought *HIM* in. My God, Daniels must be desperate."
"Brought who in, Christine?" Isaac 'Ice' Gregory asks.
"Oh sorry guys. You're not FBI, so you won't know about *HIM*." Christine replies as she sits down.
"All right already, who is he? That Mulder guy who bumped into you in the hall?" Charlie O'Bannon asks. Christine only nods her head.
"What's so special about this guy, Christine?" Ice asks.
As Christine takes a seat at her desk, she begins. "Well to begin with, he's one of the best profilers the Bureau has. When he was on the Violent Crimes Task Force, he wrote the proverbial book on serial killers. His profiles were better than ninety percent accurate, every time. That earned him the nick name 'Spooky'." Christine's three friends are impressed. Christine continues the story.
"He could have written his own ticket to any post in the Bureau. But, somehow he came across some open cases referred to as X-Files. Cases that couldn't be solved or were unsolvable. With his pull, he got the cases assigned to him, and the Bureau formed a division called the X-Files, that was about six years ago. A few months after the X-Files started, Mulder had a partner assigned to him. A woman named Dana Scully. She's one of the Bureau's best pathologists. That woman with Mulder was probably her. Since then, those two have gotten every weird and strange case that's come into the Bureau. And there have been some strange ones."
"A friend of mine in the Newark, New Jersey office told me about one of their cases dealing with a fluke man." Ice, Charlie and Alphonse stare at her. "Don't look at me. Donna told me that they had to kill it by cutting it in half as it tried to escape to the ocean." Christine tells them.
"So that's why Agent Mulder is carrying a sword?" Alphonse Royo asks.
Alphonse's three friends are shocked at what he just said.
Christine gets a hold of herself, as she asks. "What do you mean 'he's carrying a sword'? Where would he put it?"
"It was in his trench coat. When he bumped into you, his coat opened and I saw the sword." Alphonse explains.
"Now why would an FBI Agent be caring a sword?" Ice asks.
Charlie O'Bannon thinks back to stories his grandmother told him of the old country. "Because, sometimes a bullet won't stop what they're facing." He softly mutters.
Everyone looks at him. Ice asks. "What do you mean by that, Charlie?"
"Well, when I was growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother. And she would tell me stories of the old country. Some of the things she talked about couldn't be killed with a bullet. You needed a sword or a cross or both to kill it. If those two are getting all of the real weird stuff, that the normal cops and feds can't handle, I can see why he's carrying a sword." Charlie explains.
Christine turns to Alphonse, remembering his request for a meeting. "Sorry Alphonse, what did you want to tell us, before we got started on this?"
Alphonse looks saddened and the news he gives leaves everyone sad as well. "Remember Jack Hastings and his family?" Everyone nods. They remember the scrappy little handy man who stepped forward, despite the threats, to testify against a mobster. "Well, I just heard from Francine that they found Jack, his wife and their four kids, all dead. Victims of the 'vampire' killers."
"Oh man, they didn't deserve that." Ice angrily comments.
"So, what are we going to do about it?" Charlie asks.
"Simple we're going to get involved in the case." Christine says as she gets up. "I'm going to see Daniels about getting assigned to this case."
"That's a fact." Ice replies as he gets up, along with Alphonse and Charlie, to follow Christine to Daniels' office. As they turn the corner, they hear shouting coming from Daniels' office.
Christine walks over to Daniel's secretary, Barbara, and asks. "What's got Daniels so pissed off?"
"Spooky and the Ice Queen weren't impressed by the boss' desk and they were even less impressed with him, and they made the fact known." Barbara giggles. "The boss just called Assistant Director Skinner to complain about their attitudes and to send them back to D.C. A.D. Skinner told the boss that if he wanted this case solved, he should keep them. Otherwise, the Director will want to know why two of the Bureau's best investigators were booted off the case." Barbara explains.
Kowalski and her crew are surprised. < Mavericks like Mulder and Scully had to be good if A.D. Skinner AND the Director themselves were backing them up. > Kowalski thought to herself.
Just then, Joe Tanaka opens the door to Daniels' office and sees Kowalski talking to Barbara. He quietly closes the door and turns back into the office and talks to Daniels. "Boss, Kowalski's outside talking to Barbara. Why don't we give this case to her and her three stooges? If anything goes wrong, we'll be rid of all of them, in one shot." Tanaka explains.
Daniels' face spits into an evil grin. He reaches for his buzzer. "Barbara, have Kowalski come in here immediately."
"Right away, sir." Barbara replies.
Kowalski walks into the office, immediately noticing the grins on Daniels' and Tanaka's faces. < Shit what did we do now? > She thinks to herself.
