Successor (BTVS)
- Thread starter DeAnno
- Start date
- Mature
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- usa
[X] Harmony can hopefully be trusted not to kill anyone, and Buffy shouldn't go to fight a probable dragon in hostile territory without support. Buffy and Harmony infiltrate the police station together.
[X] Harmony can hopefully be trusted not to kill anyone, and Buffy shouldn't go to fight a probable dragon in hostile territory without support. Buffy and Harmony infiltrate the police station together.
- Location
- Tarn-Vedra
[X] Harmony can hopefully be trusted not to kill anyone, and Buffy shouldn't go to fight a probable dragon in hostile territory without support. Buffy and Harmony infiltrate the police station together.
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
Yeah, in some ways she's the polar opposite of Angelus. Honestly I'm not entirely sure re-ensouling Harmony would make a difference, she wasn't any nicer as a human than as a vampire - she just didn't hunger for blood.
GhostKing 666
Bringing Nightmares to life evey minute
Giles Giles Giles, you contradicted yourself there. You admitted that there is a wide gap between gun not killing a vampire and guns not hurting a vampire, but then you started saying that guns aren't reliable or optimal. A weapon that leaves a vampire helpless to stopping a staking is by definition a good weapon, certainly a better weapon then a crossbow considering that vampires have been known to catch crossbow bolts.
And that's not even getting into such things as high caliber guns, shotgun shells, hollow point bullets, incendiary bullets, high-explosive incendiary bullets or dragon's breath rounds.
[X] Harmony can hopefully be trusted not to kill anyone, and Buffy shouldn't go to fight a probable dragon in hostile territory without support. Buffy and Harmony infiltrate the police station together.
-[X] To make sure she's in top shape, Harmony is going to be fed beforehand, until she has "full tank"
-[X] If it is a dragon, fire might be a real problem; Buffy and her team quickly look if there's any asbestos or other fire retardant clothing lying around. It's not like Harmony can get cancer.
--[X] And even if there's no fire retardant clothing, a full body swimming suit is still needed, in case someone in police is actually smart and has holy water on hand.
-[X] Willow will use her hacking and magic to arrange a distraction, like a series of fake emergency calls, alerts and such.
-[X] Buffy will take Stein's gun with her (and will use gloves). It might be useful against the dragon, if its scales act as armor.
--[X] Also any explosives Scoobies have, in case she needs some to make an "it's modern day now" argument
-[X] To make sure she's in top shape, Harmony is going to be fed beforehand, until she has "full tank"
-[X] If it is a dragon, fire might be a real problem; Buffy and her team quickly look if there's any asbestos or other fire retardant clothing lying around. It's not like Harmony can get cancer.
--[X] And even if there's no fire retardant clothing, a full body swimming suit is still needed, in case someone in police is actually smart and has holy water on hand.
-[X] Willow will use her hacking and magic to arrange a distraction, like a series of fake emergency calls, alerts and such.
-[X] Buffy will take Stein's gun with her (and will use gloves). It might be useful against the dragon, if its scales act as armor.
--[X] Also any explosives Scoobies have, in case she needs some to make an "it's modern day now" argument
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
So guns. Guns are an issue with the Buffyverse. An issue that everyone has to solve in their own way.
I am going to say that this universe has a dampening effect built in which degrades the usefulness of most firearms against certain types of demons, including vampires (though not to a severe degree for them in particular.) I find this to be the a reasonable explanation for a lot of behavior we see in canon and one which preserves the tone of the setting. The boundaries and means of this effect are not well understood, but it has been documented by the Watcher's Council and Giles has told Buffy and the Scoobies about it.
Guns are probably still better than crossbows against master vampires because master vampires are really good at playing catch, but this is more an indictment against crossbows than anything. The effect tends to be stronger against more advanced weaponry, such that as you raise the stakes from crossbows to guns to rifles you get diminishing returns. Certain demons are extremely insulated, and certain ones (like the Judge), don't have any protection at all. The effect is also lot stronger with conventional weaponry; using things like tranquilizers, bear spray, and electric shocks work a lot better than bullets do.
The origins of this effect may or may not be due to Marcy-like metaphysics applied on a cosmological scale, or bridging laws between dimensions with different physics which these various demons are native to.
I am aware this is a bit of a ... departure from canonical explanations, but there are a number of inconsistencies in canon which I think demand some form of resolution:
- The Initiative never uses conventional arms, even as backup weapons, despite automatic rifles seeming a much better option than electric shocks for incapacitating or killing most demons.
- While guns are used on a number of singular occasions (Darla in S1, to take a non-terrible example), they're most often used against Buffy and not against demons, even in demon-on-demon conflict. Note that Angel was injured in that fight, but despite this Darla did lose and die. The Scooby gang never really seems to try to go for guns, even in desperate situations.
