Chapter 9
Grinding levels is fine when you're in the Netherworld and need to be stronger than the MCs. We were already many times more powerful than the opposition. Well, I guess we could go kick the Senior Partners' asses in the future, but that was for later. Much later. For now we had a minor conundrum to deal with. Flonne and Pleinair were students at Sunnydale High. Evoria was a phys ed teacher and the club advisor for the cheerleading squad. She didn't pick it, but then again she didn't pick anything beyond being 'adult.' I was a Drop-In. My Travel Agent had the brilliant idea to set my background as a dimensional wanderer. Accurate and it neatly explained my lack of identification. The biggest issue was the matter of the family names. Flonne, Pleinair and Evoria were all listed as Dragon. Yes, that's my last name. No, we weren't randomly married to one another. As far as I could tell we had no relation but somehow we had the same name.
My Muse did stuff like this to me all the time. She could be weirdly specific about unimportant details and sparse with critical stuff.
"Ahhhhhh!" Flonne's scream echoed throughout the building. By the time we arrived, she was staring at the computer with tears in her eyes. She couldn't seem to look away from whatever was on the screen.
"What's wrong? What's on fire? If it isn't on fire, does it need to be?" I asked in a rush.
"She found the Abyss Auction, Terry," Evoria winced.
Pleinair stared at me as if to say "Fix this."
"Let me guess. You found the slave auction?" I asked quietly. I gathered the trembling girl to my chest comfortingly.
"How could anyone do this?" Flonne gazed at me in confusion. The sheer pain in her eyes made me want to break something. To absolutely and totally erase whatever hurt her.
This was a problem we could solve with extreme prejudice.
"Okay ladies. I still want to stick to the Scoobies, but we have a more important goal. We're going to wage war on the Abyss Auction. No second chances. No deals. They're going to stop enslaving people or risk total annihilation," I said with grim finality. The Ham stayed in the fridge. My anger was very cold indeed.
"Well we've got enough to buy out their current stock of slaves. I guess we can train 'em up before letting them go. Ooh! We could put 'em on a payment plan! Just a portion of whatever they earn, but they could pay us back for releasing them!" Evoria warmed up to the idea swiftly.
So that was how we ended up starting our own underground railroad. The Abyss Auction soon ran out of slaves. It pushed my plans back another couple days, but Flonne and Pleinair could work on the Scoobies. They did go to school together after all. This was much more important. You see, the reason I like the Scooby Gamers Gamer power was simple. There was no limit to the number of people you could have in your party. It was disheartening. The Abyss Auction employed so many hunting teams it sickened me. I was under no illusions that this would remain secret for long. Especially if I kept buying up their entire stock. We needed to buy up a much larger property to house our new guests. In fact there was a perfectly nice warehouse just next door. Rosenqueen's offered us a special service. Therapists, both physical and mental, for everyone. The Orb of Iron Will would help as well. Hopefully training them would help ease their troubles faster. One of the people freed was Winnifred Burkle just like in the canon fic. She wanted just enough training to keep the Abyss Auction from grabbing her again. I made enough Skill Books for everyone. Poor Fred was about to learn that 'enough training' held a different meaning to us.
I led our temporary troops on a mission through a can of soda. Their gear was as good as I could make it without Item Worlding each individual piece. If I wanted to protect them from the usual Sunnydale night life it wouldn't be too hard. The problem was that the Abyss Auction employed highly skilled and powerful collection agents. Most likely they also had some talented magical assistance. Well, my definition of talented was probably different than theirs. My definition of a lot of things was seriously skewed by the Netherworld.
It didn't even take a full week before another crisis developed.
"We need to talk to those idiots. Today!" Evoria snarled. Uh oh. I didn't need to ask what idiots.
"What happened?" I suddenly found my arms full of trembling girls. Flonne looked so downtrodden it cut me like a knife. Pleinair's antennae were almost flat.
"They got a look at our titles and started asking questions. Then demanded we come back to the library and explain ourselves to the whole class," Evoria said dryly.
"Uhhh…Weren't they afraid of getting atomized or something?" Confronting three unknowns with titles like "The Beautiful Assassin of the Netherworld, "Most Chuuni Angel Under the Heavens" and "History's Mightiest Demon Mascot" was just stupid!
"Th-they said it was because I'm an Angel. That it's my duty to protect humanity and not play around with Demons," Flonne said miserably. Pleinair just buried her face in my chest with a dejected sigh.
"Who made the demand?" 'So I know who to kill first' was left unspoken. Evoria ran her fingers through her hair.
"I don't know. Flonne and Pleinair came barreling into the gym like this…" She gestured at the shivering and weepy girls. "Then Xander showed up to inform me that we had to meet them in the library. No one explained why I shouldn't just kill them to shut 'em up. Well, Flonne would give me those eyes…but they didn't know that!"