"Kowalski, I need Tanaka on another case. I'm assigning the vampire killings to you and your misfits. You will be in charge of this case. Fail, and you'll be working in Alaska, and your 'specialists' will be back in jail. Am I understood?" Kowalski just nods her head. "Then take the rest of the day off, and report to the LAPD major cases unit tonight with your 'people' and coordinate everything with Agents Mulder and Scully." Daniels tells her.
Kowalski doesn't say a word, she just gives Tanaka a glare and leaves the office. Outside, Ice, Charlie and Alphonse are waiting for her. She gives them the news as she walks over to Barbara and asks. "Barbara, how do I get in contact with Agents Mulder and Scully?"
Barbara just hands over a slip of paper with a Sunnydale address and phone numbers on it as she explains. "They couldn't get any hotel rooms, because of the conventions, so they're staying with a friend in Sunnydale. A guy named Steven St. Wolf."
Meanwhile in the parking garage, Captain Randall and his partner, Det. Tracy Vetter are going over what happened in Daniels' office.
"What do you think of the two 'specialists' the Febbies brought in, Tracy?" Randall asks.
"They are definitely not your usual Febbies. Did you see the way they treated Daniels? No one who cares about their careers treats a superior like that. Only cops who care about solving their cases." Tracy tells him.
"Yeah, I think we finally got the help we needed on this case. C'mon, let's go back and make sure they have an office to work in. It's the least that we can do." Randall tells her.
"Captain?" Vetter asks. "Think we should pick them up? Show them that we're willing to work with them?"
Randall thinks it over as he pulls the car out onto Main Street. "Not a bad idea, Tracy. Did you get their address?" He asks.
"Yeah, I got a copy from the secretary." Tracy replies as Captain Randall's cell phone rings.
"Randall." He answers.
"How's it going, John?" The voice at the other end answers.
Randall immediately recognizes his old partner's voice. "Ironman, what the hell are you doing in LA?"
"I've got a few days off. And decided to hang around the old neighborhood." Ironman replies.
"Sure Ironman, sure." Randall replies, not convinced, then asks. "Are any of your people working out here, right now?"
"Not to my knowledge, John. If they were, I'd tell you." Ironman replies. "Why are you asking?"
"Because we've got a couple of vigilantes out hunting the 'vampire' serial killers. I thought they might belong to you, since they follow your policy of 'take no prisoners'." Randall tells him.
"Like I said, I don't know shit about them. If you want some help, the guys and I will lend a hand, if asked." Ironman replies.
"Thanks for the good word, Ironman. I'll keep it in mind. Have a good time." Randall replies, then turns to his partner.
"Tracy, this case has just become something else." Randall tells her.
"What do you mean John?" Tracy asks.
"Ironman is in town with his two friends. And that can only mean trouble."
"Oh shit." Tracy replies thinking back to the last time those three were in LA and how high the body count got.
Ironman hangs up on his phone call with Captain Randall, just as Gadgets Schwartz has just finished talking with Bear, Stony Man's computer expert. He turns to Ironman and Politician and just shakes his head.
"So, it's that bad." Politician observes.
"It can't be. Mack wouldn't do that to us." Ironman comments.
"It's worse. According to Bear, Mulder and Scully are the FBI's experts on the paranormal. Their cases include aliens, monsters and the supernatural. Especially aliens. The NSA has constant trouble with those two getting too close to some of their operations."
"Bear pulled up a few of their cases. Those two have worked on cases involving, get this, werewolves, vampires, the Jersey Devil, mutants and all sorts of weird stuff. I'm sorry to say this, but I hope they loose our phone number." Gadgets laments.
"I hope not." Ironman comments.
"Why, Ironman?" Politician asks.
"Because, I've always wanted to try to take out an alien." Ironman grins. "But back to business, John Randall just asked me if we had anyone working the vampire case."
"Why?" Gadgets asks.
"Because there appear to be a pair of vampire hunters hunting the serial killers." Ironman replies with a grin. "And from John's description, they don't take prisoners. He all but said their style reminds him of us."
Jarod looks up from his microscope and rubs his sore eyes. He has just finished re-testing the dust sample for the fifth time and the results were the same. Decomposed human remains, approximate age, according to the carbon dating, 180 years old.
He thinks back to the events of last night and the descriptions the witnesses had given him. < Two people, a man and a woman, armed with glowing swords and wooden knives, fighting off the twelve men who attacked the Burger-to-Go. The man called himself, Wanderer, the woman, the Slayer. Every time they would kill one of the men, they would turn to dust immediately. What kind of weapons were these people using, that turned people into dust? Some of the people called the twelve men who were killed vampires. > As Jarod leaves the laboratory, he decides to do a little research into the vampire myth and see how all of these events coincide. In the library, Jarod asks about books on vampires. The librarian, a cute brunette, points him to the occult/mythology and popular fiction sections of the library.