- Gunn's gang on Angel
never used gunsdidn't use guns except for that one episode in S3 when they killed a lot of weak demons with automatics, despite employing other advanced equipment like truck-mounted ballistas, and being a gang in the midst of LA, where handguns would be the norm. - Even in S7, when a lot of reasons not to use guns such as townsfolk and police were gone, and the Turok-Han were slow but strong, seemingly great gun targets, guns were not used.
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The Scoobies tried to get in contact with Willow, but couldn't reach her in time, which is why she wasn't apparent at the meeting.
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Well, in the masquerade war, guns not being used makes sense for a number of reasons:
1) Cost of ammunition. Each shot from a gun costs money (for the bullet). Crossbow bolts, arrows, throwing knives etc all can be either reused, or manufactured with hand tools at negligible costs without need for advanced machining or chemical equipment
2) For bows and thrown weapons, slayers might actually be getting more out of them due to their supernatural strength than they would from guns (need to calc that). Speaking of, Buffy needs to get an addvanced modern bow that is adapted to supernatural strength of hers.
3) Visibility - guns are a lot more loud, a lot more traceable than low tech weapons.
4) Availability - getting guns is harder, especially for teenagers, than getting crossbows
Initiative... Yeah, it's a sticky issue. They were primarily a covert capture and study team, so they might not have been issued guns for plausible deniability maybe? Both in case someone (a civilian) sees them, and in case someone (in the government) investigates them (they were likely hidden in the papers as an R&D lab or something like that, and explaining why a biological research facility needs guns and goes through ammo is tricky).
Overall I agree that some appeal to sanity is needed. It does get tricky, a bit at least. For vampires, you could say that the stakes being made out of wood is important / amplifies the damage / stops regeneration. I don't remember - was a vampire ever killed with a metal stake through the heart? I mean, decapitation works anyway, but we know that vampires slowly regenerate (Spike's broken back), so if staking prevents that might might be a reason to prefer those? This leaves the issue of soft tissue damage caused by a bullet being a lot more damaging than soft tissue damage caused by an arrow (due to higher velocity).
The big question is "why are guns not used to incapacitate, if they can't kill"? And "which types of demons would be protected against guns"? A simpler (hopefully) solution might be something like this:
1) There are multiple factors in play. Ones that I described above + memetic effects (both active propaganda by people like W&H, and actual Marcy-style memetic magic)
2) Vampires specifically are somewhat resistant to soft tissue damage caused by the bullets. Without those, crossbows are at least as effective, probably. Vampires are the most common demons. Guns might be effective against most demons as they would be against similarly armored humans / animals, but they are not effective against vampires, and you are most likely to encounter a vampire or a demon with vampire retinue, so guns are overall not very effective
3) Many demons require stuff like decapitation to mission kill, and guns are not very helpful with that.
Hopefully we'll (you'll) be able to work it out in the end. The most problematic things with what you are saying are:
1) How do you define "advanced weaponry"? Let's compare a wooden stake carved using naturally found stones, a wooden stake machined using precision machining equipment, and a wooden stake that was 3D printed using organic 3D printer from genetically engineered plant cells. Would the first one of those three be more effective? Now, let's compare a modern compound bow made out of composite materials with a 17th century musket and then with a simple laser from 1970s.
What I am saying is that figuring out what "advanced" means - be it "how long were humans able to and making these weapons" or "the number of people needed to create this weapon from base elements" or "how many demons have been killed by this type of weapon" or "how high tech demons/humans think the weapon is", etc, is important.
Not that you need numbers - the quest so far has been narratively driven, with no hard math, and that's great, but you might want to establish for yourself what you mean. You don't need to tell us, but you probably want to know yourself. Sanderson's law of magic - the more you define it, the more you can use it in the story without it being an asspull.
2) You want to pre-define what (types of) demons are resistant to what.
Ok then. Do we need to worry about her? Also, we need to get and issue everyone (magical) cell phones.
[X] Harmony can hopefully be trusted not to kill anyone, and Buffy shouldn't go to fight a probable dragon in hostile territory without support. Buffy and Harmony infiltrate the police station together.
-[X] To make sure she's in top shape, Harmony is going to be fed beforehand, until she has "full tank"
-[X] If it is a dragon, fire might be a real problem; Buffy and her team quickly look if there's any asbestos or other fire retardant clothing lying around. It's not like Harmony can get cancer.
--[X] And even if there's no fire retardant clothing, a full body swimming suit is still needed, in case someone in police is actually smart and has holy water on hand.
-[X] Oz will use his hacking skills to arrange a distraction, like a series of fake emergency calls, alerts and such.
-[X] Buffy will take Stein's gun with her (and will use gloves). It might be useful against the dragon, if its scales act as armor.
