I don't think Willow or CyberWillow killed humans before, as for other initiative soldiers we are obviously will try to subdue them nonlethally, I did not think it needs specific mention and since CyberWillow stronger than normal human she would not need specific weapon for it although having it would not hurt her chances.
Successor (BTVS)
- Thread starter DeAnno
- Start date
- Mature
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Plan Bait Hook
atm it seems the one with the least potential to end really badly.
still kinda partial to Drusilla's plan, but...
atm it seems the one with the least potential to end really badly.
still kinda partial to Drusilla's plan, but...
- Pronouns
- She/Her
On the topic of giving "our nebulously special police a corruption scandal" since we are making the scandle we can control the narrative and use it as an excuse to do further deep dives to catch any other spooks that Oscar has recruited. Appearing to proactively stamp out internal corruption actually plays really well with voters.
- Location
- United States
My main objection here is that this seems like a complicated plan for a simple result and I'm not seeing the advantage over just grabbing Oscar and sticking him in a hole somewhere.
Also, I was thinking and if he's going through the legal system for a mundane crime isn't he going to leave our jurisdiction eventually, since we just have the lockup at the police station and not like an actual prison? Once he does, can't the government get him back fairly easily? This isn't someone like Ethan Rayne or that bartender where it's a rando that Maggie has an interest in but the government will drop if it's a hassle - it sounds like he's DoD, the DoD is going to want their spook back, the government isn't going to care about his cover since it's already blown. And it's not like getting him back is a time sensitive thing for them, his usefulness against us is mostly done, so they're not going to sweat a year or two to get him back without a fuss.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
What happens to Oscar once he leaves sunndyhell I don't particularly give a shit about. He doesn't know anything so vital that none initiative people picking him up will be a bad thing. Indeed thats part of the point of making his "crimes" so mundane. Its getting rid of the spy without picking a fight with Uncle Sam while still possibly drawing Maggie into fighting on our terf. If she just cuts Oscar loose that's fine too. It will open an avinue to damage her trust from her military subordinates ("Egghead boss is selling us down the river") and it makes her look bad to her bosses. We can't win a fight against the whole USA but we can beat Maggie and Adam.
- Location
- DC area
[x] Plan Ambush
S4.0E11: Panopticon IV
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
[X] Plan Whack-A-Mole
-[X] Call Angel and co secretly and get them in on the plan
-[X] Angel calls us / the watch house and informs us of some big issue in the California desert (close to LA but outside the county) prophesized by Doyle (or whoever is doing his prophecies)
-[X] Xander will inform Oscar Carlson that Buffy will be heading to LA in order to deal with it, and that they need to be on extra alert and careful to conceal this as a result. The trip to LA will take place after Oscar has an opportunity to slip the info to Professor Grant and the Initiative.
-[X] Buffy will still be in town but under a Veil by Jonathan. If communication is critical he'll drop the Veil.
-[X] CW will announce Adams current and likely destinations to all radios. Wherever Adam hits she intercepts and kills him
-[X] Xander and CW will keep close watch on Oscar to make sure he can't get a message to the Initiative during this time
Buffy drove out onto the US 101 under cover of night, trying to act like she was being careful and sneaky. She didn't keep to the speed limit, but was just a scooch over it, like a normal person would drive. She wasn't just wearing a helmet, but a wig of long black hair, her normal blonde bunched up and hidden in her helmet and jacket. The hour was very late, but Buffy knew the road might be being watched.
A couple of the Initiative soldiers cosplaying as grad students had driven out to one of the mansions at the edge of town tonight. To outer appearances, it was just a Friday night party. Even to suspicious adversaries, it might just be another ruse to maintain cover. But Professor Grant had driven back into town at 6 PM, and they'd left at 7:45. The soldiers hadn't yet returned from the event, and it was almost 2 AM.
It'd been lucky for them that Sam's (it was hard to think of him as Oscar, even now) Modern Lit class was on Friday. The night before, the very night they'd discovered his treachery, they'd arranged the call from Doyle to be answered at the Watch House, reluctantly asking for Buffy to show up before sunrise on Saturday morning. Xander being occupied had made it plausible for Sam to answer the call, and they'd also made sure to have that happen when he was around a lot of other SDCW members.
The conversation had to be overheard, because if Sam didn't have plausible deniability he might not act. But it had to be just barely not-secret, or else it would look too suspicious, like they were baiting a hook. It was a difficult balance, but one she hoped they'd hit. If the Initiative didn't buy it, hopefully they might be able to make it look like it'd actually happened after the fact. Or at worst, that it was a sting against a dozen possible suspects and not just Sam.
She stopped at the prearranged location on the highway, making sure to carry her motorcycle far to the side of the road, where it'd be less likely to be noticed by random driversby. Just over the nearby hill, Jonathan was waiting, right where he was supposed to be.
She removed her helmet, and then wriggled her way out of the wig too. The super long hair was actually kind of cool, but not being blonde just felt wrong. "Ready for action?"
"I still can't believe Sam isn't Sam," he said.
"You two were close?" She asked. Jonathan was the most directly plugged into the SDCW of all the casters in the magic department, so it made sense.