A few hours later, an even more puzzled and worried Jarod leaves the library. He had read every factual book in the library on vampires (there weren't many to begin with) and some of the fictional stories as well. < That Anne Rice was particularly good. > The experience had left him wondering. The only thing of interest was the name Slayer appeared in all of the factual books. It was supposed to be some legendary vampire hunter gifted with mystical strength, stamina, speed and the ability to sense vampires. < Could both of these people be Slayers? That would explain the ease with which they took out the twelve vampires. >
As Jarod leaves the library, he decides to call his mentor, Sidney. As he dials Sidney's private cell phone number, Jarod wonders how to ask him about this. As the cell phone rings, it's picked up on the second ring and a cultured, Belgian accented voice asks. "Hello, this is Sidney."
"Sidney, this is Jarod," Jarod begins and asks. "I have a question for you, do you mind?"
"No, Jarod, please ask." Sidney replies.
"Are vampires real?" Jarod asks.
Sidney laughs. "No Jarod, vampires are not real. They are nothing more than myths and legends used to scare unruly children to bed."
"Then why does the FBI have an entire division dedicated to investigating such things?" Jarod asks.
"What do you mean by that?" Sidney asks, now curious.
"I came across some information recently and followed it to it's source, the FBI's X- Files division. They study and investigate paranormal type crimes." Jarod tells him.
"My God, I hope you're joking." Sidney replies.
"No, I hacked into their case files and the personal files of the two lead investigators. Did you know their system had better protection than NORAD? I wonder why? Broots is going to have a devil of a time trying to get in. Who ever is protecting that system almost caught me four times, before I could down load the files I was looking for. And to quote one of my new friends, the files are a real humdinger." Jarod tells him.
Sidney laughs, then asks. "Jarod, does this have anything to do with the recent rash of vampire like killings taking place in Los Angeles?"
"Yes," Jarod replies. "Heather Michaels was killed by one of those things and I'm going to make sure that whoever or whatever did it is brought to justice.
"Jarod, don't." Sidney asks. "Whatever is going on is too much for even you to handle."
"I'm not alone Sid, there are two other people hunting these things and I'm going to try and help them." Jarod tells him.
"What do you mean, Jarod?" An anxious Sidney asks.
"Last night, twelve of these 'vampires' attacked a fast food restaurant called the Burger-to-Go and tried to kill everyone inside. A man and a woman attacked them and somehow killed them all, saving everybody in the restaurant. They then left the restaurant without a word." Jarod tells him.
"Jarod, please," Sidney begs. "Leave Los Angeles immediately. You don't know what you're facing. Let the police and Federal authorities handle it. Just get out of there."
"I can't Sidney, you know that." Jarod replies as he terminates the connection.
The Centre - Blue Cove Delaware
Dr. Sidney Green closes his personal cell phone and stares up at the wall, contemplating his recent conversation with his wayward Pretender. < Jarod, hunting the vampire killers in Los Angeles? He doesn't know what he's doing. I've never prepared him to fight a myth before. > Sidney turns and picks up the phone and calls Miss Parker. "Miss Parker, this is Sidney. I have a location on Jarod. Please come here with Mr. Broots." Sidney then hangs up the phone and stares again into the wall, hoping he has made the right decision. A few minutes later, Miss Parker enters, followed by Broots, the computer specialist.
"So Sidney, where is Ratboy?" Miss Parker begins without preamble.
"In Los Angeles, hunting the vampire killers plaguing that city." Sidney replies.
"You're kidding?" < I hope. > Miss Parker asks.
"I wish I was. A friend of his, a woman named Heather Michaels," Miss Parker stiffens. "Was killed by them and he is seeking revenge for her death. He told me that he's looking to join up with a pair of vigilantes already hunting the vampires." Sidney explains.
A startled Broots asks. "You don't mean the man and woman who rescued those people at the Burger-to-Go, last night?"
A puzzled Sidney gives Broots a questioning look. "Why yes, Broots, that is exactly the pair I'm talking about. May I ask how you know about them?"
"Spill it Broots." Miss Parker tells him in a low voice.
"Well, you see, my friend Langley from D.C. sent me this digitized video early this morning. He wanted me to examine it to see if it was a fake. It's not, at least I don't think so." Broots hurriedly tells them.
"Do you have it with you?" Sidney asks.
"Yeah, I brought it with me to double check, using Centre equipment." Broots explains.
Miss Parker practically purrs. "Why Broots, using Centre equipment for personal reasons. I am surprised."
"Well, I was going to do it on my lunch hour and it wouldn't have done anything to the equipment, just used up computer time." Broots, halfheartedly explains.
"Broots, shut up and show us the tape." Miss Parker tells him.
Broots takes them to the computer lab and sits down in front of a large monitor.
"The video tape is one of those four in one shots. That means that the video screen is split into four different camera views of the restaurant. I've spliced the video into individual shots, so the resolution is much better. If you want to see the original, I can show that to you as well, but the resolution is not too good." Broots explains.