--[X] Also any explosives Scoobies have, in case she needs some to make an "it's modern day now" argument
Swapped Willow for Oz, and ditched magic help.
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
Extra damage from wood is actually maybe a thing, considering Scoobies are occasionally able to actually stake vampires. It should be really hard to get even a sharp piece of wood through the rib cage and everything. It also would explain the crossbow fetish to a degree.
Honestly, I think bullets, specifically, seem disadvantaged on the show, much more than anything else. Explosives often work against big things, Initiative electric guns work fairly ok, Oz can be Tranqed, Wesley gets all sorts of weird shit from Emil, like collapsible swords. I think it's a combination of the gross damage of bullets to soft tissue not being very effective against vampires, plus maybe them not being made out of wood, plus probably some extra "fuck you bullets, you suck against everything that isn't a human" to nerf them down to what we see. I'm leaving this somewhat open for now though.
Buffy is probably going to bring a sword for the dragon instead of a gun. She's more familiar with the weapon, it uses her strength (which is in the ton range, something that encourages her in specific to use muscle powered weapons), nobody is sure if dragons have lots of bullet resistance, and the fight could possibly take place with a lot of mind controlled people around she would have to avoid shooting into by accident. You don't have any magic swords from the mayor or anything, but Giles has a pretty good normal one handy.
Your budget was set a little too low to get everyone cell phones in the 90s. The cuts mainly came out of shiny new equipment. As you recover more sources of money and stabilize the town economy the Scoobies might splurge more, and using something like police radios could come up after this episode too. In addition to all this Willow is essentially juggling what amounts to a huge Summer Job combined with another huge Summer Job combined with lots of magic research. If you think she actually slept last night you don't understand what her life is right now.
I remember pencils being usable weapons, yes. And when punctured with them, vampires turn into ash very quickly, instead of bleeding to final death.
Bullets being made out of lead might also play a role. Lead is a classical alchemical metal, with mystical significance and all that jazz, it might lead (sorry for the pun) to it being disadvantageous against vampires.
One might also think about slings and slingshot and whether those would be effective, and, if so, against what kind of monsters (David vs Goliath?).
That makes sense. Honestly, Buffy needs better equipment, really. And after we get our hands on police gear, and we really don't much care about masquerade, we really should outfit her:
1) Modern bow, to give her a projectile weapon. For a superhuman like Buffy, she could probably make into an armor-penetrating weapon. Add heavy spin stabilized arrows, and she could probably outperform a modern sniper rifle.
2) Armor. Armor. Armor. Full plate modern materials, thermally insulated armor, ideally with a rebreather. Eventually, as we upgun, we'll end up with power armor (because cybermancy, and using Ted and Moloch technology), but for now, just full plate armor with modern padding would make Buffy nigh-on invulnerable to most street-level demons. And if her strength is in the ton range, then she wouldn't be encumbered by it.
3) A warhammer. Or a pickaxe. With superhuman strength, it makes sense. Momentum is not governed by strength, so with heavy armor giving Buffy additional mass, giving her heavy weapons makes sense
4) I want to say a bolter, because at that point this would be the last thing separating her from a proper Sister of Battle, but I'll just say "some explosives", because they were shown to be effective
5) Restraints of some kind. Maybe a heavy net? Something to capture demons.
Hopefully Willow will either learn to delegate, or develop enough transhumanist technology to not need sleep, or will fork her mind over many bodies...
As to the phones - yeah, using radios (with magical security) should work.
Plate really isn't that encumbering anyway, so maybe we should outfit the other Scoobies? Get them some chain and gambesons, at least.
- Location
- Tarn-Vedra
Changing my vote to:
[X] Harmony can hopefully be trusted not to kill anyone, and Buffy shouldn't go to fight a probable dragon in hostile territory without support. Buffy and Harmony infiltrate the police station together.
-[X] To make sure she's in top shape, Harmony is going to be fed beforehand, until she has "full tank"
-[X] If it is a dragon, fire might be a real problem; Buffy and her team quickly look if there's any asbestos or other fire retardant clothing lying around. It's not like Harmony can get cancer.
--[X] And even if there's no fire retardant clothing, a full body swimming suit is still needed, in case someone in police is actually smart and has holy water on hand.
-[X] Oz will use his hacking skills to arrange a distraction, like a series of fake emergency calls, alerts and such.
-[X] Buffy will take Stein's gun with her (and will use gloves). It might be useful against the dragon, if its scales act as armor.
--[X] Also any explosives Scoobies have, in case she needs some to make an "it's modern day now" argument
[X] Harmony can hopefully be trusted not to kill anyone, and Buffy shouldn't go to fight a probable dragon in hostile territory without support. Buffy and Harmony infiltrate the police station together.