"We didn't really hang out much, but he gave me some good advice." He sighed.
"That sucks." She grimaced sympathetically before continuing. "Head in the game though? New bone's all ready?"
"Yeah. I spent the past few hours out here tweaking it." He brandished it. "It's still not quite the same quality as the one Adam wrecked, but it's plenty for this. We should have until around noon."
"Great," she said. "CyberWillow, can Xander and Will talk right now?"
"Connecting," she replied.
"I'm pretty sure I would've done it already, but I'm ready for Adam to come at us, and to order everyone to pull back around him," Xander said. "I've gamed similar Veil nonsense out with Jonathan before and there's a trick to knowing how to still do the right thing." With Buffy hidden under a Veil, her own allies couldn't know where she was either (they would be left with the barest understanding that she was somewhere in the city, without even really remembering why they didn't know where.) If they engaged Adam she might not be able to reach them to help fast enough, and could get massacred.
"Warren and I snuck the bot into the computer lab when we finished her, and then she left tonight while I hid in the closet," Willow said.
"You're doing OK in there?" Buffy asked.
"It's cramped, but I have water bottles and granola bars. Way better than the last time I spent a night hiding in a closet." she said. Willow was safe from the majority of the Initiative's forces due to the binding ritual that covered the building. They'd thought Adam might attack her given the opportunity, and this way the Willowbot could be bait instead of Willow being an extra piece they had to defend.
"Good luck guys. Talk to you on the other side I guess," she said, then to Jonathan, "Do it."
"I bask in my last moments tonight of having any idea what's going on," Xander commented.
They went back to the road and she leaned on her motorcycle, wig and helmet still in hand. Jonathan actually got on, probably to make sure it was included in the spell when he cast it. Then he did something complicated with his bone that wasn't important.
Why had she stopped all the way out here? She had to convince the Initiative she was going south for the winter, but how was she even going to get back? The hike would take too long, but her motorcycle would be way too obvious. Maybe if she went offroad she could get closer undetected.
Oh, wait. "That's always really disorienting," she handed Jonathan the wig, which he put away in his bag of magic stuff.
"You should feel it from my end," he said dryly. Then he took the helmet from her as well and put it on. It was nice that it was doing double duty on this trip; she might end up driving pretty fast through people that couldn't see she was there. It'd probably be fine, but this stunt already had a few too many 'probablies' for her taste.
She hopped onto the motorcycle in front of him. "Time to go I guess," she said. This felt a lot more awkward than it had on the way out. Maybe because they were the only two people in the world that could talk to each other right now.
"We should try to get back fast just in case Adam moves right away," Jonathan sounded like he was dreading it a little. The passenger seat on her Hayubasa was set up so one didn't have to get all up close and personal like Harmony did, but for a normal person, at normal speed, it would still be a little precarious. She would be going way faster than normal speed.
He probably thought she would freak if he got grabby. Boys could be so weird about this stuff. "You don't have to be shy if it means you're gonna fall off, come on." She started the bike and quickly sped up, the roar of the engine kicking in (presumably inaudibly) and pushing them toward the three digit range.
She could tell her reassurances didn't completely work on Jonathan, but he quickly came to a compromise and looped his magic bone around her stomach like a handlebar. After that, she kicked up to full speed and felt him ducking down behind her too, presumably to avoid the full force of the wind.
It was only a handful of minutes before they retraced their earlier path and were blazing past Crawford street again. Buffy kept up the pace as they drove west, straight towards downtown. This time of night was pretty quiet on the roads; she had to dodge around the occasional car, but Sunnydale's main boulevard wasn't much different from an open highway. If you ignored the lights.
Once she passed City Hall, she let the speed bleed off again and slowed way down to thirty or so, a good patrolling speed. She wanted to stick to the half of the city nearer to campus so she could head off Adam, but she didn't want to actually cross into UC Sunnydale in case he had some way of detecting her inside his range, even through the Veil. She could try to skirt around the radius while he was still underground, but CyberWillow might not call out his movements if they were slight and she didn't wanna take any chances. There wasn't much of anything critical she needed to defend on campus anyway; the computer lab was safe with Willow inside it.
Adam might take the bait of the Willowbot, but Buffy doubted it. She thought it was more likely he'd go for City Hall, or Crawford Street, or maybe the mysterious artifact itself, if Wilkins had told him how to get at it. There could even be some other unknown objective in the city he'd be after, like demons to 'corrupt' or Warren's lab, but either way Buffy didn't think he was just going to start wantonly murdering civilians for no reason. He'd acted rationally until now, and he'd have a rational objective. She'd have time to react. She hoped.
"Buffy? Can we talk about something?" Jonathan was yelling a little (and continued using his handlebar), despite their sedate pace. Maybe the wind was still a little much for him? She slowed down some more before answering.
"Shoot," she said.
"It's about CyberWillow," he started.
Cordelia was still sore about that, and she imagined Jonathan was hearing a lot of it. The two of them were super cute (her sources claimed) and it was really annoying that this big feud over CyberWillow had happened right when it started. It wasn't like she couldn't understand their concerns, but she also hadn't seen what other choices they could make. If they'd shut her down before Adam had appeared it'd have been a disaster.