"Thank you Mr. Science. Now roll the damn tape." Miss Parker orders.
Sidney and Miss Parker watch first watch the four way view of the original tape, then they watch Broots' enhanced versions. Both are in awe by the time they finish watching the tape.
Miss Parker turns to Sidney. "Sidney, this can't be real. Those two people couldn't have done what I've just seen. And what the hell happened to the bodies of their victims?"
"I know Miss Parker, those two seem beyond human somehow. Broots, can you enhance their faces? Can we see what those two people look like?" Sidney asks.
"Sure Sidney. I blew up sections where their faces were clear. Here's what they look like." Broots tells them as he expands a pair of pictures, one of Steve St. Wolf and one of Buffy Summers into a split screen on the computer. Miss Parker and Sidney look closely at the pair of fighters who had decimated twelve people in a matter of minutes.
"The girl couldn't be over eighteen and the man looks like he's in his mid twenties. How could they become so proficient in fighting in that short a time? Could they be a project that got loose? Maybe something from the military?" Sidney comments as Sam, the sweeper, comes up behind him. Sam looks at the pair of photos in the computer monitor and screams.
All three turn to the scared sweeper. Miss Parker grabs him and smacks him in the face, telling him. "Get a hold of yourself Sam. Nothing can hurt you here."
"But, but, but the picture. That's HIM. Oh please don't make me go after him again. I can't face him." Sam stutters out.
"Face who Sam?" Sidney asks.
"HIM!" Sam points to the picture of the man from the Burger to Go.
"Do you know who he is?" Miss Parker asks, worried. She had never seen Sam react like this before. He had always been the quiet professional. A brick wall, always calm, never flustered.
"Yes, his name is Carson Jamieson. He's a private detective from Dallas, Texas. He's also responsible for the deaths of at least twenty six sweepers, three cleaners and three of Mr. Raines' 'Specialists', almost half the entire field security force the Centre had in 1982." Sam tells the stunned trio.
"Sam, are you sure it's him? The man in this picture couldn't be more than twenty four, maybe twenty six years old. I find it hard to believe that this is the same man." Sidney replies.
"Pull up his file then. The Centre obtained a copy of his military file." Sam tells him.
Broots immediately accesses the file, and as it scrolls across his monitor, he begins to read it. He orders the file printed for Sidney and Miss Parker, but as he reads more and more of it, Broots begins to have a bad feeling in his stomach. His stomach really sinks, when he reads the bottom of the file: 'Killed in August 1983, Dearborn, Michigan by Centre asset Trevor Howard.'
"Sidney," Broots calls out.
"Broots, what is it? You look like you've seen a ghost." Sidney comments on Broots' pale complexion.
"I might have. According to our files, Carson Jamieson has been dead for fifteen years." Broots tells the stunned group of people.
Cancer Man is relaxing at his desk, slowly smoking a cigarette. He's planning on a quiet weekend. < Maybe do a little writing this weekend. > He thinks to himself. His two major problems, Mulder and Scully were gone for the week, on a case that he and his superiors had absolutely no interest in. Suddenly his phone rings. His stomach sinks. < Not this soon, they haven't been in LA longer than two hours. > He reaches for it and picks it up, asking. "What is it?"
"Sir, this is Tanaka," Tanaka begins. "I retrieved Mulder and Scully from the airport as per your orders. But a situation has come up." Tanaka hesitates.
"What is the situation, Tanaka?" Cancer Man asks. < Damn. >
"Sir, they were seen talking with known operatives of the Stony Man Group. Specifically, their domestic anti-terrorist unit, code named Able Team." Tanaka tells him.
Cancer Man's stomach does a flip flop and he reaches for the Maalox. He then asks Tanaka. "Anything else?"
"Sir, there's one other item you should know about. Because of the hotel room shortage, they're staying with a friend in Sunnydale, a man called Steven St. Wolf." Tanaka gives him the address. "Also, they were in Sunnydale five months ago on another case."
Cancer Man writes all this down and then tells Tanaka. "Tanaka, good job, keep me posted of any sudden changes and keep away from those two." And then he hangs up the phone.
Cancer Man reaches for his 'in' box and reviews the surveillance file from the airport. He suddenly slams it down. The photos taken show Mulder and Scully amicably talking to Bolan himself. < Damn, what the hell are those two trying to do to me? Give me a heart attack? > Then, he grins ruefully. < Knowing them, they probably would do it just to see if I'd keel over. > He reaches for his buzzer and calls in his research specialist. The specialist immediately comes in and Cancer Man tells him. "I want you to pull everything on the Stony Man Group's domestic anti-terrorist unit, code named Able Team, that you have. Also, I want you to find out everything that you can about a man called Steven St. Wolf, who resides in the town of Sunnydale, California. Also Mulder and Scully were in Sunnydale five months ago, I want a copy of their reports and I want everything yesterday." The specialist nods his head and leaves to do his duty.