-[X] To make sure she's in top shape, Harmony is going to be fed beforehand, until she has "full tank"
-[X] If it is a dragon, fire might be a real problem; Buffy and her team quickly look if there's any asbestos or other fire retardant clothing lying around. It's not like Harmony can get cancer.
--[X] And even if there's no fire retardant clothing, a full body swimming suit is still needed, in case someone in police is actually smart and has holy water on hand.
-[X] Oz will use his hacking skills to arrange a distraction, like a series of fake emergency calls, alerts and such.
-[X] Buffy will take Stein's gun with her (and will use gloves). It might be useful against the dragon, if its scales act as armor.
--[X] Also any explosives Scoobies have, in case she needs some to make an "it's modern day now" argument
Plate against superhuman foes would be encumbering, I believe. Thick enough plates to stop a bullet.
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
Modern bullets don't have to be made of lead. In fact scientists and environmentalists have been urging hunters to not use lead bullets because lead is poisonous, and lead contamination of animal bodies poisons scavenger animals.
True. Unless I am mistaken, however, lead would be the material of most bullets Buffy and company would be familiar with. And once you have to go for special ammunition (silver for werewolves, iron for fae, wood for vampires, etc), you might as well use bows with super strength.
Speaking of, fiddling a bit with an arrow speed calculator, with a 1 ton draw weight and a 3.5 kg arrow, you get a mach three projectile. Ie if Buffy is equipped with a bow that can take full advantage of her strength, she might well be able to use it as an anti-tank weaponry.
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
After thinking about it overnight, I think I'm going to settle on Giles, and by extension the Scoobies, knowing these things with regards to this discussion:
- Wooden weapons of all kinds are super effective against vampires, treating them as much less durable than they actually are. The nature of this effect is much the same as silver against a Fyarl demon; it's a specific weakness.
- Weapons which use bullets are known to be less effective than they should be against vampires and most other demons, treating them as more durable than they actually are. The causes and specifics of this effect are unclear, but they go beyond a simple lack of vulnerable points.
- The effectiveness of other modern weapons against demons isn't well known, though explosives seem to work pretty well if you're willing to use them. Some specific cases like tranquilizers on werewolves and bear spray on sasquatches are known to function.
S3.5E3: Thin Gold Line IV
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
[X] Harmony can hopefully be trusted not to kill anyone, and Buffy shouldn't go to fight a probable dragon in hostile territory without support. Buffy and Harmony infiltrate the police station together.
"You're sure you had enough blood right? This could be kind of tricky, I want you in prime fighting shape." Buffy chose not to mention that she also didn't want Harmony hungry around humans in the heat of battle.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I actually don't like having too much of it, it makes me feel kind of bloated." Harmony followed Buffy through the sewers as they talked. Harmony's senses were a little better in the dark, but Buffy had been tromping around in Sunnydale's sewers for years and had a better idea where they were going. "Can vampires get fat? That would suck, totally a reason to cut back on blood."
Buffy boggled a bit at the idea. "I don't think so? I've seen some fat vampires in my day, but they were all fledges. I think they were probably that way before. I wonder why none of them ever grow up to be older, now that you mention it."
"The way Xander talks it sounds like that's pretty hard." Harmony said. "Surviving, I mean. Lots of weak minions around all the time, but he could count the number of big name old vampires on his hands."
"And yet here you are," Buffy said. Fighting dragons was pretty dangerous even for a slayer.
"I know, it seems stupid right?" Harmony's voice cracked a little bit. "But it's just, everything is so exciting now. I've got all these new senses and instincts and it's like, I was dead before and now I'm alive, instead of the reverse. I could have just stayed quiet and manned a desk tonight but I didn't want to, you know?"
Buffy wasn't sure how to respond, so she was quiet for a while as they traveled through the Sunnydale undercity. Was it weird that more than anyone, Harmony reminded her of Jonathan right now? She knew she was biting off more than she could chew, but she couldn't stop herself. Did their lives suck so bad in the normal world that they couldn't stop from throwing themselves into this? Harmony had seemed happy before, in her own terrible way, but Buffy hadn't really known her.
And Jonathan had almost gotten shot today. Was bringing Harmony into this really a good call? She wasn't another slayer or a hundreds year old master, she was just a fledgling, and could easily get herself dusted in a fight like this. She wasn't human, she didn't have a soul, but something in Buffy felt a little sick at thinking of Harmony as some expendable shield to be ruined and thrown away. She'd just have to try to keep an eye on her.
"OK, I think this is it," Buffy said. There was a smaller tunnel going off the main branch, and it led to a dead end about twenty feet down. She wasn't deterred however, and put her both hands against the brickwork, searching for the specific pair that the plans had indicated. After a little messing around, she got it, and both bricks clicked in with a snap. The wall to their side swung open a little bit before stopping.