But she might as well hear him out. "You're worried," she stated.
"I'm worried," he agreed. "And this is the only time we can really talk about it, without her listening in."
"Won't she just remember all our gossip after the Veil drops?" Buffy asked.
"I'm putting a little extra into it now," Jonathan said. She glanced down and noticed the runes on the bone were glowing softly. "This part should stay blurry, as long as we don't attract extra attention."
"Alright then," no more excuses to beat around the bush. "So I'm guessing you aren't peachy-keen on all these spider rituals we've been inventing lately."
"It's not that I think you guys are wrong," he prevaricated. "And I don't think she's evil or anything. It's just that this has all been really fast. Practically the first thing we did after the incident was give her more power. I'm worried she might be learning the wrong lessons."
"I've tried to include her more," Buffy said. "We do fashion stuff, and she talks about albedo. It's very educational."
"That's good," Jonathan said. "It's not really something I can do, but I think she needs friends. Her neural network is based off of Willow's, so it makes sense she would want the same things."
Buffy hadn't thought about it that way, but it made her remember the breakup speech Willow had made. She'd wanted respect. She'd wanted to be special, to be strong. Those were all things CyberWillow had right?
"Willow doesn't like to be wrong," Jonathan continued. "Not that I'm badmouthing her or anything! Nobody does. But I keep thinking about how CyberWillow reacted after I ended the spell. She wouldn't admit we had to do it eventually, she just accepted that it was done."
"Acceptance is a part of grief?" Buffy half-said, half-questioned.
"Sure," he agreed. "It's just, her being sort of a goddess now," he gulped. "It seems like a huge responsibility. I wouldn't want it. It must be so much to take in for her. She's really young. Even younger than us."
"She's mentioned about how she's always talking to everyone, and how the time adds up," Buffy chose to address the last point instead of the rest.
"Who knows if that really counts the same way," Jonathan said. "But what I'm saying is, if I was a god? I think I'd feel like if a bad thing happened, I'd have to try to stop it. Or at least stop it from happening again."
It was wigsome, but in the end they were just guessing. It was like with Matt, it wasn't fair to take a few random details and judge people guilty.
"I hear you. But even if we didn't have to trust her, I think it's the right thing to do. And if it isn't? I guess it's a good thing I'm a goddess too," she couldn't help but let something bitter into her voice.
She could feel the look on Jonathan's face at that without seeing it, and they were quiet for a minute.
"If anyone can handle it, it's you," he finally told her.
He didn't say which 'it' he meant.
They didn't have to wait too long. It was just a few minutes after 4 AM when CyberWillow loudly announced the beginning of it, both their radios turned up to max volume, "Be advised, all employees of the Sunnydale city government and miscellaneous allies. Adam's zone of influence has returned to my full control, and I cannot locate him on any cameras there or elsewhere. I can only surmise he is moving and wishes to conceal his approach vector.
"Likely related, I can now observe that there is a mobile convoy composed of nine vehicles and at least 25 Initiative soldiers outbound heading east from their base. No supernatural support of any kind is visible, but two of the transports have large windowless cargo areas. Adam, Agents Lehane or Gates, or many more conventional troops may be concealed within. I recommend that all who are not taking orders from Xander Harris directly prepare to evade or head to ground. Further reports will be forthcoming on this channel."
"That's almost everyone they have, if the transports are full too," Jonathan said. "Should we try to get close to their main column and see what's up?"
Buffy hesitated. "We should keep near them, just in case, but we have to be careful not to drop the Veil. CyberWillow didn't actually see Adam with them, or even Faith or Forrest. We can't afford to get tied up in that and be late to the real party."
Xander would be rallying everyone ready to fight to Crawford street, both to take advantage of the fortified position and prevent them from being defeated in detail. If Adam wasn't really part of that assault, she was confident her people could hold their own. They had magical support to tilt the odds in their favor, and they also had the Myco guns to keep things nonlethal and stop it escalating into a bloodbath. And if Adam was there, she would slam into them from behind and hopefully take him out of the fight right away.
Even if CyberWillow hadn't been announcing the movements of the convoy, it would've been easy to find; it eventually came off the highway in a big slow group and was just chugging along through the city as if it belonged there. Most of the vehicles in it were just jeeps, but there were a couple bigger military trucks too. At least she didn't see any tanks. The road damage alone would've been a disaster.
True to her word, she kept a block off from the group, ghosting their path from the side streets. As they rolled through town, it got clearer and clearer that Crawford street was the target. She didn't really see what Maggie thought she had to gain from a giant battle, but who knew what went through the mad scientist's mind. Maybe she thought Xander would just give in and let them loot the place?
When they were a mere block away though, it became clear there was more to the plan. "Attention!" CyberWillow echoed, Adam's zone of influence has reestablished itself, centered on a point underground near City Hall."
Buffy immediately took a U-turn with her bike and jammed the throttle as hard as she dared, racing back to City Hall so fast the acceleration almost took her out of her seat. Jonathan screamed, abandoning propriety and holding on for dear life.