Cancer Man then reaches for the phone and dials a Los Angeles number. No one answers when they pick up. He speaks into the silence. "I want the house located at 317 Brandt Terrace in Sunnydale, put under immediate observation. And I mean immediate as of twenty minutes ago." Then he hangs up the phone.
Two hours later, the research specialist re-enters Cancer Man's office. As his employer waits, he produces seven thick folders, a thin folder and several note sheets. Cancer Man sighs deeply and waves him into a chair for what he knows is going to be bad news. How bad, he doesn't know yet, but knowing Mulder and Scully, it could be anything.
The specialist begins. "Sir, these first four folders are respectively, the team file on Stony Man's domestic anti-terrorist unit, code named Able Team and the personnel files on it's operatives, Carl Lyons, Herman Schwartz and Rosario Blancanales. These other two files are on the man called Steven St. Wolf a.k.a. 'Wanderer' and another man named Carson Jamieson a.k.a. 'Cherokee'." Cancer Man looks up in question. The specialist continues. "The man known as Steven St. Wolf has no records dating back past 1983. I ran his driver's license photo against every one in the files matching his description. The man called Carson Jamieson was a 97% match, but he died in 1983. The seventh folder is for a Frank Scully a.k.a. Frank Iverson, a known associate of Steven St. Wolf's. The last folder is a copy of Mulder's and Scully's field reports from five months ago."
"Can you give me a rundown on their last case in Sunnydale, first?" Cancer Man asks.
"Yes sir. They were investigating the theft of a Strella Anti-Tank rocket from one of the local military depots. The report concludes that the rocket theft report was erroneous. The rocket was actually used in a practice simulation. The report is wrong." The specialist replies.
"You mean Mulder and Scully were actually wrong for once?" Cancer Man asks.
"No Sir, they fabricated the evidence to show what they wanted to show." The specialist replies.
"The report was fabricated?" Cancer Man asks, surprised.
"Yes sir, Mulder and Scully convinced the CID investigators that the rocket was used during a simulation and the launcher had been misplaced. They even presented them with the launcher, sans rocket. Since the Army didn't want any bad press and they had the launcher, they went along with it." The specialist explains. "Also, there is a letter from the principal of Sunnydale High School. He complains about the damage caused to his gym, but thanks the Bureau for repairing it so quickly. He also complains about the attitude shown by Special Agents Mulder and Scully, especially Scully."
Cancer Man grins. "My oh my, Mulder and Scully fabricating reports and covering something up. This is a new side to them, especially Scully. Most interesting. < Maybe there's hope for those two. > Now tell me about St. Wolf and Jamieson. Specifically, how did Jamieson die or supposedly died?"
The specialist looks back over his notes and replies. "He was killed by a man named Trevor Howard in Dearborn Michigan. The report goes on to say that Howard was going to shoot up a group of elementary school children and Carson rammed him with his motorcycle before he could do it, killing him. Before he rammed Howard, Howard shot him twenty times for his trouble. Jamieson died on the way to the hospital, but his body mysteriously disappeared shortly thereafter. The local police have no other information on that case. The State of Texas had requested the body to be sent back to them."
"Why would Texas want his body?" Cancer Man asks.
"Because Jamieson was wanted in Texas for six counts of murder. The men he killed were responsible for the rape/murder of his young wife, Katherine Sinclair Jamieson. They walked because someone in the evidence room tampered with the evidence before the trial and the judge was forced to release them. After that, Jamieson hunted them down and killed them. A Texas Ranger named Walker was put in charge of the case, but he never seriously pursued it. Which is strange in itself."
"Why?" Cancer Man asks.
"Because this man Walker has been known to violate the Mexican border in hunting down his fugitives. Walker even makes the Mounties look bad in that respect."
"What is Jamieson's background?" Cancer Man asks.
"U.S. Army, 1975 to 1982. Psychological tests read him as extremely stable, with an IQ of 150. Military Specialty, Special Forces Pathfinder/Sniper. Service in Lebanon, Panama and multiple classified operations. Commendations, US Army - two silver stars, three bronze, two purple hearts, nominated for the Medal of Honor, declined because operation was classified. Commendations, Other, Victoria Cross for bravery above and beyond the call of duty in saving the lives of his fellow SAS troopers during an ambush in Northern Ireland. Specialized training includes Jungle Warfare School, U.S. Army Sniper School, Airborne Infantry School, Special Air Service exchange program, GSG9 exchange program, French Foreign Legion Desert Training and Finnish Special Forces Arctic Warfare Training. Non-Standard Training includes, black belts in Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Zen Sword, Philippine stick fighting, archery, fencing and tracking, other skills are languages, specifically Spanish, German and French."