Buffy peeked through the crack and saw a dusty storeroom full of all sorts of random stuff. The trick wall was caught behind a shelf, so she reached through and carefully pushed it out of the way, making room for her and Harmony to get inside. They carefully moved around the roomful of accumulated crap until they reached a door, its underside bright with light from the hall outside.
Buffy got out her pair of dark sunglasses, and motioned for Harmony to do the same. Giles had thought dragon mind control was based on eye contact, and this was the best solution they'd been able to come up with. There were at least some straps attached made out of hair bands to keep them on during a fight, despite Harmony's complaints that they looked really stupid. The only other concession to dragonslaying the group had been able to come up with was a trusty short sword Giles had lying around, one shaped a little like a gladius. It would be agile enough to use in close quarters and could give Buffy great stabbing power to get through toughened scales. Harmony was unarmed due to a lack of appropriate skills, but vampires always had supernaturally sharp teeth to compensate.
"Can you hear anyone on the other side of the door?" Buffy whispered. She couldn't, but her senses weren't really the best at that kind of thing.
Harmony concentrated with her ear to the door. "I think I can hear some clicking, kind of far away. Nobody is close enough for me to make out a heartbeat."
Buffy took a chance, cracking the door and letting it slide open a bit, peeking through from the darkness. The storage room opened up to the end of an empty hallway, and she and Harmony quietly snuck out into the light, sticking to the wall. Most of the doors were closed, but one was left open, and Buffy could hear the clicking now too; someone was probably typing on something inside.
Buffy signaled for Harmony to get low, hoping that the desk and whatever the person was working on would be enough of an obstruction. They both went at the same time, scooting by, and stopped on the other side of the door. They heard the typing stop, and looked at each other indecisively, but before either of them decided to do anything it started again. They nodded and continued on.
They reached a T-junction and weren't sure where to go, but just then there was a loud grinding noise that rang down the hall from the left. Buffy was about to poke her head around the corner to check it out, but a voice called out from behind them. "Hey! Who are you? What are you doing down here?"
They turned and noticed that it was the mystery typist, probably drawn out from his room by the same loud sound that had distracted them. Before they could try to lie their way out of the situation though, the policeman shouted, "Summers! You're under arrest!" Without waiting for a response, he drew out a gun and started shooting at them.
Buffy grabbed the still-surprised Harmony and dodged them behind the corner. "I miss being anonymous," she said. "Not a week of being mayor and now everyone knows my face."
"Might just be the signage." Harmony pointed out a wanted poster of her visible on the wall. She was apparently 'very dangerous' again.
"Our cover's blown either way, let's just go," Buffy said, and they ran towards the source of the noise.
It originated in a large room with a heavy door, labeled with 'EVIDENCE'. The door was open, and when they looked inside it was apparent that this was the dragon's lair. It was the size of a lion, but gawkier, with clumsy wings and a long bendy neck, and it was scarfing down what looked like a box of silverware. Three cops were on their knees facing it, though they were scrambling back up in response to the sudden entrance. All around them, piles of stuff were scattered, some reinforced with the remnants of a torn-up cage from the front of the room, and others occupying overturned shelving.
The dragon choked down a last mouthful and looked up at them with a wide eyed glassy stare, as the police got to their feet and the balding older one proclaimed, "Witness the majesty of Vendoat the Gold! Submit to her magnificence and offer all you value, for a 200 percent return in no more than twelve weeks!" He smiled triumphantly, confident in both their obedience and his master's investment plan.
"No no no!" The voice of the dragon was eerily high for a creature so large, almost like a screech. "They're all clouded! All wrong! I'll eat the short one live instead, her worth is great!" The police were surprised by this turn of events and fumbled for their guns, while the dragon leapt into melee with Buffy and Harmony, strangely graceful despite its clumsy appearance.
Harmony quickly grabbed out for a wing that seemed like it was just flailing, but it whipped quickly and knocked her to the side. For her part, Buffy had to dive out of the path of the dragon's snapping jaws, drawing her sword in midair and parrying back a swiping claw as she landed.
"Of all the adjectives you could've used, it had to be short, huh?" Buffy said as she rolled back out of range and back up to a standing position. The dragon pressed the attack on her without responding, making deliberate, powerful attacks with her claws and teeth. Buffy was able to stay out of the way of some of the attacks and use her sword to knock back those she couldn't dodge, but the scales were as strong as advertised, and even in the heavy exchanges her sword was barely leaving scratches.
Meanwhile, Harmony had been distracted by the cops, who decided to direct their fire on her. She wasn't as good at dodging as Buffy was and took a few bullets, but none of them seemed to hit anywhere too important and her first charge landed, pushing one back and slamming him hard into the wall. Harmony grabbed another by the shoulders and looked like she was about to sink her fangs into him, but after Buffy's warning shout of "Harmony!" she changed her course and just headbutted him instead.