"Its approximate center is at the intersection of Maple and Chester," CyberWillow continued, just barely audible to her over the noise. "Heading east. Any units still present on the premises are advised to evacuate City Hall immediately. I have lost feed from all cameras in the zone, both wired and unwired."
She was going way too fast to exchange words with Jonathan now, but it was clear Adam was going for the Artifact. The sewers weren't fully wired with cameras, and Wilkins had probably given him some secret path to avoid most of them until he got close. And now, with the headstart, he was already right on the doorstep. She was practically lighting her tires on fire and she wasn't going to win the race.
CyberWillow kept giving barely heard directions as they rapidly approached City Hall, and Buffy knew there was no time to lose. On the last block, she killed the acceleration, fishtailed around, and then did a power-brake, materializing her hammer at the last second to act as a long counterweight and stop them flipping over. Jonathan screamed again.
Before they'd even stopped moving, she dropped the hammer to the road and maneuvered herself out of Jonathan's panicked deathgrip. Knowing she would lose the Veil if she left him too far behind, she just picked him up in a fireman's carry as she hopped from the motorcycle and let it skid over and come to a stop of its own. Hopefully it wouldn't take any damage some detailing couldn't fix.
"Can we talk about this?" Jonathan sounded frantic as she carried him but sounded mostly ok.
"Talk later," she answered.
She was racing down through a manhole when CyberWillow reported even worse news. "Adam's zone of control has completely retreated again, in an irregular manner. He is not directly visible, but there is now a prominent and fresh bloodstain at T-junction B underneath the City Hall building itself."
Too late. At least she knew where he went.
Once she was in the sewers she started lightly tapping on her superspeed, trying to get there as fast as she could without completely blowing out Jonathan's Veil. His bone only lit on fire a little bit so she hoped she'd succeeded.
KILL
She got to the T-junction, somewhere she'd probably passed by half a hundred times before. It looked just as frustratingly normal as it always had, except for the copious blood.
"Like Mog'tog'og," Jonathan choked out. Buffy let him down and he was so dizzy that he practically crashed to the ground. On the plus side it put him close enough to the open water that he could use it to douse the fire. He kept trying to talk as he did. "Must be, blood seal."
She popped her hammer into her hands again and smashed at the bloodstain. She made solid contact and shattered the concrete like paper mache, but there was only packed dirt and rocks behind it. She desperately tried to dig into it, but after a few seconds it was clear that nothing but more dirt was back there.
Then she noticed the bloodstain was inexplicably five feet to the left of where she'd thought it was, totally untouched. It was some kind of confusing magic, probably, and she had no clue how it was working. She got ready to continue the assault anyway, but then she noticed something.
"This isn't Adam's snake blood," she said. Olvikan's guts had been glowy green.
Jonathan was shuddering with effort behind her (that series of attacks probably wasn't too kind to his Veil either), but then he got himself together, levering the motorcycle helmet off his head. "Maybe Faith's? Could've keyed her in before he died."
KILL
She knew he was right. She was here, nearby. Somewhere close. She could feel it.
"You should be able to open it too," he added.
"What?" She was pretty sure the Mayor hadn't keyed her in, even if he'd keyed in Faith.
"You're the mayor now. Your city, your building, that artifact is connected to you. You should be able to get in, now that we know where it is," he said. "But when you do, I think it'll pop the Veil. It has to be a hugely powerful seal to have kept itself hidden from us this long. And this Veil's running on fumes already."
"You can make another one right?" She asked. She could just cut herself on her hammer. It didn't look like it would need a ton of blood, a glancing cut would be fine.
"Sure. It'd take me a minute or so of casting and about three days of migraines." he said. "But Adam might notice us somehow. Or even just hear."
She hadn't wanted to be on the backfoot like this, but it was all happening so fast. She had to make a snap decision on what to do. It felt like she was racing into a trap, but leaving Adam in there doing who-knew-what with the biggest scary ancient doodad anyone had ever heard of was all kinds of bad idea.
KILL
Vote: What does Buffy do?
[] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan hold back until he can Veil himself, then follow her in.
-[] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
-[] She waits for Jonathan to recast the Veil and they go in together.
-[] Stunt something else
[] Buffy and Jonathan wait in ambush outside, under the Veil.
-[] Stunt any more detailed instructions
-[X] Call Angel and co secretly and get them in on the plan
-[X] Angel calls us / the watch house and informs us of some big issue in the California desert (close to LA but outside the county) prophesized by Doyle (or whoever is doing his prophecies)
-[X] Xander will inform Oscar Carlson that Buffy will be heading to LA in order to deal with it, and that they need to be on extra alert and careful to conceal this as a result. The trip to LA will take place after Oscar has an opportunity to slip the info to Professor Grant and the Initiative.
-[X] Buffy will still be in town but under a Veil by Jonathan. If communication is critical he'll drop the Veil.
-[X] CW will announce Adams current and likely destinations to all radios. Wherever Adam hits she intercepts and kills him
-[X] Xander and CW will keep close watch on Oscar to make sure he can't get a message to the Initiative during this time
Buffy drove out onto the US 101 under cover of night, trying to act like she was being careful and sneaky. She didn't keep to the speed limit, but was just a scooch over it, like a normal person would drive. She wasn't just wearing a helmet, but a wig of long black hair, her normal blonde bunched up and hidden in her helmet and jacket. The hour was very late, but Buffy knew the road might be being watched.