"What happened, hun?" I stroked Flonne's hair soothingly.
"Well, uh, Dawn was talking to me and getting really close…In that way Evoria does with you…E-Even before you were together…" Flonne pressed her fingers together nervously.
[Personal space!] Pleinair almost stuck the sign up my nose by accident. She looked indignant. Yeah, I was right there with her.
"I'm not in Xander, Willow and Buffy's grade so I don't run into them often. They were coming around the corner when Willow saw my title. Then Pleinair came by and they really freaked out," Flonne explained.
"Willow blabbed," I deadpanned.
"Dawn said we were too cute to be evil and started touching me…" Flonne squirmed uncomfortably. Pleinair's eyes took on a truly hellish caste complete with the fires of damnation. Evoria was looking pretty pissed off too.
"Where did she touch you?" I didn't think any of the Scoobies, even Dawn, jumped straight to molesting this early in the timeline.
"My h-hair…and my shoulder…She was acting really creepy!" Flonne pouted. I refrained from facepalming. My mind went to dirty places, but thankfully it wasn't that. Murdering Dawn would have soured things beyond any hope of recovery.
Did I even care about them anymore? Crap. I wanted that stuff from Worm. If I could get them to acknowledge their fuck up then fine. If not? Well, I don't need Power Canisters at the cost of Flonne's happiness. Evoria pulled Flonne into a hug. She looked especially pissed off.
"Nobody harasses the Angel," she said firmly.
"Okay, so they wanted you to come back to the library? That was the demand?" I asked.
"There was a contract and stuff…They said it was because they didn't feel safe. S-So it was supposed to make them feel safer. I was supposed to keep Evoria and Pleinair from hurting them," Flonne explained.
Pleinair's hair antennae started to rise in an unseen wind. I patted her head until she calmed down again. Oooh. There was a lot of heat coming off the top of her head.
"Did you read the contract?" Evoria asked carefully.
"No?" Flonne tilted her head cutely.
"Fuck," Me, Evoria and Pleinair (through her signs) said.
I like going into a situation holding all the cards. It makes it easier to negotiate from a place of strength. Getting Flonne to sign a magical contract was a lucky break for them. The only thing keeping me from doing something drastic to defend her honor was that contract. I have no idea what the penalty clause was. Was it a loss of power? Enslavement? Death? Did they even set a penalty? I left Pleinair behind to watch over our guests. Evoria could at least pretend to be calm. Pleinair's shadow was acting out some very violent fantasies. If she found an opening she'd go for the throat. No, better to handle this with care.
Flonne entered the library ahead of us. I needed those extra few seconds to finish packing my anger away. Going in with a ten foot high battle aura was not the way to solve this. Evoria glanced at me before striding in just after her. There was dead silence on the other side of the doors.
"Here comes the shit show…" I muttered before entering.
The Sunnydale High Library looked like no other public school library. There were multiple levels, wide spacious floors and a book cage. All the amenities of a public library. The occupants were noteworthy for another reason. None of their levels exceeded thirty. Buffy, Xander, Willow, Dawn and Cordelia looked just like their real life actors just younger. Giles, Jenny Calendar and Joyce were there as well. There was a feeling of apprehension in the air. The teens looked especially upset while the adults appeared aggravated. Flonne wrung her hands nervously as the silence stretched on. Evoria leaned against the counter with her arms crossed. Her glare could have slain a basilisk. The tension ratcheted up significantly when I walked in the room. The teen Gamers blanched despite Gamer's Mind. Buffy stiffened with fright. The magic users reacted just a hair better than her. My friends and I usually made an effort to conceal our power levels. I was in no mood to be nice.
"Where is the contract you forced my friend to sign?" I asked mildly. The friendly smile on my face at odds with the devilish glow to my eyes.
"Wait a minute. You forced someone to sign a magically binding contract?" Giles demanded. His fear of me was overridden by his outrage. Good man. Now we had to keep it that way.
"She's an Angel in league with Demons. I just thought we could nip a problem in the bud! Have her keep her friends in line and stuff," Willow said.
"Why did you need to keep us in line?" Evoria demanded acidly.
"Well Dawn said that Pleinair was threatening her over talking to Flonne," Willow answered readily. Even Buffy was eyeing the youngest Summers girl dubiously.
"But…but…but…I was just confused! Dawn was talking to me in that sort-of flirty way Evoria talks to Terry sometimes…" Flonne protested. "It didn't feel right…" She poked her fingers together. Dawn grimaced with chagrin.
"How could you? I know I didn't raise you to act like that!" Joyce scolded her child. Ooh that was an impressive shade of angry red. I think Dawn was about to be grounded.