The distraction cost Buffy, as the dragon caught her in the head with a wing attack using the superior reach of the appendage. She tripped backward over one of the haphazard piles of boxes and fell back to the ground, dropping her sword as she fell. She scrambled back from the pile as the dragon just burst through it, screaming "Feed me your futures! Compound my value!" Baggies of drugs and pieces of a stereo were knocked to the side in the dragon's wake.
The dragon wasn't her only problem either; more police were arriving in the room, either led by the one they encountered in the hall or drawn by the commotion. All the cover and the dragon herself meant they couldn't get off more than a few potshots at Buffy, but Harmony was starting to have a hard time of it.
Buffy decided the momentum in the fight had to change, and sprung to her feet charging right at the cops. Their surprise bought her key seconds, and quickly she was amongst the crowd at the door. She lashed out around her to thin their numbers, and then retreated back behind the cover of some crumpled shelving as the dragon barrelled in behind her. The dragon was hungry and her pursuit barely controlled; she trampled some more hapless policemen on her way to get to Buffy.
Buffy reached Harmony just as she knocked out the last of the men she was facing with a dangerous-looking blow to the head (at least it wasn't a bite), and both of them turned to face Vendoat's assault. Harmony fared a little better this time, getting inside the dragon's guard and angling to bite at her long neck, but Buffy was still having trouble doing significant damage, especially without her sword. It'd been a long time since she'd traded blows with something that was physically stronger than her, but the dragon definitely qualified, and was armored to boot. She bruised up one of the wings a bit with a whirling kick, but paid for it as the dragon finally caught Harmony in her claws and threw her at Buffy, bowling them both over towards the back of the room.
As they tried to get up in a tangle of limbs, Vendoat seemed to have finally had enough. "Burn sunk costs!" she chanted maniacally, as she reared back and then breathed a cone of fire at the two of them. Buffy threw Harmony to the side in a panic, using the momentum to propel herself backwards, and both of them narrowly escaped the fire. The cardboard boxes against the wall lit off and started burning merrily, and the sprinkler system started spraying water all over the room.
Buffy leaned on her elbow and was about to get up, but a hand surprised her from behind, tearing her improvised assembly of sunglasses and hair bands off her head. Chief Monroe taunted her, "Kids these days, always wearing all sorts of stupid things."
"You have the nerve to say that with a novelty tie?" Buffy backhanded him frustratedly, sending him to dreamland. She pawed through the wet mess on the floor looking for her eye protection, but unfortunately the dragon had seen the exchange, and was on Buffy in a flash.
A vicious blow to her side spun Buffy around, and the dragon's other claw came down hard on her chest, pinning her. Buffy tried to look away, but Vendoat's sinuous neck let her put her big glittering eyes at just the wrong angle, and for a long, stretching moment, Buffy was lost.
Images of shopping sprees and island vacations flashed through Buffy's mind, seeing herself stride along loaded down with all the shiny weapons and intact lightbulbs she could carry. Her grip on reality started to do a 180, but before it could quite get itself around, there was a sudden silence.
The heat of the sun seemed to bake through the chill of the sprinklers, and the feeling of gritty desert sand replaced the wet dust on her palms. While the images she'd seen before had been like a children's cartoon, everything about these new feelings was so real it ached, blaring out reality with their glare instead of trying to cover it up. She knew the sun and she knew the shadow.
There was another voice in her head, and it was both her own and not. As loud as the end of the world, it screamed a single word in defiance, exploding the alien thoughts of the dragon out of her mind completely.
Vote:
[] KILL
[] LIE
[] DEMAND
"You're sure you had enough blood right? This could be kind of tricky, I want you in prime fighting shape." Buffy chose not to mention that she also didn't want Harmony hungry around humans in the heat of battle.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I actually don't like having too much of it, it makes me feel kind of bloated." Harmony followed Buffy through the sewers as they talked. Harmony's senses were a little better in the dark, but Buffy had been tromping around in Sunnydale's sewers for years and had a better idea where they were going. "Can vampires get fat? That would suck, totally a reason to cut back on blood."
Buffy boggled a bit at the idea. "I don't think so? I've seen some fat vampires in my day, but they were all fledges. I think they were probably that way before. I wonder why none of them ever grow up to be older, now that you mention it."
"The way Xander talks it sounds like that's pretty hard." Harmony said. "Surviving, I mean. Lots of weak minions around all the time, but he could count the number of big name old vampires on his hands."
"And yet here you are," Buffy said. Fighting dragons was pretty dangerous even for a slayer.
"I know, it seems stupid right?" Harmony's voice cracked a little bit. "But it's just, everything is so exciting now. I've got all these new senses and instincts and it's like, I was dead before and now I'm alive, instead of the reverse. I could have just stayed quiet and manned a desk tonight but I didn't want to, you know?"