"My God, this man was a walking weapon. Why didn't we attempt to recruit him?" Cancer Man asks.
"We did. He refused the position. Interviewer's note states, 'Jamieson promised his wife Katherine to leave that world behind'. No other attempts were made to contact him."
"Did we have anything to do with her death?" Cancer Man asks.
"No sir, completely random occurrence. Ranger Walker was able to link those same six men to a dozen rape/murders in the States of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. I guess that's why Jamieson was made a low priority."
"One other note, sir." Cancer Man nods, the specialist continues. "There was a complaint about Jamieson from the Centre in Blue Cove. They requested help to remove him and you refused." The specialist comments.
"I did? Would you care to remind me of the specifics?" Cancer Man asks.
"Yes Sir. After he left the Army and married his wife, Katherine, Mr. Jamieson became a private investigator specializing in lost or stolen children. On at least one occasion he was responsible for recovering a subject that the Centre attempted to obtain. Mr. Parker and Mr. Raines felt that he was a threat to them and their work. They requested some help in removing him. You told them to go screw themselves and you had us warn him on the Q.T." The specialist replies with a grin.
Cancer Man shares that grin, remembering the faces of those two stuck up fools, Parker and Raines. Especially when they came back the second time complaining about the loss of two dozen 'sweepers', three of their 'cleaners' and three of their best assassins.
"Pity he's dead. Now tell me about Steven St. Wolf" Cancer Man asks.
"In six words, Sir?" Cancer Man nods. The specialist continues. "Modern day Indiana Jones style adventurer."
"You have got to be kidding." Cancer Man replies in a disbelieving voice.
"No, sir. Steven St. Wolf is a dealer in antiquities and rare artifacts. He's also well known as a treasure hunter and explorer. Also, he has at present, no less than four death sentences hanging on his head." Cancer Man raises his eyebrows at this. "Two are from Libya, the other two are from the countries of Iran and Iraq, respectively. Remember that raid that Kaddafi blamed on a US Marine Division, about seven years ago?" Cancer Man nods. "That was him and eight operatives rescuing a group of kidnapped American students from an international group of white slavers. They also crippled most of the Libyan's Air Forces as a bonus. He raided Libya a second time, two years later, to rescue a friend of his, a British flyer, a Sebastian Sinclair, who was shot down and Captured over the Gulf of Sidra. In Iraq, eight years ago, he rescued two downed U.S. Air Force pilots and a fellow antiques dealer, a Connor McLeod. He and McLeod were also responsible for taking out their main chemical storage depots. In Iran, ten years ago, he retrieved some stolen children and returned them to their parents. While he was there, he also rescued three CIA operatives and got them out, as well."
"Shit, what else is there?" Cancer Man asks as he watches the researcher's face.
"The CIA agents' control officer was Jack Ryan. And according to the files Ryan has used St. Wolf several more times over the last eight years." The specialist replies.
Cancer Man shakes his head and sighs. < Can it get any worse? > "Anything else I should know about?"
The specialist looks at his notes and replies. "There is the matter of the Order of Teraka."
"The assassin's order? What do those amateurs have to do with him?" Cancer Man asks.
"In India about five years ago, he protected an old man named Akbar from the Order. In the process he killed twenty of their members. Now they refuse every contract that has something to do with him." The specialist replies with a grin.
"Good for him. Those idiots have caused us all sorts of problems over the years. They deserve what they got."
"Bottom line, sir, this individual is one of the most dangerous men in the world. Taking him down would require a massive expenditure of resources and possibly incur the wrath of some very powerful people." The specialist comments.
"Can you tell me what his connection to Mulder and Scully are?" Cancer Man asks.
"There are three connections, sir. St. Wolf and Mulder worked on two cases together, before Mulder re-opened the X-Files. And the third is his associate, Mr. Frank Scully a.k.a. Iverson. Mr. Scully is Dana Scully's cousin."
"Why does he use the name Iverson?"
"He was disowned by William Scully Sr. He supposedly murdered a member of his SEAL team and escaped from the brig. William Sr. then disowned him and broke all ties with him. The name he's using now is his grandmother's maiden name. The Iverson family helped him while the Navy was actively hunting him and got him out of the country and set up his new identity."
"What were the cases that St. Wolf and Mulder both worked on." Cancer Man asks.
"Both were serial killers who specialized in children, Sir. Respectively John Dupree a.k.a. the Louisiana Butcher and Sebastian King a.k.a. the Gourmet. When both of these men escaped from our jurisdiction, and when the Bureau refused Mulder's request to hunt them down, St. Wolf went after them. He brought back Dupree alive, but he had to kill King to save a small child who would have been his 26th victim."
Cancer Man sits back in his chair and takes a deep breath. Then he turns to his specialist. "Is that all on St. Wolf?" The specialist nods. "Now tell me about Able Team and the men in it."