"She didn't say no!" Dawn complained. "How was I supposed to know she didn't like it?" Before another round of Dawn-blaming went on I decided to step in.
"She is right," the record scratch was priceless. Just when Dawn looked like salvation was at hand, I brought down the boom. "Except, you know, for the part where she tricked her friends into forcing an innocent girl to sign a magical contract."
"Uh oh," Evoria muttered. She half pulled Flonne to the side of the library and out of the blast range.
"Give me that contract right now or I swear you will experience wrath. You will learn to fear me. I will teach you terror as only an Overlord can! Do you truly wish to invite the fury of Deathscythe Tyrant Terra!?" I summoned my scythe, but there was nothing playful in the gesture. I let my aura bank higher while making sure not to focus on any one person in particular.
"Give her the contract!" Jenny pleaded.
"But it keeps us safe! They can't attack us without breaking the contract! As long as we have it…!" Dawn was quick to say, but stopped instantly. Her mother's and sister's disappointed stares finally did what no words could. They made her feel ashamed.
"Excuse me, but, uh…If the contract does protect us…doesn't that mean she can't do anything?" Xander suggested.
"Exactly! It sucks, but we're safer this way," Cordelia didn't see the problem. She shouldn't look in Evoria's direction. Right at that moment my girlfriend wanted to teach the girl a lesson. That there is a lot you can survive.
"No, this has gone on long enough. A-An entity such as herself could visit torments upon you. That is if she doesn't get creative. One does not get to her position by chance," Giles cautioned.
"Don't hurt them, please. Can't we just go back to our original plan? You know, help them grow and all that?" Flonne pleaded. Dawn very nearly combusted under the heated stares leveled by her friends and family.
"Wait. You wanted to help us?" Buffy asked in disbelief.
"Uh boy…" Xander complained in a terrible Sam Beckett voice. The facepalm was entirely warranted.
"You are incredibly lucky that I love Flonne so much. Otherwise I wouldn't be so nice…" I held up the contract. Evoria gave an evil smirk that fully revealed her fangs. "Thank you, dear. I had no doubt that you could get this for me."
"That was in my Inventory…" Xander's eyes widened.
"Greatest thief in all of the Netherworlds. You're lucky that all I wanted was this contract," I told him. I looked the contract over. The penalty clause would have cost Flonne her wings.
"He can't break it. Only we can," Willow assured them. The tearing of paper made them all freeze with terror.
"Oh you absolute idiots…You dare set conditions on a Celestial? You actually thought this pathetic mortal contract could steal an Angel's grace?" I couldn't help laughing hysterically at their absolute failure.
"W-well it didn't seem right to point that out…They were just so earnest…" Flonne said innocently. Damning them even further.
"Oh man…Boss? You have to take them under your wing. The other Demons will laugh at us for having these idiots in our territory," Evoria folded her arms.
"We really need to bring them up to a more acceptable level," I acknowledged. "This sort of thing is just embarrassing!"
"What's going on?" Xander whispered to Giles.
"You are now under the protection/oversight of a greater named Demon. Quite possibly one as powerful as the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart," Giles replied with lips pale from fear.
"Hushpuppy, Lambchop and Charlie Horse? Pffft. Those poseurs wish they were on her level," Evoria waved dismissively. "Read this contract boys and girls. Read it carefully. If you don't want to sign then we're gone. You don't get access to our stuff, no training and definitely no protection. Basically you're refusing our protection. Follow us and we'll keep most extradimensional entities from messing with you. Unless you do something stupid like deliberately antagonize them…"
Evoria went over the contracts in detail. Honestly, we were being incredibly lenient all things considered. Flonne wouldn't have been happy if we altered the agreement at this point. She didn't mind us making them think we did because of their behavior. A proper Angel wants to see Humanity succeed after all. The deal on our end was access to the Item World and some help with training. In exchange they had to follow our instructions to the letter, unless it would violate their morals. We wouldn't ask them to fight our battles for us, but they could ask for our assistance in theirs. The price was 70% of the Loot and first choice of any Rare or Higher rewards. If they didn't do as we wanted then we would let them out of the contract. With a penalty of course. The penalty to be decided depending on how egregiously they violated the contract.
"Hey! The Quest System is offering a job from the Abyss Auction…For the death of SexyDemonGoddess138…?" Willow trailed off in confusion.
"Whatever you give me I give it back twice as hard," Evoria smirked.
Their stares of sheer disbelief set off another round of laughs. Flonne looked at us before shrugging. She threw her head back and joined in on the manic laughter.
Some things are best when shared.
AN: I had to do it this way for one reason. This was to drag Dawn's issues out into the open and force them to confront them. Without anything else obscuring the problem. Now she'll get the proper help and support she needs.