Buffy wasn't sure how to respond, so she was quiet for a while as they traveled through the Sunnydale undercity. Was it weird that more than anyone, Harmony reminded her of Jonathan right now? She knew she was biting off more than she could chew, but she couldn't stop herself. Did their lives suck so bad in the normal world that they couldn't stop from throwing themselves into this? Harmony had seemed happy before, in her own terrible way, but Buffy hadn't really known her.
And Jonathan had almost gotten shot today. Was bringing Harmony into this really a good call? She wasn't another slayer or a hundreds year old master, she was just a fledgling, and could easily get herself dusted in a fight like this. She wasn't human, she didn't have a soul, but something in Buffy felt a little sick at thinking of Harmony as some expendable shield to be ruined and thrown away. She'd just have to try to keep an eye on her.
"OK, I think this is it," Buffy said. There was a smaller tunnel going off the main branch, and it led to a dead end about twenty feet down. She wasn't deterred however, and put her both hands against the brickwork, searching for the specific pair that the plans had indicated. After a little messing around, she got it, and both bricks clicked in with a snap. The wall to their side swung open a little bit before stopping.
Buffy peeked through the crack and saw a dusty storeroom full of all sorts of random stuff. The trick wall was caught behind a shelf, so she reached through and carefully pushed it out of the way, making room for her and Harmony to get inside. They carefully moved around the roomful of accumulated crap until they reached a door, its underside bright with light from the hall outside.
Buffy got out her pair of dark sunglasses, and motioned for Harmony to do the same. Giles had thought dragon mind control was based on eye contact, and this was the best solution they'd been able to come up with. There were at least some straps attached made out of hair bands to keep them on during a fight, despite Harmony's complaints that they looked really stupid. The only other concession to dragonslaying the group had been able to come up with was a trusty short sword Giles had lying around, one shaped a little like a gladius. It would be agile enough to use in close quarters and could give Buffy great stabbing power to get through toughened scales. Harmony was unarmed due to a lack of appropriate skills, but vampires always had supernaturally sharp teeth to compensate.
"Can you hear anyone on the other side of the door?" Buffy whispered. She couldn't, but her senses weren't really the best at that kind of thing.
Harmony concentrated with her ear to the door. "I think I can hear some clicking, kind of far away. Nobody is close enough for me to make out a heartbeat."
Buffy took a chance, cracking the door and letting it slide open a bit, peeking through from the darkness. The storage room opened up to the end of an empty hallway, and she and Harmony quietly snuck out into the light, sticking to the wall. Most of the doors were closed, but one was left open, and Buffy could hear the clicking now too; someone was probably typing on something inside.
Buffy signaled for Harmony to get low, hoping that the desk and whatever the person was working on would be enough of an obstruction. They both went at the same time, scooting by, and stopped on the other side of the door. They heard the typing stop, and looked at each other indecisively, but before either of them decided to do anything it started again. They nodded and continued on.
They reached a T-junction and weren't sure where to go, but just then there was a loud grinding noise that rang down the hall from the left. Buffy was about to poke her head around the corner to check it out, but a voice called out from behind them. "Hey! Who are you? What are you doing down here?"
They turned and noticed that it was the mystery typist, probably drawn out from his room by the same loud sound that had distracted them. Before they could try to lie their way out of the situation though, the policeman shouted, "Summers! You're under arrest!" Without waiting for a response, he drew out a gun and started shooting at them.
Buffy grabbed the still-surprised Harmony and dodged them behind the corner. "I miss being anonymous," she said. "Not a week of being mayor and now everyone knows my face."
"Might just be the signage." Harmony pointed out a wanted poster of her visible on the wall. She was apparently 'very dangerous' again.
"Our cover's blown either way, let's just go," Buffy said, and they ran towards the source of the noise.
It originated in a large room with a heavy door, labeled with 'EVIDENCE'. The door was open, and when they looked inside it was apparent that this was the dragon's lair. It was the size of a lion, but gawkier, with clumsy wings and a long bendy neck, and it was scarfing down what looked like a box of silverware. Three cops were on their knees facing it, though they were scrambling back up in response to the sudden entrance. All around them, piles of stuff were scattered, some reinforced with the remnants of a torn-up cage from the front of the room, and others occupying overturned shelving.
The dragon choked down a last mouthful and looked up at them with a wide eyed glassy stare, as the police got to their feet and the balding older one proclaimed, "Witness the majesty of Vendoat the Gold! Submit to her magnificence and offer all you value, for a 200 percent return in no more than twelve weeks!" He smiled triumphantly, confident in both their obedience and his master's investment plan.
"No no no!" The voice of the dragon was eerily high for a creature so large, almost like a screech. "They're all clouded! All wrong! I'll eat the short one live instead, her worth is great!" The police were surprised by this turn of events and fumbled for their guns, while the dragon leapt into melee with Buffy and Harmony, strangely graceful despite its clumsy appearance.