"Sir, Able Team is the Stony Man Group's domestic anti-terrorist team. It's made up of three individuals, Carl Lyons, the leader, Herman Schwartz, technical specialist and Rosario Blancanales, linguistics and heavy weapons. Their code names are respectively, Ironman, Gadgets and Politician."
"Lyons is a former LA police Sergeant, and Schwartz and Blancanales have served with Bolan in Vietnam and during his Executioner period. They have racked up an impressive record of kills over the last ten years and they have never been known to back down from anything. Their psych profiles state that all three are highly intelligent, have high moral and ethical codes and are extremely loyal to Bolan, the United States and each other." The specialist finishes.
"Thank you, you can go now." Cancer Man tells the specialist.
"Sir, may I add something?" Cancer Man nods. "Sir, St. Wolf has some major holes in his files. We don't know who all of his backers are, or if he has any friends inside the organization. This man is an enigma. Please be careful." The specialist then gets up and goes.
Cancer Man turns to his window and watches the people move in and out of the Capitol, going about their business. < You're right old friend, I'll be careful for both our sakes. Mulder, what the hell did you get me into this time? > He then reaches for the phone and dials a number in Los Angeles. "Is our operative in place?" Cancer Man asks.
"Yes." Comes the one word reply from the other side of the country.
"Good. Keep me posted of any changes." Cancer Man hangs up the phone, wondering where this was all going.
The Centre
Miss Parker, Sidney and Broots have Sam, the sweeper, sitting in Sidney's office, answering questions about the man called Carson Jamieson. They had gone over the man's military and civilian records with a fine tooth comb, and were in awe of the man. Miss Parker turns to Sidney and asks. "Sidney, could this man be a natural pretender?"
"Possibly, but I doubt it. He might become one, with the proper training. But, I would classify him more as a McGyver type." Sidney replies. Broots snickers as Miss Parker glares at him.
"We have got to disconnect your Cable, Sid." Miss Parker comments, then she turns to Sam. "All right Sam, start at the beginning." Miss Parker tells him.
"Yes Miss Parker," Sam begins. "It was one my first projects for the Centre. In September 1982, Mr. Raines ordered us to abduct a child named Johnny Fredericks. Mr. Raines felt that Johnny had a lot of promise for one of his projects. The kidnapping went well and we were going to bring the child to the Centre in a couple of days time, after the heat had died down. It all went to hell when the parents hired Jamieson. He was a private detective working out of Dallas, specializing in lost or stolen children. That bastard started to hound us almost immediately."
"I still can't figure out how he found the safe house in Houston, but he did. The cleaner ordered me and another sweeper to get the kid to our secondary position, while he and the rest of the team took care of Jamieson. When we got to the next safe house, we checked back in with the office and we were informed that the cleaner and seven sweepers were in the morgue courtesy of Jamieson. Mr. Raines ordered in two additional cleaners and their teams to help at the private airport. Charlie and I were able to get the kid to the airport, but Jamieson and something were right behind us."
"What do you mean 'Jamieson and something'?" Sidney asks.
"I don't know what it was, but it was dangerous." Sam tells them. "We were at this rural air strip outside of Texarkana, when they attacked. The two cleaners had their men in place, but it didn't do them any good. Jamieson attacked from the front with a pair of 45s. It seemed that every time he'd shoot one of those guns, one of us were killed. Then, something attacked us from the rear. I don't know what it was. I only saw glowing red eyes and heard a low growl. Then, the screams came. The rest of the cleaners and sweepers were trying to fight off Jamieson and that 'thing' and they became hamburger."
"Those two didn't hesitate a second, every one with a gun was dead or dying. In a couple of minutes, everyone but me and Johnny were dead. I wasn't attacked, probably because I was holding Johnny at the time." Sam takes a deep gulp as he continues. "As the smoke was clearing, Jamieson walked up to me with something by his side. It was standing in the shadows, softly growling, so I couldn't see anything but the two glowing red eyes floating about five and a half feet above the ground."
"Jamieson offered me a choice, give up Johnny and live or die. No other alternatives. I gave him Johnny and he gave me a message for the Triumvirate. He said, 'Steal another child and I find out about it, I'll hunt you all down and kill you.' When the Centre plane came in with another sweeper team, I reported in. Mr. Raines and your father decided to leave the child alone after that."
"I find it hard to believe that my father and the burned out husk could just pick up and leave Jamieson alone. Especially after he killed all of those Centre operatives." Miss Parker states.
"They didn't," Sam tells her. "They sent three assassins after him. He killed everyone of them without a problem. The last assassin's head was sent to Mr. Raines in the mail with the note 'I know who you are.' After that, they left him alone."
Miss Parker just smiles. < I wish that I could have seen that corpse's face when he opened that box. >
"Did they ever find out what helped him at the airport?" Sidney asks.