A couple of the Initiative soldiers cosplaying as grad students had driven out to one of the mansions at the edge of town tonight. To outer appearances, it was just a Friday night party. Even to suspicious adversaries, it might just be another ruse to maintain cover. But Professor Grant had driven back into town at 6 PM, and they'd left at 7:45. The soldiers hadn't yet returned from the event, and it was almost 2 AM.
It'd been lucky for them that Sam's (it was hard to think of him as Oscar, even now) Modern Lit class was on Friday. The night before, the very night they'd discovered his treachery, they'd arranged the call from Doyle to be answered at the Watch House, reluctantly asking for Buffy to show up before sunrise on Saturday morning. Xander being occupied had made it plausible for Sam to answer the call, and they'd also made sure to have that happen when he was around a lot of other SDCW members.
The conversation had to be overheard, because if Sam didn't have plausible deniability he might not act. But it had to be just barely not-secret, or else it would look too suspicious, like they were baiting a hook. It was a difficult balance, but one she hoped they'd hit. If the Initiative didn't buy it, hopefully they might be able to make it look like it'd actually happened after the fact. Or at worst, that it was a sting against a dozen possible suspects and not just Sam.
She stopped at the prearranged location on the highway, making sure to carry her motorcycle far to the side of the road, where it'd be less likely to be noticed by random driversby. Just over the nearby hill, Jonathan was waiting, right where he was supposed to be.
She removed her helmet, and then wriggled her way out of the wig too. The super long hair was actually kind of cool, but not being blonde just felt wrong. "Ready for action?"
"I still can't believe Sam isn't Sam," he said.
"You two were close?" She asked. Jonathan was the most directly plugged into the SDCW of all the casters in the magic department, so it made sense.
"We didn't really hang out much, but he gave me some good advice." He sighed.
"That sucks." She grimaced sympathetically before continuing. "Head in the game though? New bone's all ready?"
"Yeah. I spent the past few hours out here tweaking it." He brandished it. "It's still not quite the same quality as the one Adam wrecked, but it's plenty for this. We should have until around noon."
"Great," she said. "CyberWillow, can Xander and Will talk right now?"
"Connecting," she replied.
"I'm pretty sure I would've done it already, but I'm ready for Adam to come at us, and to order everyone to pull back around him," Xander said. "I've gamed similar Veil nonsense out with Jonathan before and there's a trick to knowing how to still do the right thing." With Buffy hidden under a Veil, her own allies couldn't know where she was either (they would be left with the barest understanding that she was somewhere in the city, without even really remembering why they didn't know where.) If they engaged Adam she might not be able to reach them to help fast enough, and could get massacred.
"Warren and I snuck the bot into the computer lab when we finished her, and then she left tonight while I hid in the closet," Willow said.
"You're doing OK in there?" Buffy asked.
"It's cramped, but I have water bottles and granola bars. Way better than the last time I spent a night hiding in a closet." she said. Willow was safe from the majority of the Initiative's forces due to the binding ritual that covered the building. They'd thought Adam might attack her given the opportunity, and this way the Willowbot could be bait instead of Willow being an extra piece they had to defend.
"Good luck guys. Talk to you on the other side I guess," she said, then to Jonathan, "Do it."
"I bask in my last moments tonight of having any idea what's going on," Xander commented.
They went back to the road and she leaned on her motorcycle, wig and helmet still in hand. Jonathan actually got on, probably to make sure it was included in the spell when he cast it. Then he did something complicated with his bone that wasn't important.
Why had she stopped all the way out here? She had to convince the Initiative she was going south for the winter, but how was she even going to get back? The hike would take too long, but her motorcycle would be way too obvious. Maybe if she went offroad she could get closer undetected.
Oh, wait. "That's always really disorienting," she handed Jonathan the wig, which he put away in his bag of magic stuff.
"You should feel it from my end," he said dryly. Then he took the helmet from her as well and put it on. It was nice that it was doing double duty on this trip; she might end up driving pretty fast through people that couldn't see she was there. It'd probably be fine, but this stunt already had a few too many 'probablies' for her taste.
She hopped onto the motorcycle in front of him. "Time to go I guess," she said. This felt a lot more awkward than it had on the way out. Maybe because they were the only two people in the world that could talk to each other right now.
"We should try to get back fast just in case Adam moves right away," Jonathan sounded like he was dreading it a little. The passenger seat on her Hayubasa was set up so one didn't have to get all up close and personal like Harmony did, but for a normal person, at normal speed, it would still be a little precarious. She would be going way faster than normal speed.
He probably thought she would freak if he got grabby. Boys could be so weird about this stuff. "You don't have to be shy if it means you're gonna fall off, come on." She started the bike and quickly sped up, the roar of the engine kicking in (presumably inaudibly) and pushing them toward the three digit range.
She could tell her reassurances didn't completely work on Jonathan, but he quickly came to a compromise and looped his magic bone around her stomach like a handlebar. After that, she kicked up to full speed and felt him ducking down behind her too, presumably to avoid the full force of the wind.