Harmony quickly grabbed out for a wing that seemed like it was just flailing, but it whipped quickly and knocked her to the side. For her part, Buffy had to dive out of the path of the dragon's snapping jaws, drawing her sword in midair and parrying back a swiping claw as she landed.
"Of all the adjectives you could've used, it had to be short, huh?" Buffy said as she rolled back out of range and back up to a standing position. The dragon pressed the attack on her without responding, making deliberate, powerful attacks with her claws and teeth. Buffy was able to stay out of the way of some of the attacks and use her sword to knock back those she couldn't dodge, but the scales were as strong as advertised, and even in the heavy exchanges her sword was barely leaving scratches.
Meanwhile, Harmony had been distracted by the cops, who decided to direct their fire on her. She wasn't as good at dodging as Buffy was and took a few bullets, but none of them seemed to hit anywhere too important and her first charge landed, pushing one back and slamming him hard into the wall. Harmony grabbed another by the shoulders and looked like she was about to sink her fangs into him, but after Buffy's warning shout of "Harmony!" she changed her course and just headbutted him instead.
The distraction cost Buffy, as the dragon caught her in the head with a wing attack using the superior reach of the appendage. She tripped backward over one of the haphazard piles of boxes and fell back to the ground, dropping her sword as she fell. She scrambled back from the pile as the dragon just burst through it, screaming "Feed me your futures! Compound my value!" Baggies of drugs and pieces of a stereo were knocked to the side in the dragon's wake.
The dragon wasn't her only problem either; more police were arriving in the room, either led by the one they encountered in the hall or drawn by the commotion. All the cover and the dragon herself meant they couldn't get off more than a few potshots at Buffy, but Harmony was starting to have a hard time of it.
Buffy decided the momentum in the fight had to change, and sprung to her feet charging right at the cops. Their surprise bought her key seconds, and quickly she was amongst the crowd at the door. She lashed out around her to thin their numbers, and then retreated back behind the cover of some crumpled shelving as the dragon barrelled in behind her. The dragon was hungry and her pursuit barely controlled; she trampled some more hapless policemen on her way to get to Buffy.
Buffy reached Harmony just as she knocked out the last of the men she was facing with a dangerous-looking blow to the head (at least it wasn't a bite), and both of them turned to face Vendoat's assault. Harmony fared a little better this time, getting inside the dragon's guard and angling to bite at her long neck, but Buffy was still having trouble doing significant damage, especially without her sword. It'd been a long time since she'd traded blows with something that was physically stronger than her, but the dragon definitely qualified, and was armored to boot. She bruised up one of the wings a bit with a whirling kick, but paid for it as the dragon finally caught Harmony in her claws and threw her at Buffy, bowling them both over towards the back of the room.
As they tried to get up in a tangle of limbs, Vendoat seemed to have finally had enough. "Burn sunk costs!" she chanted maniacally, as she reared back and then breathed a cone of fire at the two of them. Buffy threw Harmony to the side in a panic, using the momentum to propel herself backwards, and both of them narrowly escaped the fire. The cardboard boxes against the wall lit off and started burning merrily, and the sprinkler system started spraying water all over the room.
Buffy leaned on her elbow and was about to get up, but a hand surprised her from behind, tearing her improvised assembly of sunglasses and hair bands off her head. Chief Monroe taunted her, "Kids these days, always wearing all sorts of stupid things."
"You have the nerve to say that with a novelty tie?" Buffy backhanded him frustratedly, sending him to dreamland. She pawed through the wet mess on the floor looking for her eye protection, but unfortunately the dragon had seen the exchange, and was on Buffy in a flash.
A vicious blow to her side spun Buffy around, and the dragon's other claw came down hard on her chest, pinning her. Buffy tried to look away, but Vendoat's sinuous neck let her put her big glittering eyes at just the wrong angle, and for a long, stretching moment, Buffy was lost.
Images of shopping sprees and island vacations flashed through Buffy's mind, seeing herself stride along loaded down with all the shiny weapons and intact lightbulbs she could carry. Her grip on reality started to do a 180, but before it could quite get itself around, there was a sudden silence.
The heat of the sun seemed to bake through the chill of the sprinklers, and the feeling of gritty desert sand replaced the wet dust on her palms. While the images she'd seen before had been like a children's cartoon, everything about these new feelings was so real it ached, blaring out reality with their glare instead of trying to cover it up. She knew the sun and she knew the shadow.
There was another voice in her head, and it was both her own and not. As loud as the end of the world, it screamed a single word in defiance, exploding the alien thoughts of the dragon out of her mind completely.
Vote:
[] KILL
[] LIE
[] DEMAND