"No, but some of the specialists wondered why the torn up bodies had teeth and claw marks on them and wolf hairs and the surrounding area had large wolf prints." Sam tells him.
The trio look at each other and shudder.
"Miss Parker, may I have the rest of the day off, please?" Sam asks.
"Why?" Miss Parker replies.
"Because, I want to get blind staggering drunk, Ma'am." Sam replies straight forward, Miss Parker nods and he hurriedly leaves the office and building.
"Sidney, what the hell has Ratboy gotten himself into?" Miss Parker asks.
"I wish I knew." Sidney mutters, then turns to Broots and asks. "Broots can you access the FBI?"
"Sure Sidney, no problem. What do you want?" Broots asks.
"I want access to something called the X-Files." Sidney tells him.
Broots immediately turns a paler shade and nervously asks, "Sidney, why do you want to access those files?"
Both Sidney and Miss Parker look at Broots and wonder what this man really knows.
"Because Jarod mentioned going into them, and he said that they contained some strange cases." Sidney tells Broots.
"Strange isn't the word for it." Broots mutters. "I hope for Jarod's sake he doesn't get involved with those two."
"Out with it Broots. What two?" Miss Parker orders.
Broots nods his head as he begins. "Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. They run the X-Files."
"And how would you know about these X-Files?" Miss Parker asks.
"My friend Langley and his two partners, Byers and Frohike, run a government conspiracy magazine called the Lone Gunmen. Langley told me about the X-Files a couple of years ago, when he asked me to help analyze a piece of a UFO." Broots explains.
The sound of a pin dropping could be heard as Sidney and Miss Parker stare at Broots' revelation.
"You must be joking." Miss Parker states, then see looks into Broots' eyes and sees the fear in them. Then she whispers. "Please tell me you're joking."
"I wish I was." A shaken Broots replies. "Mulder and Scully brought in a piece of what we termed organic metal, to be examined. And from the way those two were talking, this wasn't the first such case they had worked on."
"Organic metal? Broots such a thing is impossible. Humanity couldn't possibly have the capability to create such a thing." Sidney tells him.
"Who ever said the piece came from Earth, Sidney? According to Mulder, it was a part of a UFO that crash landed in Minnesota, about two and a half years ago. Mulder and Scully had found the ship and the alien remains. Before they could get it properly excavated, the military took the site over and everything, but that piece of metal, disappeared." Broots tells them.
"And these two people are involved with Jarod, how?" Miss Parker asks.
"They've been put in charge of the vampire serial killings in Los Angeles." Broots replies. "Langley told me this morning, as he downloaded the video."
"Damn it Sidney, we have to get him out of there!" Miss Parker exclaims.
"I agree with you." Sidney replies, then turns to Broots. "Can you get a location on Agents Mulder and Scully in Los Angeles?"
"Sure, Sidney. Federal agents have to register their location with the local office and I should be able to get a location. Give me a couple of minutes."
A few minutes later, Broots returns. "I've located Agents Mulder and Scully. They're staying with a friend in a Los Angeles suburb called Sunnydale. The address is 317 Brandt Terrace."
Miss Parker grabs the address and tells her two associates. "Good, let's go. The jet is waiting for us at the airport."
"Are we taking any sweepers with us?" Broots asks.
"No." Miss Parker replies.
"Yes you are." A deeply cultured voices tells them.
Miss Parker turns around with a look of venom in her eyes. Who would dare to countermand her order? As she finishes her turn she sees the face of her father. "Daddy, what is it?" She asks sweetly.
"I'm sorry pumpkin, but I can't let you, Sidney and Broots go to Los Angeles without protection. The situation there has been dangerous. So I'm sending Gar and Willy with two sweeper teams as backup. And I'm not taking no for an answer." Mr. Parker tells his daughter as he and Mr. Raines walk away. Gar and Willy and their sweepers stand in the hallway waiting.
Mulder and Scully reach Sunnydale at about 2:30. They pull up to Steve's house and park the car in the driveway. Mulder grabs their bags from the trunk.
As they approach the side door, they feel the familiar 'Buzz' of another Immortal. The side door opens, showing a smiling Buffy Summers.
"Dana." She cries out and gives her a hug. Mulder standing behind her watches the scene as the two women hug each other. Dana and Buffy had formed a close friendship over the last five months.
"All right you two, break it up. Before I get jealous." A smiling Mulder comments.
"Oh, shut up Mulder." Buffy tells him as she gives him a hug as well. Then she escorts the two into the house.
The group sitting around the living room is familiar to both agents. Steve St. Wolf gets up to greet both agents.
"Hello Mulder, Dana. How was the trip?" He asks.
Mulder smiles as he replies. "Uneventful. But I'm glad you got everyone together." Mulder grins an evil grin as he lays out the situation in LA. Then he brings up the little matter of the video tape Frohike has and his plan.
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