It was only a handful of minutes before they retraced their earlier path and were blazing past Crawford street again. Buffy kept up the pace as they drove west, straight towards downtown. This time of night was pretty quiet on the roads; she had to dodge around the occasional car, but Sunnydale's main boulevard wasn't much different from an open highway. If you ignored the lights.
Once she passed City Hall, she let the speed bleed off again and slowed way down to thirty or so, a good patrolling speed. She wanted to stick to the half of the city nearer to campus so she could head off Adam, but she didn't want to actually cross into UC Sunnydale in case he had some way of detecting her inside his range, even through the Veil. She could try to skirt around the radius while he was still underground, but CyberWillow might not call out his movements if they were slight and she didn't wanna take any chances. There wasn't much of anything critical she needed to defend on campus anyway; the computer lab was safe with Willow inside it.
Adam might take the bait of the Willowbot, but Buffy doubted it. She thought it was more likely he'd go for City Hall, or Crawford Street, or maybe the mysterious artifact itself, if Wilkins had told him how to get at it. There could even be some other unknown objective in the city he'd be after, like demons to 'corrupt' or Warren's lab, but either way Buffy didn't think he was just going to start wantonly murdering civilians for no reason. He'd acted rationally until now, and he'd have a rational objective. She'd have time to react. She hoped.
"Buffy? Can we talk about something?" Jonathan was yelling a little (and continued using his handlebar), despite their sedate pace. Maybe the wind was still a little much for him? She slowed down some more before answering.
"Shoot," she said.
"It's about CyberWillow," he started.
Cordelia was still sore about that, and she imagined Jonathan was hearing a lot of it. The two of them were super cute (her sources claimed) and it was really annoying that this big feud over CyberWillow had happened right when it started. It wasn't like she couldn't understand their concerns, but she also hadn't seen what other choices they could make. If they'd shut her down before Adam had appeared it'd have been a disaster.
But she might as well hear him out. "You're worried," she stated.
"I'm worried," he agreed. "And this is the only time we can really talk about it, without her listening in."
"Won't she just remember all our gossip after the Veil drops?" Buffy asked.
"I'm putting a little extra into it now," Jonathan said. She glanced down and noticed the runes on the bone were glowing softly. "This part should stay blurry, as long as we don't attract extra attention."
"Alright then," no more excuses to beat around the bush. "So I'm guessing you aren't peachy-keen on all these spider rituals we've been inventing lately."
"It's not that I think you guys are wrong," he prevaricated. "And I don't think she's evil or anything. It's just that this has all been really fast. Practically the first thing we did after the incident was give her more power. I'm worried she might be learning the wrong lessons."
"I've tried to include her more," Buffy said. "We do fashion stuff, and she talks about albedo. It's very educational."
"That's good," Jonathan said. "It's not really something I can do, but I think she needs friends. Her neural network is based off of Willow's, so it makes sense she would want the same things."
Buffy hadn't thought about it that way, but it made her remember the breakup speech Willow had made. She'd wanted respect. She'd wanted to be special, to be strong. Those were all things CyberWillow had right?
"Willow doesn't like to be wrong," Jonathan continued. "Not that I'm badmouthing her or anything! Nobody does. But I keep thinking about how CyberWillow reacted after I ended the spell. She wouldn't admit we had to do it eventually, she just accepted that it was done."
"Acceptance is a part of grief?" Buffy half-said, half-questioned.
"Sure," he agreed. "It's just, her being sort of a goddess now," he gulped. "It seems like a huge responsibility. I wouldn't want it. It must be so much to take in for her. She's really young. Even younger than us."
"She's mentioned about how she's always talking to everyone, and how the time adds up," Buffy chose to address the last point instead of the rest.
"Who knows if that really counts the same way," Jonathan said. "But what I'm saying is, if I was a god? I think I'd feel like if a bad thing happened, I'd have to try to stop it. Or at least stop it from happening again."
It was wigsome, but in the end they were just guessing. It was like with Matt, it wasn't fair to take a few random details and judge people guilty.
"I hear you. But even if we didn't have to trust her, I think it's the right thing to do. And if it isn't? I guess it's a good thing I'm a goddess too," she couldn't help but let something bitter into her voice.
She could feel the look on Jonathan's face at that without seeing it, and they were quiet for a minute.
"If anyone can handle it, it's you," he finally told her.
He didn't say which 'it' he meant.
------------------------------------------------------------------
They didn't have to wait too long. It was just a few minutes after 4 AM when CyberWillow loudly announced the beginning of it, both their radios turned up to max volume, "Be advised, all employees of the Sunnydale city government and miscellaneous allies. Adam's zone of influence has returned to my full control, and I cannot locate him on any cameras there or elsewhere. I can only surmise he is moving and wishes to conceal his approach vector.
"Likely related, I can now observe that there is a mobile convoy composed of nine vehicles and at least 25 Initiative soldiers outbound heading east from their base. No supernatural support of any kind is visible, but two of the transports have large windowless cargo areas. Adam, Agents Lehane or Gates, or many more conventional troops may be concealed within. I recommend that all who are not taking orders from Xander Harris directly prepare to evade or head to ground. Further reports will be forthcoming on this channel."
"That's almost everyone they have, if the transports are full too," Jonathan said. "Should we try to get close to their main column and see what's up?"
Buffy hesitated. "We should keep near them, just in case, but we have to be careful not to drop the Veil. CyberWillow didn't actually see Adam with them, or even Faith or Forrest. We can't afford to get tied up in that and be late to the real party."
Xander would be rallying everyone ready to fight to Crawford street, both to take advantage of the fortified position and prevent them from being defeated in detail. If Adam wasn't really part of that assault, she was confident her people could hold their own. They had magical support to tilt the odds in their favor, and they also had the Myco guns to keep things nonlethal and stop it escalating into a bloodbath. And if Adam was there, she would slam into them from behind and hopefully take him out of the fight right away.
Even if CyberWillow hadn't been announcing the movements of the convoy, it would've been easy to find; it eventually came off the highway in a big slow group and was just chugging along through the city as if it belonged there. Most of the vehicles in it were just jeeps, but there were a couple bigger military trucks too. At least she didn't see any tanks. The road damage alone would've been a disaster.
True to her word, she kept a block off from the group, ghosting their path from the side streets. As they rolled through town, it got clearer and clearer that Crawford street was the target. She didn't really see what Maggie thought she had to gain from a giant battle, but who knew what went through the mad scientist's mind. Maybe she thought Xander would just give in and let them loot the place?
When they were a mere block away though, it became clear there was more to the plan. "Attention!" CyberWillow echoed, Adam's zone of influence has reestablished itself, centered on a point underground near City Hall."
Buffy immediately took a U-turn with her bike and jammed the throttle as hard as she dared, racing back to City Hall so fast the acceleration almost took her out of her seat. Jonathan screamed, abandoning propriety and holding on for dear life.
"Its approximate center is at the intersection of Maple and Chester," CyberWillow continued, just barely audible to her over the noise. "Heading east. Any units still present on the premises are advised to evacuate City Hall immediately. I have lost feed from all cameras in the zone, both wired and unwired."
She was going way too fast to exchange words with Jonathan now, but it was clear Adam was going for the Artifact. The sewers weren't fully wired with cameras, and Wilkins had probably given him some secret path to avoid most of them until he got close. And now, with the headstart, he was already right on the doorstep. She was practically lighting her tires on fire and she wasn't going to win the race.
CyberWillow kept giving barely heard directions as they rapidly approached City Hall, and Buffy knew there was no time to lose. On the last block, she killed the acceleration, fishtailed around, and then did a power-brake, materializing her hammer at the last second to act as a long counterweight and stop them flipping over. Jonathan screamed again.
Before they'd even stopped moving, she dropped the hammer to the road and maneuvered herself out of Jonathan's panicked deathgrip. Knowing she would lose the Veil if she left him too far behind, she just picked him up in a fireman's carry as she hopped from the motorcycle and let it skid over and come to a stop of its own. Hopefully it wouldn't take any damage some detailing couldn't fix.
"Can we talk about this?" Jonathan sounded frantic as she carried him but sounded mostly ok.
"Talk later," she answered.
She was racing down through a manhole when CyberWillow reported even worse news. "Adam's zone of control has completely retreated again, in an irregular manner. He is not directly visible, but there is now a prominent and fresh bloodstain at T-junction B underneath the City Hall building itself."
Too late. At least she knew where he went.
Once she was in the sewers she started lightly tapping on her superspeed, trying to get there as fast as she could without completely blowing out Jonathan's Veil. His bone only lit on fire a little bit so she hoped she'd succeeded.
KILL
She got to the T-junction, somewhere she'd probably passed by half a hundred times before. It looked just as frustratingly normal as it always had, except for the copious blood.
"Like Mog'tog'og," Jonathan choked out. Buffy let him down and he was so dizzy that he practically crashed to the ground. On the plus side it put him close enough to the open water that he could use it to douse the fire. He kept trying to talk as he did. "Must be, blood seal."
She popped her hammer into her hands again and smashed at the bloodstain. She made solid contact and shattered the concrete like paper mache, but there was only packed dirt and rocks behind it. She desperately tried to dig into it, but after a few seconds it was clear that nothing but more dirt was back there.
Then she noticed the bloodstain was inexplicably five feet to the left of where she'd thought it was, totally untouched. It was some kind of confusing magic, probably, and she had no clue how it was working. She got ready to continue the assault anyway, but then she noticed something.
"This isn't Adam's snake blood," she said. Olvikan's guts had been glowy green.
Jonathan was shuddering with effort behind her (that series of attacks probably wasn't too kind to his Veil either), but then he got himself together, levering the motorcycle helmet off his head. "Maybe Faith's? Could've keyed her in before he died."
KILL
She knew he was right. She was here, nearby. Somewhere close. She could feel it.
"You should be able to open it too," he added.
"What?" She was pretty sure the Mayor hadn't keyed her in, even if he'd keyed in Faith.
"You're the mayor now. Your city, your building, that artifact is connected to you. You should be able to get in, now that we know where it is," he said. "But when you do, I think it'll pop the Veil. It has to be a hugely powerful seal to have kept itself hidden from us this long. And this Veil's running on fumes already."
"You can make another one right?" She asked. She could just cut herself on her hammer. It didn't look like it would need a ton of blood, a glancing cut would be fine.
"Sure. It'd take me a minute or so of casting and about three days of migraines." he said. "But Adam might notice us somehow. Or even just hear."
She hadn't wanted to be on the backfoot like this, but it was all happening so fast. She had to make a snap decision on what to do. It felt like she was racing into a trap, but leaving Adam in there doing who-knew-what with the biggest scary ancient doodad anyone had ever heard of was all kinds of bad idea.
KILL
Vote: What does Buffy do?
[] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan hold back until he can Veil himself, then follow her in.
-[] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
-[] She waits for Jonathan to recast the Veil and they go in together.
-[] Stunt something else
[] Buffy and Jonathan wait in ambush outside, under the Veil.
-[] Stunt any more detailed instructions
- Location
- United States
Huh, I didn't figure he knew where it was yet.
[X] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[X] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan hold back until he can Veil himself, then follow her in.
I don't think Buffy needs the veil to get a sneak attack in order to 1v1 Adam, the idea was to use it to prevent him from realizing she was around (via his local control of Spiderweb or some other nebulous sense) and prevent him from retreating soon enough that we can't catch him. This sort of artifact of doom seems to be the sort of thing that would have only one exit.
I could go either way on Jonathan retreating or sticking around. Having him around and veiled has been useful in the past, particularly on the spaceship, but he is an innocent Adam could potentially hold hostage.
[X] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[X] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan hold back until he can Veil himself, then follow her in.
I don't think Buffy needs the veil to get a sneak attack in order to 1v1 Adam, the idea was to use it to prevent him from realizing she was around (via his local control of Spiderweb or some other nebulous sense) and prevent him from retreating soon enough that we can't catch him. This sort of artifact of doom seems to be the sort of thing that would have only one exit.
I could go either way on Jonathan retreating or sticking around. Having him around and veiled has been useful in the past, particularly on the spaceship, but he is an innocent Adam could potentially hold hostage.
Depending on just how much blood Faith had to use it might not be 1v1. Slayers heal fast, and Faith has been getting increasingly antagonistic as everything has escalated, I think there is a real chance that she tries to get a stab in at some point. I do agree with you though on Jonathon being veiled before coming down. Anything else can't be relied upon to work on Adam, only the veil has done so effectively.
[X] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[X] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan hold back until he can Veil himself, then follow her in.
- Location
- Vancouver
[X] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[X] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan hold back until he can Veil himself, then follow her in.
I'm worried Jonathon might get hurt/his magic corrupted here, but if he can Veil before Adam knows he's there/while he's busy with Buffy, hopefully he'll be fine.
-[X] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan hold back until he can Veil himself, then follow her in.
I'm worried Jonathon might get hurt/his magic corrupted here, but if he can Veil before Adam knows he's there/while he's busy with Buffy, hopefully he'll be fine.
Maggie is so lucky that she never has anyone above her check in on her situation in person. I have no clue how she would explain away that the local response to her men moving in public is to hide, regroup, then prepare to kill them if they come too close. It is just such a bad position to be in.
Also, Maggie really has given up her military decisions to Adam. There is only one thing under the city hall that anyone could want, and Sam/Oscar knows that. How the hell did Adam convince everyone that they should let him use this time to attack the city hall instead of somewhere that they would consider productive.
Also, Maggie really has given up her military decisions to Adam. There is only one thing under the city hall that anyone could want, and Sam/Oscar knows that. How the hell did Adam convince everyone that they should let him use this time to attack the city hall instead of somewhere that they would consider productive.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[x] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[x] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
Keeping Jonathan around for magical support seems like a dumb idea given that Adam's whole thing is taking over people's magic. He'll just be a liability, better get him out of there so Buffy doesn't have to worry about keeping him safe.
-[x] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
Keeping Jonathan around for magical support seems like a dumb idea given that Adam's whole thing is taking over people's magic. He'll just be a liability, better get him out of there so Buffy doesn't have to worry about keeping him safe.
[X] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[X] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan hold back until he can Veil himself, then follow her in.
-[X] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan hold back until he can Veil himself, then follow her in.
- Location
- Germany
[x] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[x] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
-[x] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
- Location
- Virginia
[X] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[X] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan hold back until he can Veil himself, then follow her in.
-[X] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan hold back until he can Veil himself, then follow her in.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[x] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[x] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
-[x] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
Edifier
Trusted within thoughts.
- Location
- Court of Moon Wizards
[x] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[x] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
Kinda feels like Adam and Faith are under their own veil, waiting for us to open the seal. Like they are tricking us into thinking they got inside.
-[x] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
Kinda feels like Adam and Faith are under their own veil, waiting for us to open the seal. Like they are tricking us into thinking they got inside.
Last edited:
- Location
- Internet
[x] Buffy uses her blood to open the seal.
-[x] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.
-[x] She goes in immediately and has Jonathan retreat upstairs into City Hall.